Office of the Mayor

Mayor Jim Nowalk has lived in Whitehall Borough almost his entire life.  Well over half of that time period, Jim served as an elected official with 10 years as a Member of Council and in 2023, 30 years as Mayor.

Jim’s interest in politics began when he was a government major at the University of Notre Dame.   His first job after graduation from Duquesne University School of Law was working for Allegheny County where he served for seven years as an Assistant County Solicitor assigned to John J. Kane Hospital (now the four Kane Regional Centers).  After three years as the Executive Director of the Kane Regional Centers, Jim entered private law practice. 

After serving as a Big Brother for eight years and being named “Big Brother of the Year” in 1981, Jim devoted himself to the youth of his community.  For 16 years, he was the Moderator of the St. Gabriel School Forensics and Debate Team.  For several years, Jim coached softball for the South Whitehall Athletic Association, coached both girls’ and boys’ volleyball teams for St. Gabriel School and was a member of the school’s advisory board.  A founding member of the Baldwin-Whitehall Friends of the Theater Arts, an organization to support the performing arts in the Baldwin-Whitehall School District, Jim has served as its President for over 18 years. In that role, he worked tirelessly to inspire and help fund the renovations to the Regis V. Shalley Performing Arts Center at Baldwin High School.    

Over his years of public service, Jim has created, or been a founding member of, a number of organizations to benefit the community beginning with the former Whitehall Civic Association, the Cherryvale Path Association, the Whitehall Wildlife Management Committee, the Whitehall Committee for Environmental Action, the Brentwood-Baldwin-Whitehall Shade Tree Commission, and the Whitehall Borough Historical Society.   He established the Whitehall Borough “Person of the Year” award given every year on Whitehall Community Day.

For almost as long as he has been Mayor, Jim has been on the Executive Board of the Pennsylvania State Mayors’ Association serving as its President for the last 16 years. In 2015, Jim was appointed by Allegheny County Council to be a member of the Government Review Commission, serving as the Chair of the Form of Government Committee.

Among the honors that he has received, Jim was named the St. Gabriel Parish “Man of the Year” in 1994 on the occasion of its 50^th anniversary and the Pennsylvania State Mayors’ Association’s “Mayor of the Year” in 1999.  In 2015, he was inducted into the Baldwin High School Alumni Hall of Fame.