SUNBURY — Sunbury Mayor David Persing has announced he will not run for re-election. However, he says he made the decision a few years ago.
Persing explained, “The people that were at my party after we won, I had a frame there that said I would not run again for anything elected by the citizens Sunbury in the state of Pennsylvania. I guess I should have made some sort of announcement that I wasn’t. Most people that know me and are involved know that I decided then that this was going to be my last term.”
Persing talked about what it takes to be a good mayor in Sunbury, “You have to come into the office really caring about the city of Sunbury, and wanting to get things done for the city of Sunbury. Not any personal agendas whatsoever. If you are coming in for any personal agendas whatsoever, then you don’t want to be down here. Down on Market Street, you want to be making the lives better for the people living in the community. So, you have to come in with the understanding or the ideas that I can improve. I have ideas and I want to work hard to make the city a better place.”
For his last year in office, Persing said he has some big announcements regarding recreational and tourism opportunities in the city, “I’ll be announcing here in the next month things we are going to do with tourism. You’ve got to sell that to the people, that these are things that not only improve the quality of life for the city of Sunbury, and people that live in the city, but these are the reasons why people invest in the city of Sunbury. Because, you are bringing in people every weekend in the summer. For recreation, or historic or whatever it amounts to.”
Persing has been in office since 2009, replacing former Mayor Jesse Woodring. Last week Woodring announced he would run again for Mayor of Sunbury. (Ali Stevens)
