White Stepping Down From Ferguson Township Board of Supervisors

Updated 6:31 p.m. Monday, Nov. 2, 2026.

A Ferguson Township supervisor is leaving the five-member governing board as he prepares to move out of the area.

Trevor White’s final day as an at-large supervisor will be Tuesday, according to his letter of resignation included in the agenda for Monday night’s Board of Supervisors meeting. The board voted to accept his resignation and authorize staff to advertise for the vacancy as part of its consent agenda on Monday.

The vacancy is expected to be posted on Tuesday and resumes and applications will be accepted for a 14-day period, Township Manager Warren Obenski said. Interviews by the remaining board members will be scheduled for a special meeting on a date to be determined, with the goal of voting on an interim member during a meeting in December.

A Democrat, White was elected in 2025 and has a little over three years remaining in his term. Because he has served less than half his term, the interim member will be appointed to fill the role until after the 2027 General Election, when White’s at-large supervisor position will be on the ballot for a two-year term.

White wrote that he and his wife are expecting their first child and are moving to be closer to family, citing the cost of living in Centre County as a key factor in the decision.

“Please know that I have not made this decision lightly, and that we have searched far and wide for ways to stay here,” he wrote.

White added that even though he and his wife graduated from Penn State without student loan debt, “the unfortunate reality is that we are no longer able to afford to live here” as they grow their family.

“… [T]he economic prospects outside of the University are extremely limited, and the maternal leave policies are not conducive to growing our family,” he wrote. “The costs of childcare run higher than our current mortgage, a rate which was secured before interest rates have doubled to where they are today. And yet still, we are unable to continue our lives in this region because of these economic conditions.”

Moving close to family, he wrote, will give them a support network that will allow them “to be the attentive and present parents we want to be.”

“I only wish we could stay and see this place grow in the ways we know it can,” White wrote. “But to do so, we would have to sacrifice the care, love, and attention our child deserves.”

He further added that being an effective elected official “requires a level of access to resources that we simply do not have, and that this region cannot offer us at this time.”

While Ferguson Township pays supervisors a small salary of $4,125 a year, many Centre County municipalities’ governing boards are strictly volunteer. That, he wrote, makes those positions more likely to be filled by the “independently wealthy (or upper middle class), and/or retired individuals, thereby creating a disconnect from the policy arenas necessary to improve the lives of many of its constituents which are constantly priced out of these types of communities as a result of concentrated market power in real estate and labor markets.”

“Simply stated – the prospects for young professionals starting a family here are kneecapped by the lack of a diversified economy, organized labor, and autonomous, bottom-up, municipal governance strategies,” White wrote. “Left unchecked, this will continue to bifurcate the socioeconomic outcomes and contribute to a contentious ‘“’Town-and-Gown’ relationship. But it doesn’t have to be this way, and I know you all possess the skills necessary to overcome these barriers.”

White thanked a wide range of people for their support and mentorship, including Penn State professors, progressive grassroots organization Central PA United, fellow supervisors and township staff and administration.

“Please know that this is one of the hardest decisions I have had to make,” he wrote. “I did not want to contribute further to the transient problem that runs so deep throughout this area…. I wish you all nothing but the best. Please know that I will keep you all in my thoughts and look back fondly on my experiences here in Ferguson Township.”