Tonight, Northampton County Council will consider and vote on a resolution to give the Northampton County Historical and Genealogical Society a $100,000 grant to help prepare for the nation's 250th birthday in 2026.
The historical society is a nonprofit and is completely separate from Northampton County government. It manages the Sigal Museum, Bachmann Publick House (where Northampton County Courts originally convened), Jacob Nicholas House and Mixsell Illick House.
Its resources also include several online exhibits, like public health warnings from Roseto Borough in 1910, and links to numerous data bases of interest to genealogists.
Sadly, the resolution authorizing this grant is the one that Council President Lori Vargo Heffner refused twice to place on the agenda, in clear violation of the county's Home Rule Charter. Astonishingly, she said she "had questions." Rather than pose them publicly, she wanted to do so behind closed doors.
Her refusal to place the matter on the agenda also betrays a misconception that a Council President is somehow superior to other members of the legislative body. "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others," Orwell would say.
The whole point of the Sunshine Act and Open Records law is to insure as much transparency as possible when public funds are involved.
19 comments:
Word on the street is Barron wanted to hijack the resolution.
Not their money to give, sadly. Nobody cares about history anymore, sadly.
Lori does whatever Lori wants to do. Lori is the Queen of Council.
The sheer weight of Lori’s conflicts of interest and her misuse of public funds should cause her to resign.
I have once before asked you to detail these conflicts. You failed to do so. Until you do, I am calling you a liar and will delete similar attacks from you. I believe she was conflicted with respect to the health center. That is one conflict, but she has an opinion to the contrary, at least as she interprets it.
"Word on the street is Barron wanted to hijack the resolution."
And "word on the street" is just another way to introduce a lie. I have no idea what was intended because there was no public discussion of the matter. That is what really bothers me. If LVH had concerns, you air them publicly. And the "word on the street" that I heard is that she wanted to hijack it for her pals in some state org.
We will have nothing to celebrate with either trump or harris, except the downfall of our once great nation.
Would love to see Norco increased this to 250k, much better use of funding for the community then the 1 million requested by the LVPC who are just "advisory" to the municipal people
Watching you pick and choose which lack of sunshine you dislike is entertaining. All sunshine is equal. Some sunshine is more equal than others.
Barron was the hero here. Lori wanted to give the money to a group outside the valley. McClure and Barron fought to keep it local. Lori wants to raise her profile with public money. That is the real story here.
10:07, You are pretty much full of shit. The administration, unlike Council, has to keep some things private as a matter of law. But I will say this, and I know you won't like it. The McClure admin is by far the most transparent admin I have seen in county government. I often disagree with him on issues like Dixie, salaries and employee salaries. But he is both transparent and accountable. That goes a very long way with me. I am extremely disappointed that LVH wanted to discuss how to spend $100k behind closed doors. That should be in the spotlight.
10:17, And Barron made a very public presentation on this issue to a council committee. Transparency.
While we are on the topic of transparency, neither the 2023 General Purpose Financial Statements nor the CAFR has been posted by Fiscal Affairs on the county website.
Actually council has not heard from their auditor. Had they held a finance committee meeting and not canceled it they would know about the county’s finances. Barron probably could publish them, but council will complain they are not told anything. McClure can’t win with this bunch.
Ther smartest thing this administration did was assign Barron to you as a "friend". For the likely cost of a home cooked meal, you are all in for McClure/Barron.
Would it be too much to ask what, exactly, the Historical Society will be doing with the $100,000? Helping to prepare for the nation’s 250th birthday is pretty vague.
I mean, honestly, you would think that the occasion would be a time when interest in history is at a peak and they could put together some sort of programming that would actually be of interest to the public - and make money off of it.
Or are we just saying that they’re not capable of that level of creative thinking?
I’m not trying to be argumentative, but we’ve got more non-profits in the Valley than we know what to do with, and all claim to be serving a public purpose. Yet most of them then seem to have little actual public support and end up trying to siphon our tax dollars away.
So I say create something compelling and people will shell out for it. Otherwise, stop begging government to bail you out.
That's the whole point. These discussions should be in a public hearing, not behind closed doors. There will be both a committee meeting and a full council meeting in which they can explain how they intend to use this public money.
Before any more money is handed out to any outside entity, Council needs to allocate funds to fix the shitters at Louise Moore Park.
Obviously no one on Council uses the Park - if they gave a shit they would want to remove it in something nicer than a port a poppy
If this resolution passes, I am going to scoop a 5 gallon bucket of shit from the porta potties at Louise Moore Park, bring it to the next Council meeting, and make the Commissioners savor what I must endure for the 5 minutes that I am allotted for Courtesy of the Floor.
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