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Letters
| From: | GM |
|---|---|
| To: | Representative Daley |
| Date: | Monday, 11/14/05 |
| Subject: | What's Going on In West Brownsville? |
Pete: Something stinks in West Brownsville and its smells a
lot worst an raw sewage. Please read this letter to the editor
of the Herald Standard newspaper. See it this looks legit to
you. It has all the appearance of a conspiracy and a cover-up.
I hope looks are deceiving, BUT.. Read.
"After 11 PM on August 3, 2005 someone removed a metal
manhole cover from Madison Ave. and used a fire truck to dump
1000 gallons of water into the "line" running under the street.
The result was that my mother, an 84 yr. old woman, received
several hundred gallons of water into her basement along with
nearly 100 pounds of black sludge and pieces of human feces.
The shower room was completely destroyed. $250 worth of
material was damaged beyond repair and over 70 hours of clean
up and rebuilding was required. My mother and I lived with this
for a month, putting our health at risk. I presented a very
reasonable bill of $1138.29 for replacement costs, labor and
blood tests.
The borough response was that they were not liable because
they did not authorize the dumping of the water. I was told at
the October council meeting that the line in front of my house
was "Not a sewer line in use by the borough". At the November
meeting I was told that there are no Sewer lines in West
Brownsville. That is a storm drain line. But over 40 houses
use that line to carry sewage from their homes. One councilman
said that they are storm water lines yet very little rain water
runs in them. We were told years ago to remove rain spouts
from the lines because they couldn't handle sewage and rain
water at the same time. And he said that the borough has
allowed people to illegally hook into this rain storm line for
the past fifty years..
This is all a smoke screen, a word game. If it was done
without council approval, then it was done illegally. The
borough installed that sewage plate and is responsible for it.
The damage done to my mother's home is at least vandalism. Why
has there not been a police investigation? Why when I asked
the council who did this, they circle their wagons and go on to
damage control.
.. I was told for my lawyer to contact their solicitor. Why
is their lawyer involved if council did not authorize the
dumping? Why wasn't anyone on my street contacted by the
police? We can place several council members as being present
on that street corner after 11 PM that night. Who is protecting
who? Or maybe the council members there that night were
oblivious as to what was happening.
The fire truck of our great volunteer fire department was
used in a crime. Yet no one knows who took the truck out and
ordered the dumping of the water. I want a full police
investigation. I want the responsible people arrested. If it
wasn't done with council's authority, it was done illegally by
someone, someone acting outside of their authority.
Gerald T. Mayers
| From: | GM |
|---|---|
| To: | Representative Daley |
| Date: | Monday, 10/24/05 |
| Subject: | West Brownsville Council's position on damage |
Pete.
I am having trouble with the Borough Council. On Aug.3, 2005
the old sewage line on my street clogged and sewage was running
into my neighbor's home. People in authority said their line
was clogged. Evidently someone suggested that dumping 1000
gallon of water from the fire truck into the line would prove
that it was open. The street commisioner said not to dump the
water. Later that night, after 11 pm someone dumped that water.
I got several hundred gallons of it into my 84 yr. old mothers
basement. It destroyed her shower/bathroom in the basement,
leaving behind nearly 100 lbs. of sludge and recognizable human
feces. It got between the shower stall and the floor. The
suspended ceiling, electtric lights, exhaust fan, two walls,
studs, etc. had to be removed, cleaned or replaceed. I'm
talking over 80 hours of labor. I submitted a bill for $1138.29
for damage, labor, and replacement costs plus $200 for blood
tests since this crap put our health in jeopardy.
Well, the borough will not pay for the damage. First, the
dumping of the water was not authorized (yet the council
president and several other council members were present ( I
will name them in court if I have to). Then I was told that it
wasn't a sewer line but for rain water. We were told years ago
to remove rain spouts because the line could't handle both
sewage and rain water. At the October 11th council meeting I
was told that they would not pay because the line is not a
sewer line "in use" by the borough. Only fifty or sixty houses
are connected to it. And no one will tell who dumped the water.
This was a crime of trespass when that borough installed man-
hole was removed. It was a least vandelism when that water was
dumped and did all that damage. A contractor would have charged
my mother approx, $3000 to do the repairs that I did.
How can all these council members be present ( with one
of them being council president and one of them being a officer
in the volunteer fire department) and no one knows who said to
dump the water. This smells worse than the crap forced into my
mother's basement. I hope no one there would be involved in a
cover-up to avoid responsibily for a destructive, unauthorized
act that placed the health and physical well being of an 84 yr.
old woman in jeopardy. BUT NO ONE KNOWS.
Pete, please get involved. Our government should be
responsible. There is going to be a crowd of people at the Nov.
1st council meeting and they are upset. My next step is to
contact the local TV stations because I have video of the
damage done and the council meeting when the street conmissions
said he told "them" not to dump the water, and the Mayor said
he would find out who dumped the water. But from Aug. 3rd till
now no one in a position of authority will tell.
Your friend and supporter,
Gerald T. Mayers
| From: | WS |
|---|---|
| To: | Representative Daley |
| Date: | Friday, 10/21/05 |
| Subject: | Expenditures, HB1956 and HB 1945 |
Dear Representative Daley,
First, I have a few specific issues that I would like for you to
address. Upon review of the reported Statement of Expenditures,
Cycles 3 (reporting period ending 6/6/05) and 4 (reporting
period ending 9/19/05), $7,455.93 was spent on a golf outing,
including $2,000.00 for a “deposit”, $1,168.31 for the “golf
outing dinner”, $1,800.00 “golfer’s bill”, $259.24
for “goodies/candy golf outing”, $576.57 for “golf gifts”, and
$329.00 for a “golf meeting dinner”. There is also a $500.00
expense for “shirts”, but I’m not sure if they went into
the “Golf Outing” Category or not. Can you please justify these
expenses?
Also, I am unclear about the “Dues” expenditure, paid to the
NRA, ABATE, and the NAACP. Does this mean that your Constituents
are currently members of these organizations? What specifically
are these “dues” for, and how do they represent your
Constituents?
We also seemed to have paid for the newspaper delivery ($51.00
for these two cycles), purchased some flowers for $233.31, and
paid out $500.00 to Leigh Byrne, and $300 to a “Dr. Goodwin”.
As one of your Constituents, I would like to be clearer about
these expenditures.
And finally, I am urging you to support the Discharge Resolution
that was introduced to move both House Bill 1956 (to repeal the
unvouchered expenses portion of the pay raise) and House Bill
1945 (to repeal the salary increase in its entirety) from the
Rules Committee to the House floor for consideration.
I am urging you to vote affirmatively once these bills have been
discharged from the Rules Committee. Anything less will likely
be regarded by your constituents as a continuation of a state
government that is not working for the people who put them there
in the first place.
| From: | GM |
|---|---|
| To: | Representative Daley |
| Date: | Wednesday, 03/30/05 |
| Subject: | W.Brownsville Sewage |
Pete, We need your help. Jefferson and Madison Ave. have had a
sewer system for over 60 years. It runs down the street.
Houses were built to connect to this sewer. Now the sewage
board wants us to turn our lines around and go to the alley. A
30'-40' run with slope becomes one of over 100 feet. Mine
involves 5 turns, going uphill and being near level. The
engineer said that is what I get for taking such good care of
my property. As far as disturbed ground leading to basements
getting water, he said to get the basements waterproofed.
Going down the alley affects over 70 homes, many with widows,
senior citizens on fixed incomes, people with illnesses. My
own sewage line will cost around $3 thousand if if goes to the
street from $6 to $8 if it goes to the alley. Most residents
will face a minimum of $2,000 cost increase and those are the
ones with no problems. One neighbor put in $1500 worth of
sidewalks last year and they will have to come out and then be
replaced. Maybe 25 homes will have athe ground disturbed near
their foundations leading to basement flooding when it rains
hard. The sewage board smirks at out complains and won't even
answer simple yes and no questions.
Pete, you got to do something. Please attend the next
meeting on Thursday, April 28th at the W. Brownsville Boro
building. I am going to go door to door on these two streets
and try to get residents involved enought to attend. The Board
has told a few that the cost will be insufficent, but each
resident will be forced to send thousands. I am also going to
get the Herald-Stadard to send their photograper will a video
camera to record how we are being treated.
Please attend. The people will be grateful.
Jerry Mayers
| From: | BS |
|---|---|
| To: | Representative Daley |
| Date: | Wednesday, 03/02/05 |
| Subject: | 30-and-out retirement bill |
30-and-out retirement window
It is time for a modified 30-and-out retirement bill to go
through. ‘The times they are a changing’ and lets move out the
out dated and bring in the fresh. Especially those in the
technical fields who started with the state as main frame
programmers and systems analysts 25 to 30 years ago. These
people are not needed anymore, not with the new technology, the
desk top PC’s, lap tops, servers, etc. We see the young, college
graduates come in as new employees and know it is time for us
baby boomers to let them take their turn. Why spend more money
to teach the older employees new technology when they will be
leaving within 5 years anyway. Those who ran the main frames
for the past 30 years don’t really care to learn all the new
technology. We’re ready to take care of our grandchildren for
our children instead of them using most of their paycheck for
weekly childcare expenses. We’re ready to take the menial jobs,
that make minimum wages part time, just because we want to.