Down River – March 6, 2014
And the Winner Is…
That’s quite a cross section, the four candidates for the vacant seat on Lock Haven City Council.
The best part of the story is that four city residents are willing to step up and serve, this in a day when community service doesn’t quite draw the participation level it once did.
We’re curious to see the selection council makes. Tradition has it that the choice would be of the same political party as the departed council member but there have been soundings that may not be the case this time.
Lynda Carey, who stepped down a month ago, is a Republican. The current council can choose one from among almost any political stripe, Republican, Democrat, even including independent Richard Morris (yes, that Richard Morris).
Let’s all tune in March 17 to find out the winner. In the meantime congrats to the four candidates for their willingness to serve.
And as Mayor Rick Vilello pointed out in a story in this week’s Record, they didn’t even ask what the pay would be. There is some question as to whether they’d be drawing Carey’s $1,200 a year or the $3,600 for new council members effective this year; either way compensation appeared not to be an issue in their desire to serve the city.
Free Cheese Cubes Too:
While Lock Haven isn’t having any trouble getting folks to step up to serve on council, Clinton County has some work to do to fill several dozen poll worker vacancies across the county.
County voter registration director/175th birthday party planner Maria Boileau shared her plight with the public by way of an appearance at the county commissioners’ work session earlier this week.
She has circulated a list of 20 county municipalities currently without one, two or even three of the requisite three board of elections’ workers for each voting precinct in the county.
There is not a lot of rhyme or reason as to where these vacancies are cropping up, but a couple thoughts occur.
First and foremost, this county really needs to consolidate more than a few of its myriad local municipalities.
As a for instance, how about East and West Keating Townships? There are virtually no people left in the Keating portion of the county so it’s understandable there would be difficulty in finding poll workers.
Better still, just turn the keys for West Keating over to adjacent Clearfield County.
One election night some years ago we learned from the “girls from over the mountain” that their needs and wants are met more by going to Clearfield than traveling over that mountain to come down to Renovo and Lock Haven. If my recollection is correct, on election night they do in fact head towards Interstate 80 to begin the process of delivering the results from their handful of voters to the Garden Building in Lock Haven.
We checked some numbers from last November’s municipal election to see what the turnout was in three townships currently without a judge of elections and minus majority and minority inspectors:
Out of 42 eligible voters in West Keating, 14 voted; out of 15 eligible voters in East Keating, four voted; and out of 43 eligible voters in Grugan Township (that’s the one with all the state natural gas money in its coffers), 16 voted. Not a lot of bang for the county buck.
And one of these days, and I am not sure if it is a city or county responsibility (I would think the former), someone should seek to combine/consolidate Lock Haven’s five wards.
The number of registered voters in each ward varies greatly, as does the voter turnout. Those voting by ward last November: first ward, 106; second ward, 56; third ward, 246; fourth ward, 317; and fifth ward, 137.
Those numbers are greatly skewed every presidential election year when many Lock Haven University students get involved in the voting process while attending the local school located in the third ward.
Does Lock Haven need five wards for voting purposes? Does the antiquated ward system serve any useful purpose at this point, other than perhaps for planning and related logistical activities?
But change in the area of governmental reform is slow here. I was taken aback at the county’s birthday kickoff affair in January when it was announced we had three county auditors when our favorite county kicked off 175 years ago and we still have three auditors doing, we presume, pretty much the same thing, whatever that is, 175 years later (note to editor Lynn: keep an eye out for a letter of rebuttal from one of the current auditors).
But back to the need for poll workers: the pay is not bad, varying from $145 to $165 a day for pretty much sun-up to sun-down work in the spring and November election days, plus a couple other fringes ranging from gas mileage to free food election night at the Garden Building.
The point here is the time might be at hand to look at our county and how some of its services are provided.
The county not long ago eliminated its two jury commissioners and its judicial wing did not collapse. It could very well be time to look to see if there is a better way, within the confines of anachronistic state law, to reconfigure our voting precincts.
