By Morgan Pilz, Staff Writer
(June 11, 2020) Professional photographer and technology expert Tony Weeg, 47, is running for the at-large councilmember seat being vacated by Thom Gulyas before the Berlin election in October.
Weeg, who moved to Berlin two summers ago, said he fell in love with the town and its accessibility and school district.
Tony Weeg
He decided he wanted to run for council whenever his district would be available, but realized he had that opportunity when Gulyas announced his resignation two weeks ago.
“When Gulyas decided to put his position up for grabs for this coming election, it became very, very apparent to me [I should run], with the people around me saying, ‘Tony, go do this,’” he said. “‘This is the position you should go for.’ I was finally convinced by long-timers in Berlin who said, ‘We know you can be our voice.’”
Weeg sought advice from Councilman Troy Purnell, and said had been inspired by Gulyas’ story of how his original belief that back alley deals were being made turned out to be wrong.
“I reached out to Troy last year without any of these aspirations, just because I wanted to know answers,” Weeg said. “I wanted to know about Heron Park and how he sold that and what his company and his role in that was. I’ve reached out to these people to find out that info, and I learned that there is not much backdoor stuff going on.
“I know that there’s stuff that goes on that looks bad … but what I know is this: the people who support me in this town can trust that when I report back to them from the council chambers, it’s going to be the real deal, because they trust me already.”
Weeg has several goals for the council, including public safety, boosting the town’s walkability score, budget plans and providing more activities for the town’s parks and recreation facilities.
“A lot of people in this town do a lot of things outdoors, and I also know that they are having a hard time finding places to do them in town,” he said. “Why don’t we use some of those places that we have to let those people exercise those freedoms? We’ve got Heron Park, where we could have a community-built outdoor BMX trail. By the same token, the skateboard community would love to build some sort of park either in the old Tyson plant or outside of it.
“There’s so many uses we can make out there,” Weeg continued. “I’d love to see a Berlin branded ultra-marathon that includes Assateague, that includes Salisbury, that includes a run.”
More importantly, he said, he wants to connect the two parts of Berlin.
“Berlin’s connectivity between the East and the West Side … I know that the other side loves their side,” he said. “I know that they don’t necessarily want to be part of this side, but I do know this; there’s beauty there and there’s beauty here.”
One of his solutions to get the two sides to be more connected would be to have a walkway from Flower Street to the Food Lion shopping district to encourage walkability and make it easier for people who want to exercise more. He said this could help bring the two sides of town together.
“There’s nothing that links us,” he said. “We don’t have any sort of links for festivals or music. We have things down here and they have, I don’t even know, over there. So we need to fix that.”
Weeg has created a website that explains his platform and plans for Berlin at https://elect.tonyweeg.com/berlin-maryland.
In addition to the at-large seat, also on the ballot are candidates for reelection Mayor Gee Williams, District 2 Councilman Zackery Tyndall and District 3 Councilman Elroy Brittingham.
The filing deadline is Sept. 4, as well as a write-in candidate deadline on Sept. 29.
The deadline to apply for an absentee ballot is Sept. 4.
Should elections remain as usual, voters for Districts 1 and 2 will vote at Buckingham Presbyterian Church on 20 South Main Street. For the first time this year, voters for Districts 3 and 4 will cast their votes at the Police Department on 129 Decatur Street.