Sunbury mayor wants public input on real ideas for city

Mar. 13—SUNBURY — Sunbury Mayor Josh Brosious in his first three months of office continues to advocate for change in the city.

Brosious, 30, is now saying he is in the early stages of planning committees he wants to form with various age groups.

As part of his new plan, Brosious said he wants to close the age gaps in the city and find out what's important to residents from all ages.

"I want to see what matters to a person who is their 50's, 60's or 20's," he said. "I want to get all groups of people together and discuss what we as elected officials should be looking at and working toward to reach all of our resident's needs."

Brosious said not only does he want to hear from folks about political issues but he wants to hear what people want from the city when it comes to entertainment.

"I want to set up various committees of people to discuss every issue plus see what we can do to utilize our resources, like the Susquehanna River," he said. "This is right in front of us and we need to focus on using this resource the best we can to give people a place to go and things to do."

Brosious sat down with The Daily Item last week and said he wanted to reach out to the community and encourage them to call his office, sent emails and just simply make suggestions.

"It's time we start to listen to what our residents are saying," he said.

Brosious said his first three months in office have been a smooth transition and he thanked former Mayor Kurt Karlovich.

"When I came in, Kurt (Karlovich) and I discussed several things, and we agreed this is a team effort that must continue on," he said. "He gave me some good advice and I am picking up where he left off, especially in the police department."

Brosious, who is charge of the police department, said the first three months in office he needed to deal with a rash of robberies, stabbings and shootings.

"I have met with Chief (Brad) Hare and he explained that, even though these things are happening in the city, people are getting caught," Brosious said.

"We had a press conference about a month ago trying to let residents know our department is on top of these cases and people are getting arrested."

Brosious issued a warning to anyone looking to or thinking about committing a crime in the city.

"You will get caught," he said. "Make no mistake about it, our department will catch you and arrest you. It is important for our residents to know that even though social media may say one thing, it is not always the truth. The truth is we are investigating these crimes and people are and will continue to get arrested."

With spring right around the corner, Brosious said he knows the city will be leaning on experts to come up with an updated comprehensive plan, but the best experts are the residents.

The last comprehensive plan was done in 2012, when it was suggested the city start to look at building two hotels, bike paths, and several other costly recommendations that were not possible.

"I get it and it is wishful thinking," Brosious said. "But I want to be reasonable and I want to take these plans and bring them to the residents and say what can we do ourselves without wishing for miracles. We want to be able to do these things ourselves and make it realistic expectations for our residents."

City Councilman John Barnhart, who is also in his first three months of service, said he loves the mayor's plan and wants to help in any way.

"I like this plan and it will benefit the city 100-percent," he said. "This will bring so many more people to the table with ideas and this could be a model plan for other communities to follow."

Brosious said he will be announcing dates for the public to attend workshop meetings.