Local News
Locals back more troops
SHENANGO VALLEY — In Vietnam, Lackawannock Township resident Jack Gerlach was one of the Marines tasked with bringing home the dead.
The 58-year-old truck mechanic remembers that after he came home from the war he bounced a young David W. Wallace III on his knee.
Sgt. Wallace, a 25-year-old Sharpsville native who also served in the Marine Corps, was killed Jan. 26 by an improvised explosive device in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.
“That hit me pretty hard,” Gerlach said.
Hours before President Barack Obama ended speculation about America’s role in Afghanistan with a speech Tuesday at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Gerlach was among the folks at the Wheatland American Legion who said he supported a troop surge.
Gerlach said Obama may be missing the mark by undercutting commander on the ground Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s September request for 40,000 troops by 10,000.
“I think they should (send) what the commanders want,” Gerlach said.
Jim Weiser of Wheatland agreed. A 40-year-old “soon-to-be-student” who was laid off from Sharon Tube, Weiser said not finishing the job in Afghanistan would damage America’s standing as a superpower.
When McChrystal asked for 40,000 troops, Obama should have sent 45,000, Weiser said. He served in the first Gulf War and remembered how President George H.W. Bush delegated execution of that operation to Colin Powell and Gen. H. Norman Swartzkopf.
“Let the military do what they’re trained to do,” Weiser said.
Low-balling a surge could be likened to a bar manager who under-orders beer against the advice of the bartenders who know the business, Weiser said.
“That’s being simplistic,” he said. “I know it’s more complex than that.”
The decisions about America’s strategies in Afghanistan and Iraq shouldn’t be shaped by politics, Weiser said.
“I do believe Obama’s doing the right thing,” Cathy Carney, 55, of Wheatland said.
She noted the history of failed wars in Afghanistan, which in the 1980s turned back an invasion by Soviet forces with covert help from the U.S.
It’s time for Russia and China to step up in the military actions in central Asia.
“If Russia and the U.S. and China get together they’ll squeeze them,” Ms. Carney said.
“I think he’s (Obama’s) trying to hedge his bet,” she said of Obama’s decision to limit the number of troops send in the surge.
Obama “needs to do what he has to do to get it done,” Leonard Franklin, 64, of Youngstown, said.
A retired steelworker, Franklin said neglecting the battle in Afghanistan might bring the war to the U.S. homeland.
“If they don’t stay on top of them (al-Qaida) they’ll be over here,” Franklin said.
Hermitage home health nurse Mollie Lyon said the decision should have been made sooner.
“He (Obama) should have had more troops over there months ago,” Ms. Lyon said.
She questioned the timing of the announcement and said wondered how it fit into the administration’s push for health care reform.
An “elderly gentleman” who wouldn’t provide his name shared his thoughts while leafing through a Civil War book at the Community Library of the Shenango Valley.
“Unless we instituted some kind of a blitzkrieg, I don’t think we’re going to be effective,” he said. “He’s (Obama’s) coming in to this late.”
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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
