Once Gracedale is sold, will it be turned into a casino? Will residents be kicked to the curb? Used to plug the next BP oil leak? Will people of limited means be denied admission?These and many other questions will be answered during four public meetings in all corners of Northampton County over the next few weeks. At a news conference today, Council President Ron Angle stated that anyone with concerns or questions can have them answered by people who've gone through the process in other Counties. Here's the schedule:
Wednesday, November 3, 7 PM: Northampton Borough Hall, 1401 Laubach Avenue, Northampton, PA
Thursday, November 11, 7 PM: Hanover Township Municipal Building, 3630 Jacksonville Road, Bethlehem, PA.
Tuesday, November 16, 7 PM: Bangor Borough Beehive, 197 Pennsylvania Avenue, Bangor, PA
Wednesday, November 17, 7 PM: Chrin Community Center, 4100 Green Pond Road, Palmer, PA 18045.
Angle also announced that RFPs (Requests for Proposals) for the sale of Gracedale will go out November 15, be back December 15, and could be sold a few weeks later.
"What the average voter needs to know is that if Gracedale isn't sold, there is a major problem here," said Angle. "If it is sold, there will be an orderly transfer of ownership from the County to a private industry, nobody will even notice it's done, the sign will remain the same, probably the people will stay the same, and it will be an orderly transition."
Angle also stated that a sale would remove 40% of the County's payroll and put them in the private sector.
"You go around the country today and everybody's screaming, 'We've got too much government.' I think Northampton County in the end may be a role model for those people around the country. ... People all across the nation are demanding that government cut back the size of government. In Northampton County, we are cutting back the size of government. And we're not doing it by creating unemployment. We're doing it by getting government out of areas that it don't belong into, and better taking care of areas that it does belong into."
Thirty-eight of Pennsylvania's sixty-seven Counties have no County-run nursing home. Twenty-one of these Counties have sold or privatized their nursing homes.
Angle called the group promoting an initiative (referendum) on Gracedale "radical" because it's a "small-minded group of people who do not care about the other 300,000 taxpayers of this County. They only see what they want to see. They don't care about anybody else. I don't have that luxury."
Asked about a union plan to send circulators to polling precincts to solicit signatures, Angle noted that they must stay "X number of feet" away from the poll and not interfere with people's right to vote.
"I doubt whether they'd worry about trespassing. Frankly, they blocked the entrances and exits of Gracedale last Sunday, shoving literature, 'Vote for Charlie Dertinger,' so I'm sure the union isn't too interested in what the law says."
Harshly criticized at several recent County Council meetings by Gracedale advocates, Angle answered his detractors. "When you're a leader, there's people who are going to throw rocks at you. It's good to know, though, that in the United States of America and Northampton County, there's a few leaders left who can take the rock throwing to do what's right. It's that simple."
Angle plans to sell more than Gracedale. He is currently conferring with County officials to sell the Bechtel (Bethlehem) and Wolf (Easton) buildings - which he called "money pits" - and then consolidate Human Services under one roof on the remainder of the Gracedale campus.
41 comments:
If it is sold in 1 month there will need to be an investigation as to how that was accomplished.
I know he has been negociating without benefit of public knowledge. No one has been shown the place. Would you purchase a house without looking at it? Well maybe Ron does when hesnaps up the forclosed homes. However 35 mil I might want to take a peak. Shennanigans
How can he explain the sale when the buyer hasn't been chosen? Are we taking only one bid? Wouldn't different companies have different methods of operation?
Shennanigans
I guess he needs it completed before he is arrested
Shennaigans
Everybody that is screaming are the lunatic Tea People. Obamas aMuslim. Yeah your in good company.
Why wasn't this on the TV news?
Who was in attendence?
Where was it held?
Politics
Newscycle
Release news late Friday
So it is not in the Newscycle
Astute...however you will lose
obviously you are worried that the
petition will be successful. Truthfully there are nearly 1 half the required names as we speak.
Good luck
Inside the Government Center, people knew the decision to sell Gracedale was cemented with the election last November of the Angle ticket. He and John Stoffa have run Gracedale into the ground in order to sell. They now have the County Council who answers to Angle.
Even though they have their buyer and all this is going according to plan, isn't it interesting how Angle makes all the announcements about what will happen in the future. I guess the rumors about Stoffa handing over the County to Angle are true. Stoffa is incompetent but Angle is downright scary. We are now being governed by a madman. Thank God Northampton County doesn't have nuclear weapons.
May God have mercy on our souls.
see the flake wore his Sunday best for the news conference. no class whatsoever. I'm sure in the future he'll look better in stripes.
I guess Angle is not the total douche I always thought he was, he likes Penn State-finally something we agree on.
Can't wait until the union goons start collecting their Obama-99-week checks. They voted for the mess and karma dictates they receive exactly what they voted for.
I am the farthest thing from an Angle fan but the man is right. If you follow the news you know that a local developer has just scrapped his plans to build an assisted living facility in Bethlehem because we have a saturation of theses facilites. Just as the BASD should not be in the business of worrying about the development of the Martin Tower the County should not be in the nursing home business.
"see the flake wore his Sunday best for the news conference. no class whatsoever"
of course among the anonymous personal attacks, which include the usual allegations of wrongdoing, we see his sartorial splendor questioned by people whose writing abilty seems to be on a 2d grade level.
History reveals numerous great people who were slammed at how they dressed, from Lincoln to Jesus. Your inability to get beyonf the superficials demnstrates that if anyone lacks class, it is you. Of course if you had that, you would never anonymously attack someone.
It appears as though Angle and Stoffa have made up and are using the same playbook. Getting rid of Bechtel and Wolf is a proposal that is long overdue. Wolf is a security nightmare for CYF staff. Maybe Lafayette will buy it for the pie in the sky Atheneum project. Otherwise its market value is questionable. Bechtel is far more marketable and should sell. Moving county government offices to the Gracedale campus using revenues from the Wolf-Bechtel-Gracedale sale is the way to go.
So much for extolling the virtues of citizen participation and democracy. I thought Mr. Angle was a man of the people.
Another group of "radicals" gathering signatures. Characterizing these citizens as a radical group is absurd. Malign them further them with a soft ball down the plate. There is union involvement. Therefore it cant be good.
Just another reason to abolish unions and return that the golden age of laissez faire capitalism. Captains of Industry know best. They will look out for you just like our local version.
How dare these misguided souls question the wisdom of the self proclaimed protector of all that is good and right?
Keep making excuses for a corrosive force who has reduced public discourse to the level he seeks to drag all, the gutter.
They have every right to circulate their petiton, and Angle has every right to call them radicals. I prfer to call them goons myself. I'll have more today, including a comment posted by one of them here. It appears thee may also be stalkers..
I'm with you on calling them Goons B. The only thing missing from Angle's outfit is a Kenora dinner Jacket...
All you need is a 2nd grade level to be a title searcher.
Shennanigans
"from Lincoln to Jesus", Holy Hyperbole O'Hare you really had me spit up on that one.
Using those two names in reference to Angle is calling night day and the Sun the Moon.
Angle has honed this "image" to sell himself as a man of the "people".
This shows what he thinks of everyday hardworking people. I grew up as and with many hard factory and land laborers and they had the self-respect and society respect to wear clean clothes and work hard at speaking English.
Angle, Jesus and Lincoln. The only similarities is when Angle is driving in his new Lincoln and uses Jesus name in vain because the private prison company won't buy his land.
Tuckes
You forgot Andrew Jackson’s Big Block of Cheese with nary a macaroni in sight.
Sale will be a mistake all in Northampton will come to regret.
C'est la vie.
Private prisons - a vested interest in keeping any good inmate as long as possible.
I am sure they will be able to work some kind of sweet deal with the incredibly cash flush "non-profit" hospitals in The Valley.
What is next, a robust market in body parts for export to the world. It's a niche!
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Sell the elderly to buy land. OK, good to know the County has its priorities straight.
Unbelievable.
"Sell the elderly to buy land" - so ridiculously overdramatic. No one is selling out the elderly at Gracedale. They will receive superior care under private ownership. And the county already owns the land.
Mr. Angle isn't leading...he is dictating. The employees at Gracedale have every right to be concerned about the Residents, their families, themselves and their own families. This is our second home...our community...and our environment. WE do matter and so do those that reside their and it is sad that we are all being sold out by someone who really doesn't have to worry about what we have to worry about. This is just a hobby for him...a challenge and when all is said and done...his way of life will most likely not change. I am sure if he doesn't get his way...there will be a backlash on the employees at Gracedale...they are already feeling some of it however they continue to go to work and provide a great level of care while the rest of us relax and watch football games.
". This is our second home...our community...and our environment. WE do matter and so do those that reside their and it is sad"
Are you a Gracedale resident? I don't think so.
Can anybody explain to me how an uneducated individual like Ron Angle can be elected to County Council and made its President? Please
Maybe because he's not an uneducated idiots but one of the smartest guys in local politics. What he really loves is assholes like you, who continually underestimate him.
there were those who turned a blind eye to the nazis when they came to power. Bobbleheads like the two cypher on council content to ignore the vicious one because they thought "things are getting done." He is a self serving egomaniac who engages in routine personal attacks and yet has the audacity to complain when people quite legitimately take offense at his brown shirt tactics. His conduct is abominable and in the end damages the body politic.
What's really abominable is an anonymous and cowardly comparison of Angle to Hitler.
Given the opportunity angle would dispense with pretense of democracy in a minute. The enablers like you near the ultimate moral responsibility for his actions.
To 11:51am....I am not a Resident of Gracedale however I am an Employee and a COUNTY RESIDENT and a Hard Working tax payer! We all Matter..Residents, Employees and Taxpayers and to say one group ONLY Matters is Wrong. We are all Human Beings at different phases in our lives and rely on one another to survive...really. You act like the Employees don't matter at all and that you are only concerned with the Residents and Taxpayers. We will all be affected whether Gracedale is sold or retained...either way their will be an effect on all. If the poweres that be are so concerned and really care they should do whatever it takes to make the County Nursing Home Viable...they could start by lowering the Starting Salaries of the Administrative section and the Career Service Sector instead of Blaming The AFSCME worker as most of us are just getting by. Mr. Angle tells half truths and not the whole truth.
Angle/Stoffa need this money for their "pet" projects. The sick and elderly are collateral damage. Out of sight out of mind.
By the way to the constant harping of those who claim residents will get better care in the private sector, you base that on what exactly? The two hour set up tours by a new councilman that knows less about Nursing Homes than a rock.
You are repeating opinions as facts.
The residents are being sold so Angle/Stoffa can buy land and have fun with their other projects. The most destructive two politicians in Northampton County history.
The reason you folks bash Angle is precisely bc he does tell the truth and id willing to step on sacred cows. He doesn't give a damn about the political consequences. That's what makes him really dangerous. So you anonymously smear him, and when that doesn't work, goons like you drive out to his farm late at night and shoot a few of his sheep.
Yes, you're very classy.
"The residents are being sold so Angle/Stoffa can buy land and have fun with their other projects."
Cuckoo. More disinformation.
"We're doing it by getting government out of areas that it don't belong into, and better taking care of areas that it does belong into."
Once again Angle shows his great understanding of the English language. I can't believe these people actually voted for him.
"Once again Angle shows his great understanding of the English language. I can't believe these people actually voted for him."
Looking at the spelling and grammar of many of his critics, I see a pot calling a kettle black.
I have explained 1,000 times that while I allow anonymous comments, it is not a license to engage in vicious personal attacks and those comments will be deleted.
He's just doing what they are doing in Allentown with state granted land .... Everybody says their is no development plan ... But yes it is the state provided it in Act 74 --- 2007 and this development plan is found in the proposed zoning code ... Now how did it get there when nobody knows ... Indeed their doesn't exist a site pland and an announced developer but some clues may be in the budget when it is announced ... Everybody is so quiet about this ... I trust they were not quiet by this because of the election for the East Side of Allentown's sake
Now you are defending Arab sheiks? Well i guess the ones who want to buy Gracedale.
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