Former Daily Herald Editor Dan Meckes has filed his petition with the director of Blair County Elections and is on the Democratic ballot for Tyrone Borough Council.
\nMeckes was unsuccessful in a final week write-in candidacy two years ago.
\n\u201cIt’s a long story why I am running,\u201d said Meckes. \u201cIt started 48 years ago. I was a seventh and eighth grade english teacher in the small ranching community of LaVeta, Colorado. The first day of class, I met a boy who has been sitting on my shoulder for the past nine months, Freddie Sanchez. He was every teachers dream and nightmare rolled into one. He had an IQ off the charts and an impish sense of humor which surfaced the moment he was bored.\u201d
\nAs the story goes, Meckes helped steer Sanchez from joining an up and coming street gang in Colorado called the Pachukos, by purchasing the young man a trumpet. That trumped led to a PHD degree.
\n\u201cI told Freddie during one of our talks that education was his way out of LaVeta,\u201d said Meckes. \u201cEducation was the sword with which to fight poverty and prejudice. He’d agree and yelp, with his fist raised high, to punch the sky, Viva La Revolution!\u201d
\nFreddie died in October of 1989 and in calling friends and those who worked with him, Meckes has the beginnings of a book.
\n\u201cAs I made this sentimental journey through his life it struck me how much he had accomplished,\u201d said Meckes. \u201cIt was though the young Freddie, whom I had known very well, was sitting on my shoulder laughing at my fulminations in letters to the editor. With every one I fired off, he’d say, Aye Yi! Don’ you Anglos have a saying about putting your pesos where your mouth is. And so, finally I am doing just that, I owe him.\u201d
\nWith the thoughts of Freddie Sanchez in mind, Meckes is tossing his hat in the ring for a borough council seat.
\n\u201cI am running because I totally disagree with the mind set of the current mayor and council,\u201d said Meckes. \u201cI believe the entire community should be benefitting from the grants and monies which have been flowing into this elitist quagmire dubbed \u2018Streetscape\u2019 which benefits only the downtown landlords. If the current mayor and council truly served the persons who elected them, funds would have been released to repair substandard housing owned by tax paying citizens, among whom our current mayor-tax collector-treasurer is not. In fact I believe the current mayor has enacted an illegal coup. She is now mayor, treasurer, tax collector and borough manager. She is operating totally outside the Home Rule Charter under which she was elected. And she is totally unqualified and without credentials for any position except politician at which she is excellent. Of course, so is any other banana republic dictator!\u201d
\nMeckes is strongly opposed to the many executive sessions held by the current council.
\n\u201cI am totally against the obvious current missuse of executive sessions by the current mayor and council,\u201d said Meckes. \u201cIf elected, I will have no part of hiding public business within private executive sessions. Neither will I take part in telephone conferences to line up all the ducks before going into public council meeting.\u201d
\nThe Park Avenue resident is running on his own agenda.
\n\u201cI am not a member of any team,\u201d said Meckes. \u201cMy motives for running are mine alone and my wagon is hitched to no other’s horse. I will not take part in any \u2018Meet the candidates nights\u2019, club forums or confrontations. I feel the town surely knows where I stand vis-a-vis the current mayor and council by now.\u201d
\nMeckes views his candidacy as a call to action.
\n\u201cFor two or three years, I have been writing my views of the shenannigans of the current mayor and council with the hope of lighting a fire under many candidates for borough council and mayor,\u201d said Meckes. \u201cI had hoped that there would be many people willing to give their time to create a borough governing body which would truly represent the entire borough. I deliberately held off turning in my candidates petition in the hope that there would be a surefeit of candidates and it would not be necessary to turn it in. Imagine my amazement to find on Monday morning, March 10, only three others had done so. As the ghost on my shoulder urges, I am putting my pesos where my mouth is. The beat goes on.\u201d
\nMeckes has a a Bachelors of Arts degree from Penn State University and was director of publication for Delaware County Community College and Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. He also served as assistant to the president for community relations for Williamsport Community College.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former Daily Herald Editor Dan Meckes has filed his petition with the director of Blair County Elections and is on the Democratic ballot for Tyrone Borough Council. Meckes was unsuccessful in a final week write-in candidacy two years ago. \u201cIt’s a long story why I am running,\u201d said Meckes. \u201cIt started 48 years ago. I […]<\/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-47161","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\/47161","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=47161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47161\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}