OCTOBER 10 - OCTOBER 16, 1998
OCTOBER 16, 1998
The people you meet on the street
Fall days are great. I think I would rather just be out on the street talking to the
people than be doing anything else. But even then, you do have to eat. Yesterday it seemed
that was where I saw everyone - at lunch.
Two functions were going on yesterday. The alleged CEM governing board was meeting. I
don't know what they govern. Once a month they are told that CEM is spending $9 million
dollars and they spend it as they please. Also there was a fund raiser for Congressman
John Peterson at the Bradford Club. I was told about that by phone when I was in
Harrisburg Wednesday. I placed that in the same class as the CEM governing board - a waste
of time and money.
John Peterson is a nice enough guy. He was a decent State Senator. I don't know about
the job he is doing except for his stand on timber cutting in the Allegheny National
Forest. I support him on that issue. However, he has never made his stand clear to any of
us as to how he feels about the siting of a low level nuclear waste dump here in
McKean County or any of the counties that he represents.
Ken Jadlowiec and Jim Lynch responded saying that they would oppose the siting with us.
Slocum says so much I can't remember where he was on the issue; but I am sure that if the
party told him to be on the side of an issue, he would be right there as a converted
Republican owned by the party. That is what I am worried about with John. Is he his own
man or does he owe the party?
I like most of what the Republican Congress has been able to accomplish in Washington.
I believe it is unfair to characterize them as a "do nothing Congress." They
have been anything but that. They have done one great job and for the past two years, John
Peterson has been part of that. Still, I have problems with Social Security and the stand
John took on that.
You don't use that money, our money, to balance the budget! What they are doing would
be like McKean County taking part of the $14 million in the employees pension fund
and using it to balance our budget. Social Security is a retirement fund, too. It is not a
bank account to use as the President and Congress see fit. That money should be protected.
Bill Belitskus spoke out about that and where John Peterson was on the issue. Where was
the press coverage? Isn't that a significant national issue with local
ramifications? Don't the people deserve to know how their Congressman stands on an issue
that directly affects or will affect us? I think they do. Where was the press coverage?
This past year, I have seen Senator Arlen Spector in McKean County more than I have
seen John Peterson. I think it is wonderful that he was able to deliver a million dollars
to his buddy Dick McDowell at University of Pittsburgh at Bradford to do a phony study on
multiple uses of the Allegheny National Forest. Where does he stand on the Indiana Bat?
Why haven't I read about that in the paper?
I would like to know what is going on in Washington and how we are being represented. I
don't believe that no news is good news. Don't we deserve to see a voting record? Don't we
deserve to know if the man is even there to vote? Listening to the New York
Senatorial Race, it appears that Chuck Schumer has missed at least half of the votes in
Congress. Don't we deserve to know if the same is true of our congressman? Where is the
press coverage?
Bill Belitskus was on the streets of Bradford yesterday while the party elite were
dining at the Bradford Club. Belitskus was handing out position statements and shaking
hands. I called him over to join me for a cup of coffee. The poor guy was just about
frozen. He'd been out all morning. I am going to ask the State election board what the
proper form is to report that. I wouldn't want to run afoul of any special rules on buying
a candidate a cup of coffee. That is a campaign contribution, isn't it?
Heck, if I ever see John Peterson and he is cold, I'll buy him a cup of coffee, too.
I will be curious to see what John does about this challenge from Bill. I understand
that he did not make it to a candidates forum in Centre County. I will be interested to
see if the papers and the radio stations cover the issues that Belitiskus is raising.
I think this is a great opportunity to find out what our Congressman is doing for us.
To this point the media has largely ignored him and the work we all imagine he is doing.
There has to be more than just joining with the timber people from the west. I would think
so.
OCTOBER 15, 1998
Mike Fisher's Criminal Cover-up
Last July The Mountain Laurel Review reported that federal authorities at the
Environmental Protection Agency were pursuing charges of dumping raw sewage into the
Brokenstraw Creek after Attorney General Mike Fisher refused to take the case forward.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, on Sunday, October 11, 1998 ran the story "Feds
investigate sewage dumping." In it, Staff Writer Don Hopey details a pattern of
disregard for federal and state laws beginning in April 1992 and continuing until 1996.
Who was in charge? None other than Republican Senator William Slocum.
Don Hopey reported: "Problems at the Youngsville plant were so extreme and persistent
that the state Department of Environmental Protection sought criminal charges against the
borough, which bills itself as "The Biggest Little Town on the Map." Also
targeted was State Senator William Slocum, who ran the sewage plant and then served as
borough manager before winning election to the Legislature two years ago."
Hopey continues: "Though Attorney General Mike Fisher decided against filing
charges last year, the federal Environmental Protection Agency purportedly has picked up
the case. The EPA will neither confirm nor deny the investigation, but sources within both
state government and the federal agency say the EPA is pursuing the matter."
"Beginning in 1992, DEP inspectors regularly found the creek bed and banks coated
with sewage for up to 300 yards below the treatment facility's discharge pipe. Sludge
removal and record keeping were repeatedly found wanting. A flow monitor, needed to assess
the volume of sewage coming into the plant, was broken in April 1992 and was not fixed
until 1996."
The Mountain Laurel Review has learned from sources in Harrisburg that the Attorney
General's investigation centered on the flow monitor and allegations that it was purposely
broken in order to cover-up the fact that the sewage treatment facility was woefully
inadequate. Furthermore, allegations of forged documents and an analysis of Slocum's
handwriting appeared to indicate a continuing purposeful pattern of activity from April
1992 until 1996. Why then did the Attorney General refuse to act?
Hopey's article states: "The DEP made a criminal referral to the attorney
general's office in late 1995. Despite DEP inspection reports documenting repeated
violations of the state Clean Streams Law and federal discharge permits, the attorney
general declined in November to pursue the case."
"We informed the department that, after a thorough investigation, it was our
determination that there was insufficient evidence to file charges against the
municipality or any individual," said Sean Connolly, a spokesman for the attorney
general's office. "We returned the case to the DEP for whatever action it deems
appropriate."
Slocum said about the matter: "I didn't believe ever that I or the borough did
anything wrong. Dumping is the wrong word to describe it. There was an exceedance of the
permit limitations."
The exceedance, as Slocum so glibly called it was documented in Hopey's article.
"The plant's more recent shortcomings began in March 1993 when state inspectors
found sludge coating the banks and bed of the trout stream for 300 yards below the plant's
discharge pipe. That August, inspectors again found the creek full of sludge and the area
smelling of sewage."
"A videotape made in October of that year shows solid sewage coming out of
the plant's discharge pipe and sludge coating the creek for a distance of more than 200
yards downstream.
"In February 1994, inspectors found solid sewage discharging from the pipe and took
photos of sludge blanketing the creek banks. Sewage authority records showed that no
sludge had been removed from the plant for 11 months. Normally, sludge is removed monthly.
"A sludge blanket was found wrapped around the creek bank opposite the sewage
plant discharge pipe and downstream for more than 200 feet on June 7, 1994. Stream samples
showed sewage solids at more than five times the permitted limit. Inspectors took photos,
but could find no one working at the sewage plant when they went in to report it."
"Forty days later, on July 26, state inspectors found sewage solids washing into
the creek and a sludge blanket extending down the creek 100 feet from the plant discharge
pipe.
"During or following many of the inspections, Slocum was contacted and promised to
fix the problems. After being questioned about the plant's failure to submit discharge
monitoring reports in late 1993 and early 1994, Slocum is quoted in a report saying,
"I have no defense for the late submission."
Hopey wrote: "Despite the repeated violations, the attorney general's office chose
not to pursue charges.
As for the DEP, he reported: "People in the department were very, very upset. The
AG's office had all the work and allowed the case to die a slow, tortuous death. Something
stinks in this case."
MLR sources in Harrisburg that participated in the investigation admit that they
felt the actions were deliberate. They went on to say that the breaking of the flow
monitor and the allowance of raw sewage to pass directly through the facility into the
creek were, in their estimation, an attempt to circumvent laws and expand the number of
tap ins to the Authority's system so they could eventually afford to make improvements.
Slocum's failure to file reports as well as the allegations that he changed figures and
signatures on other reports, goes directly to what they called "active
participation."
The question remains as to why Mike Fisher refused to take the case forward. We are not
talking about failure to file the proper report. We are talking about not filing any
report, not to mention allegations of tampering with others.
Is the Attorney General covering up criminal activity? You be the judge. Let us know
how you feel. Do you think his actions are politically motivated. Do they own Bill Slocum
now? How effective can he be? Something does stink in this matter and it is more than the
raw sewage Slocum dumped in Brokenstraw Creek.
OCTOBER 14, 1998
It's only money
We should take special notice that after spending over $30 million dollars on upgrading
and enlarging schools, the Bradford Area School District is at it again. They announced
the purchase of the 5,000 square foot building owned by the Water Authority for
$130,000. They are preparing to advertise for loans.
Now in comparison to the $30 million, $130,000 is only a drop in the bucket. I am sure
that is what the School Board is thinking when they allow the district to make such a
purchase. What is an extra $26,000 a year when the debt service on the $30 million is
already in the area of $2.5 million a year? Sure doesn't sound like much especially
when they are preparing to increase School Taxes another 10% to 15% in July, 1999 and will
blame it on the Teachers' Contract that they are now negotiating.
Where does this stop? Do they plan to stop spending and raising taxes every year
sometime in the not too distant future? I think we as the people who are supporting this
nightmare known as The Bradford Area School District deserve to know. They have to go back
to school themselves and learn that they can't have everything that they see and want.
There has to be an end to this and buying a building after they close and literally
abandon others does not make for responsible management of public funds.
Something happens to Authorities, School Boards, and various elected officials when
they begin spending other peoples' money. It does not take long for them to look upon that
money as an entitlement of sorts. It does not take long for them to feel that it is not
only their right, but their duty to have the money and to spend it as they see fit. Soon,
they will feel that they are entitled to more money and if it means borrowing or raising
taxes, or both, they do not care. The money, you see, is necessary for not only their
survival and continued management, but also their right!
The situation in the Bradford Area School District is exactly that. The attitude of the
entire management staff beginning with Cheri O'Mara and going directly to Kathy Kelly, is
that they have an obligation to run the School District and if that means raising taxes to
do that, so be it. That is all well and good if you are receiving the salaries that O'Mara
and Kelly are receiving. That would be good if you were getting what they pay their Public
Relations Director. Unfortunately, most of us are not in that pay range and paying our
taxes is a real burden. For some of us it is nearly impossible. When do we get a break?
We get the government we deserve. In the case of the Bradford Area School District, we
have it. The blame of the taxes goes directly to us for not speaking up. It is our fault
that we have not gone to the School Board meetings and have not screamed bloody murder. It
is our fault and no one else's. We had other commitments when they were meeting to discuss
raising taxes. Even when it was put in the paper what the estimated budget was going to
be, no one spoke up. How could we? How are we supposed to understand the relation of a $26
million dollar budget to eighty some mills?
We can't and they know it. That is where they have us. That is where they always get
us. If we speak up then they say they will cut out the band or the baseball team instead
of cutting the size of the Administration and lowering the salaries of the top people
Out here in the woods with other tax payers there are a few of us who are not sure
we are getting what we are paying for. But then again, who cares? It is only money.
OCTOBER 13, 1998
Silent Government
I guess that after five years The Mountain Laurel Review is recognized as being able to
reach a few people at least. We receive press releases from a variety of sources. We are
on the list for many political candidates. As such, we receive a daily communication from
the Belitskus For Congress '98 Campaign.
Not many of the hardened political people in the know would give Bill Belitskus a
snowball's chance in Hell to unseat John Peterson. Belitskus has everything against him.
Peterson, a man with years of name recognition, seems totally unfazed by the challenge
from the Green Party Candidate.
Each day I read the Belitskus release. I look for something different. I look at his
schedule of speaking engagements. Is he going to speak at the AFL-CIO Convention in
Pittsburgh? Will he be appearing on Nightline? What is in his future during the last three
weeks of the campaign? What issues has he raised?
The Belitskus Campaign repeatedly says: "Congressman Peterson votes for
corporations, not the needs of his constituents. He's failed to represent the views of our
district." Is that true? What about other elected officials? How do they vote on
issues?
Printed on 100% recycled paper, the Pennsylvania League of Conservation Voters (not to
be confused with Conservative Voters) have published Pennsylvania's Environmental
Legislative Voting Chart. Based on issues that the Conservation League felt were key votes
(14 of them in the House and 6 in the Senate) I looked to see how our local State
Representatives ( Lynch and Jadlowiec) and our State Senator (Slocum) voted.
Lynch voted against their position 13 times; with it once. Jadlowiec voted
against 11 times; with it three times. Slocum voted against five
times and with them once.
In the case of Congressman Peterson, there are 17 times that he voted against the
Conservation position.
While no official statement from Mr. Belitskus has been made as to how he might have
voted if he was the Congressman from our district, we should probably imagine that he
would have taken the opposite stance. Many of the votes were with regard to Land Use
Planning, Restriction of Public Lands Acquisitions, Designation of Exceptional Value
Waters, Watershed Improvement Fund, Municipal Solid Waste Disposal and Pesticide Use in
Public Schools. The Conservative stance was to support these measures in most cases. In
the majority of the cases the more restrictive wording of present laws failed.
On the surface, it would appear that the views of the majority of the voters in this
area of the district seem to agree with the stance Congressman Peterson has taken simply
because the local representative have voted on a similar basis in Harrisburg. It would
also appear that Congressman Peterson is not out of touch with his constituency. However,
how would we know when the issues being raised by Mr. Belitskus never receive a single
word of discussion by the local media? If the people are not aware of the issues, how can
they have an opinion and how can they judge the performance of their elected officials?
Who determines the importance of an issue? Is it the people? Sometimes.
Is it the party? Usually.
So realistically, who is in control, the people or the party?
Notice that I did not answer that one for you. You already know the answer. Of course
the party is in control and unfortunately our elected officials must go along in the
majority of cases if they ever hope to get anything for us up here in the soon to be
frozen wasteland of Pennsylvania politics. To get along they must go along. That does not
make them bad. That means that they realize to get anything for us, they have to play the
game. Sometimes, for honest people, that is not easy.
I see Bill Belitskus as one of those honest people. John Peterson, while also honest,
is experienced in the ways of the party and knows how to go along. At the same time, he is
also able to bring home the bacon. That is an art.
Few people recognize that prosperity has come to this part of Pennsylvania. It has been
slow coming but it is here. We are now receiving our part of the funds that have
traditionally gone somewhere else. Look at the roads. Look at our Family Centers and look
at the new construction that is going on today. If people want jobs, they are here.
Granted, they are not on the level with the Steel Workers of the sixties, but who has
those jobs anymore? They don't exist. Life is tough, but it always was, wasn't it!
Today is a different world but it is still the same. Nothing has really changed except
that there are more of us and it seems, less to go around. The party called the shots
then, and it calls the shots now. We are more informed about nothing and life just goes
on.
I am intrigued by the third party movements. I am intrigued by rebels who want to
change the system. I am intrigued but not intrigued enough to break with tradition and go
it alone.
The system needs to be changed. It can't be changed by something totally new. It must
be changed by itself and by people who join it for the sole purpose of doing just that.
Only then will the Silent Government finally speak to the people and not behind their
backs. Is John Peterson one of those people to change the system? No. He is not and
neither are our three locally elected State officials. Slocum is owned, bought and paid
for. Jadlowiec does what he is told; and my friend, Jim Lynch, will go along and bring
home more bacon than we have ever seen. That is the way that it is - for now.
Good luck Bill. You will need a miracle on Election Day.
OCTOBER 12, 1998
Real mail vs E-mail
I get both, you know. The e-mail is usually short and to the point like:
"Bud, you stink;" or, "Bud, who the hell ever told you that you could
write?"
The real mail is different. It takes time to sit down and write. That is the way I
started out doing the MLR - sitting down with a tablet and just writing. I think that has
become a lost art with word processors and all the Windows writing programs.
Anyway, I do get real letters and I really do like them - even the ones that start out:
"Bud, you stink!" Still, when the Honorable Dick Armey, Republican Majority
Leader, writes to me at The Mountain Laurel Review, I get concerned. What in the world
would he want especially when the front of the envelope says "SAMPLE TAX FORM
ENCLOSED"?
Opening the communication from the distinguished Congressman I find the usual
assortment of paperwork. Three pages in all; two standard size pages printed on both
sides, and one legal size page, also printed on both sides. The legal size page, on the
front, begins a questionnaire regarding a flat tax national survey. However, it appears
that you should send money with this survey. There are six boxes that you can chose from
ranging from $20 to $100 with a seventy box with a blank line that begins with a dollar
sign so you can pledge what you feel is fair. I suppose that since it is after the $100
box that they mean for you to send amounts in excess of $100, not less.
This is all well and good, Dick Armey sponsoring a National Flat Tax Survey, but why do
I have to pay for him to do the job he was elected to do?
Everyone knows that a flat tax would be fairer, simpler, and would in reality,
dismantle the IRS. Everyone knows that the flat tax would make our lives a whole lot
easier. Why do we have to send money to a Congressman to do a job that we all recognize
should and must be done? Why do we have to accumulate a war chest of funds to lobby
against a bureaucracy like the IRS? Why can't Congress just turn Ken Starr loose on them
and find out who is sleeping with who at the IRS and bring those horny sons and daughters
of guns to justice. For the ones who don't want to talk, we find them in contempt and send
them to jail for two years until they finally tell us exactly what we want to know. Isn't
that the way we do things?
Speaking of the IRS, they communicated with me by official mail, too. No e-mail for
them. They send Privacy Act Notice Number 609 (Revised April 1992). A page entitled, YOUR
RIGHTS AS A TAXPAYER comes in the package. There is also an envelope with a window and a
two page form that includes a questionnaire. They ask for money, too.
Unlike the request from Congressman Armey, the IRS does not give you seven choices. You
get one choice to fill in the blank with the promise that you haven't heard from them when
you do that. They include a curt and polite statement to the effect that they will be back
in several months to collect interest and penalties. I thought the interest was the
penalty. Why are they allowed to collect interest on interest when whole Mafia Crime
Families were locked up for doing the same thing?
I remember one of the final episodes of The Wise Guy, an eighties television series
about a government agent who infiltrates a crime family. In the episode the good guy is
locked in a restaurant with the bad guy. There, the bad guy goes into an explanation as to
why there is no difference between his Family and the Government.
"It is all about taxes!" he says. "When the government decides to
legalize drugs and tax them, then they will become legal. The government gets it's cut of
the lottery and it is legal. They get nothing from numbers, and that is illegal. What
makes them any different from us?"
Good point! An excellent point when you are charged interest on top of interest and
your so called rights as a taxpayer are really no rights because you must go into their
offices and prove yourself innocent when they already know that you are guilty as hell!
I could have really gone for the flat tax if they wouldn't have hit me up for money. I
could have supported Congressman Armey is someone would have told him that he should not
use two pages on both sides to send me a simple letter asking for money. Three paragraphs
would have sufficed.
In the same batch of mail, real mail, I receive the Alumni Association news letter from
Seton-LaSalle High School. I never attended a school by that name. It was South Hills
Catholic High School then and it is really tough to embrace the new concept and to feel
part of the organization even though there are a few familiar names in the newsletter.
Brother Alexis Kirk F.S.C. died in March at age 85. He taught me English and Writing in
my Sophomore year. Mr. Ted White was honored with the Founders Day Award. With that honor
he became one of four teachers to receive that honor. He was the director of The Gentlemen
of Song, a choral group with which I sang, and he also directed Bye, Bye, Birdie. I was
Hugo F. Peabody.
Also in my mail I had two women complaining about Judge Cleland and five men
complaining about Debbie Babcox. I had one order for Cornplanter Chronicles and two for
Ripe for the Picking. My bank statements were there as was a printing bill and six letters
from the Allegheny National Forest people telling me what a great job they are doing.
Those six I place in the same category as the IRS and Congressman Armey.
OCTOBER 10 - 11, 1998
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