Masontown council addresses volatile issues
MASONTOWN – Borough business took a backseat Tuesday, as the council again addressed a host of volatile issues facing the borough. After months of wrangling over an alleged racial comment made by then-borough council President Joe Volansky, area residents were still adamant about his resignation and an apology for his remarks at Tuesday’s regular meeting.
Fayette County NAACP President Clinton Anderson again asked Volansky to step down because he allegedly used the “N” word at the close of a January borough meeting. Anderson maintains that three council members and two area residents who have written statements confirming that they heard the slur are enough proof for Volansky to resign his post on council.
“We have spent five months dealing with this serious and tragic situation,” Anderson said. “And, I am still asking Mr. Volansky to resign his position. You don’t want to take responsibility for what happened … and a person in your position needs to be held to higher standard.”
Area residents Marlene Jackson, Dolores Brown and Margaret Adams joined Anderson in requesting that Volansky, if nothing else, apologize for the alleged statement.
“You just need to be held accountable,” Jackson told Volansky. “If you make a mistake, and then do the right thing, you can put it behind you and move on.”
Volansky did not directly address any of the requests, sitting quietly during the comments.
The alleged comment, which has been a source of contention in the borough for months, was muddled, however, with other issues that were addressed by Masontown residents causing the 45-minute meeting to quickly deteriorate, with council President Carole Daniels unable to control the crowd.
“I’ll rap this until it breaks,” Daniels shouted at one point in the meeting, banging the gavel to try and control the din.
Borough residents Judy Geisel and Rose Mary Berkshire addressed an issue about an unrestrained dog in the borough as well as the lack of confidentiality for 911 emergency calls and accused Daniels of divulging personal information about a call made from Geisel’s residence to 911 to her family who was involved in the incident.
Daniels denied revealing any information regarding the phone call that was made regarding an all-terrain vehicle operated on borough streets by Daniel’s nephew.
The council, who had just enough members present to hold a meeting, with Daniels, Volansky, Popovich and Lee in attendance, also heard from Margaret Burnsworth about an issue of rampant mosquitoes on a borough property as well as from Debbie Ryan, who was a candidate for mayor in the May primary regarding the corrosion of the monthly borough meetings into a public gripe session.
“These issues are being used as a smoke screen,” Ryan told the council. “We are trying to get away from the real issues.”
During the meeting, Volansky told the audience that the long-standing tradition of the council was to allow the public to “say whatever they want” at meetings after Daniels attempted to stop discussion regarding the dog matter addressed by Berkshire. The matter was never fully explained because Daniels said it was not a matter for the borough.
He also told Berkshire that he received letters regarding the undisclosed dog situation, which involved Daniels, when it occurred about a year ago, but alleged that the letters were “taken” from the borough building when he left them on a table for about 30 minutes.
The heated arguing between council and Berkshire, Ryan and Adams continued until often the three women in the audience were addressing one another, trying to downplay each other’s issues before council.
After 45 minutes of banter, Volansky picked up his paperwork and headed for the door.
“All of us, all of us are acting like a bunch of chickens,” he told the room. “I take borough business way too seriously for this.”
After Volansky left the meeting, the council, lacking a quorum to vote to adjourn the meeting or to conduct any of the business scheduled for the session, simply ended the assembly.
No borough business, which included discussion of a public hearing for the Dollar General store in Masontown as well as possible grants for water line extensions in the borough, was addressed.