APRIL 8 - APRIL 14, 2000
APRIL 14, 2K
Helping old friends
Good morning. It is 38.3 degrees at 5:54 A.M. Penn Com came up this morning!
Surprise! Surprise!
Years ago The Mountain Laurel Review was in its infancy. We became the
voice for people who had no voice. Among those were the Fathers for Equal Justice. That
was really a misnomer because the "fathers" helped anyone who wound up on the
wrong side of the court system in this county, male or female, and offered a forum and a
support group regarding divorce and custody problems. I heard from one of our
old friends and he has a story that you may be interested in and may want to become
involved in too.
I am not going to use the names of the people involved. I am even going to
change the nations involved. I only know one side of the story, so in an attempt to be
fair I will not name people specifically except for the author of the letter and his
address so you may render assistance.
And besides, seeing how this involves my old buddy, Judge Johnny, that makes it
even more interesting.
Bradford,Pa., McKean County, PA, USA:
In 1995, (a mother) watched as Children and Youth Services of McKean County, Pa. USA,
drove her 13 year old daughter (omitted) to Toronto International Airport to place her on
a flight to go to live with (the mother's)
parents in Malaga, Spain. She had been abused by (the mother's) husband, (name omitted).
After that incident, (the husband) blackened both of (the mother's) eyes and threw
her through a plate glass window for which she needed medical attention. (The husband)
evicted his wife and infant daughter from their home without their belongings. The YWCA
and the Woman's Crisis Center helped (the mother) find shelter and got her enrolled at the
University of Pittsburgh at Bradford.
In December of 1996, after a Protection From Abuse Order failed to stop (the
estranged husband's) abuse, (the mother's) parents in Spain paid for plane
tickets so that she and her three year old daughter could join her 13 year old daughter
with them in Malaga, Spain.
The McKean County Judicial System failed to give (the mother) the benefit of child
support, the Clinton Administration's cuts in welfare terminated her enrollment at the
University of Pittsburgh in Bradford where she was a B+ student and made her receipt of
even temporary assistance conditional. When she left Spain as the new Mrs. (X), she
weighed 120 lbs. Upon her departure from the USA she was down to 87 lbs.
Upon learning that (Mrs. X) was returning to Spain with his daughter, (Mr. X) had
his attorney at large, ( omitted), file an Emergency Petition "praying for Special
Relief"???
On December 5, 1996, McKean County President Judge John M. Cleland ORDERED (the
mother) to surrender the infant's passport to his Court and awarded custody of the little
girl to the abusive (Mr. X).
WOW, these are big powerful men with even bigger egos. What kind of judge would
award the custody of a little girl to an abusive drunk? On this note,(the mother) took her
daughter and fled to the care of her parents in Spain. On April 6, 2000, (the mother)
received an Order from the Spanish Courts to return (the small child) to (the father) in
the USA by May 11, 2000, or face prosecution. She and her family are scared to death and
very desperate.
(The father and estranged husband) continues to abuse his estranged wife
and daughter long distance only now he is assisted by the Honorable John
M. Cleland, President Judge of McKean County, Pennsylvania, USA.
We have contacted the National Domestic Violence Hot Line about this
case. Our question is: can your office give us the email address or fax
number of anyone in the USA or Spain who could help (the mother)? Can you
help?
John M. Cleland, President Judge of McKean County needs a wakeup call. He needs to
be an embarrassment to all of his rich friends. He wants to force a woman from a poor
country to come back to the USA to exist at the mercy of the system and live with the day
to day horror of having to put up with a drunken, abusive husband. After all, John M.
Cleland is wasting the taxpayer's money, not his own! As for (Mr. X), he has no love for
himself or anyone else for that matter or he would have done all that he could have to
change his act, support his wife and child so that they could have lived here in the USA
together as a family.
Can your network at least let the ego of John M. Cleland know that you are
considering taking a closer look at this situation?
The Honorable John M. Cleland
McKean County Court of Common Pleas
Smethport, PA 16749
Thank you,
Father's and Mother's for Equal Justice, McKean County, PA
Anyone who has any ideas or wants to help can e-mail these people at equaljus@penn.com.
I wonder what would have happened if Cuba was involved instead of Spain?
Again, I cannot comment beyond the fact that I respect the work these people
have done. I consider them credible and have no reason to doubt the story told here.
However, not knowing of it personally, I can only pass it on with name left out. Feel free
to comment on this one ladies! This makes a whole lot more sense than the flap over
Women's History Month.
Comments are welcome at editor@mlrmag.com.
Maybe copies of this letter and the column sent to the Spanish Government and the
Bishop of the Catholic Church might do some good. Just a thought.
APRIL 13, 2K
With little time this late in the morning.
Good morning. The net was down until a few minutes ago, that must be why the
Error believes it is still April 12th on their site.
I want to let you know about a lady who wrote to me about our search for Marjorie West.
She is the Maryland coordinator for the search to match up children and parents who were
separated at birth. Her address is:
Kate O'Connor
Annapolis, MD
Search Angel - Maryland
http://hometown.aol.com/mko421/myhomepage/profile.html.
Coordinator - Maryland - March for Open Adoption Records
Her home page is very interesting and I recommend it to all of you who.
Also, if you are worried about your home security, a place you need to visit is the
Security Store at www.security-store.com .
There are some great deals there and these are some really good people.
Here is another letter that just came in when the net through Penn Com became
operational again. Guess what it is about?
Letter to the Editor, April 12, 2000
Until the last budget that the county commissioners approved for McKean county you can
say that I was too naive to believe that anything like 43% increase would ever happen in
our county. I was wrong as a matter you may say that I was more than asleep. Simply I had
turned and looked the other way while the elected officials have ignored the financial
responsibilities to the taxpayers of the county. Since last December I maid a point to
attend as many commissioners meeting as possible, and at the same time I have been
researching as much information as possible I can find.
There are those that write to you pertaining to local and county taxes, in hopes that
you may be able to do something about this problem or that someone else will do it for
them. While I appreciate reading their statements, their solutions to the problem is when
we all join together and attend the meetings and tell them what we want to do and how much
we are willing to pay. Do not let them tell you what to do! Do not let just few of us to
do the work!
Do not expect to be deliver to you on a silver plate! I have asked them to quite,
resign and walk away and to never looked back! Do you really believe that they will quit
when they get included the fringe benefits and expenses of $60000.00 a year for part time
work. If you are hurt, then why you are not there?
If you work during the day why not ask for night meetings? C. Stovic Kane, Pa.
More tomorrow. Comments and mail to editor@mlrmag.com.
APRIL 12, 2K
Asleep at the wheel?
Good morning. It is 29.1 degrees and we are having light snow here in
Marshburg. The following letter to the editor came in today's mail.
Letter to the Editor
SLEEPING COMMISSIONER NO TAXPAYER BARGAIN
I attended the McKean County Solid Waste Authority meeting on Monday at
4:00 P.M. and watched Chairman McKean County Commissioner Stratton sleep
during the meeting.
It was difficult watching Commissioner Stratton sleep so soundly during the
SWA's meeting and not wonder about the bargain taxpayers received from the
pay raise the commissioners gave themselves in January.
At the January 17, County Commissioners meeting, Mr. Stratton justified his
pay raise in a written response he released to taxpayers. He stated:
"Also I have attended the most night meetings throughout the past 4 years.
For someone who has no knowledge of the responsibilities of an office to
say that the holder does or does not deserve a raise is assuming a power
that is neither legally or morally right."
I do not think attendance at meetings counts as actually participating in
the meetings if you are asleep.
Chairman Commissioner Stratton's election campaign flyer stated: "Diligent
– Makes decisions based on careful study and thought."
I do not think sleeping during meetings shows careful study and thought on
issues affecting McKean County.
Attending more meetings than anyone else and sleeping through them does not
turn out to be a bargain for county taxpayers in return for the generous
pay raise Commissioner Stratton gave himself.
A March 11, Bradford Era editorial by reporter Petrisek poked fun at a
citizen who wondered what the qualifications were for being elected county
commissioner. The reporter told the citizen "Wake up dreamer! The real
world ain't like that."
It is fitting that reporter Petrisek sitting next to Mr. Stratton in the
"real world" had the opportunity to actually wake up dreaming Commissioner
Stratton at the Monday meeting.
The editorial went on to point out that the only legal qualifications for
being a county commissioner are: "In addition to getting the most votes,
the successful candidate must be 18 years old and have lived in the county
for at least a year."
Based on those qualifications, maybe McKean County taxpayers are paying for
exactly what they voted for when they reelected Mr. Stratton.
Bill Belitskus
Box 172B RD1
Kane, PA 16735
(814) 778-5173
PUBLISHER'S COMMENT: Bill's points are well taken. Mr. Stratton does
sleep at meetings. One taxpayer noticed that he was sleeping through the tax reassessment
public meeting in Bradford and others have watched him sleep through various other
functions. I have been next to him when he began to snore.
But sleeping is not what we should be concerned about. There is a quiet and steady
movement in The Bradford Era to play down the financial crisis the county finds
itself in today. The money taken from the Capital Reserve Fund last year by Commissioners
Stratton and Weaver has not been paid back. From Florida the illustrious Prom Queen, Dawn
Clark, pointed out that what was done was in fact illegal. She was right. It is illegal.
The money borrowed in association with the $5,000,000 Jail Bond was apportioned for
specific uses. We were admonished at the time we received the money by our Solicitor, Jay
Paul Kahle, that we could not use the money for any other purpose. And even more
specifically, the money in the Capital Reserve Account was designated for specific
purposes. To use it for any other purpose requires permission from the office in
Harrisburg that gave us permission to make the financial transaction in the first place.
(The Department of Economic and Community Development) That has never happened.
In January I gave Marty Robacker Wilder a letter I had written the previous June
opposing using money from the Capital Reserve Fund to pay operating expenses. I pointed
out that it was illegal at that time. Still, it was done. What Marty did with the letter
is anyone's guess. It has never been made public nor have the commissioners been asked
about it.
Even at that, when the $3.5 million Tax Anticipation Loan was secured in January of
this year, the big question looms as to why the money was not repaid there and then? Joe
Martin asked about the missing money at the Monday Commissioner's meeting and it was
buried on Page Three with more garbage about the garbage dump on the front page. Where is
the money and when will it be put back?
This is the middle of April and the three commissioners seem to believe that $550,000
missing from a fiduciary account like the Capital Reserve Fund is no big thing. Evidently The
Bradford Era and it's staff feel the same way. As a taxpayer and as one of the people
who initiated the bond issue for items like a new voting system and more, I am outraged
that this attitude exists. What is more, I am outraged that no one seems to care.
While Larry the Lionhearted sleeps through meetings, the taxpayers are the ones who are
really asleep.
Comments are welcome at editor@mlrmag.com.
And I would welcome any and all comments from the commissioners, too.
APRIL 11, 2K
Quizzes, taxes, and the real truth
Good morning. It is 29.5 degrees at 6:27 A.M. And the mail keeps coming in and
the women are outraged by what they call "my perversion of a quiz designed to
make people aware of the significant achievements of women in this nation." Oh
my!
You know what! This is all much ado about nothing! I am not going to apologize to
anyone. You all need to lighten up and think about important things in your lives other
that what some other woman did or didn't do. And if I make a joke out of it, so what? Who
did it hurt? And besides, Women's History Month is over until next year. Make your own
history! Go out and do something yourself and stop living in the past with things other
women have done. Believe me. If you do something important I will be the first to report
it if you tell me.
Really, I thing the one about Ben Franklin and Poor Richard's Almanac got them
maddest at me. That and Princes Summerfallwinterspring being a kept woman by Mr. Bluster.
But there are more important things out there than stupid old quizzes. There are taxes.
School taxes to be exact and they are about to be raised, and by who? Women! Cheri O'Mara
and her cohorts are at it again according to one of our readers.
Hey Bud;
Have you seen the new school tax millage increase. Where on earth do these people seem to
think that the people are going to get the money to pay such an increase. They will
probably come out with the 11 mill and then get it down to what they really want, which
will still be to darn much, and then try and tell the people that they are heroes for
getting it lowered from the higher rate.
Something has got to be done with these people. When ever they need a raise in pay
to cover there expenses do they go to there employer and say, I need more money, I can't
live within my budget. I'm quite sure there employer says, sure no problem, I'll give you
what you want. That's what the school board does to the people who pay there taxes.
Sure go out buy what you want, give the over paid teachers and administrators
all the money they want, NOT NEED and we'll let the tax payers take care of the bill. They
have more money than they know what to do with and if they don't we'll have a tax sale and
take there home that they have worked all there life for and paid for and now don't own
but are still making monthly payments on there taxes. Your paid off home will never be
yours because we have to pay, pay, pay to the school system. Enough is enough.
Now this is the first I heard of it, but nothing surprises me when it comes to the
Bradford Area School District. Especially when you are talking about raising
taxes.
My school taxes annually exceed the combined township and county taxes by 40% and that
is with the increase Larry the Lionhearted bullied everyone into. People in the City of
Bradford pay more because the City has expensive people like Ray McMahon and his cronies
to support, not to mention buying up half the town to keep Main Street empty so the
lawyers will have parking places.
I drove through nearby Warren, PA on Sunday and I commented to Sharyn the difference
between Warren and Bradford. Fewer people live in Warren County than McKean County and the
Borough of Warren is smaller than the City of Bradford. Like Bradford with Olean, Warren
has Jamestown close by with all the shopping and dining anyone would want. Yet for some
reason, Warren does not have the empty store fronts that Bradford does. I asked why.
And Warren is cleaner than Bradford, too. Why is that?
For all purposes, Bradford should be in the same shape, if not better shape, than
Warren. But it isn't. Bradford has a University. Warren has a state mental
hospital. Both have local hospitals. I made comparison after comparison and for
all purposes both towns, both located in the same area of the state and nation, both with
refineries, and both dealing with layoffs and business leaving, seem to be going in
different directions. And then the answer came to me.
I said it in the primary and the general elections but no one wanted to listen.
Probably no one is listening now. The answer is simple. The answer is taxes.
Warren County lowered taxes in 2000, McKean County raised them. Warren County has a
consolidated School District, McKean County has bunches of them each with its own debt to
deal with. Business can afford the taxes in Warren County, it can not in McKean County and
especially in Bradford and the Bradford Area School District.
We do not need anyone looking to bring business here until we can lower the taxes for
the people who are already here. Giving new businesses tax breaks only adds to the burden
on the rest of us. It sounds simple enough, but for some reason people just don't want to
believe the truth.
Your comments are welcome at editor@mlrmag.com.
APRIL 10, 2K
Play Ball! by TOM CLARK
All is right in the world, once again. It's baseball season! Some of
you may be saying, "Who cares?". But, then again, you are probably
saying that for every one of my columns.
Even though many think that the game is boring and irrelevant, stop to
think how many baseball metaphors an average person uses. Have you ever
"gone to bat" for someone? Do you "touch all bases" when you are
involved in a project? Have you ever given or asked for a "ballpark
figure" on a price? We're all subject to "striking out" for one reason
or another.
The game has contributed countless inspirations for literary, film and
song classics, from Gary Cooper's Oscar-winning performance in "Pride Of
The Yankees" to the immortal "Casey At The Bat" by Ernest Thayer. My
personal favorite baseball movie is "Bang The Drum Slowly" (yes, it's on
the 99 cent rack in Poppy's).
My favorite sport is hockey, followed by baseball. I only watch football when the Bills
are playing. I can't get too excited about a sport that has only 14 minutes of action in a
60 minute game. Think about it, when have you ever seen a football game that was exciting
from start to finish?
I think George Carlin sums it up best:
"Baseball & football are the two most popular spectator sports in this
country. And as such, it seems they ought to be able to tell us something about ourselves
and our values. I enjoy comparing baseball and football.
Baseball is a nineteenth-century pastoral game. Football is a twentieth-century
technological struggle.
Baseball is played on a diamond, in a park. The baseball park! Football is played on a
gridiron, in a stadium, sometimes called Soldier Field or War Memorial Stadium.
Baseball begins in the spring, the season of new life. Football begins in the fall,
when everything's dying. In football you wear a helmet. In baseball you wear a cap.
Football is concerned with downs - what down is it? Baseball is concerned with ups -
who's up?
In football you receive a penalty. In baseball you make an error.
In football the specialist comes in to kick. In baseball the specialist comes in to
relieve somebody.
Football has hitting, clipping, spearing, piling on, personal fouls, late hitting and
unnecessary roughness. Baseball has the sacrifice.
Football is played in any kind of weather, rain, snow, sleet, hail, fog... In baseball,
if it rains, we don't go out to play.
Baseball has the seventh inning stretch. Football has the two minute warning.
Baseball has no time limit, we don't know when it's gonna end - might have extra
innings. Football is rigidly timed, and it will end even if we've got to go to sudden
death.
In baseball, during the game, in the stands, there's kind of a picnic feeling. Emotions
may run high or low, but there's not too much unpleasantness. In football, during the game
in the stands, you can be sure that at least twenty-seven times you're capable of taking
the life of a fellow human being.
And finally, the objectives of the two games are completely different.
In football the object is for the quarterback, also known as the field general, to be
on target with his aerial assault, riddling the defense by hitting his receivers with
deadly accuracy in spite of the blitz, even if he has to use the shotgun. With short
bullet passes and long bombs, he marches his troops into enemy territory, balancing this
aerial assault with a sustained ground attack that punches holes in the forward wall of
the enemy's defensive line.
In baseball the object is to go home! And to be safe! I hope I'll be safe at
home!"
Baseball has afforded to our everyday language more than metaphors and
similes.
Its fans have made heckling an art form that cannot be rivaled by any other sport.
Witness the following umpire heckles, as listed on the Heckle Depot website www.heckledepot.com.
Hey Ump, can I pet your seeing eye dog after the game? How'd you get a square head in
that round mask? Pull the good eye out of your pocket.Hey Ump, flip over the plate and
read the directions. Wipe the dirt off that called strike. Lenscrafter called...they'll be
ready in 30 minutes. When your dog barks twice, its a strike! You're blinking too long! If
the pitcher is throwing too fast for you, we can ask him to slow it down. Punch a hole in
that mask, you're missing a good game. Hey Ump,
how can you sleep with all these lights on. I've seen potatoes with better eyes! Shake
your head, ump, your eyes are stuck!
If you would like to check out a fabulous baseball website, with statistics, quotes and
everything imaginable referring to the game, click on the following site: www.baseball-almanac.com.
Go Blue Jays!
Comments are welcome at editor@mlrmag.com.
APRIL 8 & 9, 2K
No new articles
If you have a comment on this article please click here.
[ Top ] [ Home ]
[_private/toc_for_second_level_pages.html]
