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Nazareth, Pa., United States

Thursday, January 07, 2016

Cusick Wants Gracedale, Reassessment and Jail Study

Now that John Cusck is president of Northampton County Council once again, he wants to conduct studies on three hot button topics. First is reassessment. There's no need for a study. Reassessment is politically unpopular, but way overdue. The question is whether this Council and Executive have the political will to do it. Second is the conversion of Gracedale, the County-owned nursing home, into a nonprofit 501c3. That failed in the previous Council, although it's probably the right thing to do. Third, Cusick wants to update the master Plan for our Civil War era jail, which is a lawsuit waiting to happen.

These are all worthy ideas, but jamming them all together into one meeting is overkill and prevents meaningful discussion.

Council will also consider its open space plan and a resolution appointing their Solicitor. Cusick left the name blank in an obvious passive aggressive shot at incumbent Council Solicitor Phil Lauer, who had the audacity to tell Cusick he could not receive extra money as President during the reorganization meeting on Monday.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

John should wait until he becomes County Executive before jumping into those issues.

Anonymous said...

Cusick will lead the GO down the Gracedale road. This is good since that will once again be his stumbling block.

Anonymous said...

This is what happens when people don't turn out to vote. Recycled garbage

Anonymous said...

Charge forward John. these are all maters that need to be addresses now.

Anonymous said...

reassess and get the taxes we desperately need and are being cheated out of. Privatize Gracedale and eliminate it's unions thus saving millions each year. Build a new jail consisting of mostly solitary confinement cells thus eliminating useless union jobs.

Anonymous said...

Privatize the prison, Gracedale and most county functions. Sell off most of the useless buildings. Finally, government that makes sense.

Anonymous said...

Privatization of services is the dumbest thing you can do, oh yeah it's cheap for the initial contract, but hold on to your hat when the renewal comes in.
As far as a private prison, all that does is make you guarantee x amount of beds filled per day and it incentivizes the judges etc to either fill them or waste tax payer money, so they end up filling them on things that should be simple summery offenses.

I really wish you knew something before you start down this road of Privatize Privatize Privatize. it will bite you in the A** in the long run.

Oh and 12:31, what do you think the average NORCO salary is for the Union workforce? The way you act they are pulling down 100g a year each

Remember taxes have not been raised in 8 years by the Democratic executives, they were however RAISED by your heroes (the T-Party) 10% last year

Anonymous said...

Stoffa raised taxes in his first year and he was allegedly a Democrat.

Anonymous said...

Anon 3:04....your comment loses all credibility when you state that you think if a jail has capacity, judges will adjust their sentencing to fill it. The only affect capacity has on sentencing is when convicted incarcerated criminals are set free because of overcrowding. If you think that's a good thing, you have some major problems.

I'm personally in favor of privatization of as many government functions as possible, but I realize it can bring its own set of problems that need to be looked at any time something is considered and in some cases it isn't the right answer. However, those who argue against privatization for ridiculous reasons such as this do nothing to help the discussion.

Anonymous said...

Ron Angle was RIGHT privatize Gracedale before it bankrupts the county and privatize it.

Anonymous said...

Privatize and rid the county of the union crybabies - save millions

Anonymous said...

Ferraro was nauseating at the council meeting tonight. Grandstanding all over the place about her darling Gracedale. Acted like a dewy-eyed 12 year old. She deserved to be dumped as council prez. She is nearly ready for the Gracedale dementia unit.