RANTS & RAVES
____________________________________________________________________________________________
RANTS that the 8-19-11 picnic and day of leisure for 85 county employees at Shady Grove Park -- where
alcohol was had by some on work time -- cost taxpayers more than just the staggering fee in the tens of
thousands of dollars for that whole agency's wages for the day. At the family picnic, where employees
have stated that not one minute of time was spent in training or on any work-related issue, taxpayers
also paid the tab for the county workers' food. The county government mental health department's
taxpayer-funded account covered a bill to Hartek Catering for chicken, potato salad and cookies, to a
tune of $423.75. The caterers also hung out and grilled the burgers for the county workers that day. E
mail was sent to all 3 county commissioners asking if it is customary for all county departments to party
a couple times each year and send the tab to to taxpayers.
"I would never allow tax dollars to be used for
the purchase of alcohol, in fact, for anything non-work related and asked (mental health CEO Lisa
Ferris-Kusniar) for a financial explanation,"
quickly replied Fayette County Commission Chairman
Vincent Zapotosky
after hearing about the catering bill paid with public funds. RANTS, however, to the
commish chair for seeming not to mind for nearly two months -- or for it all going right over his head --
that beaucoup state and federal tax dollars
were misused, in the first place, that gave the whole 85+
person department the day off with pay to picnic, swim and party on at Shady Grove. It is noted that
workers were mandated to attend.
(17Oct11)

RANTS that 70% of teens admit to getting drunk and that 60% of teen traffic fatalities are
alcohol-related. As a result of those grim facts and because another area teen died in recent months,
when an impaired surviving teen friend drove his car into a tree, about 1,200 eleventh-grade students
attended a program in downtown Uniontown this week geared to discourage teens from drinking and
driving. A smaller gathering was also held nearby, with the parents of the lost teen participating, to get
the message out as well. While newspapers state the driver of the car was sentenced as a juvenile, it is
no secret that he quickly left the juvenile offender program after a few days and was released to go
home. The then 17-year-and-11-month-old driver was pictured in homecoming pictures online, clearly  
back to his routine, after narrowly escaping trial as an adult.
RANTS that no adult has been named yet
or charged for providing the alcohol to minors in that tragic wreck on Nemacolin Woodlands Resort
property. It all could have been so avoided, had an adult not provided alcohol.

RAVES that Penn State Fayette Campus scheduled an awareness raising speaker such as Pittsburgh
Pirates manager of diversity initiatives
Chaz Kellem during National Disability Month. RAVES that the
28-year-old confined to a wheelchair for mobility got the message across to his audience -- i.e., that
persons with disabilities want the same things that the rest of us want, get and take for granted. He also
proves that persons with a disability can attain most of those things, too, if they focus on what they
can
do, as opposed to what they cannot.

Neither a
RANT nor a RAVE, but mention to those writing in inquiring... no, Fayette County
Commissioner Chairman Vince Zapotosky
has not yet forwarded a response from the county mental
health CEO (that he twice nine days ago promised to forward) in regard to the $423.73 catering bill
picked up by taxpayers for the 19Aug 11 picnic on paid work time by county mental health workers
(Fayette County Behavioral Health) at Shady Grove. Perhaps that's why the commish chair was at that
office on Jacob Murphy Lane yesterday wearing sweat pants, you know, investigating.
(26Oct11)

RANTS that a few political candidates just don't get it -- that there are no paid ads on this site. None, not
a one. Good causes and good businesses often get free publicity. It's nothing personal; we just don't want
any paid ads and cannot be talked into it.

RANTS that the Uniontown newspaper wrote and printed a whole story about allegations without solid
proof
from someone (or without criminal charges of defamation of character being filed), who accused a
specific county commissioner of playing at work on a county computer, posting anonymous insulting
comments on a public bulletin board about opponents and others in the news. Email was sent yesterday
to Mr. Michael McCumber of faywest.com, asking for clarification that he did or did not release an IP
number to that speaker. Without solid proof, it's heresay gossip and not newsworthy. And without
showing readers absolute proof that the mail came from that specific commissioner's computer on
worktime, the paper was about as irresponsible as this site would be if we published a saved copy of web
published allegations 3 months ago, from a supposed private investigator, that a specific, named married
newspaper reporter from that paper and a different, named married county commissioner were having
an affair.
RANTS, too, that nobody took advantage of the moment Thursday to ask that speaker at a
public meeting why her family refused to cooperate and take a state police requested polygraph in regard
to shots being fired through a neighbor's window. That act of defiance has always left such a bad taste in
our mouths here.
(28Oct11)

RAVES of thanks to thoughtful readers such as Ed from tropically warm Port St. Lucie for sending word
that the link on the homepage for organ donation information and registration needed updated. It is
wonderful to know that so many readers take the time to write and say that they've made that decision
to be a donor -- and that folks such as Ed, whose wife received a lung transplant and is doing well, sees
first-hand the importance of being donors. Please make a miracle happen and become an organ donor.
RAVES of thanks, as well, to what has now grown to be a small legion of lawyers, who volunteer to help
ensure that those who want to be donors will have their final wishes honored. Many of them have had
family members receive or donate organs. For them, it's a true labor of love to help!
Neither a RANT nor a RAVE, but a shaking of the head in between sips of this morning's tea reading the
paper. Click on the link to read the full disclosure
from the Trib of election spending for the four
candidates for seats on this county's board of commissioners. No real surprises there to see gas well,
zoning and out-of-state rifle range hopefuls padding
Dave Lohr's expenses, or the lack of those puppet
string holder hopefuls on short lists for
Commissioner Angela Zimmerlink and Al Ambrosini's lists.
Most noted, of course, is the MIA of filing for committee spending for
Fayette County Commission
Chairman Vince Zapotosky
. While he had time to file his personal contributions/expenses (listed as
$zero), he will pay small daily fines for not meeting the deadline yesterday to disclose his re-election
committee spending. Nobody in this morning's mailbag seems willing to bet that the
Zapotosky
committee's spending will differ much from that which was disclosed by
Lohr -- or that we'll see
anything concrete prior to election from the current commission chair. The final campaign expenses for
Lohr and Zapotosky, of course, should be read at a later date, without tea or anything in our mouths to
choke on... so that everyone is forewarned.  
(2Nov11)

Neither a RANT nor a RAVE again, but a note that staff at the county's mental health department
received a "Keep the date open" invitation for an upcoming holiday party on paid work time. More on
this later.

RAVES to getting an intern, who searched cyberland to find the blog comments that prompted the
woman to verbally attack
Commissioner Angela Zimmerlink at last week's county meeting. RANTS of
the
very worst kind that the woman just last week reacted to what seems to be seven-month-old comments.
No kidding!
Maybe she didn't see them till last week? So very doubtful, since that family had someone
on the primary election ballot and attended
all those zoning meetings over its small family shooting
range...
and so likely was on that public bulletin board often eight, seven and six months ago. Due to
copyright of that site, we won't publish them again here. But trust us, though, the comments -- no
matter
who wrote them -- were not insulting to any member of that entire clan. Someone last week
wanted to engage in below the belt, dirty politics and took a
really cheap shot at the minority
commissioner.
(2Nov11)

Neither a RANT nor a RAVE, but a note that we may never know -- possibly unless the commissioner or
the woman, who hurled accusations against her at the last county meeting, file charges or lawsuits
against one another and/or the newspaper --
why the community bulletin board writer, with the nic
"jgldfjg'ldf" on Friday, 28/10/11, at 10:18 PM, first mentioned an IP number, thought to be the one that
the angry accuser learned was behind the posts in question. Otherwise, there doesn't seem to be any
action taken, even though it would appear that if a county computer were used, it could have been one a
few miles from the commissioner's workplace. Nobody seems to be talking and, of course, the newspaper
reporter did not follow up with anything since reporting the woman making the public accusations
against the commissioner on the heels of the election.
So much drama! Too much drama! So many rats!

RAVES to Bruce Springsteen for bringing two amazing nights of music and unforgettable memories to
the burgh. Just when nobody thought that he,
Joe Grushecky and the mighty Houserockers could have
done a better job, there was last night's stunning second performance. It was one hour longer than
Thursday's 2.5 hour show, and one magical, mad rush of goosebumps after another. From the never
before played acoustic version of "Incident on 57th Street," to the perfectly played electric waves of
guitars everywhere on "Never Be Enough Time," (written by Grushecky about his days long ago living in
Brownsville), to "The Promised Land," to the very last song, the acoustic masterpiece of "Thunder
Road," the 62-year-olds Grushecky and Springsteen brought home and to fans from Sweden, Italy,
Spain, New Jersey and every area of this tri-state, a golden memory among golden memories of great
nights out of music in the burgh. Thank you, Bruce, Joe, bass player Art Nardini, guitarist Danny G.,
best drummer outside of the E Street Band, Joffo Simmons, little Johnny Grushecky, and keys guy Joe
Pelesky. We will smile for quite some time thinking about last night's
amazing performance. (5Nov11)

Neither a RANT nor a RAVE, but click here for our Fayette County Election Endorsements in the race
for county commissioner.
(5Nov11)

RAVES to reader IP# 207.255.97.26 for being the 2 Millionth reader to this site on 3Nov11. Thanks for
spending an hour reading fiction and
Rants&Raves. Please click on this site to check your IP number and
let us hear from you, by sending an email to julie@julietoye.com before 1Dec11 to claim your $25 gift
card or certificate for the Fayette restaurant of your choice. We'd like to say thank you by buying you
and a friend lunch.
(7Nov11)

Congratulations to Al Ambrosini, Vince Zapotosky and Angela Zimmerlink for winning today's general
election and seats on the 2012 board of county commissioners. May you work productively together to bring
economic development and positive changes in Fayette County government and the quality of life for its
residents. Congratulations to you all! (8Nov11)

OK.... hold the presses! Apparently, there is some controversy over Angela Zimmerlink's finish in the race for
county commissioner. Apparently, about 30 absentee ballots could not be read due to a computer problem and
some were torn. (Gee, how
did that happen?) Then there are about 9 others who reportedly showed up to vote at
the polls and were not listed at the polls as being residents of those precincts. Those addresses must be verified
and the absentee ballots must be reprocessed.
RANTS that these issues happened, because they should NOT
have happened, and that it will be until Monday morning until it might be resolved. Does this all mean that
another head of the election bureau will be fired, too?
(9Nov11)
_______________________________________________________________________
Homepage                                Older R&R                      FAYETTE COUNTY, PA
copyright protected                             Newest R&R                            COMMENTARY