Feb 4, 2005 4 min read

Wow: The Fayette County Community Action Food Bank and the American Red Cross Southwestern Pennsylvania joined an deeper alliance that will not only benefit both agencies but the people they serve. The agencies have worked together when needed, but they plan to have a more coordinated plan that would offer more timely help to those struck by fires, flooding and other disasters. —

Wow: South Union Township continues to boom. Supervisor Bob Schiffbauer said new retail outlets brought 250 additional jobs last year to the township, and a few other developments are underway. Schiffbauer credited the supervisors’ forward thinking in laying infrastructure and working with state and county officials as the key to success.

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Scowl: Too bad South Union Township supervisors have yet to apply some of that forward thinking to forming other alliances. We can think of a couple examples: support the Uniontown Public Library as a benefit to its residents, and establish a regional police force that would lift some of the burden from state police and state taxpayers who must pick up the tab to provide services for the township’s growth.

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Scowl: A little diplomacy could have gone a long way in settling the ire raised between city firefighters and the mayor. Each year, on Christmas Eve, community firefighters gather with their boots downtown. For an hour they ring bells and solicit donations as a way to raise money for the Salvation Army. They’ve been doing this since the 1930s. Only something was different this time around, something the fire chief said he wasn’t aware had occurred. The city banned street solicitations. Chief Myron Nypaver said he was appalled that Mayor James Sileo would go on HSTV and threaten to arrest the firefighters. The city barred the practics as too many groups of students, some from out-of-town, were stepping between cars at busy intersections, with little awareness of the danger posed to them. And some city streets were hosting groups continually, with some out-of-city schools sending their kids to town. However, firefighters aren’t middle school cheerleaders. These are professionals who know well the dangers of traffic, and what is safe and what is not. The annual fundraiser takes place for merely an hour once a year and should be permitted by the city. An amiable conversation between the mayor and fire chief ought to solve this one.

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Wow: Wal-Mart operates more than 5,000 stores, of which it selects just four each year to carry a “Store of the Year” title. The South Union Township store recently earned that honor. Any doubts about the quality of the local workforce can easily be laid to rest, as this award speaks well of the level of service offered by the store’s 340 employees.

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Scowl: It appears that the Brownsville Area School Board will miss a once in every four years opportunity to address the method of payment to its elected tax collectors. By law, a compensation plan must be set prior to primary election deadlines. Brownsville pays the tax collectors 3 percent of the property taxes that each collects. We have long advocated a switch to a flat fee per bill is more cost-effective method. Brownsville was poised to consider this as well, but yanked the issue off its work session agenda. Why the board couldn’t even discuss this makes little sense.

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Wow: Congratulations to 20-year-old Kristi Rooker. The Fayette County Fair queen recently won the state title. Ms. Rooker, a junior at California University of Pennsylvania, was selected as state fair queen out of a field of 52 county fair queens. Kristi is the daughter of Keith and Linda Rooker, and started entering 4-H projects in the fair starting when she was 8 years old. As an aside, her grandfather, James Work, is a former fair board members, and her great-grandfather G. Emerson Work was a county commissioner when the county purchased land for the present fair site.