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Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Bethlehem City Council Candidate Can Claim Nut Hut on His Resume

Rob Melosky (left) and Shawn Martell (right)
As most of you know, I'm a miserable bastard who is wrong as often as I am right. A perfect example of how I screw things up is my criticism of former Mayor John Callahan's appointment of Rob Melosky to the Bethlehem Planning Commission. I looked down my nose at this appointment because Melosky was at that time a Nazareth High School football coach. What could he possibly know about planning? I would learn that he knows quite a bit. What impressed me most was his attention to presentations and excellent questions. He turned out to be a pleasant surprise and, to his credit, accepted my apology when I told him I had misjudged him. He takes his role seriously. In fact, Melosky was one of about 35 people who attended the unveiling of the One Lehigh Valley Report at Bethlehem's Southside in November. With him was a young man named Shawn Martell. Yesterday, Martell announced he's running for one of three seats on Bethlehem City Council.

Martell, a Becahi (2003) and Moravian College (2007), has deep Bethlehem roots. For one thing, his great grandparents operated Matz's Confectionary on East Broad Street. Most of us can remember the smell of those roasted peanuts, wafting in the air. As you could probably guess, I always felt right at home in a nut hut.

That alone should get him elected. People in Bethlehem love nuts. Look at City Council.

Martell's dad has dedicated his career to the Bethlehem Boys and Girls' Club, where my son was once a member. Martell's mother has taught at both Donegon and Sacred Heart Schools.

Martell became a teacher at Nazareth High School. American Government. He was also one of Melosky's assistant coaches.

Why is he running? According to his statement,
"Shawn is running on the fundamental premise that all Bethlehem citizens deserve to be heard so as to preserve our shared past and to ensure all benefit from our future. With this in mind, Mr. Martell promises to put Bethlehem citizens first by promoting transparency, smart economic development, safe and livable neighborhoods, and fiscal responsibility."
He seems like a great candidate and one who will continue making Bethlehem the best City n the Lehigh Valley. I will certainly do my best to follow his campaign and, for once, to be fair.

Updated 10:39 am: Martell is a Democrat. As a result of a typo, I listed him as R in my photo. Also, I mistakenly referred to him as Shartell. I apologize for the error.
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30 comments:

  1. AnonymousJanuary 13, 2015 at 5:48 AM

    hmmm...a teacher, running fr city council? how unusual.

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    1. AnonymousJanuary 13, 2015 at 7:11 AM

      It's funny isn't it. When it's contract time all you hear from the teachers is how they are at home grading papers until midnight every night yet somehow all these teachers find time to run for City Council.

      Delete
  2. AnonymousJanuary 13, 2015 at 8:10 AM

    What's in the closet?

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  3. AnonymousJanuary 13, 2015 at 8:44 AM

    Reynolds lite.

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  4. AnonymousJanuary 13, 2015 at 8:47 AM

    Coach OJ and his mini-me?

    If they really love Bethlehem, they should go teach there.

    But the trough is much deeper, the buildings much nicer, the school board more enabling and the prey more plentiful in the burbs.

    Maybe you don't really want this candidate to win. If you did, you wouldn't have tied him to the Parkland Pariah. Your updated opinion notwithstanding, any competent opponent will exploit "the company he keeps".

    Then, again, to the extent that character matters in latte land...

    -Clem

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    1. AnonymousJanuary 13, 2015 at 11:16 AM

      Do you know how difficult it is to get a teaching job or how even more difficult it was to get a teaching job back in 2008 when Martell started? Believe me, if he were offered a job in Bethlehem before Nazareth, he would be teaching there.

      - Nolan Paul

      Delete
  5. AnonymousJanuary 13, 2015 at 8:47 AM

    Confusing picture caption. He's running as a Democrat? Shouldn't there be a "D" in parentheses after his name or should Melosky have an "L" for pictured to the left??

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  6. AnonymousJanuary 13, 2015 at 9:15 AM

    doesn't the past and present teachers on council lack of vision bother bethlehemites. No - because they are nothing but lever pulling sheep.

    this election will be different day, same old crap

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  7. AnonymousJanuary 13, 2015 at 10:11 AM

    Growing up in Bedlum, we used to always stop at Matz's Peanut Shop after Sunday church services to buy a bag of hot roasted nuts. Allentown had the "Nut Hut", we had Matz's. There is no way either of those legendary shops could compete with the nuttiness of today's political atmosphere in Northampton County.

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  8. AnonymousJanuary 13, 2015 at 10:19 AM

    Did you write "Shartell" on purpose or was that just an honest mistake? Also as someone else pointed out, he's running as a Democrat (according to the Express-Times anyway). Why the "R" next to his name?

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  9. Bernie O'HareJanuary 13, 2015 at 10:42 AM

    The reference to Martell as Shartell is simply a mistake. Also, I have him with Melosky in my picture and meant to ID him as being on the right. But I wrote Dem instead of Left next to Melosky,and hence created some confusion. I have corrected these errors and apologize for any confusion.

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  10. Bernie O'HareJanuary 13, 2015 at 10:44 AM

    I also deleted a personal attack at Melosky. The trolls who want to do that need to ID themselves, but are too cowardly to do so.

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  11. Bernie O'HareJanuary 13, 2015 at 10:45 AM

    "Confusing picture caption." Corrected.

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  12. Bernie O'HareJanuary 13, 2015 at 11:36 AM

    I am awarethat it is tough to get a job, and the job security is not great in the beginning years. I know teachers who have been laid off and know teachers who can only get hired as subs.

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  13. Tracy From BethlehemJanuary 13, 2015 at 2:15 PM

    As a life long city resident I think we need to clean house in City Council. Id like to see some fresh faces, new ideas and true concern for this great CITY! Had Bernie not called out Karen Dolan she would still have her seat
    Too much of the foxes watching the HEN HOUSE in my opinion

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  14. AnonymousJanuary 13, 2015 at 2:38 PM

    Clean House? Fresh faces? They are all fresh faced with new ideas. 5 of the 7 members are in their first term! Only Evans and Reynolds have been there more than one term, and each of them are only in their second term. Tracy, you would have loved City Council in the 70s-early 90s, when it was routine for members to serve 12-20 years. Heck, Donchez served 18 years.

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  15. AnonymousJanuary 13, 2015 at 4:18 PM

    Clean House?? That's a laugh. As long as you were born went to high School, college you are not to be a Bethlehem official.

    Inbreeding is the word in Bedlam. You won't get any new ideas based on age, as long as the only people elected can trace their great-great granddaddy back to their Bedlam roots.

    More Bedlam clones and teachers. That is sure a great formula for Bethlehem.

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  16. AnonymousJanuary 13, 2015 at 4:39 PM

    He was handpick3d by Reynolds and Rechutti. Are there any adults in the city. Or at least some people who don't live with their parents?

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  17. AnonymousJanuary 13, 2015 at 5:12 PM

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  18. AnonymousJanuary 13, 2015 at 8:40 PM

    @5:12 What in the heck are you talking about?

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  19. Bernie O'HareJanuary 13, 2015 at 10:14 PM

    That comment, posted by an anonymous coward to make personal attacks in violation of my rules, has been deleted several times.

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  20. AnonymousJanuary 14, 2015 at 12:41 AM

    Wish Dana Grubb was running, Be nice to have one adult non teacher in the mix.

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  21. Tracy From BethlehemJanuary 14, 2015 at 7:11 AM


    Gees this is hostile territory! LOL!!!! Maybe I didn't SAY what I meant…
    Seems to me although there are fresh faces they still towing the same BS line. They always seem to be a friend of a friend, a teacher and so on. I’m not knocking teachers or generations of council people. It seems to me support will not be throw behind a true voice for the city & for anyone not willing to tow the council line and fall in nicely with the CITY COUNCIL.
    I do recall Delgrosso, Donchez and some others who held their seats forever. Again, this should not be a popularity contest to have bobble heads & yes men & woman. Diversity is what I am asking for.
    City Council is a clique…
    End of the day it’s supposed to be what is best for the city not personal agendas as we saw with Ms. Dolan and several others
    It takes courage to put yourself out there to run and I commend the efforts, but they need to be free thinkers & what is best for the city!
    Please don’t beat me up too bad for stating the obvious!

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  22. AnonymousJanuary 14, 2015 at 10:36 AM

    Sorry, why do you think they call it Bedlam.

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  23. Tracy From BethlehemJanuary 14, 2015 at 11:49 AM

    Bernie does Martell really live with his parents, LOL
    that can't be true...is it?

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  24. Bernie O'HareJanuary 14, 2015 at 11:55 AM

    I really don't know.

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  25. AnonymousJanuary 14, 2015 at 1:25 PM

    I don't think Recchutti is a teacher.

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  26. Bernie O'HareJanuary 14, 2015 at 1:31 PM

    He's not. He's an attorney. Waldron is a painter. Callahan is some kind of phys ed or driver ed teacher or something. Evans and Willie are teachers. Reuscher is some kind of activist but I don't think she's running.

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  27. AnonymousJanuary 14, 2015 at 4:19 PM

    This guy was recruited by Reynolds. he will be part of the new Reynolds regime on city council.

    ReplyDelete
  28. AnonymousJanuary 15, 2015 at 9:57 AM

    Grubb's campaign slogan could be "I'll fight for you"

    ReplyDelete

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