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Baggs
WILKES-BARRE – Calman Baggs, a center city resident, announced Thursday he is seeking the Democratic nomination for City Council in District C that encompasses the downtown and Heights sections of the city.
Baggs joins Shelby A. Sudnick, also a Democrat, in the race for the District C seat.
Baggs graduated from the Wilkes-Barre Area School District and earned degrees in business management from Luzerne County Community College and in mass communications from Penn State University.
He has more than 25 years Food Service and Transportation Management experience and has worked professionally for the Boy Scouts of America and the Wilkes-Barre YMCA.
Baggs said he is running because he believes City Council should represent the interests of all residents.
“Council meetings should be a forum for all city residents to share opinions and concerns and to be heard with respect and dignity,” he said.
Baggs believes that the role of city government is to provide those basic services for which every citizen in every neighborhood is entitled.
“Our residents expect and are entitled to adequate police and fire protection, clean and safe streets, recreational outlets and a sense of security, peace and well being,” Baggs said. “This means enough police, fire and EMS personnel to respond to emergencies – our garbage collected in a timely manner – our streets repaired, swept and plowed as needed – well maintained playgrounds and ball fields for our children and the ability to sit on our porch safely and peacefully.”
Baggs said he has “lived in this city long enough to have enjoyed its vibrancy and to have experienced its decline.”
“The resurgence of our downtown has put us on a path to rebirth, and while we need to sustain the revitalization of our center city, it is time to pay more attention to our other neighborhoods,” Baggs said.
“It is time for new eyes, not to change the vision for Wilkes-Barre, but rather to provide a little peripheral vision,” he said.