{"id":3950,"date":"2008-09-13T09:56:14","date_gmt":"2008-09-13T13:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/v3\/?p=3950"},"modified":"2008-09-16T10:03:18","modified_gmt":"2008-09-16T14:03:18","slug":"spotlight-on-senator-john-eichelberger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/?p=3950","title":{"rendered":"Spotlight on Senator John Eichelberger"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Republican State Senator John Eichelberger took some time out of his busy schedule to visit The Daily Herald office this week to discuss how things have been going over the past year.
\nIn the district, Eichelberger remains busy.
\nLast year, he participated in 250 different functions in the 30th District, such as meetings, parades, speaking events, veterans services and more, including events in the Tyrone area.
\n\u201cI think it\u2019s important for people to have access to someone in public office,\u201d Eichelberger said, \u201cand it gives me an opportunity to get to know everybody\u2019s issues and problems.\u201d
\nOver the last year, he also hosted a senior expo, emergency services workshop, a booth at the Jaffa Sports Show, local economic meetings, town hall meetings and so on. He\u2019ll have a booth at the upcoming Farm\/City Day in Tyrone as well.
\n\u201cOur largest town hall meeting was here in Tyrone,\u201d he added.
\nAnother big part of last year was getting his offices up and running. Eichelberger has four new offices in the 30th District that are \u201cvisible and accessible\u201d \u2013 located in Hollidaysburg, Smithfield Township, McConnellsburg and Bedford.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re fully prepared to do all the work that traditionally the state representatives have done,\u201d explained Eichelberger, noting that his office staff can do full-service constituent work, which hasn\u2019t been done that way in the past.
\nIn Harrisburg, Eichelberger also remains active.
\nHe is currently on seven committees, which is more than anybody else in the senate.
\n\u201cI haven\u2019t missed a vote on anything so far,\u201d added Eichelberger. \u201cI\u2019ve made every committee vote, and I\u2019ve made every vote on the floor of the senate. I have a 100-percent voting record.\u201d
\nEichelberger has also written several pieces of legislation, \u201ca lot of them dealing with good government reforms like the bonus-ban bill.\u201d
\nThe \u201cbonus gate\u201d investigation is something he got started by going to the attorney general and asking him to investigate the legislature about any illegal activity that happened with the bonuses in the past. He said this investigation will go into next year.
\nHe was chosen to debate the Democrats on the marriage protection amendment on PCN earlier this year, and Eichelberger has also written a child predators bill and the conscientious objective act.
\nEichelberger said his main goals are to focus on \u201cgood government reform\u201d, \u201csocially conservative issues\u201d and \u201cfiscal and business issues\u201d.
\nAlso, Eichelberger was a co-sponsor of the open government bill that was passed this year, which he said opened up a lot of records to the public.
\nHe added that, \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of things we did that are good for transparency and open government.\u201d
\nAs for the Tyrone area, he acknowledged that continuing issues include wind turbines, natural gas drilling and high gasoline and utility prices.
\nHe said he was asked to sponsor a bill to put some basic criteria into state law for siting wind turbines.
\n\u201cRight now, it all falls on the local government,\u201d said Eichelberger, adding that it seems like in this case, the local municipalities, environmental groups and wind mill companies would like some sort of basic criteria put into place by the state.
\nOn the issue of possible natural gas leases, he said, \u201cThat is a very important issue for people because these leases are complex and the price varies greatly.\u201d
\nHe moved on by saying, \u201cA couple of things that are coming up that are a big concern to everybody \u2013 one is the rate caps on electricity, and the other one is sewage rates from the Chesapeake Bay, and those are two issues that the state\u2019s dealing with.\u201d
\nEichelberger said he believes the electricity rate caps will come off and that people\u2019s electricity rates will go up 30 to 60 percent in 2010.
\nAlso in 2010, the Chesapeake Bay federal requirements will be in place, and people\u2019s sewage rates could go up quite a bit, depending on the sewage plant.
\n\u201cThat is a very big issue. In fact, arguably, it\u2019s the most important issue in the 30th district,\u201d Eichelberger said about the Chesapeake Bay mandates.
\nIn the future, Eichelberger will be working on a lobbyist reform piece, a piece on competitive bidding and legislation for municipal pensions.
\nFor the latest information on Senator Eichelberger, visit his website at www.senatoreichelberger.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Republican State Senator John Eichelberger took some time out of his busy schedule to visit The Daily Herald office this week to discuss how things have been going over the past year. In the district, Eichelberger remains busy. Last year, he participated in 250 different functions in the 30th District, such as meetings, parades, speaking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area","category-excerpts-from-the-tyrone-daily-herald"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3950\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}