Darin Hayton Aims For Change In Haverford Township’s 5th Ward

Darin Hayton decided it was time to stop complaining and instead try to make some changes.

Hayton, a 44-year-old Democrat, is challenging incumbent Republican Commissioner Jeff Heilmann in the November general election for the 5th Ward commissioner seat in Haverford Township.

Hayton said he decided to run because, “There are a handful of issues in Haverford that are really important to me …You can complain about politicians or you can try to make a difference.”

Hayton said he would like to see a different process than the one the current commissioner uses to deal with residents’ concerns.

Hayton said he would try to engage people that have a vested interest in the ward “much more.”

“I want to enfranchise these people in the process of government … I want to get people’s lived input instead of telling them what’s going to happen,” Hayton said.  “I want people to have a voice and feel they’re heard.”

Hayton said there are a number of already-decided issues on which he would have voted differently than Heilmann, such as a proposal to move the polling place closer to so that college students could walk there, and the Acme Redevelopment Project in Bryn Mawr, where the grocery store was torn down and a new one is being built.

“I would have tried to move the polling place closer to Haverford College … I would have actively engaged the residents and the business owners in the … not just listening to people but going out and asking people,” Hayton said told the Haverford-Havertown Patch.

Hayton, his wife and two children have lived in Haverford Township for six years, the same amount of time Hayton has been teaching the history of science at Haverford College, where he is a tenure-track professor in the college’s History Department.

Hayton holds a bachelor of science in chemistry and a masters in history, both from California State University, Long Beach; and a masters in the history and philosophy of science and a PhD. in the history of and philosophy of science, both from Notre Dame University.

Hayton volunteers at his children’s school, Friends’ Central School in Wynnewood, and has served on various committees of the Philadelphia Area Center for the History of Science.

The issues of concern for residents of Ward 5, Hayton said, are the Acme Redevelopment Project because small businesses along Lancaster Avenue were affected by the tearing down of the Acme but not consulted about it; and the proposal to install billboards along Lancaster Avenue and West Chester Pike.

Other issues of concern include how to make the intersection of Pennswood Road and Lancaster Avenue safer; what can be done to reduce traffic backups on Haverford Road near College Road; and what the reasons are for not moving the polling place from Coopertown Elementary School to a spot that is closer to Haverford College, Hayton said.

“I’ve come to realize that politics is like life in general,” Hayton said. “It’s incredibly local.”

Hayton said people on every street have issues in their neighborhood and it is the township commissioner’s obligation to find out what residents experience in their community.

“The township commissioner needs to talk with residents, not at the residents,” Hayton said.

Hayton said people should vote for him, “because I’m committed to changing the way local governance happens” and he plans to try to offer residents of his ward “a voice in local politics.”

Hayton said he would bring a “real breadth of experience” to the position because he has lived all over the United States—on both coasts and in between—and in foreign countries.

“I’ve seen how different places govern and have governed themselves…It’s time to think more expansively about how we run the township,” Hayton said.  “I’m in a unique position to bring that to the Board of Commissioners.”