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Sunday, February 06, 2000 Page: 6
I HAD A pain in my stomach, was examined by my doctor, operated on. During
the operation, my spleen and part of my colon were removed. I was urged to
have chemotherapy. Before doing this, I visited a father at St. Gabriel’s
Church, who blessed and consoled me and applied a replica of the saint to the
area. After the visit to father, I decided not to have chemotherapy. The past
seven years I have had several test and none of them show anything. Draw your
own conclusion to this.
I WOULD LIKE to know if (name of private individual deleted) and his wife
would consider leaving area businesses in the West Hazleton area park free in
their parking lot for the next few months to promote business. I know that
(name deleted) is a good person, and I would like for him to consider that.
I’M CALLING FROM Freeland, and I see that they want to nominate Jane Fonda
as one of the top 100 women in the country. This is really disgusting. I
wonder how the Vietnam vets feel about this. She should be nominated as one of
the worst women in the country.
THIS IS TO the baby raper: You’re in coal country now. We have our own
style of justice, and we do not tolerate this in our day’s society. Animals
don’t do this. … I can’t believe that you came from Hazleton or even the
United States. Where are Children and Youth? I HAVE HAD it with the
Standard-Speaker, ~especially after the obnoxious editorial of Friday, Jan.
28, 2000. I’m an average citizen who, on occasion, reads the Standard-Speaker.
I don’t feel it is worth reading every day. By word of mouth, I do get
interested in a story and like to follow it through to a conclusion. I think
the Standard-Speaker should look into a mirror before spouting sarcastic
remarks about the competition. The Standard-Speaker has had a media monopoly
of Hazleton and surrounding areas for far too long. Worried? The
Standard-Speaker has the nerve to talk about “shameless disregard of
professional standards and human decency.” Last year, where was their
“meaningful effort at establishing the veracity of the charges” when they
plastered a man’s picture on the whole top half of their front page several
times, no less. Did they follow “the most basic rules of journalism to play
fair and to make every effort to get the facts before destroying someone’s
reputation?” … Mr. Yaccino made a comment after one of the football games
that “he only dressed 30 kids.” That got a chuckle, because he only had 30
(if that) kids to dress. He took a football program of up to 80 players and
dwindled it down to 30 with a school that size! What’s wrong with that
picture? A teacher is proven innocent in a court of law but still was unfairly
punished by the Hazleton Area School District. Yet Mr. Yaccino, also a
teacher, can give football players … Editor’s note: We cut off some of your
comments because we’re not sure readers will understand the cases you cite. It
sure sounds like great fodder for a letter to the editor though.
CAN YOU IMAGINE the stupidity of the superintendent of schools, the way it
snowed, she let those kids go to school and then she discharged them. She is
more interested in the football coach job than she is in the students.
AS LONG AS they are going to change the name of the Heights School, why
don’t they change the a Cougars back to the Mountaineers and the colors back
to blue and white?
LOOSEN UP, Times Leader. I’m calling from West Hazleton. Two times today I
got calls from your telemarketers asking me to buy your newspaper. I told them
not to call me again … Editor’s note: Sorry for the nagging. Can you blame
us for pushing a product we’re proud of?
DO YOU HAVE a daily Hazleton SAYSO or is it a Sunday one only?
Editor’s note: We’ve been considering how to handle calls to SAYSO now that
we circulate daily in Hazleton. You can call the number you’ve been calling
and get calls in Sunday, or you can call the Wilkes-Barre number to get calls
in daily. Anyone have another suggestion?
IN THE SAYSO column on Jan. 23 the editor’s note said the Hazleton
supplement will continue to carry editorials and community news. We thought
the national spotlight would focus on general-interest stories. I’m interested
in an important item that should be voted on by the American citizens. We
should not be using Social Security on immigrants. The Democrats have been
spending until our debts are trillions of dollars. Clinton continues to help
other countries. We need to focus on our debts and start paying them. We must
not use Social Security to pay our debts. I would like to hear comments from
the people in the area on this.
IN ORDER FOR Mayor Barletta to recoup the $500,000, here are some of the
things he can do. Go after that company that borrowed $125,000 loan, collect
the $50,000 from Sam Lesante and $25,000 from Jake Ripa. … Go after City
Hall. Cut back in the tax office. You don’t need three girls there when you
don’t collect taxes all year. Build up you city garage, which is in bad shape.
Do away with some of the policemen that we never see.
ACCORDING TO THE USA Today, school districts around the country are
downsizing their office staff, and the Hazleton Area School District is making
theirs bigger.
I WOULD LIKE to know if you can take a look at the sidewalks at Heights
Terrace School. The maintenance department had all day to clean the walks,
since school was closed. My wife has to go pick up my son, and she has to push
a stroller. She has to walk on the road. This is a very dangerous situation.
IT’S A SAD situation in Hazleton when they don’t have the equipment for the
highway department and the fire department for the safety of the people. Their
money is put into exorbitant pensions, salaries and lawsuits, while the
average people who pay the bills have to live on less and less of their
income. The government is not capable of common-sense management. When
officials can’t manage a budget efficiently, it’s time to replace them, not
wait until the city is $500,000 plus in the red.
AFTER BEING CHARGED $1.59 for a gallon of heating oil, I was shocked. Why
doesn’t our government do something about? They have controls over electricity
and water. Why doesn’t the government do something to protect our citizen with
oil prices? We keep protecting Saudi Arabia. Is the oil lobby controlling our
government? What does Kanjorski and Holden have to say about it?
THESE SO-CALLED driving lights that manufacturers are putting on
four-wheel-drive vehicles, how did they ever get approved by the Safety
Council? Why don’t local or state police stop these people on the highway?
Some of them are so high they shine on your windshield. I have been blinded by
them many times. Or are they being misaligned by their owners. One of the most
dangerous things on the road today.
RECENT SNOWSTORM POINTS out the glaring need that this area has for a local
radio station that carries local news and local programming. None of the local
radio stations carried cancellations for the Hazleton School District until
after the television stations had it on for a long time. It’s a shame an area
of this size doesn’t have one.
THAT MASTURBATION issue in the Hazleton Area School District is funny. That
whole bunch of circle … Editor’s note: We cut you off because you went on to
make some harsh comments about the School Board. Is there something else
bothering you?
THOSE POOR PEOPLE in Hazle Township had to suffer again at the hands of a
reckless driver. I think it’s terrible. I think the second driver should be
punished for driving too fast in hazardous conditions and then leaving the
scene of an accident. He should be ashamed of himself.
IF THE CHAMBER would like to entice the people to come downtown and do some
shopping, they should shovel or throw salt on the sidewalks in front of vacant
buildings. They should take a walk downtown and see for themselves.
I WANT TO CONGRATULATE the Times Leader for the new Sunday Greater Hazleton
tabloid. It is always very informative, easy to read and compact. The daily
paper is one step ahead with the news. Thanks to all the reporters and Mark
Guydish for a job well done.
I WOULD LIKE to know who the jerks were that decided to put the new lights
on routes 81 and 924 right by the mall, by Penn State and the Industrial Park.
Don’t people realize how this is going to back traffic up? Who is planning
these things? They probably won’t have to drive around here like the people
who live here. They must have too much time on their hands and too much money
to spend. Why don’t they put some of that money into fixing the roads?
AFTER THE TIMES Leader contacted coach Yaccino, he called back and asked
you to retract this masturbation statement. I have been hearing that the
members of that secret teacher hiring were the same kind of … jerks, with
the superintendent pulling the strings.
I HAVE A SUGGESTION on how Hazleton can save money. I see the city removing
the snow from the businesses in downtown. I don’t see them coming to my house
to remove my snow. Why can’t they charge the businesses so much for each snow
removal?
POLITICIANS HAVE A way of controlling who runs for office. I had decided to
run for state representative and contacted the Luzerne County Courthouse Annex
on Broad Street, and they told me they didn’t know and to contact the
courthouse in Wilkes-Barre. I contacted them, and they didn’t know and
suggested I contact Harrisburg. I wrote to the Bureau of Elections and never
heard anything. I read in the paper that the deadline is now past, so I cannot
run. If the politicians wanted me to run for state representative, I would not
have had any trouble in obtaining these petition.
THE HAZLETON AREA School District in itself is a sham.
I PICKED UP THE newspaper of the Standard-Speaker, and this editorial is
way out of bounds to turn around and say they are going to sue the Times
Leader. This is wrong. John Yaccino should have been fired long time ago. His
wife gets up in front of a board meeting and says everything is false. I have
a grandson, and you would not believe the things that go on at that football
field with that person.
I DIDN’T PUT much stock in those accusations about coach Yaccino until I
heard him hurl his own accusations at Richie Matz, and usually a person
doesn’t do that unless he is trying to deflect away from himself. I never
thought much about Richie Matz as a coach or him being a role model for the
kids. His winning-loss record is nothing to brag about either. Bring back the
old days when we had coaches.
ONCE AGAIN PUTTING lights in on I-81 and Route 924, and they are going to
compound the problem that already exists there with the industrial park and
lines of traffic, when they come out and all the trucks coming out of it. I
don’t know if the state police are aware of it, but the tractor-trailers stop
on the side of the road there when they go into the J&J Food Mart.
I SEE THE BOROUGH hired a new secretary or whatever she is, according to
Mr. Guydish. He also stated that council hires and also fires. I wonder why
they never fired Sharon Corrigan.
FIRST OF ALL, I would like to know what the federal government is doing
about these fuel gouging prices. This fake shortage is a bunch of crap. When
is Clinton going to release some money to Pennsylvania to give us some relief
from these high heating-oil prices. Come on, the poorest state in the nation,
we don’t have zero temperatures. The people are getting sick of it.
JOHN YACCINO’S WITHDRAWING of his allegations reminds me of Bill Clinton
saying he never had sex with that girl and Richard Nixon saying he wasn’t a
crook. How do you just withdraw without making a serious investigation by the
School Board?
KEEP SHAKING THE apple tree, Times Leader. John Yaccino isn’t the only
rotten apple in the Hazleton School District.
I JUST READ an article in the newspaper about the high oil heating prices
and such. An 87-year-old woman had to cut back on her food to keep warm. It’s
very sad about this country. This was a couple days after Bill Clinton was
saying that everyone is so prosperous in this country. People are tired of it.
It’s time for a revolution in this country. People had a revolution over high
tea pricing. It’s time we stick together. We put these people in, and it’s
time to take them out.
IN THIS DAY and age, when you have to work half a year to pay the taxes, I
don’t see where the politicians are saying everyone is prosperous. The working
people are tired of listening to these politicians. As far as the oil prices
go, the Arabs held our people hostage. What about the grain we send them?
Let’s triple the price on that. What about the oil reserve in this country, or
is it only for the congressmen? It’s a prosperous country for the rich and not
the poor.
HAZLETON, WHICH GETS more snow than surrounding areas, still hasn’t learned
how to cope with it. Anyone with common sense could figure out how this can be
done. One side of the street is cleaned, while cars are on the other side,
temporarily. Why not have a section of the city be done at one time?
Announcements can be made on the radio and TV. This could be done too and
would prevent people taking each others’ parking place they have cleaned.
Maybe the Times Leader can get an answer from the highway department. They
probably will use the excuse the plow blades are set a certain way. Then they
can have the plow go the opposite way and have two police cars directing
traffic while it is done.
THE CITY COUNCIL now has the power to recheck contracts previously
negotiated by Marsicano with labor unions, why don’t they have power to now
approve contracts provided previously negotiated by the Marsicano who
purchased the A.D.Thomas Building on the behalf of the city several years ago
for $1? The city owned the A.D. Thomas building, and they should have kept it.
Who is calling the shots in Hazleton, City Council or the Hazleton Area School
District.