By Ally Lanasa, Staff Writer

(Oct. 8, 2020) Berlin District 3 Councilman Elroy Brittingham and At-Large Councilman Thom Gulyas were honored with proclamations from Mayor Gee Williams for their service at their last Town Council meeting on Sept. 28.

Brittingham, 72, did not file for re-election for a ninth term by the deadline.

“I’ve been there 32 years,” Brittingham said. “I just felt like it was time for me to cut back on some of my community activities, and that was one of the ones I considered. I have a few other things that I belong to that take up time.”

Currently, Brittingham is an active member at the American Legion, and he is on the board of directors of Shore Up in Salisbury. He also substitute teaches in Worcester County Public Schools.

“I figured it’s time to spend more time with family,” he added.

Brittingham has three children, seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren with his wife, Teola.

Before joining the council in 1988, Brittingham worked at Style Guide on Main Street in Berlin for about 25 years.

Three decades ago, Brittingham never imagined he would have a career in local government.

“I started with a committee of maybe a few people, and we were looking for somebody to replace John Dale Smack. He was the first Black councilman,” Brittingham said. “I was on the committee, going to different people [and] trying to convince them to run for [Town] Council.”

After no luck, the committee asked Brittingham to run.

“Of course, I turned it down at first,” he said.

He finally agreed to serve one term.

Brittingham has since served as vice president and the longest-serving active member of Town Council.

The Flower Street resident ran unopposed in the 2012 and 2016 elections.

“Every time you come up for election, there’s things that you haven’t completed,” Brittingham said. “There’s one or two things that you want to be there to see that it gets completed.”

Brittingham is leaving before he sees the transformation of the multipurpose building on Flower Street to a community center.

“The town will hopefully find ways to apply for grants to build a new building,” he said. “That’s probably way down in the future, but that’s one of the goals.”

Brittingham added that he is also sorry he won’t be on the council for future discussions about annexation.

“I know the town’s going to grow in different directions,” he said. “There’s a big possibility that we’ll have a lot more [commercial] businesses moving into town.”

Over the course of 32 years, Brittingham is proud of the improvements made at the Berlin power plant on William Street as well as the repaving of streets and sidewalks.

“We didn’t have any committee set up to discuss the power plant,” he said. “Council was trying to include that in all our meetings, and that made our meetings really lengthy.”

From the beginning, Brittingham said he campaigned for street improvement projects in District 3.

“The older council … it seems like they wanted to do things, but they did things the cheapest way, whatever the cheapest bid was,” he said. “They were even considering tar and chipping streets, which that’s a thing of the past. It was a thing of the past when I first ran.”

He added that he was concerned about sidewalks, especially on Flower Street, because of the school traffic in town to Stephen Decatur Middle School, Stephen Decatur High School, Buckingham Elementary School and Berlin Intermediate School.

“I think every bus comes by here in the morning and in the evening,” Brittingham said.

Throughout his tenure, Brittingham has seen the whole town improve from Main Street to the new Berlin Police Department.

“Every time we had an election, it got a little bit better as far as working together and trying to accomplish things and completing things,” he said.

Although there is much controversy surrounding the purchase of the Tyson building at Heron Park, Brittingham believes it can benefit Berlin.

“We couldn’t control the operation of the plant, or we couldn’t inspect the plant because it was outside the town limits,” he said.

Brittingham believes the Tyson building will be a major topic of discussion for the new mayor and council. He added that the town purchased the property initially for another source of entertainment, such as an outdoor theater.

Recently, the plan has been to demolish the building through grant funding. The town is receiving bids at this time.

The next mayor and council will make the final decision.

“Even if the mayor repeats for another four years, we’re still gonna have three new people,” Brittingham said.

Brittingham also offered advice to his successor.

“I would say to really concentrate on some of the things that we haven’t completed,” he said.

As for Gulyas, he always wanted to be involved in local government.

“I’ve worked on campaigns from local municipal all the way up to Congress for 36 years,” he said. “After all of the volunteering … and positions I held with various organizations and with HOAs over the years, I thought that it was just the next step to take.”

Gulyas, 55, ran against District 2 Councilmember Lisa Hall in 2008 but lost the election.

Then, he replaced Paula Lynch who, after serving as Berlin’s at-large councilmember for 26 years, decided not to run in 2014.

“My district, District 2, was not open at that time because on Berlin Mayor and Council, it’s always three and three [seats],” he said.

Gulyas was sworn into office as the at-large councilman on Oct. 27, 2014, and he retained his seat in 2018.

After six years of service, Gulyas is most proud of being a voice for the citizens of Berlin and helping the town continue to move in a positive direction.

“A lot of people that are in town now that may be newcomers in the last 10, 15, 20 years, they weren’t around when Berlin only had four or five stores open on Main Street. A lot of the businesses were shuttered,” Gulyas said. “There was nobody here … It’s totally changed. A lot of people have worked very, very hard to get the town to where it is currently, and I know that there’s going to be growing pains.”

Gulyas added that he strived to be a voice for the employees as well during his term.

“We have a fantastic group of employees and department heads here in town,” he said. “This town could not operate without them. It could not.”

Gulyas complimented Town Administrator Jeff Fleetwood for his hands-on approach and diligent work ethic.

Gulyas announced his resignation from office on May 26, explaining that his family is relocating to South Point.

Gulyas said he and his wife, Belinda, who is the principal at Cedar Chapel Special School, sat down about a year ago and decided to move back on the water.

“I was raised on the water in Ocean City, and that’s actually how I met my wife,” he said. “Her grandparents bought a condominium on the water that my parents used to own.”

Gulyas expressed gratitude for his neighborhood in Berlin that was a wonderful place to raise his now 16-year-old son.

“We love the town, and we have a fantastic neighborhood that’s just loaded with young families with young kids,” he said. “It’s time for somebody else to come in with their family and have the same memories, the same enjoyment and benefits that we had here for the last 15 years.”

Gulyas added that they plan to move to their property in South Point in late spring or early summer 2021.

“I didn’t want to put the town through another expense of an election just so I could stay an extra six months,” he said about leaving his term two years early. “That’s not fair.”

Gulyas, who has owned Ace Printing and Mailing in Berlin since 1985, said he will participate in Town Council meetings as a business owner when necessary.

“It’s time for new ideas, fresh ideas and different folks,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to take anything away from those folks that are going to be taking the seats.

“There are tough decisions to be made by anyone that assumes a position as mayor or councilmember,” Gulyas continued. “You’re tasked with running the town as it currently sits as well as trying to project into the future where you want to be in three years, five years, 10 years down the pike.

“I’m sure that there are some decisions that some of the folks aren’t very happy with, but we as a group as the mayor and council, we’ve got to look down that road. We’ve got to look down those five to 10 years and see what’s going to be the benefit of the town.”