Mayoral candidate Ciccarone meets with supporters

WEST CHESTER » Tommy Ciccarone Jr., Republican candidate for mayor, gathered Thursday with several dozen supporters at the Sidebar restaurant in a show of support for the homeless.

Friends Association for the Care and Protection of Children Executive Director Catherine Friedman, thanked Ciccarone, 37, for his work with the homeless.

Ciccarone now works in the real estate industry and is a former owner of Parkway Cleaners.

Friedman lauded Ciccarone for hiring the homeless and former prison inmates at his dry cleaning business.

“It’s easier to learn job skills from a job,” Ciccarone said, “and

it’s easier to get a job when you have a job.”

The candidate wants to see Gay Street cleaned on a regular basis and favors builder Eli Kahn’s plans to construct a mixed use project of retail and office space at the Mosteller Building site.

“I’d like to bring a passion for the West Chester Borough, as well as a balanced approach to development and preservation,” Ciccarone said.

He also noted that during the past three years the borough has become home to about 300 new apartments and approximately 600 new residents.

Ciccarone said he’d prefer to add real estate taxes and earned income tax generated by new residents to borough coffers, rather than increasing other taxes and fees.

The candidate noted that the venue for the event, Sidebar, is owned and operated by a pair who live in the borough.

“That’s the combination we try to best achieve,” he said.

John Manion is the finance director for the campaign.

“(Ciccarone) is a good guy because he wears his heart on his sleeve and cares 150 percent about the town of West Chester in an altruistic sense,” Manion said.

BILL RETTEW JR. – DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA West Chester Republican mayoral candidate Tommy Ciccarone Jr. and his wife, Dina, enjoy a quiet moment Thursday during a campaign event at the Sidebar restaurant.