Hits and Misses
HIT: The other night, North Strabane Township supervisors hosted Canonsburg Council members at their meeting and made a request that the township, which is served by the Canonsburg Houston Joint Sewer Authority, be granted a seat on the authority board. Currently, North Strabane and two other townships served by the sewer authority, Cecil and Chartiers, are suing the authority over a very large proposed rate increase. With the litigation pending, Canonsburg Council President R.T. Bell told the North Strabane supervisors that it would be a “touchy subject right now” to grant the townships seats on the authority board. He’s probably right. However, once this current “unpleasantness” is resolved, it would be wise to give the townships places at the table. It might head off more lawsuits down the road.
MISS: Over the last several years, employers throughout the region have lamented that they sometimes can’t find employees because prospective workers can’t pass a drug test. A story in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette this week about business owners in Fayette County struggling to fill available positions pointed out that one of the obstacles they face is, yes, employees who can’t pass a drug test. There are other reasons, including an exodus of younger workers, but the lack of drug-free workers remains a critical problem. One employer from Lemont Furnance even admitted to the Post-Gazette that he dropped drug testing so he could have a larger applicant pool. “If I did drug screens, I’d have nobody,” he said. “This is unbelievable. Show up at 6:30 a.m. That’s all I’m asking you to do.” If this region is ever to fully thrive again, it needs more qualified workers and workers who don’t have substance-abuse problems.
MISS: The powers that be within the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association seem very pleased with themselves for enacting new rules aimed at reducing the number of student transfers for athletic intent. While the new transfer rules might appear to be a step in the right direction toward addressing the inequity between public schools, which have boundaries from which they can draw athletes, and charter, religious and other private schools, which do not operate under such constraints, it’s just that – a step. And how effective that step might be is anyone’s guess. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette talked to several former high-profile high school coaches who are very skeptical. Said former North Hills football coach and principal Jack McCurry, “It still doesn’t address the real problem, and that is the schools with no boundaries. If they want to give public schools a chance, they should have separate playoffs.” Such a move would require action by the state Legislature. They should get busy on the issue.
HIT: Until 2012, Pennsylvania had a general assistance program that provided $200 per month to residents who were extremely poor or disabled, unable to qualify for other forms of federal assistance and not receiving disability benefits through Social Security. It served about 60,000 people, but was eliminated as part of a plan by then-Gov. Tom Corbett and Republicans in the Legislature to reorder the commonwealth’s human services programs. The program could end up being reinstated, though, as a result of a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling Wednesday that said it was eliminated as part of an unconstitutional “zombie bill” and that it did not get three “readings” in both the Senate and the House. Though it’s not yet clear when or if a general assistance program will be brought back to life, a spokesman for Gov. Tom Wolf pointed out that many Pennsylvania residents are subject to long waits to receive Social Security disability benefits and “we hope (the decision) will restore some balance to Pennsylvania’s safety net.”