Sharon, Greenville, Hermitage elect new heads of government

Two incumbent mayors and an incumbent city commissioner lost.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
SHARON, Pa. -- It was a tough night for incumbents in Mercer County.
Voters turned down re-election bids by the mayors of Sharon and Greenville as well as one of two Hermitage city commissioners.
Unofficial returns from the Mercer County Board of Elections showed that Mayor David O. Ryan of Sharon was defeated by Councilman Bob Lucas by a vote of 1,853 to 1,425.
Both are Democrats, and Lucas beat Ryan in the May primary to secure the Democratic nomination, but Ryan secured enough write-in votes on the Republican ticket to win that party's nomination. He ran Tuesday as the Republican candidate.
In Greenville, Mayor Clifford Harriger, a Republican, was defeated by Democratic challenger Richard Miller in a 609-267 vote.
It's the first time Greenville will have a Democratic mayor in recent history.
In Hermitage, incumbent Pat White, a Democrat with 22 years of service on the board of commissioners, lost his try for yet another term. He had 1,641 votes.
Absentee ballots hadn't been counted yet, but it appeared that incumbent Larry Gurrera, a Democrat, narrowly won re-election, scoring 1,857 votes.
Top vote-getters
Bill Finzel, a Republican and retired Hermitage street superintendent, took the top spot with 1,957 votes, while Rita Ferringer, a Republican and city businesswoman, had 1,904 votes.
Both she and Finzel win four-year seats, and Gurrera, finishing third, gets a two-year seat under rules set forth by the city's home rule charter.
Democratic challenger Tim Ruffo finished just behind Gurrera with 1,828 votes.
Lucas said the race ended within the margin he had anticipated.
He said his whole message was one of moving the city forward and Sharon now has a city council and administration ready to plan.
"I want to hit the ground running in January," Lucas said, calling for a change in the way the city is run. He intends to run it like a business, he has said.
"We need to change," he said, even seemingly minor things like paying street department workers $17 an hour to cut grass rather than using community service help to do that type of work.
Harriger said he had anticipated his defeat.
"I sort of expected it," he said.
Harriger said he's disappointed but will continue to be involved in the community and attend council meetings as a regular citizen.
Miller couldn't be reached to comment.