Local news

Incumbent commissioners to return in Centre

BELLEFONTE -- Incumbents Mark Higgins, Amber Concepcion and Steven Dershem will all be returning for new four-year terms on the Centre County Board of Commissioners.

Preliminary results indicated that Higgins, a Democrat, received the highest number of votes with 20,183 votes, followed by Concepcion, a Democrat, with 19,166 votes and Dershem, a Republican, with 18,501 votes.

Newcomer Marie Librizzi, a Republican, fell short in her bid for a board seat. According to preliminary results she received 16,135 votes.

This will be Dershem's sixth consecutive term, Higgins' third term and Concepcion's first full term.

Concepcion was appointed to her commissioner seat in January after then-chair Michael Pipe resigned for a role in Gov. Josh Shapiro's administration.

"Amber and I are very humbled to be elected and we're happy to serve with Commissioner Dershem for another four years. We've got a great team in the Commissioners Office and I'm glad we didn't have to break it up," said Higgins.

Higgins spoke on behalf of the three commissioners, commenting on the incredible voter turnout.

"It was an all-time record, both by raw numbers and percentages. For the last 25 years turnout for local elections has varied between 23 percent and 36 percent. This was 39.07 percent and counting because the provisional ballots haven't been calculated yet," said Higgins.

Concepcion and Dershem were unavailable for comment as of press time.

All results are unofficial until certified, keep an eye out in the Express for a more in-depth article when official results are in.