- My 2nd Annual Pet Expo will be held on Sunday, September 22 from 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM. The event will be at Fairview Park in Bridgeville, just off of Boyce Road via Washington Pike. The Pet Expo is free to the public, both people and pets, and will feature vendors, exhibits and activities for pet owners and lovers. Vendor tables are available for only $25; please call my office at 724-746-3677 to get on the list. All proceeds go to PetSearch, a non-profit volunteer rescue and placement service. Hope to see you there!
- Last week’s zoning hearing board hearing in Mt. Pleasant Township will resume on September 10 at 7:00 PM at the Mt. Pleasant Fire Department Social Hall. If you have any interest in the topic of wastewater impoundments from Marcellus Shale drilling operations not just in Mt. Pleasant Township but from around the region, you should plan on attending. The township is trying to close down one wastewater and three freshwater impoundments for a variety of reasons, and Range Resources is fighting to keep them open to haul in hazardous waste from other towns. A group of citizens living near the impoundments have hired a lawyer, so the proceedings are spirited and very informative. If you do attend, please be respectful and remember zoning hearings are quasi-judicial proceedings, and testimony has been limited to township residents.
- Lots of people have been asking me how to keep track of upcoming natural gas drilling operations and/or environmental incidents from drilling operations in the community. If you have a computer, the best resource out there is http://frack.skytruth.org. This free site uses satellite imaging technology combined with reports from government agencies to provide the most factual, up-to-date information available. You can sign up for email alerts for any sort of drilling activity or environmental incident in a specific area, find maps of active and planned drilling sites and chemical disclosures and even help track drilling activity using FrackFinder, a crowdsourcing tool for the public to use. The site has no bias or spin, just the facts you need to know.
- In the coming weeks I will be introducing several pieces of legislation designed to protect the property rights of Pennsylvanians, specifically in regards to protecting mineral rights for those have either leased their mineral rights or plan on doing so in the future. The lobbyists and the big money of the oil and gas industry may not like to talk about this stuff, but I don’t work for them. I work for you, and our Constitutional property rights are worth standing up and defending.
- My annual Senior Expo will be held on September 19, from 10:00 to 3:00 PM at the Washington Crown Center. The event is free and features exhibits from over 100 vendors, but you’re going to have to get there early if you want the free donuts- they tend to go pretty quickly!
- Governor Corbett was in town for the Washington County Fair last week. When informed about the upcoming property tax reassessment forced by the Washington and McGuffey School Boards, which will cost taxpayers about $8 million dollars, Corbett replied a reporter, “You are, really? Have you talked to Allegheny County to see how that works?” Yes, Governor, some of us did, and we know what a disaster it was for taxpayers. That’s why I’ve been working for nearly five years now to push legislation to fix the system despite constant pushback from the Governor and his allies in the Legislature. Exchanges like this are good examples of why it’s really hard to get things done in Harrisburg, but that doesn’t mean I’m giving up anytime soon, especially on an issue as important as property taxes.
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