John T. Banewicz. (Photo by Camilo Fredes/Cortland Voice).
Earlier this month on General Election Day, John T. Banewicz of Cortland, NY was voted in as the new Cortland County treasurer.
Banewicz is an army veteran who served the country for 36 years. According to Banewicz, he was on active duty for about ten of those years and spent the rest as an infantry officer for the National Guards.
While on active duty, Banewicz served in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Kuwait among other places.
“From my experience in the military, I would get put into assignments where everything was chaos and people would be fighting against each other,” said Banewicz. “However, just for some reason, my presence caused people to work together.”
Banewicz grew up in Amsterdam, NY and made the move to Cortland in 1978. He now has a wife, three kids who are now adults, and six grandchildren.
Banewicz has an Associates degree in both Telecommunications & Liberal Studies and a Bachelor's degree in History. He also studied engineering in the military. His last position there was as a Program Manager for Military Construction in Northern Iraq for the Corps of Engineers.
According to Banewicz, he also worked as a telecommunications technician for Verizon.
“I've been retired for about 10-years and my interests have always been on National and International politics,” said Banewicz. “So I figured with there being some problems in Cortland, that I should change my concentration to local politics instead. I am a registered Conservative and this opportunity came on as a write-in vote. So I figured to take a shot and ended up getting support from both the Democrats and the Republicans.”
According to the official Cortland County website, some responsibilities of the County treasurer are to serve as the chief tax enforcement officer for the County, act as a Public Administrator of estates upon appointment of the courts, and to be sure to review residency information for acceptable forms of identification among many other things.
Banewicz says that he is excited to begin a new chapter in his life. He was recently informed that his first day as County Treasurer will be on Tuesday, January 2nd, 2020.
“First thing is, I have to listen, meet people, and talk to them” Banewicz said. “I know that there are people in both parties (Republicans and Democrats) that want to solve the issues with the County budget. As a Conservative and not being associated with either party, I can cross over and speak to both parties.”
