Local News
UPDATE: Visit raises Tea Party-GOP tensions
MERCER COUNTY — A congressional candidate’s meet-and-greet Thursday night highlighted some of the tensions between Tea Party activists and the Republican Party leaders.
About 18 people popped in at Panera Bread, Hermitage, to hear what Clayton W. Grabb had to say. He’s one of the half dozen Republican hopefuls for the 3rd District Congressional seat, held by U.S. Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper, Erie, D-3rd District.
Grabb made a bread-and-butter conservative address calling for cutting government programs, growing jobs through tax cuts, and opposing health care reform efforts by Democrats. A participant in several Tea Party events, Grabb promised to bring conservative values back to the Republican Party.
David O. King, Mercer County’s Republican party chair, took issue with that. He said he’s been active locally for 20 years and wasn’t aware their values had changed. He also asked why more Tea Party activists can’t swing by the Republican headquarters in Mercer.
Grabb initially said that Republicans had swung too far toward the center, which King said he “doesn’t believe.”
Several members of the audience, who said they attended Tea Party rallies, took issue with that. They cited the 2008 presidential run of Sen. John McCain and last year’s House race in New York in which party leaders chose liberal Dede Scozzafova as their nominee. Conservative opposition to that choice sunk Scozzafova’s campaign and highlighted the gulf between party leaders and rank-and-file voters.
Grabb cited those candidates and Arlen Specter as failures of the national leadership to select conservative Republican candidates.
King seemed to get along with that statement more, and he added that anyone interested in coming by would be welcomed at county party headquarters.
King made appearances at Grabb’s meet-and-greet and a campaign announcement earlier Thursday by Mike Kelly, a Butler car dealership owner who kicked off his campaign in Mercer County at Beans on Broad in Grove City.
King said the local Republican leaders plans to let the primary play out among the various candidates. They plan to get behind whoever wins.
The six Republicans who have announced plans to run so far have all sounded off on similar issues. All of them come from private enterprises, and none have much prior political experience, with the exception of Kelly serving on a school board and Butler city council.
Involved in business, sales, health care, and insurance, the candidates come overwhelmingly from the private sector, many still putting the spit and polish on their campaigns.
They’ve come out in stern opposition to high deficits, and most have struck a populist stance of sending fresh, citizen-politicians to Washington. Grabb, for instance, called Thursday for term limits and restrictions on all money and gifts from lobbyists.
He cited rules in his own sales profession that prevent him from leaving a “10-cent pen” behind or taking his clients out to dinners. He said Washington, D.C., has to play by the same rules.
Besides Kelly and Grabb, the declared candidates are: Steven M. Fisher, 52, Cochranton, a health insurance salesman; Ed Franz, 48, Conneautville, an hourly worker at the General Electric plant in Erie; Dr. Tom Trevorrow, an Erie ophthalmologist; and Paul Huber, a Meadville businessman.
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Court nixes ruling man is sexually violent predator
State Superior Court has denied a local judge’s request to issue a precedential opinion in a rape case.
Mercer County Common Pleas Court Judge John C. Reed had ruled that Chad S. Thompson, 24, formerly of Stoneboro, is a sexually violent predator, but Superior Court said in a 2-1 decision July 8 that an expert’s testimony was insufficient to back that declaration.
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Stacey wants to continue fight over razed home
Raymond Stacey has requests pending in three courts as he presses his long-running attempt to prosecute the city of Hermitage and those he believes are responsible for illegally demolishing his parents’ house.
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia, on April 29 quashed an appeal because Stacey did not file his argument brief and appendix of supporting documents.
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Burglars strike while residents sleep
Several Shenango Valley residents’ homes were broken into overnight Tuesday and Wednesday while they slept.
Two burglaries in Sharon involved people entering open windows.
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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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Court nixes ruling man is sexually violent predator
