Water Lease Injunction In Order

According to Chris Casey, over at Lehigh Valley Political Blog, Mike Hanlon, Allentown City Clerk, is the one who initially informed Tim Benyo, County Chief Clerk of Voter Registration, that the Water Lease Ballot Petition didn't conform with state law. Previous news reports indicated that this determination was made after the Allentown City Clerk delivered the petitions to the Voter Registration Office. If Casey's allegation is correct, then the city  conspired against it's own citizens. The City Solicitor had reviewed the petition and imposed guidelines. Under this review, the petitioners were misled to believe that their efforts were conforming with applicable timelines and laws.

UPDATE:  This afternoon I discussed the above allegation with one of the leaders of the Water Lease Ballot Petition.  He does not consider the revelation "actionable",   and will not  seek  an injunction.  He's hopeful that some members of council will change their mind  from fear of voter backlash,  and being educated by his group's presentations, which promote Allentown starting it's own water authority.  He has much more faith in the flexibility of council than I do.

The Trains of Allentown

As a blogger, at the moment, I need a rest from those bureaucracies which I find so exasperating, and perhaps visa versa. I suppose it would be a good time to stop and reminisce some more about trains, both model and real. Shown above was the real deal when the 0 gauge was king. Before I go too far, let me state that growing up I never had a train. For a few years I had a friend whose father, looking back, was rather obsessed with the hobby. He had the transformer shown. It was 275 watts, and could operate four trains and an assortment of accessories. For many years, Bloch's Hobby Store, in the 400 block of 7th Street, was a model train expert. Trains were also sold at Pollard's Firestone Tire Store, also on 7th Street.

I've presented a number of Barber Quarry branch line photographs in previous posts. The one below shows the siding at the former Traylor Engineering Plant on S. 10th Street, now owned by the AEDC. About 20 years ago the track was removed for the entire  length of the former rail line.
  photogragh by Mark Rabenold, 1987

Playing With Trains

When I was a kid growing up in the early 1950's, some of my friends had large, elaborate model train layouts in their basement. This was the hobby of their fathers, and the modeling was first class. During the day, these men worked in real factories, many of which had train sidings, to bring raw material and take away finished product. Traylor engineering on S. 10th Street was a steel fabricator of large scale. It's finished products would often require a flat car. The factory, which had it's own switcher, was served by the Barber Quarry Branch line. Eventually, as the country's manufacturing base waned, so did the demand for oversize products. Flatbed trucks replaced the trains for the smaller, less frequent product and the branch line was dismantled. Although Traylor closed, the factory continued as Allentown Metal, and hosted Barak Obama during his first term. By the last campaign, Mitt Romney used the then closed factory as a backdrop when visiting Allentown. During the last decades of operation, the company never attributed it's difficulty to lack of train service. Although the company also never cited property taxes as a contributing factor in it's demise, last year Allentown Economic Development Corporation sought KOZ status for the closed factory. They also received a federal grant to rebuilt the former rail line from 3th and Union Street to the 10th Street factory. This year the AEDC purchased the factory. My friend's fathers built their models and pursued their hobbies with their own money. The AEDC pursues their nonsense with our money. They should be disbanded.

Pawlowski Operative Gets Free Spin

Although Kim Velez regaining a ballot position wasn't Mike Fleck's plan, the Morning Call did allow him some damage control this morning. The reporter wrote , Despite the decision, questions remain about the validity of the signatures on Velez's petitions. Fleck said fewer than 90 of the approximately 120 signatures Velez submitted were valid. Petitions can be formally challenged in court, but the deadline to do so passed March 19. If the reporter knew that the deadline has passed, then she knew that any question about the signatures is now a moot point. She then allowed Fleck to assault Velez even more."It's a legal conundrum," Fleck said. "If she was allowed to be challenged, I firmly believe Kim Velez wouldn't be allowed to be on the ballot. Her withdrawing from the ballot allowed her to run." The real conundrum is why the paper reported Fleck's statement. Velez was allowed to be challenged, by anyone of her opponents, before March 19th. Apparently Fleck didn't firmly believe that a legitimate challenge would have succeeded, or they would have done so. Instead, they resorted to intimidation. Fleck ironically has created more publicity for Velez than his own clients, for which he is being paid.

Morning Call Blog Contest

If you vote for Bernie O'Hare and me today, we'll gladly buy you a hamburger tomorrow. Bernie and I have decided to enter The Morning Call Blog Contest. Unfortunately, rather than being judged by journalists, it's a simple popularity contest. We need you to vote for our blogs, and place the votes every day, until April 22nd. Please consider Bernie (Lehigh Valley Ramblings) for the Politics category, and this blog (molovinsky on allentown) for Opinion. Click here to reach the contest.

The Administration's Goalie

In two very important initiatives, the Administration's advantage was  recently protected at the last second by Tim Benyo, Voter Registration Chief Clerk, an appointed position. Benyo convinced the Save The Water Coalition that they used the wrong procedure, and Kim Velez, that she couldn't withdraw her withdraw. In the Water Lease Petition Drive, the City Solicitor, Jerry Snyder, had scrutinized the law and only ruled that the circulators had to be registered voters of Allentown, and pre-registered with the City Clerk. The City Clerk also functions as the referee on citizen initiatives. When Benyo rejected the water petitions for a ballot question, were Pawlowski and Hanlon really surprised? In the Kim Velez case, Tim Benyo notarized Velez's withdraw form himself, although all petitions must be pre-notarized before being submitted to the Registers Office. Benyo indirectly acknowledged to Velez that he knew that she was approached by an attorney before withdrawing.  I have been withholding this post since Velez withdrew, waiting for yesterday's court decision. Although I previously posted that Brennan acted in a way to deprive Velez of her rights, I felt  that adding Benyo to a possible conspiracy might injure Velez. How large of an apple cart would a judge be willing to overturn? As it turns out, delicate wording was employed in yesterday's decision to protect Brennan from repercussions. Although I withheld this post, I did contact the Water Lease Opposition and explain my suspicions. When the city took the petitions to Benyo, were they surprised that he cited differences between state law and Home Rule Charter in not accepting them? Who really did the research to justify that opinion? Although Benyo was a legal expert in rejecting the water petitions, three weeks later he personally notarized and implemented the withdraw from an obviously intimidated candidate.