Million-dollar mystery in Wilkes-Barre
It's the million-dollar mystery.
More than five years ago, Wilkes-Barre Mayor Tom Leighton led city residents to believe money from a grant, the city's general fund, community development coffers and emergency services tax bankrolled the $860,000 purchase of three new fire engines.
In reality, an anonymous donor stepped forward with a $1 million gift specifically earmarked for the new fire equipment, according to interviews with city officials and documents reviewed by The Citizens' Voice.
We have reached the point of political activism gone gluttony, the point of absurdity, wherein the right-to-know hunt for the smoking gun in Wilkes-Barre has gotten old. And stale. And tired. And surprisingly annoying. Sorry, but that’s where I’m at.
I often wonder to myself how Wilkes-Barre can continue to exist at all with the abject negativity on parade that somehow, stupidly passes as the political opposition.
An anonymous donor gave the city a huge stipend. And in the small minds of those who fancy themselves as kings, that is proof of corruption? I’ve typed it before and I’ll type it again…only in Wilkes-Barre.
Unlike the reporters in this city, my calls do not go unanswered. And I can tell you that the name of the anonymous donor is a name you would not recognize. It’s not a name tied to any corruption scandal, past or present or otherwise.
Why wasn’t the overly generous donation made public when it happened? Uh, I dunno. So as to not set the do-it-yourself forensic investigators, i.e., the frustrated and overzealous city republicans off on the exhaustive hunt for the self-centered, favoritism-seeking philanthropist?
And allow me to float this electronic balloon. If we had stuck with the status quo in this then-failing city, if we had not changed administrations, would that hefty donation have come our way in the first place?
Methinks not.
Think, people. Trust me, it doesn’t hurt none too much.
Later
4 comments:
Kuddos for seeing through the nonsense Mark. This is only going to scare off anyone else for making such a kind jesture.
Hey dude, gotta tell ya this crap is really getting old. Why would you criticize the Mayor for accepting a million dollar donation for new Fire Apparatus and buying three new fire engines? Considering these were ordered almost 8 years ago, I can't imagine the paperwork is still around from the purchase. I actually thought the election was over. Let the man concentrate on the work of the City not looking up old paperwork. I believe the law says you only need to save these types of papers 7 years. No?
And by the way thank you to whoever it was that made this donation. The apparatus it replaced was really used up.
Used up?
I actually witnessed, what was it, Engine 3 (?) at NE station needing a push to get rolling to a fire call.
And now the dummies want to bark at us about public safety?
While biking one Sunday, Gage and I hastily retreated to NE station during a dangerous thunderstorm only to watch firefighters cover their gear as the roof gave it up to the pounding rain.
There was a distinct reason why the Wilkes-Barre firefighters called NE Station "The Rain Forest." Witnessed it firsthand, I did.
A ladder truck out for repairs so often, Kingston's ladder truck was our first line of defense against a major structure fire?
Engines rotting out because of roof leaks? Rescue 7 being old enuf to qualify for a dignified retirement?
A vindictive mayor who once placed pallets of junk in the South Station firefighter's path so as to torture them for talking to the press and a muckraking blogger?
Whether anyone wants to admit it or not, the depleted, denuded and defanged WBFD was facing a full-on crisis mode when Tom Leighton first took office.
But now, now they hate him because he won't hire more quote/unqoute over-compensated union brothers and give them whatever they demand by way of an arbitrator's warm gun.
Spare me.
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