Local News
ANALYSIS: Dahlkemper’s health care opinion is hot topic
U.S. Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper’s ears must be burning. It seems everyone is talking about her, or at least her vote on health care reform.
Mrs. Dahlkemper, the freshman congresswoman from Erie who represents most of Mercer County, has staked out an interesting place for herself as one of a dozen pro-life Democrats who can save or sink the party’s signature issue.
Mrs. Dahlkemper topped the Web site politico.com’s “10 People Who Could Decide Health Care” and was name-checked in a host of stories last week about the battle to pass or kill the legislative strategy that is the last best hope to pass health care reform.
Mrs. Dahlkemper is one of the so-called “Stupak 12” who hinged their support of the original House bill on the amendment advanced by Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., that would bar federal money from subsidizing any health insurance that includes coverage for abortion.
The problem, for Mrs. Dahlkemper and others in the House, is a slight difference in the anti-abortion amendment included in the Senate bill that the House would have to approve for reconciliation to go forward. Abortion foes say the Senate’s amendment is weaker and would ultimately result in taxpayer-financed abortion.
While Mrs. Dahlkemper campaigned as a supporter of health care reform and made an impassioned plea on the House floor in July, citing access as the problem that demanded action from Washington, she’s made it clear since the House acted in November that the key issue for her is abortion.
Her office confirmed that recently when her spokeswoman said that Mrs. Dahlkemper could not support the Senate’s language “period.”
That stance may not please the White House or House Democratic leaders but for Mrs. Dahlkemper, who is running for re-election this year, it’s a smart play. The 3rd district leans Democratic but went for McCain in 2008, largely because of the region’s cultural conservatives.
It’s the kind of district that Republicans are looking to reclaim the majority in the House they lost in 2006 and the key issue they will be pushing is health care. Any candidate who backs the reconciliation strategy is going to be accused of “ramming health care reform down the throat of the American public.”
The support of Republicans who were disenchanted with former Rep. Phil English was key to Mrs. Dahlkemper’s 2008 victory but the base of her support was the district’s Democrats, many of whom still support health care reform.
The ground Mrs. Dahlkemper is staking out allows her to tell those base voters that she supports health care reform and did her best to see it become law by voting for the initial House bill, but couldn’t support the final bill because it violates her deeply held pro-life principles, principles that she made clear in her initial run for office.
It’s a win-win for Mrs. Dahlkemper that will make it hard for the Republicans running against her to get traction on the political issue of the year.
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Commissioners formally move to raise sewer fees
Hermitage commissioners introduced an ordinance Wednesday to increase sanitary user fees.
Residents tapped into the Hermitage Municipal Authority lines now pay $95 a quarter. That rate will bump up to $105 a quarter on Jan. 1, under the proposed rate hike.
Two more hikes on Jan. 1, 2012, and Jan. 1, 2013, will result in the rates increasing 50 percent from the current fee. -
Water is on at Forrest Brooke
Water service has been restored at Forrest Brooke Manufactured Home Community after well problems left the 165-unit complex dry Tuesday.
A boil and conserve water advisory has been issued by the DEP and will remain in place until tests confirm the water is safe to drink, Forrest Brooke’s manager Pete Havens said.
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Storm damages trees, wires
Thunderstorms ripped through parts of Mercer and neighboring counties Wednesday night, downing trees and wires and keeping rescue workers on their toes.
A Mercer County 911 dispatcher shortly after 8 p.m. said they were busy with calls across the northern part of the county. He said there had been a few reports of trees falling on homes.
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City leaders open to talks
Sharon officials aren’t opposed to sitting down with their counterparts in Farrell to revisit the idea of combining the two struggling cities.
“It never costs a penny to talk and there’s no (idea) that’s not worth looking at,” Sharon councilman Ed Palanski said. “I think it would be foolish to oppose looking at the idea.”
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Murphy’s Law doesn’t faze regional planners
A complicated, two-day public meeting blitz in 32 counties ran headlong into Murphy’s Law in Mercer County on Tuesday.
The group Power of 32 are looking to re-write the regional map and create a grand, 15-year strategic economic plan for the 32 counties in four states that make up the Ohio River basin and greater Pittsburgh area.
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Forrest Brooke copes with water outage
Residents of Forrest Brooke Mobile Home Community in Jefferson and Lackawannock Townships woke up Tuesday morning to find they didn’t have any water.
Managers of the park could not be reached for comment, but residents said they were told they won’t get water service back for at least another month.
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City facing bleak financial reality
LaVon Saternow has been Farrell’s city manager since 1992. Shortly after she took the job, Sharon Steel, the city’s economic engine, officially closed down.
Since, the city has struggled to remain solvent and Mrs. Saternow said it is facing its worst financial crisis in her tenure.
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Near-complete addition to let man come home
Although the weather delayed the start of Penny and Paul Strechansky’s construction project by about three weeks, the end of the sawing, hammering and stapling is in sight.
“It should be done by the middle of next week,” Strechansky said of the 15-by-20 foot addition being built onto the back of his garage in Hermitage, which will be the new home of his grandson, David Johnson.
Johnson was critically injured in a car crash June 19, 2009, on what is now Interstate 376 in Lawrence County. The crash rendered Johnson, who just turned 21, blind and brain damaged. He is unable to care for himself.
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Man prison-bound for role in drug buy shooting
It may never be known for certain who fired the two fatal shots that killed a Sharon teen on Nov. 6 on Wallis Avenue during a botched drug deal, prosecutors have said.
But Christopher Swogger, 24, Sharon, was fingered by at least one other suspect as the one whose bullets killed John B. Hosey III, 18, of 422 Meek St. Swogger was sentenced Monday.
Swogger was sent to prison for 1 1/2 to 3 years for having a firearm without a license, ending his role in the criminal prosecutions of the drug deal turned shooting.
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Farrell, Sharon to revisit merger
Times are tough.
In Farrell Monday night, city council heard a grim financial report from City Manager LaVon Saternow.
“It’s not a pretty picture,” Mrs. Saternow said. “We could conceivably run out of cash by the end of the year. I don’t know how to put it more bluntly.”
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Commissioners formally move to raise sewer fees
