It was with sadness that it was learned that former 84th District Representative Garth Everett had died last week after a long battle with cancer. He was recalled by many with fondness and affection. He served the people of his district well for 14 years, from 2007 to 2021. He served his constituents with dedication and distinction. He left his district a better place than he found it.

In February of 2007, I wrote an article in which I interviewed Everett about his first weeks as state representative. I thought it would be a good idea to revisit that story as a tribute to the dedicated service of Garth Everett.

Amidst pageantry and the magnificent setting of the historic State House Chamber in Harrisburg, Garth Everett, the new state representative for the 84th House District, which includes most of Lycoming County, was sworn in to assume his duties the first week of January.

“It has been an interesting couple of weeks for me as I got sworn in and got to know my surroundings and find out where my office is going to be as well as putting in for the committee assignments I might want,” Everett told Webb Weekly.

He said the experience of being sworn in as a legislator for the first time was an interesting and heady one.

“The whole House chamber was filled almost beyond capacity with the legislators, friends, relatives, and well-wishers in a beautiful and humbling setting,” Everett said. “It was quite a thrill for me and the other 55 new legislators.”

He said the transition process for him, and the other freshmen legislators, started in mid-December when an orientation was held for them, and they started to learn the ins and outs of their duties and how to do constituents’ services.

“My job has been eased somewhat because I have retained Brett’s [Feese] district staff so that there would be continuity in offering services to the constituents of the 84th District, and we have retained the same district office at Halls Station,” Everett said. “Another thing that has been helpful has been my long-term friendship with Brett Feese. We have known each other since kindergarten, and so we have been able to have a seamless transition. The people of the district can expect the same high level of constituent services that they received from Representative Feese.”

He said that he will spend this term learning the intricacies of the legislative process and networking with other legislators who have the same views and goals that he does. He said it was important for him to build relationships with other rural legislators as a way of helping to protect the interests of people in those rural areas.

“There are three things that I ran on that are going to be my highest priorities,” Everett said. “First, school property tax reform, I think it is essential that we make the tax burden fairer, and it might be fairer if we broaden the sales tax so that the tax burden can be spread instead equally over everyone instead of just having property owners pay, that failed in the last session, but with 55 new representatives maybe it will have a better chance of passing now.”

“Second, I think we need to reduce the size of state government and make it more efficient. We need to examine more closely the programs that might be ‘gotta haves’ as opposed to ‘nice to haves.’ This state must learn to live within its means. We can’t keep asking the state’s taxpayers to finance mismanagement.”

“Third, I think we need to make this state more business-friendly by doing what we can enhance the chances of new industries not only coming to this state but to this area as well.”

Everett does not know what committee assignments he has as of the writing of this article, but he has requested membership in the agriculture, the fish and game, the environment and natural resources, the commerce, and the local government committees.

“I am very excited about being in the legislature and look forward to being able to accomplish things for the people of the 84th and plan to hit the ground running. I know there won’t be an instant success in meeting my goals, but it should be an interesting and challenging process to try my best to do so,” Everett said.