Pete Longiotti has seen the good, the bad and the ugly during his eight years on Greenville borough council.

He recently reflected on his time serving the borough after completing his last official act as a councilor: asking for court approval to raise Greenville�s earned income tax rates, a request granted by Mercer County Common Pleas Court Judge Thomas R. Dobson.

Longiotti, 75, of 62 N. Race St., came on council in 2002 after winning the November 2001 election by three votes. Two days before the filing deadline, he decided to run for council because he was hearing a lot of rumors about the borough and wanted to know what was really going on.

In January 2002, council reopened the budget and discovered there was no money for the general fund and the borough owed $250,000 on a tax anticipation note from National City Bank, he said.

Borough officials went to the state Department of Community and Economic Development for a loan to tide them over and Greenville was declared a distressed town on May 8, 2002.

The borough soon entered Act 47, the state�s debt recovery program, and Longiotti was appointed council president in December 2002.

�I served as president of council ever since,� said Longiotti, a Hartstown native and Jamestown High School graduate who moved to Greenville in 1959 from West Middlesex.

The ball really got rolling in 2003, when council had to develop a recovery plan and hire a new borough manager, Vance Oakes.

Greenville�s former borough manager, Peter D. Nicoloff Jr., and Robert M. Good, former director of Greenville Area Leisure Services Association, were blamed in 2005 by the state Auditor General�s office for mismanaging the town�s finances.

The borough floated a $3.6 million bond to pay for controversial projects like the sports complex run by GALSA and used grant money, but funds dried up, sticking residents with a hefty property tax hike.

Things have been moving slowly in the right direction with bumps along the way like loss of business and industry, Longiotti said.

But the borough has accomplished parts of the recovery plan and completed streetscape, the downtown area�s revitalization project, he said.

He also helped contribute to: the borough�s new public works garage, which was built this year; remodeling council chambers; realigning the structure of borough operations; and getting some deteriorating roads paved.

�The borough is now solvent,� he said.

He�s disappointed he won�t be on council to help reorganize the struggling GALSA, but may try to get involved somehow when a new plan is put into place.

�I�ll answer the call if I�m needed,� he said.

He could also help council, which in 2010 will include three new council members and a new mayor, Peter Candela, search for a new borough manager.

Ryan T. Eggleston held the job for about three years and left Nov. 6 to work as city manager of Oil City.

As of Wednesday, the borough received 28 applications for the job and the new manager should be well-versed in Pennsylvania and borough government, he said.

Longiotti was recognized Tuesday, his last council meeting, for never missing a meeting.

An estimate over eight years, not counting special meetings, puts that at 192.

�I made my schedule according to my council meetings,� he said.

He has to thank his wife of 53 years, Carmel, for putting up with his sometimes hectic schedule, he said.

One of his best memories of Greenville was the 2006 Christmas parade, which highlighted phase one of the streetscape project. Turning the corner onto Main Street, the downtown was beautifully lit up, he said.

Longiotti, who retired in 1993 after 41 years with the Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad and served in the Air Force, plans to spend some of his free time golfing and traveling.