UPDATED: Something Stinks in Plainfield Tp

Jonathan Itterly was an appointed (not elected) Plainfield Tp. Supervisor whose term expires at the end of 2025. Now he's going to have to win an election. He's running for both a two-year and six-year term against fellow Republicans Jane Mellert and Ken Fairchild, who is yet another appointed Supervisor.  

Mellert has filed a PrePrimary report to acknowledge that she has spent $348.17. But neither Itterly nor Fairchild have filed anything. So what?, would be my first reaction. After all, Plainfield Tp is small enough that I would think most candidates would have no need to raise a lot of money. 

But Itterly has not one, but two electronic billboards advertising his candidacy. They are located near MacDonalds. He also has a large number of campaign signs. No disclaimers on the billboards.  

It is my understanding that a candidate who wants to advertise on that billboard must pay about $1,100.

So does Fairchild, although they might be left over from his last campaign. 

This is beginning to smell very much like the landfill, and for good reason. The landfill in Plainfield Township wants to expand, but to do so it will need to have some property rezoned. To make things easier, Township Supervisors have already disbanded their Environmental Advisory Commission. That way they can avoid some complaints They've also ignored their own Planning Commission, which has advised against rezoning. Instead, they voted in April to hire a third-party consultant - Strategic Solutions - to tell them what they and the landfill want to hear. 

The public has a right to know who is paying for Itterly's billboard and campaign signs. His refusal to follow the law evinces a lack of regard for the public he ostensibly wishes to serve. I suspect his true master is the landfill. 

The lack of a disclaimer is one thing, but it's clear that Itterly is breaking basic campaign law. The DA's office needs to review what has happened here. 

UPDATED 2 PM: This story requires a bit of an explanation and an apology.  I wrote it and posted without first discussing the matter with Itterly. That was wrong. I spoke with him today. He acknowledged he has filed no expense report because he does not really know what the expense is and will do so when he receives a bill. He followed advice from the elections office, so he acted in good faith and violated no law. 

Campaign finance law (25 PS 3246 (B) (5)) does require a report for all unpaid debts and obligations, and I believe it should have been reported with the amount left blank, as I see some candidates do. But I could be interpreting the law too strictly.

Itterly also tells me that his sign does include a disclaimer and that the EAC was disbanded due to lack of interest. Finally, he said that "putting garbage in the ground is the worst thing in the world." 

Nazareth's Mr. Hankey On His Way Plainfield Tp

In November 2021, Allen and Hart Hower sold their 93-acre farm, located in Plainfield Tp, to Nazareth Borough Municipal (BM) Authority for $850,000. The property is probably worth three times as much except for one thing - it is subject to an agricultural conservation easement The Howers not only sold their own rights to develop the property but restricted all future owners from doing so as well.  Under an agreement with Northampton County in 2008, they were paid $606,347 to preserve about 82-acres for agricultural purposes. Given that the use of this tract is mostly limited to planting crops of animal husbandry, why on earth would Nazareth BM Authority buy it? To spread shit, of course. Starting in April, it has clearance from the state EPA to treat the property with what is called class B biosolids. That's a very  saying shit. It's not raw shite. They pop it in an oven first and bake it a bit, just like pizza. But Plainfield Tp citizens have been railing about this for some time. I don't blame them. After all, this is Nazareth shit we're talking about here.  Have you ever seen what they eat here? From pasties (the meat pie, not nipple cover) to Moravian sugar cake, it's no wonder this tiny borough is littered with port-a-potties all over the place. More specifically. this is my shit, for which there really should be a special category.  There's a reason UGI is constantly digging up the streets here. 

Plainfield residents have done what they can do. They've complained to the BM Authority and to the Borough itself, only to be told to shut up. Northampton County Council has listened to them several times, but there's really nothing a county government can do. You see, spreading treated sludge is considered a "normal farming practice" protected under Pennsylvania's Right to Farm Act.  

Exec Lamont McClure made this clear last week at County Council's Energy Committee. Its jurisdiction apparently includes fecal matters, although I'd argue that every one of Council's committees talks shit pretty much nonstop.  "I wish I could stop it, but I can't," said the Exec, before turning around and hurriedly walking away. 

Hey, when you gotta' go, you gotta' go.  

Before making his exit, McClure said that the law needs to change. Maybe it does. But all kidding aside, the reality is that, except for judges and Donald Trump, we all drop anchor from time to time.  Incinerating it or dumping it in the ocean seems far more harmful than spreading cooked crap over farmfields.

The real outrage here is that Nazareth BM Authority had land within a stone's throw of its treatment plant with which it could spread sludge. Instead of doing so, it sold the land for $53.1 million to a warehouse developer. 

I believe the Right to Farm Act should be amended, but not to ban sludge. Instead, any sewage disposal authority should be confined to disposing of human waste within its own service area unless it can demonstrate with a Declaratory Judgment action that it has no option. 

Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall in Plainfield

For the past few days, a 3/5 size replica of the Vietnam Memorial Wall has been in Plainfield Township Community Park. Today is the last day you can see it before this traveling memorial moves to its next destination in West Orange, NJ.

When I visited yesterday, I was struck by the number of people who were visiting, even though it was incorrectly listed as being at the Municipal Park. They were very quiet.

Along the wall were a number of makeshift memorials in memory of soldiers from this area who gave their life.Between 1965 and 1974,1.3 million people lost their lives in that war.

Here are some interesting statistics:

Youngest Vietnam KIA - 15 years old.
Oldest person on the Wall - 63 years old.
At least 5 men killed in Vietnam were 16 years old.
25,000 of those killed were 20 years old or younger.
More than 17,000 of those killed were married.
Veterans killed on their first day in Vietnam 997 (unconfirmed)
Veterans killed on their last day in Vietnam 1,448 (unconfirmed)
Number of Chaplains on the Wall - 16 (2 Medal Of Honor)
Number of Women on the Wall - 8 (7 Army, 1 USAF - 7,484 served)
There are 226 Native Americans on the Memorial.
There are 22 countries represented on the Memorial.
The most casualties for a single day was on January 31, 1968 ~ 245 casualties.
The most casualties for a single month was May 1968, 2,415 casualties were incurred.
Three sets of fathers and sons were killed.