Bravard Sworn In as LH Mayor

LOCK HAVEN — Jonathan Bravard is now Lock Haven’s Mayor, sworn in Tuesday afternoon by city manager Rich Marcinkevage.

City council on a 4-2 vote March 16 had approved Bravard as interim mayor, filling the vacancy created by the resignation of former mayor Rick Vilello earlier this month, Vilello accepting a position in the Wolf administration in Harrisburg.

Bravard is a Lock Haven native, a hill district resident and a graduate of Lock Haven High School in 1977 and Lock Haven University in 1984. After his swearing in, he said he wanted to keep the city “ship headed the way it’s headed.” He said it would be impossible to “fill the shoes” of the four-term former mayor Vilello.

The new mayor will serve through the end of the year; he said Lock Haven has “a great city council and a great city staff.”

Prior to the oath ceremony Bravard submitted his resignation as a sitting council member. Council will have 30 days to fill that vacancy. Marcinkevage said city residents with an interest in filling the council vacancy through the end of this year should submit a letter of interest to him. So far, he said, one application has been received.

Bravard meanwhile will remain on the municipal election ballot seeking another full term as a council member, that term effective in 2016.