Similo looks back on 40 years of service
By CHRISTINE HAINES
chaines@yourmvi.com
Elizabeth Township may be spread out over 23 square miles, but to outgoing commissioner Don Similo it has always had a small town feel.
After serving 40 years as a township commissioner, Similo decided not to seek re-election in 2019, but he has plenty of memories to look back upon.
“I grew up in Blythedale and I always said, if you ever needed anything, they would help you out,” he said. “We have small communities, then we had the developments. But in my opinion, they are all good people.”
Similo said there have been some changes, with neighbors perhaps not as close as they once were, but the township is still a good place to live.
“You could never go hungry. You could just go next door and they would feed you,” he said. “There’s something about being raised in a small town, and that’s what makes this Valley.
“I was born in 1931. Way back when, it was coal mining and the mills, then the mills shut down and the mines shut down. My grandmother had a coal mine in her backyard with a donkey to bring the coal out. It was a totally different economic environment. I never saw it as a bedroom community to Pittsburgh.
“When I went to college, I came back to Elizabeth Township. Now when kids graduate, they move miles and miles away.”
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