7th Ward Commissioner Jim McGarrity Hopes For Sixth Term

Commissioner Jim McGarrity said he wants to continue what he has been doing for the past 20 years, directly helping residents with their problems.

McGarrity, a 70-year-old Republican incumbent, is running for a sixth term as 7th Ward commissioner against Democratic challenger Larry Chrzan in the November general election.

McGarrity has lived in Haverford Township for 65 years, is married and has three children and nine grandchildren.

Now retired, McGarrity spent 32 years working for SEPTA as an operator of the Norristown High Speed Line.

Before becoming a commissioner, McGarrity served on the Haverford Township Parks & Recreation Board for 30 years, helped raise funds so that the township could purchase the historical Grange Estate, and was heavily involved in advocating for the Skatium to be built and for the township to purchase the Haverford State Reserve, he said.

He currently volunteers for several organizations, serving as board of directors’ president for the Philadelphia Suburban Transportation Co. (PSTC) Credit Union, a $34 million credit union; volunteering in several ways at Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Havertown; assisting with the Annunciation Church’s Turkey Trot 5K and the Kevin Cain Memorial Fund’s Make My Day 5K Run and 1-mile Walk, which raises money to assist families with the financial burden of fighting cancer.

“I’ve been involved with this township for years, and I just want to see it improve,” McGarrity told the Haverford-Havertown Patch.

McGarrity also previously volunteered for the Brookline Athletic Association, as a Little League tee-ball coach, and as a Cub Scout leader for Troop 463.  He is the former vice president of the Annunciation Church Athletic Association.

McGarrity said he is running for re-lection “mainly because my opponent, I don’t think he will do anything to help this township.  He will do things, I think, to hurt this township.”

The major issue of concern to 7th Ward residents is taxes, McGarrity said.

“They want you to keep a lid on it,” McGarrity said.

Last year, for township property taxes but the Board of Commissioners has no control over school taxes, which go up every year, McGarrity said.

Residents who live near the old Swell Bubble Gum factory site are interested in seeing the completion of the new YMCA on the factory site, McGarrity said.

Other issues are the “antiquated” township building, police station and public works building, which all need to be renovated, McGarrity said.

McGarrity said he is opposed to making improvements to Eagle Road, where he said there are currently no business vacancies and he thinks existing businesses would lose parking spots for customers if new improvements were made.

“At a cost of a million dollars, I just don’t agree with that,” McGarrity said.

The money would be “much better spent fixing the Public Works Department or the police station,” McGarrity said.

McGarrity said people should vote for him because “I’m a hard-working man.  They respect my judgement. I don’t waste their tax dollars. I’m a conservative … If I’m elected I’m going to do what I’ve been doing for the past 20 years. If they call me with a problem, I will look into their problem.”

McGarrity says he has been criticized by Democrats for personally looking into residents’ problems and trying to solve them, rather than instructing residents to call the township building when they need help.

McGarrity disagrees with that criticism.

“I do these things and it takes a lot of time and it takes a lot of work and I believe that’s what a commissioner should do … By telling people to call the township, I believe you’re telling people you don’t want to do the job you were elected to do,” McGarrity said.