Teens find a place where they fit in By Joy Leiker Herald Staff Writer Armed with cans of Silly String, Sarah Murphy and her friends were covered in neon stripes and blobs by the time the game was over. They laughed. They ran. The smiles on their faces were a mile wide. It was the perfect birthday party, complete with cake and food and fun. But more than that, it was a breakthrough for Sarah, 17, who two years ago was diag- nosed with Asperger’s syn- drome, a developmental disor- der that affects a person’s ability to communicate and so- cialize. Her parents stood in the back and flashed their own big smiles as their daughter ate pizza and played pool with her friends. This was a big step for their middle daughter. “It’s great they can get to- gether and do their thing,” said Sarah’s mom, Peggy Mur- phy. They do their thing inside a classroom at MCAR, 850 N. Hermitage Road. On this night they’re here by special invita- S ERVING THE S HENANGO V ALLEY AND M ERCER C OUNTY A REA FOR 146 YEARS E s t a b l i s h e d I864 Next page > 0% 5% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 95% 100% YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN BLACK A-1 SATURDAY ONLY herald 110101jz INDEX Annie’s mailbox ................A-6 Business ..........................B-5 Classified ..........................B-7 Comics ............................B-6 Community ........................A-6 Corrections........................A-2 Crossword ........................B-9 Dr. Gott ..........................A-12 Health & fitness................A-7 Horoscopes ......................B-6 Jumble ..............................B-8 Lotteries............................A-2 Obituaries ........................A-5 Opinion ............................A-4 Police, fire ........................A-2 Public notices ..................B-8 Sudoku ............................B-9 Sports ..............................B-1 Theaters............................A-6 TV grid ..............................B-9 Weather ............................A-2 Friday February 4, 2011 2 sections 24 pages Sharon, Pennsylvania www.sharonherald.com Volume 147, Number 296 50 cents Good morning, Katy Thompson SUNNY: 29/18 Memphis Wheaton Reynolds Elementary DEATHS Richard “Ricky” Leonard Clarke, 53, Grove City. LaVonne K. (Kerr) Reed, 78, West Main Street, Ripley, N.Y., formerly of Grove City. WORTH NOTING Recycling Fredonia Area Recycling will be held from 9 to 11 a.m. Saturday at the old hardware store on Water Street in Fre- donia. Number one through seven plastics, glass jars, bi- metal and aluminum cans, magazines and newspaper will be accepted. No plastic motor oil or antifreeze containers, styrofoam products or plastic bags will be taken. All card- board must be flattened with the staples removed. Volunteers are always ap- preciated. INSIDE ˛ RELIGION: For NFL punter Daniel Sepulveda, who will miss his second Super Bowl because of injury, his position as a child of God is more im- portant than his position with the Pittsburgh Steel- ers. page A-8 ˛ SPORTS: Reynolds overcomes Fort LeBoeuf for the District 10 Class AA wrestling team cham- pionship. page B-1 ˛ BUSINESS: Zoning frustrates effort to build community at LindenPointe. page B-5 ˛ OPINION: C’mon, give folks at CSI a break. page A-4 ˛ NEWS: Buhl Farm park board eyes lake project. page A-3 City council hears headhunter’s pitch By Courtney L. Saylor Herald Staff Writer A representative of a Pitts- burgh headhunting firm Thursday pitched her compa- ny’s services to Sharon offi- cials searching for a new city manager. Public Partners Managing Consultant Jodi Noble spoke at a council work session about what the group of for- mer municipal managers does as consultants for towns searching for executives. “We’ve been there. We’ve been successful. We know the questions to ask,” Ms. Noble said of herself and the four men who make up the year- old company. Sharon is currently being run by Acting City Manager Bob Fiscus, a city firefighter appointed in December to take over from the city’s first professional manager, Tom La- vorini. Under the home rule charter, the manager must live within the city limits after a year and Lavorini does not want to move from his home in Butler County. The charter required council to name a current city employee as act- ing manager. Last month council hired Lavorini as a consultant while Fiscus is in charge and said they would actively begin the search for a permanent man- ager again. Council President Frank Connelly said he received an e-mail from the company offer- ing a proposal and he invited them to make a presentation to council. Since only three of the five councilmen attended the workshop — members Mike Donato and Bob Messina were absent — council Vice President Ed Palanski said they’d need to discuss the idea at a later date. Ms. Noble said her firm just assisted the borough of Aspinwall, Allegheny County, in hiring a manager and can do as little or as much as mu- nicipal leaders chose. She said they can put together job de- scriptions, advertise the posi- tion, collect applications, evalu- ate them and conduct the interviews. It all depends on what municipal leaders want, she said. “Our philosophy is ‘it’s your decision.’ We don’t want to make it. We just want to make it easier for you by providing the information,” she said. Ms. Noble said honing in on what council members think is important in a manag- er will help narrow the search. Connelly said he believed the initial search committee did a good job but an outside firm might have better ideas or something they hadn’t con- sidered before. However, Connelly admit- ted there was no money in the 2011 budget for such services. Literature from Public Part- ners says they charge $95 an hour plus expenses. Council members also dis- cussed forming a committee comprised of all five council members and members of the U.S. Sen. Bob Casey on Thursday said he sent a letter to the U.S. Department of La- bor seeking Trade Adjustment Assistance for workers losing their jobs at Reznor’s Mercer plant. The plant’s owner, Thomas and Betts Corp., said last month it was moving part of the Mercer operation to a plant in Mexico and cutting about 70 jobs at the century- old local plant. That announcement came on the same day that Mercer County commissioners re- vealed they had secured $2.5 million in state Redevelop- ment Capital Assistance mon- ey to help the company de- molish older parts of the plant and build a new research and development lab here. In his request for help for the laid-off workers, Casey cit- ed the county’s unemploy- ment rate. “Unfortunately for today’s employees, they will be laid off at a time when Mercer County is facing an unemploy- ment rate of 10.1 percent in December 2010, placing them among the hardest hit coun- ties in Pennsylvania,” Casey wrote. “Given the severe chal- lenges these employees will face and the seemingly straightforward nature of the petition, I urge you to approve them for these benefits as soon as possible.” Trade Adjustment Assis- tance is a program to provide a variety of training, job search and relocation al- lowances, as well as income and health insurance support to workers who have lost their jobs due to foreign competi- tion. County officials have taken some heat for signing off on the Reznor deal and spending county money to hire a con- sultant to help secure the state grant. They say that Reznor was moving the jobs to Mexico no matter what and the new R and D lab here will create jobs in the future. David E. Dale/Herald Sarah Murphy blows out the candles on her birthday cake. The 17-year-old has Asperger’s syndrome, and her party was a big step for the teen, her mother Peggy Mur- phy said. David E. Dale/Herald Sarah Murphy sprays Silly String at a friend at her 17th birthday party. Sarah celebrated Monday with friends she’s made through a group for teens with Asperger’s syndrome and autism that meets each month at MCAR in Hermitage. MERCER COUNTY AREA String fling HERMITAGE SHARON Casey seeks aid for workers A different kind of social network See TEENS, page A-2 See PITCH, page A-2 GREENVILLE AREA By Monica Pryts Herald Staff Writer An update given Thursday on the Shenango Valley YMCA’s management of Greenville area recreation re- vealed the agency has come across some unexpected bills, but the Y is sticking by its word to pay them and contin- ue to provide services. “We have every intention of staying in Greenville,” Joellen Arenas, YMCA’s executive di- rector, said at the Greenville council work session. “I’m still here for free.” The YMCA last summer took over recreation services at no cost to the borough after the Greenville Area Leisure Services Association dissolved. The YMCA also agreed to take on bills for the Greenville Recreation Center and related costs. They weren’t happy when some outstanding bills started coming in the mail. The YMCA’s board of directors had assumed GALSA had al- ready taken care of them and they include back taxes and electric bills, Ms. Arenas said. Former GALSA board member Randy Ferguson asked council Thursday for a YMCA update, which also re- vealed its board of directors had yet to sign the manage- ment agreement that council approved in November. A little help, please? YMCA rec takeover hits rough patch See YMCA, page A-2
Transcript
Teens find a placewhere they fit inBy Joy LeikerHerald Staff Writer
Armed with cans of SillyString, Sarah Murphy and herfriends were covered in neonstripes and blobs by the timethe game was over.
They laughed. They ran.
The smiles on their faces werea mile wide.
It was the perfect birthdayparty, complete with cake andfood and fun.
But more than that, it was abreakthrough for Sarah, 17,who two years ago was diag-nosed with Asperger’s syn-drome, a developmental disor-der that affects a person’sability to communicate and so-cialize.
Her parents stood in the
back and flashed their ownbig smiles as their daughterate pizza and played pool withher friends. This was a bigstep for their middle daughter.
“It’s great they can get to-gether and do their thing,”said Sarah’s mom, Peggy Mur-phy.
They do their thing inside aclassroom at MCAR, 850 N.Hermitage Road. On this nightthey’re here by special invita-
SE R V I N G T H E SH E N A N G O VA L L E Y A N D ME R C E R CO U N T Y AR E A F O R 1 4 6 Y E A R S
FridayFebruary 4,20112 sections 24 pagesSharon, Pennsylvaniawww.sharonherald.comVolume 147, Number 296
50 cents
Good morning,Katy
Thompson
SUNNY: 29/18Memphis WheatonReynolds Elementary
DEATHSRichard “Ricky” Leonard
Clarke, 53, Grove City.LaVonne K. (Kerr) Reed,
78, West Main Street, Ripley,N.Y., formerly of Grove City.
WORTH NOTINGRecycling
Fredonia Area Recyclingwill be held from 9 to 11 a.m.Saturday at the old hardwarestore on Water Street in Fre-donia. Number one throughseven plastics, glass jars, bi-metal and aluminum cans,magazines and newspaper willbe accepted. No plastic motoroil or antifreeze containers,styrofoam products or plasticbags will be taken. All card-board must be flattened withthe staples removed.
Volunteers are always ap-preciated.
INSIDE˛ RELIGION: For NFLpunter Daniel Sepulveda,who will miss his secondSuper Bowl because ofinjury, his position as achild of God is more im-portant than his positionwith the Pittsburgh Steel-ers.
page A-8
˛ SPORTS: Reynoldsovercomes Fort LeBoeuffor the District 10 ClassAA wrestling team cham-pionship.
page B-1
˛ BUSINESS: Zoningfrustrates effort to buildcommunity atLindenPointe.
page B-5
˛ OPINION: C’mon, givefolks at CSI a break.
page A-4
˛ NEWS: Buhl Farm parkboard eyes lake project.
page A-3
City council hearsheadhunter’s pitchBy Courtney L. SaylorHerald Staff Writer
A representative of a Pitts-burgh headhunting firmThursday pitched her compa-ny’s services to Sharon offi-cials searching for a new citymanager.
Public Partners ManagingConsultant Jodi Noble spokeat a council work sessionabout what the group of for-mer municipal managers doesas consultants for townssearching for executives.
“We’ve been there. We’vebeen successful. We know thequestions to ask,” Ms. Noblesaid of herself and the fourmen who make up the year-old company.
Sharon is currently beingrun by Acting City ManagerBob Fiscus, a city firefighterappointed in December totake over from the city’s firstprofessional manager, Tom La-vorini. Under the home rulecharter, the manager must livewithin the city limits after ayear and Lavorini does notwant to move from his homein Butler County. The charterrequired council to name acurrent city employee as act-
ing manager.Last month council hired
Lavorini as a consultant whileFiscus is in charge and saidthey would actively begin thesearch for a permanent man-ager again.
Council President FrankConnelly said he received ane-mail from the company offer-ing a proposal and he invitedthem to make a presentationto council.
Since only three of the fivecouncilmen attended theworkshop — members MikeDonato and Bob Messinawere absent — council VicePresident Ed Palanski saidthey’d need to discuss the
idea at a later date.Ms. Noble said her firm
just assisted the borough ofAspinwall, Allegheny County,in hiring a manager and cando as little or as much as mu-nicipal leaders chose. She saidthey can put together job de-scriptions, advertise the posi-tion, collect applications, evalu-ate them and conduct theinterviews. It all depends onwhat municipal leaders want,she said.
“Our philosophy is ‘it’s yourdecision.’ We don’t want tomake it. We just want to makeit easier for you by providingthe information,” she said.
Ms. Noble said honing in
on what council membersthink is important in a manag-er will help narrow the search.
Connelly said he believedthe initial search committeedid a good job but an outsidefirm might have better ideasor something they hadn’t con-sidered before.
However, Connelly admit-ted there was no money in the2011 budget for such services.Literature from Public Part-ners says they charge $95 anhour plus expenses.
Council members also dis-cussed forming a committeecomprised of all five councilmembers and members of the
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey onThursday said he sent a letterto the U.S. Department of La-bor seeking Trade AdjustmentAssistance for workers losingtheir jobs at Reznor’s Mercerplant.
The plant’s owner, Thomasand Betts Corp., said lastmonth it was moving part ofthe Mercer operation to aplant in Mexico and cuttingabout 70 jobs at the century-old local plant.
That announcement cameon the same day that MercerCounty commissioners re-vealed they had secured $2.5million in state Redevelop-ment Capital Assistance mon-ey to help the company de-molish older parts of the plantand build a new research anddevelopment lab here.
In his request for help forthe laid-off workers, Casey cit-ed the county’s unemploy-ment rate.
“Unfortunately for today’semployees, they will be laidoff at a time when MercerCounty is facing an unemploy-ment rate of 10.1 percent inDecember 2010, placing themamong the hardest hit coun-ties in Pennsylvania,” Caseywrote. “Given the severe chal-lenges these employees willface and the seeminglystraightforward nature of thepetition, I urge you to approvethem for these benefits assoon as possible.”
Trade Adjustment Assis-tance is a program to providea variety of training, jobsearch and relocation al-lowances, as well as incomeand health insurance supportto workers who have lost theirjobs due to foreign competi-tion.
County officials have takensome heat for signing off onthe Reznor deal and spendingcounty money to hire a con-sultant to help secure thestate grant. They say thatReznor was moving the jobsto Mexico no matter what andthe new R and D lab here willcreate jobs in the future.
David E. Dale/Herald
Sarah Murphy blows outthe candles on her birthdaycake. The 17-year-old hasAsperger’s syndrome, and herparty was a big step for theteen, her mother Peggy Mur-phy said.
David E. Dale/Herald
Sarah Murphy sprays Silly String at a friend at her 17th birthday party. Sarah celebrated Monday with friends she’s madethrough a group for teens with Asperger’s syndrome and autism that meets each month at MCAR in Hermitage.
MERCER COUNTY AREA String fling
HERMITAGE
SHARON
Caseyseeksaid forworkers
A different kind of social network
See TEENS, page A-2
See PITCH, page A-2
GREENVILLE AREA
By Monica PrytsHerald Staff Writer
An update given Thursdayon the Shenango ValleyYMCA’s management ofGreenville area recreation re-vealed the agency has comeacross some unexpected bills,but the Y is sticking by itsword to pay them and contin-
ue to provide services.“We have every intention of
staying in Greenville,” JoellenArenas, YMCA’s executive di-rector, said at the Greenvillecouncil work session. “I’m stillhere for free.”
The YMCA last summertook over recreation servicesat no cost to the borough afterthe Greenville Area Leisure
Services Association dissolved.The YMCA also agreed totake on bills for the GreenvilleRecreation Center and relatedcosts.
They weren’t happy whensome outstanding bills startedcoming in the mail. TheYMCA’s board of directorshad assumed GALSA had al-ready taken care of them and
they include back taxes andelectric bills, Ms. Arenas said.
Former GALSA boardmember Randy Fergusonasked council Thursday for aYMCA update, which also re-vealed its board of directorshad yet to sign the manage-ment agreement that councilapproved in November.
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Wind southwest 8-16 knots today. Waters mainly ice covered. Visibilityclear. Wind south 7-14 knots tonight. Some snow late. Wind southwest 8-16 knots tomorrow. Some snow.
Lake Erie Forecast
Rain will drench the Southeast, while snow and a wintry mix shift fromTexas to the lower Mississippi Valley. Snow will fall on the Upper Midwestand northern Rockies. Rain will dampen Washington.
The patented AccuWeather.com RealFeelTemperature is an exclusive index of theeffects of temperature, wind, humidity, sun-shine intensity, cloudiness, precipitation, pres-sure and elevation on the human body.Shown are the highest values for each day.
Almanac
RealFeel Temperature®
UV Index Today
Sun and Moon
Moon PhasesFirst Full Last New
Feb 11 Feb 18 Feb 24 Mar 4
Abington 35/24 s 41/28 rGreensburg 38/21 s 39/25 snHanover 37/23 s 39/24 snHarrisburg 36/26 s 37/25 snMcKeesport 36/22 s 38/25 snMansfield 26/13 s 34/21 snMonroeville 36/22 s 39/25 snMontrose 26/13 s 33/21 snNorristown 35/23 s 39/26 snState College 32/26 s 34/25 snTowanda 26/14 s 34/22 snWarren 28/15 s 34/20 sn
City Hi/Lo W Hi/Lo WToday Sat.
The StateToday Sat.
Anchorage 22/6 pc 22/11 sAtlantic City 40/30 s 44/27 rBoston 32/22 s 35/29 snBuffalo 26/22 s 35/25 snCharleston, SC 48/44 sh 61/35 rCincinnati 38/26 pc 37/25 snCleveland 28/23 s 32/23 snColumbus 34/28 s 36/26 snDallas 34/22 sn 47/31 sDenver 50/28 pc 50/18 rPhoenix 58/40 s 68/44 sToledo 23/19 s 29/21 sn
The Nation
TUESDAY
Colder with snow orflurries possible
23 6
City Hi/Lo W Hi/Lo W
Acapulco 90/72 s 90/70 sBerlin 43/38 sh 49/41 pcJerusalem 60/51 r 57/39 rLondon 50/43 sh 52/45 pc
The WorldMexico City 73/43 pc 73/43 pcMoscow 34/21 sn 33/27 snParis 47/41 pc 57/42 cRome 56/39 s 62/41 s
ä Joseph J. Mathieson, 32,Slippery Rock, has beencharged with bad checks andtheft for cashing three checksin October totaling $585 on aclosed account at PennstarFederal Credit Union, 4139 E.State St., police said.Sharon
ä Police said no one washurt when at least two shotswere fired into a home onPrindle Street early Friday.
Residents called police at2:07 a.m. and said they hearda vehicle pull up, at least twogunshots and then the vehicledrove away, police said.
The four people home didnot see the vehicle or the oc-cupants, police said.
Police found a bullet hole ina window and one in a wood-en panel near the door.State police
ä A Lakeview High Schoolgirl has been petitioned toMercer County Juvenile Courtfor having the wallets of threeother girls that had beenstolen Jan. 19 at the school inSandy Lake Township, policesaid.
ä Someone stole mailboxesbetween 7 p.m. Tuesday and 7a.m. Wednesday from varioushomes in Pine and Libertytownships, police said.
DRUNKEN DRIVING ARREST
State police
ä Michelle Siena, 40, ofFairport, N.Y.; at 3:28 a.m. Jan.23 along Interstate 79, Spring-field Township; also chargedwith resisting arrest for refus-ing to get out of her car,struggling with police and try-ing to kick a policeman, a laneviolation, speeding and care-less driving.
WARRANT ARRESTSSharon
ä Keith A. Sechler, 36, of121 Wengler Ave., Sharon; at1:10 p.m. Monday on a war-rant for simple assault.
ä Isaac Williams III, 23, of328 Sterling Ave. Apartment101, Sharon; at 2:20 p.m. Tues-day on a warrant for burglaryand simple assault.
tion for Sarah’s birthday party.But she met these friends at arecently restarted groupspecifically for those with highfunctioning autism and otherswith Asperger’s.
Unlike other activities atMCAR, this group has noagenda. There’s no therapy.Nicole Jones, assistant directorof day services, said the goalsimply is for this group to gettogether and socialize. Theymeet the second Wednesdayof each month, from 6:30 to 8p.m.
And in the months Sarahhas been coming here, hermother has noticed huge im-provements. For the first time,Sarah wanted to have a birth-day party. And the people onher guest list were her newfriends from the group.
“When you think of girlsher age, you think of them go-ing to the movies, going shop-ping. But no one asks Sarahto do that,” Mrs. Murphy said.And once the elementary-age,all-inclusive birthday partiesgave way to more selectiveones, the invitations for Sarahstopped.
Mrs. Murphy said, “Onething she always asked mewas ‘when am I going to a par-ty?’ ”
Wearing a blue T-shirt thatwas a perfect match to thefrosting on her cake, Sarahshowed no evidence of anxi-ety. And neither did herfriends. They battled each oth-er in pool and launched sur-prise attacks with Silly String.Then they diligently picked upevery tiny piece of string onthe ground before they re-turned to the food and drinks.
To an outsider, it mighthave looked like a typicalgathering of teens. But thiswas a big night for Sarah andher friends John Kevin Thoms
and Damian Wood.The group typically attracts
eight or nine participants, butthe forecast for snow and icelikely kept some home Mon-day night. Still, that didn’t mat-ter to Sarah.
Mrs. Jones said while thegroup meets in a party roomat MCAR each month, thehope is they’ll want to domore activities together, per-haps going bowling or shop-ping at the mall.
“The whole point is theycan socialize and go out,” Mrs.Jones said.
To learn more about thegroup, contact Nicole Jones, as-sistant director of day servicesat MCAR. Participants do nothave to be enrolled in anyMCAR services, but must eitherhave Asperger’s syndrome or behigh-functioning autistic. CallMrs. Jones at 724-981-2950 ext.207 or e-mail her [email protected].
TeensTeens find placewhere they can fit in
from page A-1
public to look for a manager.Connelly said they need to
start again “or consider hiringMr. Fiscus here if he contin-ues to work out.”
Under the city’s home rulecharter, that’s not possible.The charter requires the citymanager have a degree inpublic administration, financeor a related field, and threeyears of management experi-ence. Fiscus doesn’t meetthose requirements.
That’s similar to theprocess undergone in themonths that led up to the hir-ing of Lavorini in November2009. About a dozen people,including Fiscus and Palanski,were part of the home ruletransition committee that inter-viewed applicants and flew twomen, neither of whom washired, in to meet the public.
Council member VictorHeutsche noted that somemembers of the last commit-tee didn’t show up for meet-ings and it’s hard to comparecandidates when someone
wasn’t there for all of them. Since May, council mem-
bers have had about 60 appli-cants for the manager job, butPalanski has said none ofthem were a good fit for thecity.
The head of a Sharon-basedbusiness consulting firm thatoffers similar services to Pub-lic Partners, Palanski saidthey’ve been “at it 15 monthsand I’ve reached the conclu-sion that city managers fallinto two categories: those thathave been fired and those thatwill be fired.”
Ms. Noble, who worked for12 years as an administrator inMoon Township, AlleghenyCounty, agreed that municipalmanagement is a tough pro-fession and the pool of candi-dates for jobs is shrinking be-cause older ones are retiringand young people aren’t goingto school for public adminis-tration because they knowhow hard it is. She noted thatmunicipal managers answernot only to elected officials,but also to citizens.
“There are not as manypeople with that sense of civicresponsibility … and thatmakes the search tough,” shesaid.
Heutsche expressed con-
cern that the city won’t findsomeone of Lavorini’s caliberand experience to fill hisshoes at what the city is ableto pay. The position is budget-ed at $67,500 plus benefits for2011.
“I’m not suggesting we setour sights lower, but we needto try to determine who we’relooking for and what we’relooking for,” Heutsche said,adding that maybe Lavorini is-n’t the “best yardstick” to use.
Palanski said he thoughtLavorini’s performance was agood measure for council tohold candidates up to.
During the last search, hesaid they had a “pretty defi-nite” list of things they wantedand didn’t want in a candidateand still got applications from“obvious misfits.”
He said they’ve vetted can-didates over the past year andhad issues once they lookedinto their backgrounds.
“We ran into experienceproblems. We ran into creden-tial problems. We ran into in-tegrity problems,” Palanskisaid.
Palanski said he didn’t wantthe process to wear council orthe committee down to thepoint where they “just hiresomeone.”
PitchCity council hearsheadhunter’s pitch
from page A-1
Shortly after the borough’sapproval, the YMCA started toreceive those unexpected billsand want to sort them out be-fore signing the agreement,which should happen withinthe next month, Ms. Arenassaid. She’s also been workingwith the United Way of Mer-cer County to secure fundingfor Greenville recreation.
They’re still figuring outhow much they owe becauseof issues like GALSA employ-ees’ W-2 forms that weren’tfilled out properly before theYMCA took over.
Council members and resi-dents can be certain theYMCA won’t turn around andask for the borough for helppay those bills because thatwould be going against theagreement, she said, addingthe rec center would haveclosed in November if the
YMCA hadn’t stepped up.That wasn’t enough to paci-
fy several council members,who were upset to find out theYMCA hadn’t signed theagreement, which theythought was a done deal.
“We’re just finding out nowthere’s not a signed agree-ment,” Mayor Peter Candelasaid.
Council President BrianShipley said the YMCA is be-ing prudent before signing theagreement, which expiresMarch 31, 2012, and theirboard is making a “good faitheffort” to work out difficult is-sues.
“We all knew it wouldn’thappen overnight,” he said.
Council members and thepublic were misled in thinkingall was said and done, coun-cilor Theodore Jones said.Council member Alfred “Skip”Peden, a member of the com-mittee that studied how to re-structure recreation, said theY doesn’t know yet how farbehind the bills are.
Not knowing is a big con-cern, as is the manner in
which business was conduct-ed, said council memberStephen May, adding he want-ed to know more about someexercise equipment the Ybrought to the rec center.
“Let’s go ahead and takethe gloves off. This stinks,” hesaid.
The equipment needed tobe moved out of Artman Ele-mentary in Hermitage and theY could have taken it else-where but thought Greenvillewas the best place for it, Ms.Arenas said.
Council member JassonUrey said he wanted to movethe meeting along, especiallysince the YMCA update got“way off kilter.”
Shipley said he’ll meetagain with YMCA directorsand will report back to councilin March and borough solici-tor Jim Douglas said the man-agement agreement is an oralone right now that can be en-forced, and he hasn’t had anycomplaints about the YMCAnot doing what they agreed todo.
YMCAYMCA rec takeoverhits rough patch
from page A-1
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Theguest list for President BarackObama’s White House SuperBowl party includes entertain-ers Jennifer Lopez and MarcAnthony as well as electedleaders from Wisconsin andPennsylvania.
A White House spokesmansaid Thursday that about 100people have been invited, in-cluding White House staff,family and friends and othermembers of Congress.
Among those expected toattend are Attorney GeneralEric Holder, TransportationSecretary Ray LaHood, Home-land Security Secretary JanetNapolitano and Sens. PatToomey and Robert Casey Jr.of Pennsylvania and congress-man Reid Ribble of Wisconsin.
