By Tony E Windsor
After more than two decades, the town of Laurel has a new mayor. Municipal elections were held Thursday, March 27 and the results left two incumbent councilmen, Jonathon Kellam and Donald “Bo” Holden, in their respective seats. The major upset came in the mayoral race. Current Mayor John Shwed, who has led the town for the past 22 years, lost to Councilman Carlos Enrique Oliveras. The margin was slim at seven votes with Oliveras securing 112 votes to Shwed’s 105.
A New York native, Oliveras defines himself as a political organizer, community activist and “good communicator.” He said he ran for mayor because of his concerns about youth violence and gang activity, and what he considers “a failing school district.” Oliveras said his goals as mayor include contributing to the ongoing positive development of Laurel and seeking positive alternative activities to help prevent youth from being tempted by gang affiliation.
Carlos Enrique Oliveras
Oliveras, who currently represents Laurel’s First Ward, will leave his seat with just under two years left in his term.
Mayor John Shwed, who was first sworn-in back in April 2003, had announced publicly in January that he planned to run for one more term in order to see through some developments he is supporting before he left the town’s leadership. Though he fell short on his attempt, he feels he has lived up to his initial motivation for seeking elected office.
“My own sincere interest in doing this was not an ego-centered thing. It was not a response to a particular beef that I got involved in. I ran for office out of a love for the people in this town and in response to how they welcomed my family when I first came here in July of 1966, just out of the Army,” he said.
Shwed said when he came to Laurel he had accepted a position with the DuPont Nylon plant in Seaford, as an engineer. He had a wife and a six-month old daughter. “Everybody welcomed us into the community,” he said. “The people kind of asked us to slowly get involved in things. And I did. But I did that basically because I was welcomed into the community with such a great welcome that I wanted to pay back. And I’ve been doing that for a long time, not just with the town of Laurel, but I’ve been involved in community work with the Lions organization, also with the Laurel Community Foundation, which operates Hope House for homeless people. So, I have a long record of trying to pay back that welcome for my people.”
Over the 22 years, Shwed said it is difficult to pinpoint any specific accomplishment by his administration that stands out as his proudest. But he is excited about the growth of the town’s boundaries. “I think the thing that I’m proud of from a town government point of view is that we helped the town to build its boundaries voluntarily,” he said. “The real reason for that is economic stability. We don’t have a million dollars in parking revenues like some of our beach towns have where people just park in their cars. We only have property taxes, fees for water and sewer services, and septic receiving fees. So, in order to keep our town moving and also try to keep the taxes at a reasonable level, we embarked on a program of voluntary expansion of the community.”
Shwed said his administration has doubled the size of the town during his time on the council. He said this has slowly started to take hold along the Route 13 corridor. “We’ve got some business interest in locating along U.S. 13. There’ll be some housing located also on the east side of U.S. 13, already in the development stages. We have also worked on things in the inner part of town. It was called the “Ramble Project,” along Broad Creek. That is starting to really take shape. One of the key features there is the Tidewater Park. I’m so glad that our people are enjoying the park. The kids are loving the rides in there, and we’re just proud about that. So, those are the things that I’ve tried to do to help. I’ve tried to grow the town so the taxes would stay reasonable in light of what our options are around that area.”
Shwed also touts the town’s extending of water and sewer utilities out to U.S. 13 as something he is proud to have presided over. In correlation with that he also said the new waste water treatment plant was an opportunity to make sure the town was prepared as new development came to the U.S. 13 corridor. “People who have been around long enough can remember that the old waste treatment system had smelly lagoons every summer out on the west side of our community. But we put in a brand new wastewater treatment plant for two reasons. One is to get rid of those smelly lagoons. And two, to also provide enough water to be able to go out and handle wastewater from areas out to the east of the town. We ran pipelines out to Route 13 and made sure to get these utility services available for companies that are ready to build there,” he said.
He said in contrast to the enhanced development in Laurel, he is frustrated by things that the town has no control over, including the 2008 economic downturn that halted several major development projects. “The thing that people need to understand, and it’s easy to say, ‘we should have this, or we should have that.’ Here’s what we have to look at in perspective. We are right in between Seaford to the north, and Delmar to the south. Seaford is the major commercial development on the west side of Sussex. Everybody would agree with that. They’ve got the great big Walmart store. They’ve got a whole bunch of other stores up there. More is happening there.
Delmar was able to grow a shopping center at the intersection of 13 and State Route 54. So here’s Laurel in the middle, and when businesses are looking to decide, well, where should I put something, that’s an impact on them. When they look at where the major commercial interest is, everybody tends to gravitate to Seaford. That’s been the tough part of trying to get everybody to understand that Laurel is competing in between two areas that have been able to get ahead of us and get some commercial development out on the highway.”
Shwed said he will plan to remain active in helping the town grow and support young people and families. “I will obviously stay involved in the background. Where I think something is going in the right direction I will be supportive. If I think something is going in the wrong direction. I’ll also try to speak out against that,” he said. “Of course, I still have my other things that I’m working on. I’m still on the Laurel Community Foundation board. That’s the Hope House project. I’ll continue to work with that. I’m trying to get that foundation to the point where we have enough financial assets that we can become a grant-making operation for our community.”
In addition Shwed will continue to be involved with a project seeking to locate a tennis court and two pickle ball courts at North Laurel Early Learning Academy next to the basketball courts.
Asked how he wanted to be remembered as the mayor of Laurel he said, “I want to be remembered as a guy who tried hard, tried to be fair and did what he thought was best for the citizens of the town now, and into the future.”
In the balance of the election Councilman Jonathon Kellam (72) defeated local Pastor Gregory Brandon Harris (13) and Councilman Donald “Bo” Holden (158), maintained his seat against challenger Laura Denise Mackey (56). Candidates will be sworn in during the Monday, April 21, meeting of Mayor and Council. In addition, the new mayor will need to choose a successor candidate from Ward 1 to serve the remainder of his term which ends in 2027.