Yard sales serve a need
I would like to comment on Connellsville City Council’s recent effort to micromanage by dictating who can conduct garage and yard sales and how often they can do it. If garage and yard sales need a permit, then let’s require everyone in Connellsville to get a permit for the things people do from their homes: painters, contractors, photographers, gardeners, babysitters, electricians, seamstresses. Isn’t there a council member who sells candles and restaurant place mats out of her home and who has the school district’s fundraisers bought from her business, which she operates out of her home? Surely she is making money from this. She lives in a prime residential area whereas my house is in a commercial area.
Garage sales provide a service to people who cannot afford to buy new items. Many people ask me to hold something for them until payday because they just don’t have the money to pay for it outright. Many people work minimum wage jobs or are down on their luck and can only afford used items.
Our mayor and council say to buy locally. Where did they purchase the new chairs (which were perfectly fine for former administrations) that they sit on at council meetings? Not from a local business. They bought them in Greensburg. And what about the July 4 fireworks? Were they bought at Keystone Fireworks in Dunbar? No, they were bought in Lancaster, Pa.
If our enlightened officials wonder why there are so many empty storefronts, maybe it’s because many residents simply cannot afford to buy new. Council should have more important things to worry about such as fighting crime and drugs. The ordinance states police should enforce the garage sale permits.
Don’t our police have anything better to do? Give me a break.
Council says it wants to “preserve the sanctity of our residential areas.” I have a shopping center and a round-the-clock mini mart/gas station across the street from my house, and a drug store on the side. Does council consider this to be residential? How commercial can you get?
Fayette County has 42 municipalities and only one, Brownsville, has an ordinance regarding garage sales. Does council want Connellsville to be like Brownsville, where 90 percent of the downtown storefronts are vacant? If only one out of 42 municipalities has such an ordinance, doesn’t that tell us something?
Louisa Clawson
Connellsville
Community hospital cut off
I just opened my newspaper and viewed the giant advertisement from Highmark Blue Cross touting the Community Blue Direct Program. For those who haven’t seen the ad, there is a picture of a mother kissing her sick child’s hand with the text stating, “You should choose a health plan that doesn’t expect you to tote him across town when he needs care.” At the bottom it says Community Blue is an open access program.
After I finished laughing at this so-called truth in advertising, I felt compelled to write this letter.
The name Community Blue would make one think that they could use their community hospital (Highlands Hospital) when seeking medical treatment instead of toting their loved ones 20 miles north or south.
The fact is that even after much trying and being a provider of every other Blue Cross product, Highlands has still not been allowed to become a provider of Community Blue. So much for open access.
The question this community should be asking Community Blue is why won’t it let Highlands in the network? Is our community not as important as those to the north or south? Is our citizens’ health more expendable? The public needs to be truthfully informed when choosing a healthcare plan.
We need to ask if Highlands Hospital is a provider to that plan before choosing it and if it is not, we need to find another insurance to purchase. It’s as simple as that. Losing our hospital because you might save a buck or two to fill the coffers of a giant corporation under false pretenses is to put it bluntly, bad for our community’s health.
Marcy Ozorowski
The writer is president of Highlands Hospital employees, AFSCME Local 2340.
Correction
A letter from Jack Baird of Dawson that was published in Friday’s edition contained an error. Mr. Baird had questioned the Fayette County Assessment Office’s practice of setting a standard value for an acre of land. That dollar amount should have been $24,000. Those who wish to join Mr. Baird in protesting this action can contact him at 724-529-2139.