Near the conclusion of Tuesday\u2019s Tyrone Borough Council meeting, Mayor Patricia Stoner commented on an article which appeared in Monday\u2019s edition of The Daily Herald.
\nThe mayor\u2019s comments and the article also drew a response from several of the council members during a 20-minute long discussion.
\nStoner detailed items in an article which reported the announcement of Dan Meckes as a candidate for council in the 2005 May Primary.
\nIn the article, Meckes outlined his reasons for running for office. He voiced concerns about last year\u2019s flood and what the borough could have done or should do to prevent such floods, saying the flood \u201cforced my decision.\u201d
\nHe also voiced concerns regarding how the borough has operated during the last several years. According to his press release, it is Meckes\u2019 belief council ignored its responsibility to the voters and gave their powers to the mayor, going against the borough\u2019s home rule charter.
\nMeckes voiced other concerns about one of the candidates running for mayor saying he did not want a \u201cpuppet mayor.\u201d He said the candidate had been mentored by Mayor Stoner prior to making his announcement.
\nHe also expressed concern over separation of church and state issues since that candidate is a religious leader in the community.
\nMeckes outlined his goals, if elected, including helping residents with housing issues, learning the financial status of the borough and wanting a \u201cfully-qualified experienced borough manager\u201d and wanting to halt \u201cdestruction of tax-generating areas for private gain.\u201d
\nIn addition to her response to Meckes\u2019 comments, Mayor Stoner also indicated she thought The Daily Herald had crossed the line in publishing the article.
\nMayor Stoner said of Meckes, \u201cHe takes me to task, give it up Dan, I\u2019m not running.\u201d
\nThe mayor announced last month she had decided not to seek a third term in office.
\nOf the newspaper\u2019s coverage, she said, \u201c…there is a fine line and I think they\u2019ve crossed it.\u201d
\nDuring her comments, the mayor detailed the efforts she has made in regard to flood issues in the borough. She cited a FEMA insurance study regarding flood plains and said she has worked with the Corps of Engineers, the National Guard and the Blair County Conservation Corps and DEP.
\nShe noted a referendum was put on the ballot and it was the voters who decided \u201cnot to go on with the flood plain.\u201d
\nShe said work on the study was begun in the 1970s and completed more than 20 years ago.
\n\u201cNow everything has changed,\u201d said Stoner. \u201cThey won\u2019t dredge the river now, let\u2019s quit talking about dredging the river. They are not going to do it.\u201d
\nThe mayor said, \u201cI don\u2019t like giving the impression that we have done nothing. I\u2019ve worked with those people and they told me there was absolutely nothing we could have done about that flood. There was nothing we could have done beforehand or after to stop that flood. We did everything right, we (received) commendations from emergency management people that we have done what we should have been doing.
\n\u201cI think we need to stop making statements to incite people, before you have the facts,\u201d the mayor continued.
\nShe explained transportation money set aside for downtown improvement projects such as Streetscape couldn\u2019t be converted to be used for flood control.
\n In his press release announcing his candidacy, Meckes had suggested something could have been done about the flooding if money for those type of projects had been used for flood prevention.
\nThe mayor said she had refrained from commenting in the past about other statements Meckes had made through letters to the editor. However, she indicated she wanted to speak out now and would continue to do so in the future.
\nStoner expressed her displeasure with the publication of the article on Meckes by saying, \u201cI think it\u2019s disgraceful that The Herald would print this.\u201d
\nIt was also noted that solicitor Larry Clapper was offended at comments made by Meckes that council had operated illegally. During the meeting, Clapper said the borough had not operated in an illegal way.
\nIn regards to Meckes, the mayor said, \u201cThere is no one that has to be this mean.\u201d
\nShe said what Meckes had to say didn\u2019t make any sense.
\nAt one point, the mayor suggested the borough might consider changing which publication it uses to place legal ads and notices.
\nStill later she added, \u201cI\u2019ve had it, I\u2019m not a candidate, I\u2019m not here to fight because I\u2019m a candidate, I\u2019m here to say this is trash and this is garbage.\u201d
\nOther council members expressed concerns about the negativity of Meckes\u2019 comments and The Herald\u2019s coverage.
\nOne council member, William Latchford, wondered if Meckes had paid for the article and questioned its front page positioning. Latchford said he was under the impression the newspaper was going to take a more positive stance on Tyrone.
\n\u201cThis certainly isn\u2019t positive to be on the front page of The Daily Herald, our hometown newspaper cuts it down every chance it gets.\u201d
\nThe mayor said such coverage might affect an industry\u2019s decision to locate here.
\nCouncilman Bill Fink said, \u201cYou can\u2019t expect them to censor. If in fact there is a response to this, then respond to it.\u201d
\nThe mayor contended the newspaper could chose to deny coverage to anyone.
\nAnother councilman, Don Boytim, raised questions about the paper\u2019s responsibility to investigate the legitimacy of statements given to the paper. Still another councilperson wanted to know how the newspaper obtained a photograph of Meckes printed with the article.
\nAfter the meeting, another member of council who did not want to be quoted by name expressed concerns that the March 7 article was not fair and balanced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Near the conclusion of Tuesday\u2019s Tyrone Borough Council meeting, Mayor Patricia Stoner commented on an article which appeared in Monday\u2019s edition of The Daily Herald. The mayor\u2019s comments and the article also drew a response from several of the council members during a 20-minute long discussion. Stoner detailed items in an article which reported the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43305","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=43305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43305\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}