The primary election date is May 15, 2007. Four persons are running for four borough council vacancies. All are currently appointed members of borough council. The Laurel Mountain Borough/Laurel Mountain Park Newsletter will post bios of the candidates as they are received.

JOHN MILLER*   13 Maple Road

John Miller, 43, is running for a two-year term.

He is registered Independent (conservative). Because there are fewer than ten Independent registered voters in Laurel Mountain Borough (the required number of party signers to file a petition to run for a borough council) he needs to have “write-in” votes to secure a slot in the November election.

John is a relatively new LMB resident, having purchased his house and moved into the community in September 2005.

He attended two years at Waynesburg College studying English communication and studied recording engineering at a trade school (1984-1985).

For 23 years he was a self-employed audio engineer/freelance sound recordist in eastern Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey. He’s done corporate, industrial and documentary filmmaking.  He’s recorded and produced "Venice" sound effects library---ambient backgrounds and sound effects of Venice, Italy.

He presently owns Laurel Hill Recordings, which specializes in stereo ambient backgrounds and sound effects for the film and video industry and is a partner/producer of Woodland Marketing Management in Fairfield Township.

His service on Laurel Mountain Borough’s council began quite by accident when he was asked to fill a vacancy.

Although this is his first direct experience in local government, he said his life experience is beneficial to the position.

“Working on a film crew, you end up learning a little bit about a lot of things,” John said about his qualifications. “Over the years I've had the opportunity to observe, first

hand, a broad spectrum of the way things work in this country in business, industry, agriculture, politics, medicine, media, etc.  It may be kind of like watching ‘Jeopardy’ five hours a day for 20 years. The experiences have come in handy in other matters many times.” 

As a member of the municipality committee with Daneen and Monte Holland John has “dug his heels,” working on the public sewage proposal and road maintenance. These are problems he expects to continue tackling if he is elected.

“I would like to see the borough limit as much as possible our liability when it comes to

water/sewer infrastructure,” he said.

His five-year vision is having the public sewage system installed and having well-graded roads.

“I will also oppose unnecessary ordinances.”

John relishes the beautiful surroundings, fresh air, friendly neighbors and quiet he’s experienced since moving here. In his free time he enjoys kayaking, hiking and cross-country skiing. He is single. His cat, Tarzan, lives up to his name.