RAVES to the little village of Fairbank, PA, for again hoisting in place a huge Christmas tree in the middle of town. Last year's large tree fell and was replaced with a much smaller, peanut 25-foot evergreen. This past year, the village also lost Steve "Hacksaw" Barbush, owner of the gas station, host of the daily card games in the square and one of my Dad's homies. He started the whole big tree in the middle of the road event in the early 1960s. With him gone, RAVES to the younger guys for continuing the tradition, especially this year. RAVES,, too, to readers no longer in this area, who always seem to write in wondering will there be another tree this year. For those still here, take a ride out to see it if you've never seen it before -- or if you make it part of an annual tradition as do we. Yes, Virginia, there really is a huge lit evergreen Christmas tree in the middle of the road. (10 Dec 11)
RAVES, again, to the folks at Not Enough Said for exploring the half-page, paid ad in Friday's Herald Standard. The ad featured an open letter from PA Rep. Tim Mahoney to county residents, asking for support and ideas for his school district consolidation plan. As NES points out, the bottom of the "ad" states that it is paid for by ''The R.A.C.U." A sum of $20K was earmarked for publicity from grants exceeding $100K that Mahoney obtained to study the proposed merger of districts. The Redevelopment Authority of the City of Uniontown is the administrator of the grants and is believed to be the R.A.C.U. ad payer. The ad that appeared in Friday's paper contained a whole lot of wasted space without text -- possibly a good one-third of the half-page ad. RANTS that Mahoney's intention to reach the people of Fayette County seems to have been a waste of money, considering the local paper's circulation of hard copy publication is low. The ad, which even so few online readers would have seen -- i.e., unless they were also reading classified ads -- seems more of an early Christmas present to the local paper than a serious attempt to reach residents. RANTS that the ad that hardly anyone saw or read might have had a larger audience if run in the HS's Sunday edition or run in the much higher circulation of the Fay West Sunday section of the Trib. A search of that paper with Mahoney's name, R.A.C.U. -- with and without the periods -- brought up only Joe Mahoney's Electrical ad that ran on 8Dec11, so it's pretty safe to assume that it has not run outside the HS's limited Friday circulation. RANTS that there certainly needs to be a better plan or way to try to unite people to consider the consolidation plan, as indicated during a discussion this afternoon among gentlemen at Yumm Yumm's Bagel Cafe on Morgantown Street. The afternoon coffee drinkers did not seem at all in favor of a consolidation, and nobody even mentioned the paid ad. To view the Mahoney ad that quickly disappeared from the newspaper, go to NES's site from the above green link, grab the bifocals, scroll down a bit and read. (11 Dec 11)
RANTS to the Herald-Standard for not running a story yet about county political campaign expenses. The final reports from the candidates in the 8Nov 11 general election were due at the county election bureau on 8Dec11 -- certainly in time for someone to include the piece in today's Sunday edition, no? Check back tomorrow here for those. (11 Dec 11)
Editor's note: Thanks to readers who quickly wrote to say that they saw the Mahoney letter in the hardcopy of Saturday's Courier paper, but that it was not online. However, it still stands to reason that money for the paid ad could have been better spent at the same price, for publishing in the Sunday edition of the Trib's Fay-West section, to reach more people. (11 Dec 11)
Neither a RANT nor a RAVE, but confirmation from the office of the prothonotary that Republican challenger Dave Lohr contested the canvassing process and voting tallies at 5 county voting precincts. Lohr, who filed his campaign expense report a day late on 9Dec11, obviously, feels that he still has a shot at winning. More on that later. In the meantime, here is a summary of campaign expense reports: During the reporting period of 8Nov11 through 28Nov11, Lohr lists $13,450 in contributions from David Herrholtz of Laughlin Town ($2,500), Terrance Shallenberger, Jr., of Connellsville ($5,000), John Cellurale of Lemont Furnace ($500), Neil Brown of Acme ($4,000), and Myrna Giannopoles of Chalk Hill ($500). Lohr lists unpaid campaign debts at $11,018.34, including $2,496.68 owed to 84 Outdoor, LLC of Bentleyville for signage, $3,664.56 owed to Mark IV Printing of Uniontown for printing, $1,000 owed for attorney fees, $419.76 owed for a Holiday Inn victory party and $162.09 owed to Bud Murphy's Restaurant. Lohr's front page lists the reporting period from 25Oct-28Nov11, but he wrote in on pages 2-7 that the reporting period is from 8Nov-28Nov11. Page 1 states his report is for Dave Lohr and not a political committee. Expenses include $14,176.10 to the Herald-Standard.
Fayette County Commissioner Vince Zapotosky also filed his expense report a day late, on 9Dec11. On the first page, he lists $4,800 in unpaid campaign expenses and $14,737.34 in total funds available and ending cash balance, while page 7 reserved for unpaid debts states a total of $11,162 in unpaid campaign debts (loan from himself to his committee for $4,800, West Media of Latrobe for $4,127, and the Upper Room of Uniontown for $2,235.) Zapotosky left the reporting period dates blank on pages 2-7 of his report. He lists contributions totalling $5,500. He received donations from McCafferty for Attorney General ($2,000), and $500 each from Richark Kasunic Campaign Committee, Friends of Jim Burns, Friends of Todd Eachus of Scranton, Richard Bower of Connellsville, Rockwell Grattan of Pittsburgh and Russell Biggia of Hershey. Zapotosky included a hand-written statement dated 9Nov11 that "expenditures will be provided via amendment of report, awaiting bank statement and copies of checks issued during this period."
Democratic challenger and winner Al Ambrosini reports no unpaid campaign debts. He lists $800 in contributions ($250 each from Richard Bower of Connellsville and Mixhael Vozza of Presto and $300 from John and Marge Brown of Chatsworth, CA., during the period of 25Oct11 to 28Nov11. His expenses for this period totaled $6,669.56, largely spent on poll workers, sign crews, $800 to WLSW and $387 to WMBS for radio ads, He lists $6,572.64 as an ending cash balance of his committee. (12 Dec 11)
RAVES to readers for all the positive feedback over Campaign Expense Reports On Time? Maybe When Bookies Start Taking Odds. (13 Dec 11)
RANTS that some attempt to distort the truth by lying that this site can hurt computers. Readers are assured that this site's west coast provider is a large web provider who helps ensures that coming here to read won't hurt your computer. Reading here might hurt someone's pride sometimes, but not a computer. Should you seriously receive a warning not to come on this site, please check to see if your pop ups are blocked. If so, unblock them. You should navagate the site without receiving warnings. Feel free to send a link to a warning that your received to julie@julietoye.com and we shall check into it... BUT rest assured that the site -- as per four different Norton's here, and calls back from the west coast confirming -- is safe. Enough readers come here ofen, from local government, the state house of representatives, colleges, hospitals and news media organizations without incident. (13 Dec 11)
Neither a RANT nor a RAVE, but mention to confirm that now, yes, Dave Lohr is responsible for the delay in certifying the general election winners in all county school district races. In turn, now school boards that could not reorganize by the end of the first week in December, as they are supposed to do, because of the 22-day delay by the Election board, will continue status quo. Some really paranoid people at the lunch counter think that Lohr's latest request to challenge election votes in 5 precinsts and delay school district reorganizational meetings might also be part of PA Rep Mahoney's school district administration consolidation plan. No kidding! The rest of us know this is untrue, meawhile.
No disrespect is meant to Lohr, but I appeal to any politician to petition the courts on behalf of us, who have all the faith in poll workers at No.1 in Bullskin Township. They count, recount and count again to make sure election night tallies of paper ballots are accurate... and their counts are confirmed again in the Election Bureau. Nobody begrudges Lohr an opportunity to reverse a wrong if mistakes happened at any of those 5 precincts. But to question results at Bullskin No. 1, that were previously handled and double and triple checked, seems like such a waste of time. If something wrong happened, yes, reverse it. If not, lets quickly move on. (13 Dec11)
Neither a RANT nor a RAVE, but a mention that the election recount in the 5 districts did not advance Dave Lohr's place in the vote count by reviewing those precincts' paper ballots. Commissioner Angela Zimmerlink maintained her 18-vote lead following the recount. Lohr's recount saw 3 more votes added for Commissioner Vince Zapotosky and Democratic top vote-getter Al Ambrosini. To follow the vote challenge and recount, everyone now is given 5 days to appeal. No kidding! To read more about the three uncast votes that Dave Lohr's recount found, click here. (15 Dec 11)
RANTS that consession speeches can be too lengthy, sometimes. In his statements given to the local Herald-Standard, Republican losing county commissioner candidate, Dave Lohr said, "If any of my supporters start getting beat up, my face will be in front of them. I won't tolerate that. I would like to see this board grow up and become adults and lead the county. They have adult bodies and childish minds and it is time for their minds to catch up with their bodies.There is too much opportunity here, and we can't leave it sit with stupidity." Meanwhile, so said The Trib: "There are things that happened after the election, threats that were made, to businesses and individuals who supported me," Lohr said. "There are elected people in office of a vindictive nature, and these elected officials need to get to the heart of the people, and not their personal goals." Lohr declined to go into specifics regarding the allegations..." RANTS that Lohr said that he didn't want to sound like sour grapes, but that is just how he came across in two papers. RANTS that he did not name specifics, after bringing up the subject himself. (21 Dec11)
Neither a RANT nor a RAVE, but mention that these 20 days past the state deadline to file his political campaign expense report, that Fayette County Commission Chairman Vince Zapotosky still has yet to file his expenses for the general election 7 weeks ago. While he missed the state deadline of 8Dec11, he filed one day late, including a handwritten statement that he would file an amended expense report at a later date, as he was awaiting getting copies of his bank statement in the mail.The county Election Bureau staff confirmed today that Zapotosky has not filed a such amended reporting form with them to date. Prior to the election, the incumbent Zapotosky reportedly spent in excess of $30K on the campaign. He listed no expenses on the 9Dec11 expense reports filed with the prothonotary and election bureau offices. We stongly urge the commissioner to change banks at this point in time. We've received at least 2 bank statements since this all started. (28 Dec11)
RANTS that it has been so busy that we forgot our manners and did not send our best wishes to former Fayette County Commissioner Vince Vicites, who lost the primary election and was voted out of office. Vicites served four terms in office before falling from the graces of local Democrats, who voted away his seat on the county board of commission to political newcomer Al Ambrosini. While Vicites no longer is in public office, he will still face federal charges, along with Fayette County Commissioner Vince Zapotosky, in a lawsuit filed by Fayette County Commissioner Angela Zimmerlink. As per more than a few flies on the wall, Vicites, who some believe "will be back" to public service -- perhaps as the next county treasurer -- is said to be the subject of a lengthy, page-long memorial-like tribute, coming soon to a local paper. No kidding! (4 Jan12)
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