Lower Burrell is quiet, too quiet

Carolyn Gavasto thinks the town is too quiet. So in order to shake things up, her store Next To Nature, is organizing a pajama party benefit for the Tarentum-based Alle-Kiski HOPE Center. Yesterday's Valley News Dispatch carries a story about the benefit event.

The Alle-Kiski HOPE Center is the local domestic violence center, offering a crisis hotline, a shelter, counseling, education, and advocacy.

Women who want to register for the pajama party can call the store at 724-339-3822. Next To Nature is located at 3293 Leechburgh Road, Lower Burrell and is a gift shop featuring a variety of pieces of jewelry, art, and collectibles. The store is divided into several rooms in which the goods are arranged thematically.

For example, the Sugar and Spice room featured items for the kitchen, and the day I visited, coffee was made for any visitors.

The Almost Heaven room featured angels.

The Pocketful of Posies room room features dolls and baby items.

Next To Nature also has an online store.

While I was visiting at the store they were wrapping gifts that had been donated for the pajama party, and came across a cross with the inscription MMLJ. They asked me if I knew what it stood for. It certainly was not a traditional inscription on a Christian item. I hazarded a guess: "My Mother Loves Jesus."

They were impressed.

I was wrong.

A short internet search led me to the explanation. But what I am trying to figure out is why God would give a Christian ministry four words that "create an immediate response from God", and then allow those four words to be trademarked and copyrighted, limiting who can use them and where they can put them in making the grace of God available to others. Shades of the indulgences controversy of centuries ago ....

File under : Hope Center, Lower Burrell, Tarentum, domestic violence, religion

Wondering if answers will come out of the McDonald's 'Truth Tour'

I've blogged here and here about the communications between the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and McDonald's, pressuring the restaurant chain to work with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers in ensuring that tomato pickers earn an extra penny a pound.

Two PC(USA) News Service stories this week told about a letter writing campaign to McDonald's and a "Truth Tour" of the Southeast and Midwest by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.

The CIW will ask McDonald's for the following:

• The right to a fair wage, after more than 25 years of sub-poverty wages and stagnant piece rates;
• The right for farmworkers to participate in the decisions that affect their lives, after decades of sweatshop conditions and humiliating labor relations;
• The right to a real code of conduct based on modern labor standards, after McDonald’s and its suppliers unilaterally imposed a hollow code of conduct comprised of minimal labor standards and suspect monitoring.

I agree that the farmworkers are entitled to a fair wage and to participate in decisions that affect their lives.

When I compared the Socially Accountable Farm Employers code (the one described as "a hollow code of conduct comprised of minimal labor standards and suspect monitoring") with the YUM! code developed in cooperation with the CIW, I observed that the SAFE code was reasonable and even addressed some issues on which the YUM! code was silent. The YUM code is as full of language alluding to compliance with all applicable laws as is the SAFE code. Both codes intend to set up mechanisms for monitoring compliance. I don't see why one system of monitoring is more suspect than the other.

The major difference in my view between the McDonald's response and the Yum! response is that Taco Bell (one of the Yum! brands) actually is paying a penny more per pound for the tomatoes and is ensuring that the extra pennies get passed on to the workers. This part of the Yum! response achieves actual justice.

So I have some questions for the Truth Tour.

1. Why is McDonald's any more culpable for the "decades of sweatshop conditions and humiliating labor relations" than I am when I go to the supermarket and buy a pack of tomatoes off the shelf?

2. How can customers like myself ensure that the workers who pick tomatoes are paid fairly for the identifiable tomatoes we purchase?

3. With which vendor or vendors is McDonald's supposed to talk in ensuring that the farmworkers get the pay they deserve? (In the recent Taco Bell boycott, the CIW was asking Taco Bell to work with its main vendor Six L's in paying a penny more a pound and passing it on to the workers.)

4. Is the CIW criticism of the SAFE code any more substantial than the criticism that it "Did Not Originate Here"?

File under : PCUSA, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), business, justice

Is this a genuine Catch-22?

I'm still mulling last week's story and Saturday's editorial in the Valley News Dispatch.

I am well aware that the public schools need to care about how to get the funding that they need, and I resonate with the concern for how to make sure the young people in our community get a quality education.

But somehow the description of this Catch-22 sounds like the claim that people on welfare have a disincentive to getting jobs because then they would lose a source of income they have relied upon.

As I understand it, the Title I money is distributed to the school districts where there is actual need as measured by a number of factors. Success in education should produce results that change the level of need.

The article and editorial have pointed out a dilemma educators face. It would be a shame if educators experienced the current system of funding public education as a disincentive to doing their very best to help students succeed.

File under : Highlands, public education

A slight case of innumeracy

In the current WTAE story on voting down the International Baccalaureate program in Upper St. Clair you will find the astounding statement that:

The $80,000 price tag on the program is about one percent of the school's $50 million budget.

Where do these people learn to do math?

And if 0.16% of the school's budget might help to reduce innumeracy, is it really too much to spend?

File under : public education

Tarentum Borough Council debates recreation issues

The Tarentum Borough Council held a 45-minute open meeting on February 20, 2006. Two issues related to recreation became issues on which there was disagreement. After taking a number of other actions, the Council went into executive session. What follows is a report of the significant events in the public part of the meeting.

At the time of Citizen Comments, one resident raised a concern about too many people parking too close to the corner of Grantham and West 9th. Councilman Gutonski stated that there was a similar problem at the corner of Grantham and West 8th, and that when the weather improved the borough would paint yellow lines on the curbs of those corners to resolve the problem.

At the time of the Mayor's report, Mayor Wolfe restated his desire that the skate park should not be built in Tarentum. Council President Magnetta explained the status of the skateboard park project: the borough has not yet heard from the county whether the project can be moved to the alternate location near Dreshar Stadium, and the borough has learned that the CDBG grant has been cut to $104,032. President Magnetta recognized the presence of Jim Burn, a member of the Allegheny County Council. As the mayor of Millvale, Burn had included a skatepark as part of major riverfront redevelopment. He said that at the time they began the project they had some of the same fears that Mayor Wolfe had expressed, but that in the four years that Millvale has had the skatepark, the problems have not manifested.

The Council appointed Councilwoman Mary Newcomer as a delegate to the Allegheny County Council of Boroughs, and Joe Davidek as an alternate to the same council.

The Council voted to "pay Muir Construction [sic] per court order for Corbet St project in the amount of $33,943.31." It appears that the court order was rendered in a case titled "Murrer Construction, Inc. v. Borough of Tarentum". The case involved payments to a contractor that were withheld, as Judge Judith Friedman said, "for no valid reason." (Memorandum in support of order, Dec 23, 2005. Page 6f.) The payment with penalties and interest amounted to $15,214.56. The plaintiff's reasonable counsel fees amounted to $18,728.75.

The Council approved the appointment of Pete Varos to the Civil Service Commission. No answer was given to Councilwoman Sopcak's question why there were no interviews of the candidates who had expressed interest in the position.

After some debate the Council voted to give Dynamite Daycare permission to have a petting zoo and pony rides at their graduation ceremony regularly held in Riverview Park. The Council voted to approve the lease with the Highlands Little Leage for the 2006 baseball and softball season. The Council also approved the Highland Hose to use Riverview Park for the Tarentum Festival June 4-11, 2006.

There was some confusion at the point in the report of the Parks and Recreation Committee when Council President Magnetta asked the council to appoint a list of ten volunteers as a recreation commission. When Councilwoman Sopcak asked whether this group was intended to be the same as the Borough's Recreation Board, she received an affirmative response. She pointed out that under the borough's code in chapter 61, the Recreation Board was to consist of nine members who were elected to five year terms (after the initial board was elected to staggered terms from one to five years). The Borough's solicitor was of the opinion that the existing appointments could be terminated without cause, but will need to research the matter. The Council took no action at this meeting to set aside the existing Recreation Board. Council President Magnetta had expressed his intention at an earlier meeting this year to form a group of volunteers to help with recreation programs for the borough; it was unfortunate that no one had realized until this meeting that the group he wanted to form was to have the same purpose as an already existing group composed of people elected with specific terms.

When the Council went into executive session, the purpose was to hire a labor attorney to complete current negotiations with IBEW, and to hire a labor attorney for all future labor contracts.

Although there were some difficult points in this short meeting at which the discussion could have become rancorous, the council members remained civil throughout.

File under : Tarentum, government, law, politics, recreation, skateboard park

Just in case there was any doubt

Just in case there was any doubt, the reserved pastor did watch the Super Bowl, and was cheering for the right team.

File under : Pittsburgh, Tarentum, sports

Wolverines are not devils

Before the mystery gets too deep and confusing, the poster above was spotted recently in the window of a building in Tarentum that has appeared abandoned and vacant for years.

In a couple of weeks the store that will open in that building will be Superior Sports Cards, which is moving from the Highland Mall in Natrona Heights.

The poster was initially identified on the internet as a cartoon of Satan. I think there is a simpler explanation.

Perhaps the poster is a depiction of the graphic novel character Wolverine.

File under : Tarentum, business, wierd