Most of the candidates vying for a seat on Swissvale council this year say they live in one of Allegheny County's best-kept secrets, but their hidden jewel is falling apart.

While they are eager to point out their community's easy access to the greater Pittsburgh area, reasonably good schools and low property taxes, they are quick to decry a lackluster business district, crime and an increasing number of abandoned properties and people moving away.

	Bill Wade, Post-Gazette C.J. Angelo in his insurance office with family pictures. Mr. Angelo, who is blind, is running for Swissvale council. Click photo for larger image.

This, they say, does not bode well for their small borough, which already suffers the perception of being Pittsburgh's little-known sister municipality.

"I think it's important for people to realize what a great community Swissvale is," said Sharon Kuhn Hanchett. "I am running for council because I have lived here for most of my life and I would like to promote the positive things of this community," she said.

A registered nurse and a mother of three, Ms. Hanchett, 31, is one of seven candidates on the May ballot. The seven, six Democrats and a Republican, will be vying for three open council seats in November.

Unlike previous years, this year's field includes a candidate who, if he wins, says he intends to tackle some of the issues facing his community much as he has tackled one of the biggest hurdles in his life: blindness.

Clarence "C. J." Angelo, an insurance broker who has lived in Swissvale for more than 50 years, said he hoped to bring to Swissvale council the same fighting spirit that has helped him overcome and learn to live with his disability.

"I have been blind for most of my adult life, but that has not held me back from living a fulfilling life," said Mr. Angelo, a Democrat whose family relocated to Swissvale from Pittsburgh's Hill District when Mellon Arena was built.

Born to Italian immigrant parents, Mr. Angelo, 71, said his life had been marked by overcoming improbable odds.

"I was never supposed to make it," he said. "I came down with polio when I was only 3 and the doctors told my parents that I would never walk again or live a long life."

By all accounts, Mr. Angelo made it, albeit with significant hurdles along the way.

A former nightclub owner who dabbled in the Florida real estate market for many years before returning to the Pittsburgh area to sell cars at an Oakland dealership, Mr. Angelo said his life changed April 3, 1983.

"I woke up one morning and I couldn't see," he said. "I went to all kinds of doctors from the Cleveland Clinic to Johns Hopkins and the National Institutes of Health, and they all diagnosed me with severe optic atrophy. They said I was blind and that I would have to adjust my life to my condition."

Since then, Mr. Angelo said, he has been adjusting his life and learning how to "still reach for the top of the pile," even with his disability.

"Every day is a fight, " he said. "I won't give up. I am fighting for my life. I'm fighting to do all the things I know I can do and be a happy man."

For now, Mr. Angelo has his mind set on a Swissvale council seat. His key issue, he said, is to "lift up the people of Swissvale and make them proud to be residents of the borough."

Asked whether he had considered the ramifications of his victory -- the possibility of a blind person on council and how that would affect the business of council -- Mr. Angelo said he would cross that bridge when he gets to it.

"When you live my kind of life, you have to have a winning attitude. I ask God to open that door," he said.

Councilwoman Patricia Gionta, who is one of the seven candidates, said she and members of council had not considered the implications of a blind member of council.

"It would be a major challenge," she said. "I don't even know how we would handle that situation. We have never considered it."

On her part, Ms. Gionta, 48, a Democrat who is seeking a second term on council, said she was running because "people in our community are looking for change."

Her main issue, she said, is tackling the question of condemned properties.

"Swissvale is a great community, but we need a face lift," she said, noting that among the biggest problems the borough faces are absentee landlords, abandoned properties and crime.

Over the years, Ms. Gionta said, these factors led to the gradual but certain loss of people in the community, which has culminated in a general feeling that Swissvale is a borough left behind.

"We often get lost in the shuffle, like we are a little lost area in the Pittsburgh metro area," Ms. Gionta said, adding that one of the things she will push if elected to another term is for the borough to seek as much grant money as possible for "face lifting" projects.

That is why Martin Busch, a former Swissvale mayor, says he is ready to give public service another try. Mr. Busch, 53, a co-owner of Busch Brothers Tire Service Inc. for more than 20 years, was the borough's mayor from 1991 to 1997.

Like most of the candidates in the race, Mr. Busch, a Democrat, believes Swissvale's problem is mainly a question of fighting the sense that the community is running out of steam.

Noting that he had limited powers as a mayor to implement any significant changes, Mr. Busch said he hoped to push council and members of the community diligently to tackle some of the key issues such as road improvements, absentee landlords and crime.

Jack Ferguson, 41, a Democrat and vocational school teacher who owns landscaping and sales businesses, said he was motivated to seek public office because he would like to "hold people accountable for their positions."

Republican candidate Antoinette Wos and Democrat Barbara M. Campbell could not be reached for comment for this story.