Opinion & Analysis — Pocono Review
For nearly two years, Winot sat on the board that regulated the same stretch of Route 611 his business partners were building on. He co-owns a company with developer Dante Trapasso. His construction firm did the site work on Trapasso’s hotel. Together they’re developing 356 townhomes in Swiftwater. His own campaign website brags about it.
Winot voted yes on a tax abatement his business partner praised by name at the next meeting, voted to put a project out to bid that his own company then won, and voted twice to benefit a developer he’d later admit he had a business relationship with. He abstained when the connection was obvious. He voted yes when it wasn’t.
His own actions make it look as if he knew exactly what he was doing. As if He disclosed when he felt like it and voted when he thought nobody would connect the dots.
Who Kept Voting With Him
Three commissioners helped him do it every single time. Rich Wielebinski made the motions. Almost every one. The zoning overlay that opened the door for Core5’s warehouse. The waivers. The LERTA. To some it could even look as if he fixed the township manager hiring so a sitting commissioner could quit and walk straight into the job with no public posting. Wielebinski ran that board like it belonged to him.
Mike Velardi seconded the motions. He was on the Planning Commission when Core5 first showed up. Voted on it there. Then moved to the board and kept right on voting.
Natasha Leap voted with them. Every time. Every vote. No questions on the record.
The One Who Said No
One commissioner said no.
Ellen Gnandt. Alone. For years.
She fought the overlay. She fought the LERTA. She asked for impact studies nobody else wanted done. She tried to table a contract award the night Winot resigned. She pushed to post the manager job publicly. She lost every one of those fights 4-1.
Every resident who showed up to those meetings, who stood at that podium talking about their wells, their roads, their property values, their kids — they had one vote on that board. One person who gave a damn about what they were saying.
Now Look Where We Are
Now look where we are.
Core5 Industrial Partners — owned by a Japanese multinational — built a 702,000-square-foot warehouse on Warner Road. The board that approved every waiver and overlay to make it happen is now shrugging at residents whose houses shake when the blasting starts.
They issued a cease letter. Core5 wiped their feet on it. DEP says the blasts are legal. The township engineer wrote a memo that could have come straight from Core5’s PR department.
Core5 agreed to test the water. They haven’t released the results. Ask yourself why.
A resident on Ruby Lane tried to get a pre-blast inspection. Some “advocate” from another township showed up and talked her out of it. Now there’s no baseline data for her home. When the cracks show up, she’s got nothing. No before. Just after. Just damage with no proof.
The people who enabled this project don’t get to act helpless now. They built this. Vote by vote. Waiver by waiver. Year after year. While one commissioner and a room full of residents told them exactly what would happen.
What Changed
Voters fixed part of it in November 2025. Winot and Wielebinski are gone. Charles Keppler and Matt Long replaced them. Keppler is the resident who cited the Ethics Act from the podium while Winot was still sitting on the board. Winot sued him. Keppler won the election anyway.
Long and Keppler moved fast. Weeks in, they passed a data center ordinance. Unanimous. Keppler went back and tightened it, stripping overlay zones near the Core5 site specifically. No waiting. No hand-wringing. No telling residents to be patient.
That speed matters because it kills every excuse. This board can act when it wants to. Which means every time it doesn’t, that’s a choice.
The Questions They Can’t Dodge
So here’s the question nobody on this board should be allowed to dodge:
Keppler and Long stood up on data centers. Will they stand up on Core5?
And the harder question — the one that should follow Velardi and Leap into every election from here on out:
We know what Winot had to gain. But why was Gnandt the only one voting with the people? What was their motivation? They need to answer that before anyone votes for them again.
Were they following Wielebinski without thinking? Then they had no business being on that board. Did they understand what they were approving? Then they chose developers over residents with their eyes open. Either answer should make voters sick.
Velardi is still on this board. Leap is still on this board. Same seats. Same votes.
Houses are still shaking. Water tests are still hidden. The cease letter is still a joke.
Gnandt was right about all of it. Every vote. Every warning. Every time she stood alone against four people who wouldn’t listen.
She was right all along. Now she finally has allies.
The question is whether that’s enough — or whether two commissioners who’ve never once voted with the public plan to keep pretending nobody’s watching.
People are watching.
Opinion and analysis based on official Pocono Township Board of Commissioners meeting minutes, Monroe County election records, Pennsylvania corporate filings, and public reporting. All votes and statements attributed to officials come from published public records under Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law.