A PA system does not cost $14,500, it costs about $400-700 dollars Forks Township supervisors agreed to solicit bids for a proposal that would replace an aging audio system with digital technology to stream audio on the Internet from municipal meetings.Township Finance Manager Jim Farley will solicit bids from vendors for a new sound system [...]
Regional Policing Moves Forward in Nazareth
June 7, 2011 by · 1 Comment
Pamela Sroka-Holzmann at the Express Times brings us some encouraging news on regional policing: Borough council on Monday unanimously agreed to negotiate a contract for police coverage from the Colonial Regional Police Department.Borough council wants to move forward on a three-year contract with Colonial Regional. A committee including councilmen Jack Herbst, William Matz, Daniel Chiavaroli [...]
Where the Waste Is, Cont’d.
May 23, 2011 by · 6 Comments
Jan Murphy reports on a state transfer to municipal governments that’s exempt from any reporting requirements: In February, Howe Township received $150 from the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board. There was nothing mysterious about it. Every year for decades, the Perry County township, like hundreds of others across the state, has received a check from the [...]
What Should Liberals Want From Local Government?
May 14, 2011 by · 5 Comments
Apologies up front for a really sloppy post, but I wanted to throw some thoughts out there on a topic whose importance has increased recently because of Gracedale and budget shortfalls: What do liberals want local government to accomplish? The conservative answer is easy: the bare minimum provision of law enforcement services, paid for through [...]
The Day of Reckoning Fallacy
May 3, 2011 by · 3 Comments
It’s hard to understand why Bernie thinks Doug Reichley’s political cowardice is a “reality check.” Consider the following quote from Reichley: I was at a candidates’ night last week of school board candidates where four of them promised they will not raise property taxes to abounding applause from, primarily, seniors. So we’re gonna’ have the [...]
The Liberal Case for Selling Gracedale
April 30, 2011 by · 14 Comments
Rich Wilkins invites me to convince him not to vote for the Gracedale initiative: Gracedale- I’m voting to keep the home. Supporters of a sale say we’ll get a $20 million, one time pay in, after all the costs are subtracted from the cost. After that, we’re done. This county is in great fiscal shape, [...]