Northampton County Exec Lamont McClure delivered his annual State of the County address yesterday at PBS-TV39. It will be available on the county's YouTube channel sometime today. I will link to it when it becomes available, and give you my own take. The county, like the country, is in bad shape. What he's really addressing is the state of county government.
Today's one-liner: "The shortest way to the distinguishing excellence of any writer is through his hostile critics." Richard LeGallienne
Local Government TV
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Tuesday, April 19, 2022
17 comments:
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This is quite a tease. Why is the county in "bad shape"? He lowered taxes, Gracedale is getting funding. Where are the wheels falling off?
ReplyDeleteDid he complain about the county council again, like he did in the newspaper? The guy is an arrogant baby. His way or he lashes out like an infant. He wants to shift blame for his handling of Gracedale. So predictable.
ReplyDeleteGet rid of McClure and his Administration!
ReplyDelete12:43, When I refer to the county, it includes much more than what county government can address. The wheels are falling off on the highways, roads, gas pumps, warehouses, rising food prices, loss of rural character and charm, etc.
ReplyDeleteHe kept kids safe from fresh air and sliding boards in county playgrounds during the pandemic. He's practically Winston Churchill. This kind of bold leadership doesn't come along very often. Executive for Life, I say!
ReplyDeleteWell, yeah, the explosion of warehouses sucks, and it comes with even worse air quality, marginal employment prospects, traffic, erosion of roads that no one knows how to or more accurately wants to pay for. There isn't much that can be done and that horse is already across the finish line. Rising food prices comes with rising inflation and that isn't McClure's fault or Biden's. I did not account for "State of the County" including all this stuff not in the county's control.
ReplyDelete12:43, When I refer to the county, it includes much more than what county government can address. The wheels are falling off on the highways, roads, gas pumps, warehouses, rising food prices, loss of rural character and charm, etc.
ReplyDeleteAnd you voted for all of it so deal with it.
But I thought you said with Biden all our problems will go away. The life will be like living in utopia. That government would just fund it build it and everything will be nervana. Biden had a plan for everything, and that included Pennsylvania since this state was so instrumental in INSTALLING him as president. Noticed I didn’t say voted him in —- Joe was installed,and this is how Joe thanks us for his installation as President
ReplyDeleteWell maybe when everyone pays their fair share of taxes then the county, state & country can be fixed. Inflation is just the greedy businesses making more money because they can. It’s the fault of the centrist Democrats, we need some politicians that have some real balls, real liberals to get this country back in shape.
ReplyDeleteAdd to the list of wheels falling off.
ReplyDeleteNorthampton County Farmland Preservation, set up to purchase development rights for our "high-quality farmland" is about to loose its wheels. When we, the taxpayer, give $600K to the owners of a farm to preserve it (i.e. Howers-Plainfield), then let the farm be sold to a Municipal Authority (i.e. Nazareth Boro Muni Auth) for the sole purpose of spreading Municipal Waste (just the opposite of preservation), then said municipal authority petitions the government to lower the tax burden on that property even further, how many residents of our townships and county are willing to allow this and the surrounding property value and quality of life consequences of this atrocity to continue in the name of "Farmland Preservation"?
If only he could run the county alone without the pesky courts and county council life would be great. The guy is the county Trump.
ReplyDelete@9:01PM About to "loose" its wheels? I'd like to see that.
ReplyDeletePreserved farmland continues to be owned by a private entity, unless a municipality or the county or state buys it. Sometimes a township will buy land that isn't preserved to prevent it being developed, preserves it, and sells it. Preserved farmland can be sold to whomever - there is no way to prevent that. It is not a question of "letting" anything happen. The property owner already lost their development rights - do you want to take away their ownership altogether?
Your real beef is with the EPA, which allows sewage sludge to be considered fertilizer. The State of PA follows the EPA, and considers this a normal farming practice.
Everything I ever read about the Farmland Preservation Program has always been positive. Where is all this other nonsense coming from? Bernie, are we missing something here? Are they using the farms for things other than raising crops? I see the Preserved farms all over the place. What am I missing?
ReplyDeleteFarm land preservation is a good thing on the surface however it is kind of a land grab at the same time as the preservation group has the ability to sell of preserved land in the future to acquire other preserved land. Although it is preserved in the short term it is not once and forever preserved. There are numerous loops holes for the benefits of counties and municipalities.
ReplyDeleteAnd it all depends on who you do it through as well as there are multiple organizations doing the same things.
There is a lot more to this program the what you read on the county site.
@11:35 Look at the land that is preserved. Is the land really being farmed any more? Rarely.
ReplyDelete@11:03 did you know that the EPA of PA allows haulers from NY and NU to bring contaminated soil from NY and NJ to be hauled into PA an to be utilized as fill or amendments to farmland. It is happening on a regular basis.
ReplyDelete"Farm land preservation is a good thing on the surface however it is kind of a land grab at the same time as the preservation group has the ability to sell of preserved land in the future to acquire other preserved land. "
ReplyDeleteThis is an utter falsehood.