Bloomsburg student elected Mayor

University Student Dan Knorr was elected mayor of Bloomsburg Tuesday and will take office as the youngest person to ever hold the position in January. Knorr, 22, ran unopposed and received 914 total votes. When current Mayor Claude Renninger voiced he wouldn't be running for office in 2007, Knorr entertained thoughts of vying for office in December, officially throwing his hat into the ring in January. "It just became clear that nobody was anxious to do it. That's when I figured I might as well run, because I had been on council and I knew what was going on," Knorr said. Knorr has served as a local political figure since elected to town council in 2005. As mayor, he said he hopes to mend university/town relations. "With the new (university) president coming in, as well as myself being a new person in the position of mayor, and a young person, I think that we have really great opportunity to sort of put some of the old problems behind us and start fresh," Knorr said. He added that he doesn't think the relationship between BU and the town of Bloomsburg is all that bad. "We have an open communication with the administration. It's bumpy, but I don't think it's terrible," Knorr said. As far as priorities go, Knorr said it's important for him to welcome the new members of council when he becomes mayor. "It's important to educate and make that transition a smooth one," Knorr said. Another priority of Knorr's is to continue with the downtown flood wall project, a preventative measure against occurrences like the flood of summer 2006. "We're working on that. It's a process right now. We had recently formed a flood project authority, a separate body from council that would permanently be looking at flood protection, and that's the only issue they'd be dealing with," Knorr said. Knorr also discussed the Social Gatherings Ordinance, town council's proposed legislation that would place restrictions on college parties. That proposal has recently undergone fire from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), who has deemed the ordinance unconstitutional and threatened to take council to court should it pass. "We're keeping that on the back burner right now. We're continuing to work with Greek Life and the student government to try to see if we can get a student solution to these problems. Greek Life has really stepped up. They did some great things over homecoming," Knorr said. Knorr graduates in December. He has lived in Bloomsburg since he was in seventh grade and, admittedly, he never saw himself as mayor back then. "Running for council certainly wasn't a whim. It was something I thought about as a freshman as I got into politics and local politics," Knorr said. As his love affair with politics continued, things just progressed for the town councilman. "I think that the opportunity presented itself, and I had a couple years to get my feet wet," Knorr said of running for mayor. As far as what happens after he serves out his two years in office, Knorr hasn't gotten that far ahead of himself. "I have no clue what happens next. I think I'm just going to see what kind of doors this opens and I'm going to really focus on and enjoy these next two years and see how it goes," he said.