Down River 5/27

By John Lipez

Keen Analysis?:

Tradition has it that Down River, shortly after the most recent Pennsylvania election, will provide a sage insight as to what happened. In this case, the election was our May 18 municipal primary and this Down River should contain spot-on analysis.

This time around, there’s not much to write. All May 18 did was to make official the line-up for the final scrum on November 2; there was not much happening last week.

We did see former Beech Creek Mayor Justin Kline trounce sitting Mayor Melvin Coakley in the Democratic primary. And we did see a current Lamar Township supervisor, Mike Geyer, fall to challenger Dan Chappell in the Republican primary. That same GOP supervisors’ primary saw Martin Salinas finish third in a field of three; it was Salinas, you may recall, who earlier this year was serving as a police officer in the township, but had some sort of falling out with the current supervisors. John Q. Public does not really know what that snafu in Lamar Township was all about and sometimes it’s just as well not to know.

There was not a lot going on in terms of head-to-head match-ups in the primary. As of the writing of this column, we don’t know if there were any successful write-in surprises, surprises that could make for interesting challenges in November.

No one ever did step up to run to replace Eric Probert as the Renovo area representative on the Keystone Central school board, so there were no candidates on the ballot and we’ll have to wait until the write-ins are announced to see if anyone qualified to be on the ballot in November. We would hope there is someone in the Probert mold who might still come forward and be willing to give western Clinton County the kind of solid school board representation that Probert has provided.

There is something of an unusual scenario playing out in Wayne Township, home to such disparate types as state Rep. Stephanie Borowicz, former Clinton County Prison Warden Tom Duran, America’s favorite hairdresser Dana Claire Salisbury and Central Mountain assistant wrestling coach Doug Buckwalter.

You need a scorecard to follow what is shaking down relative to the sitting and future supervisors in McElhattan and its suburbs. Prior to last Tuesday’s election, we had the township supervisors’ meeting earlier this month where supervisor Brad Rote resigned as he is moving from the township. The remaining supervisors, Jim Maguire and Dave Calhoun, moved to accept letters of interest for a replacement. It’s understood that’s a 30-day process, after which the supervisors could name a replacement as soon as their June meeting. It’s also understood at least two letters of interest have been submitted, including one from a former Clinton County Commissioner (hint: it’s not Dean Rusty Bottorf, Jim Eckert, Dan Vilello, Joel Long, Adam Coleman, Rich Kyle or Tom Bossert).

As for the Wayne Township primary last week, there was only one candidate on the ballot; that on the Republican side where the aforementioned Tom Duran is a candidate.

No township residents signed up to seek the Democratic nomination. But there were a ton of write-ins, 36 or so on the Republican side, 34 or so on the Democratic side.

A casual Down River canvass of the write-ins showed this: on the GOP ballot – 23 for Dave Calhoun, eight for Terry Condo, three for Pete Smeltz and one each for Deb Smeltz, Dean Rusty Bottorf and a “Wayne Calhoun;” on the Democratic ballot – Dave Calhoun with 22, Duran with five, three for Condo and one for former standout Lock Haven High School wrestler Arnold “Zeifel” Coleman.

Good luck Wayne Township as you sort this all out through the end of the calendar year.

Otherwise, as we look ahead to November, there will not be a lot of high profile races in play. Renovo will see a contest for mayor. Present office holder Tommy Tarantella Jr. took the Democratic nomination without an opponent; ditto Bucktail boys’ basketball coach Gene Bruno for the GOP nomination. That will be one to watch.

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About the Pandemic:

It’s taken about a year or so to feel good, relatively speaking, about where we are dealing with COVID-19.
It should be noted that last Sunday and Monday were the first days that Clinton County did not record one single new case of the virus since the COVID onset more than a year ago.

So, big picture, Clinton County, Pennsylvania, and much of the rest of the world are getting there in terms of getting over this crippling pandemic. Who knew it would take this long? In this column one year ago, it was written:

Ten Weeks In: Here we are, from mid-March now to the cusp of June, still straining to deal with the coronavirus pandemic and the massive upheaval it has caused in our day-to-day existence. But for the first time, we see a ray of light out there, giving us some hope there will be some level of a return to normalcy in the not too distant future. But it won’t be tomorrow and it may not be anything close to the “normalcy” in our daily lives we experienced up until the stay-at-home curtain came down.

Will the curtain go up in time for the start of school in late August or early September? Will the local school day be divided in two, half the students going in the morning, other half later in the day, this all for proper spacing? Will Lock Haven University bring back students or will it continue to conduct its programs online for the fall semester?

It turns out that “ray of light” noted a year ago turned out to be a very small ray. It has taken all of a year to get to the point where relative normalcy is returning to our daily lives. Yes, the cost has been substantial, the loss of life significant. Let’s just say, without getting into the politics of addressing the pandemic, we are moving, day by day, closer to that “normalcy” we all seek. Please do what you can to help us get there.