Hits & Misses
HIT: The members of Monessen City Council who have been doing all the heavy lifting in the lengthy absences of Mayor Matt Shorraw and Councilman Gilbert Coles have finally had enough. Good for them. At a recent meeting, council members approved a resolution declaring Shorraw and Coles absent, and naming Councilman Anthony Orzechowski as acting mayor. Shorraw seems to feel that the other elected officials are out to get him, and it’s anyone’s guess why Coles has been a no-show at meetings. Whatever the case, we applaud this action, and we hope city officials can find a legal avenue to completely remove these so-called elected officials who have shirked their duties.
MISS: It seems as though East Washington’s much-maligned “speed bumps” have hit a bump in the road. Borough officials are claiming they haven’t made a decision yet on the future of the speed bumps that were installed in several locations around town in July 2017, even though PennDOT said it plans to yank about $2,000 in grant money if they haven’t been removed by 2020. The borough recently repaired one of the collapsed speed bumps on heavily traveled South Wade Avenue, which indicates officials are doubling down on the traffic control devices that are not compliant with PennDOT’s regulations. It’s strange that East Washington would forgo money, considering just a couple of years ago members of council openly raised concerns that the borough was so cash-strapped that it couldn’t afford to give its annual donation to Citizens Library. The borough apparently has found a few extra dollars in its coffers to install the speed bumps across town while also taking the financial hit that PennDOT is preparing to dole out to the community.
HIT: Crime and murder were trending down in many parts of the country in 2018, and that could be at least part of the reason why the number of inmates in Pennsylvania prisons declined by 2.2 percent last year. It was the sixth decline in the past seven years. All told, 47,370 inmates were behind bars in the prison system in 2018, 1,000 fewer than the year before. Moreover, the number of new inmates fell by 7 percent. The prison population has declined to such an extent that it has at times accepted inmates from out of state. Declining crime rates surely figure into this equation, but so does the Pennsylvania Supreme Court invalidating mandatory minimum sentences in 2015, and improved coordination between the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections and the commonwealth’s probation and parole board. Let’s hope this is a trend that continues in 2019.
MISS: Just days after embarking on his fifth term in the U.S. House of Representatives, Republican Tom Marino announced Thursday that he was stepping down to “take a position in the private sector where I can use both my legal and business experience to create jobs around the nation.” Marino’s district includes a large swath of North Central Pennsylvania, and Marino won it with 66 percent of the vote in November, so the GOP need not fear the seat slipping into Democratic hands. But if Marino was shopping a resume around in the private sector, then why did he run for re-election? The special election to replace him will, of course, be covered by taxpayers. It looks like they will pick up the tab for Marino apparently hedging his bets.