Wows and Scowls
Wow: Anyone running for public office this go around should have little excuse for candidacy challenges. During the past few cycles, candidates have been knocked off the ballot because of seemingly benign glitches, that they claim they were unaware. Much criticism has been directed at the Fayette County Election Bureau for failing to thoroughly inform candidates about the nuances of collecting signatures and filing financial disclosure statements. We have continually called for candidate education forums. This time the election bureau has responded. A meeting will be held 7:30 p.m., Feb. 18, in the Public Service Building, along Main Street in Uniontown. —
Scowl: To gain a leg up what is expected to be a crowded commissioners’ race it doesn’t hurt to be on a first-name basis with the new governor. Commissioner Sean Cavanagh on returning from the inaugural festivities reported that while walking along the parade route the governor, that would be Ed, shouted out, “Sean, we’re going to build your airport” runway extension. Commissioner Vince Vicites dropped by Ed’s new mansion (along with 3,000 other folks) the next day. “He shook my hand and he said, ‘Vince, we’re going to get that airport runway built. I’m going to help you.” Given Gov. Rendell’s proclivity for political schmoozing he’s well heeled in pressing the flesh. We can almost picture the constant prompting the governor received from his insiders to be able to say just the right thing with just the right name to every county commissioner that paraded before him. We would have been much more encouraged had he pressed a check into Vince’s and Sean’s palms.
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Scowl: The condition of District Justice William Pelkey’s California office is deplorable. This past week water flooded the office. If this were an isolated case of a roof that sprung a leak because of recent harsh weather, the incident could be dismissed without prejudice. But building history suggests otherwise. Pelkey said that since he moved to the office in 1996 he has been at the mercy of the landlord. When an irate California University student broke a front window, two months elapsed before repairs were made. The electricity has been shut off twice for nonpayment, the gas for seven months. Pelkey pleaded his case by inviting a reporter and photographer in to survey the damage. It appears that Washington County by continuing to pay rent and failing to find new office space is complicit in the neglect.
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Scowl: For the elderly living in Dunbar Township, who raised their families and thought they would never see a sewage bill, a $38 a month fee is hard to accept. The township’s tax collector claims that she hears many hardship complaints and that the new authority that has brought the lines into the township isn’t listening. The authority needs $38 from each of its customers to keep the plant running and pay down the debt incurred to build the system. The sanitary sewer system is needed. The benefits are immediate in that raw waste running alongside roads will be a thing of the past. And it allows for development to follow. But as Dunbar Township residents this takes money, and they are the ones who must pay. But the residents should be able to question the new rate and the authority might want to reconsider its methods. Rather than a flat fee to all, the authority could look at a charging a lower sum for debt repayment and then adopt a rate based on water usage. That way widows and widowers living alone would not be subsidizing treatment of waste produced by larger families.
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Scowl: Martha Stewart is “puzzled by the public’s delight” in her troubles. The queen of domesticity remains entangled in a federal investigation into her ImClone stock trade. She told The New Yorker magazine that it cost her to lose $400 million. “My business is about homemaking. And that I have been turned into or vilified openly as something other than what I really am has been really confusing.” Ms. Stewart is so out of touch with homemakers who toil at one of life’s hardest tasks for no monetary reward. Unlike Ms. Stewart who claims to have lost no sleep over the $400 million loss, we’d venture a guess that plenty a homemaker has spent a sleepless night over a misplaced $40. Ms. Stewart will continue to have trouble polishing her image if she really thinks the public is merely “delighted.” The public is disgusted by the appearance that she used insider knowledge to sell off nearly 4,000 shares of stocks the day before it plummeted.