Four open Springdale Council seats have been divvied up among two incumbents and two newcomers, and the current council president will now step into the mayor’s shoes. According to unofficial results Tuesday night, Democrat Michael Ziencik and Republican James Dugan will return to council with 15 percent and 14 percent of the vote, respectively. Political newcomers Sean McCalmont, a Democrat, and Jason Fry, a Republican, garnered 13 percent and 12 percent respectively. McCalmont and Fry said they will try to restore civility to the borough after what many people on all political sides described as an ugly campaign season. McCalmont hopes to get the borough council and employees to work together “to move the borough forward in a positive way instead of having all the turmoil in the town.” “There’s a lot of turn-around as far as council goes, so we’ve got to sit down and everyone has to work together,” Fry said. “I think we have a really good council now.” Ziencik and Dugan were unavailable for comment Tuesday night. Incumbent Deborah Palyarik, who came in with 12.2 percent of the vote, said she plans to run again. “I will not quit yet,” Deborah Palyarik said. “A lot of the tax payers believed in us.” “They ran a very dirty election, and they won that way,” she said. “We will sleep well at night.” Republican Patricia Whale came in at 12.1 percent. Deborah’s husband Andrew Palyarik followed with almost 11 percent of the vote. He was trailed by Republican Richard Petro with 9 percent. Council president John Molnar, a Democrat, took the mayor’s seat with 54 percent of the vote while Republican Jeffrey Stiehler, came in at 46 percent. Molnar, who said he wasn’t surprised it was a close race, also believes the biggest priority is making sure everyone can work together. “We’ve got to get rid of the petty politics,” Molnar said. “I’m going to make the attempt.” Molnar also includes among his goals budgeting for another police car and another full-time police officer, in addition to the two that were budgeted in 2005. Stiehler said he’s “very, very impressed with the results” but isn’t surprised with the outcome. “The way I look at it, the Republicans have been heard,” Stiehler said. “That’s across the board.” “My congratulations to John Molnar,” Stiehler said.

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