On the same day as President Barack Obama’s visit to the Borough of Yeadon to announce new funding standards for preschool education last November, residents voted three new members to the borough’s council.

Since then, Rosalind Jones-Johnson, Nelva Wright and Gracie Snead have been installed as members of the seven-person council under the leadership of new council president, John Holden, and Mayor Dolores Jones-Butler.

With a variety of professional experiences and personal passions that drove each to pursue office, Jones-Johnson, Wright and Snead have begun to contribute to change in the borough.  

“I anticipate that the new will listen to the issues and complaints of residents,” said resident Learin Johnson who heads an association of concerned community residents, the Communication Line.

One of the new council members, Jones-Johnson, may be the council member most closely affiliated with Learin Johnson’s thought.

For more than fifty years Jones-Johnson has called Yeadon home and previously served on the council for eight years. A graduate of the defunct Yeadon High School, former member of the Pennsylvania State Board of Education and the National Alliance of Black School Educators, Jones-Johnson is seasoned and well equipped to represent residents and fight for issues she deems important.

For more than 25 years Gracie Snead has called Yeadon her home, serving as a Democratic committeewoman in the borough’s 9th Precinct.

In 1997 she retired from teaching in the Philadelphia School District after studying early childhood education at Penn State University and Antioch College. Passionate and an avid believer in morale community leadership, Snead

Nelva Wright may be the newly elected council member that has lived in Yeadon for the least amount of time among the new council members. With her sales, marketing and business development professional background, she ran her campaign and won on being an effective, responsive public representative.

Mayor Dolores Jones-Butler has known the three new members over the years and “understands the challenges they face, with the largest being the finances of the borough and the budget they must work with to move forward together in a positive effort to bring Yeadon back to the community they first knew.”

Regaining the confidence of the residents and addressing issues of borough staff infrastructure and morale are other items of note Jones-Butler believed the council on a whole needs to work on.

“Their energy, grasp of the issues, desire to give back to their community, and ideas for the future of Yeadon is exciting,” said Yeadon Borough Manager and Secretary, Caren Andrews.

A comprehensive plan for the borough has yet to be presented to the residents. However, as the council tends to each issue the borough is confronted with, council members and residents are excited about the possibilities. Like President Obama and the expectations placed on him, the residents of Yeadon have placed high expectations on its leaders and are prepared to work with them.

“I truly take being a liaison for residents and council very seriously,” said Learin Johnson.
She added finding ways to lower taxes, re-route the SEPTA 108 bus to assist senior citizens and support the building of a recreation center for children would be steps to put Yeadon “back on the map.”

Any residents who is interested in being a block captain in Yeadon should contact Learin Johnson at (267) 250-7701.