Money obstacle for new center
I hope your omission of the East End Community Center in your article, “After School Kids” was just an oversight. East End has been around for years helping to shape the lives of inter-city youths. They have dedicated teachers who help kids with homework. There are crafts, computer classes, and a wholesome snack is served. This program used to be four days a week, but due to lack of funding, the program had to be reduced to two days a week. Calvary United Methodist Church’s after school program is also a much-needed presence in the community, and this church should be commended for establishing it.
I read that Rev. and Mrs. Whitehead want a new community center built, too. Calvary United and East End residents should join forces with East End Community Center supporters who have been working hard to get funding for a brand new center. The land is already here (on Coolspring Street) but the funding is not.
Perhaps the vision of a new community center can be realized if together all interested persons combined forces to help with grant writing and fundraising events which are needed to finance this meaningful project.
At-risk kids living in Uniontown’s East End deserve to have a safe place to learn, laugh and play year round.
Debra A. Clark
Uniontown
Ms. Clark is a volunteer at the East End Community Center.
Not much to crow about
Wow! What an exuberant flurry of activity in Harrisburg. All of a sudden we have property tax “reform” plans hatching like chicks under a well-endowed hen. The only problem is that with all the clucking going on, no one seems to realize, for the most part, that there are more roosters than hens. Hens provide productivity; roosters strut and crow about themselves while consuming feed.
Proposals to “shift” tax burdens onto the backs of working taxpayers by increasing the state income tax, as well as expanding and/or increasing the state sales tax without eliminating overburdening administrative costs in school districts and government functions is merely the sound of political roosters growing fat and crowing at the scorching sun of oversized government.
Perhaps our state leaders could acquaint themselves with the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, stand up and represent the people of Pennsylvania, and in doing so, find provision within all areas of government to responsibly reduce regulatory intervention that creates burgeoning bureaucracies and excessive management costs.
Increasing and/or expanding taxation, as well as freezing or reducing the income of honest, hardworking, taxpaying individuals who really serve the needs of the people should not be considered until the issue of government misspending is addressed – unless, of course, our “political roosters” would lead the way.
That kind of savings would amount to more than chicken feed and certainly be something to crow about.
Chuck Swope
Spraggs
Impressive tribute
I recently visited the new Coal Miner Memorial at Bethlehem Center High School and was overwhelmed by its majesty, beauty, symbolism and awesome sentiment. My son paid the donated amount to have my father’s name placed on the granite walls, and I was honored to have that tribute to my father.
My twin brother, Dan, and his wife from Lexington, Ky., visited the memorial and they too were very impressed with its beauty and symbolism. Thanks to the students and art teacher Mr. Tom Shimrock, of Bethlehem Center High School, for their dedication, vision and hard work.
The industry has been and still is a vital part of the lives of nearly everyone in this area. If you have not seen the memorial yet, please make a point to travel to Fredericktown. Simply follow the bulldog paw prints, you cannot get lost.
Cloyde VanSickle
Uniontown