2009 Primary Election - Tatamy's Candidates

Taken from the Lehigh Valley League of Women Voters May 2009 Primary Voters Guide, here is what Tatamy's candidates have to say:

MAYOR

(Vote for One – 4 Year Term)

REPUBLICAN

LUKE J. DUIGNAM (Incumbent)

DOB: 1927

EDUCATION: High school Scranton Tech, Scranton PA (1945), Schools of continuing education University of Scranton, Bucknell School of Banking, Penn State banking course

CURRENT OCCUPATION: Ret. former banker Naz Natl. B&T 21 years v/pres

QUALIFICATIONS FOR THIS OFFICE: Former Tatamy Boro council and Planning Commission 39 years, Mayor 8 years

RESPONSE: Reducing taxes through commercial area growth. Continue to make the Boro of Tatamy a better community in which to live by addressing the needs and wants of our wonderful citizens.

DEMOCRAT: No challenger


BOROUGH COUNCIL

Vote for not more than Three; 4 year Term)

DEMOCRAT

MICHAEL A. RACZ
No response.



REPUBLICAN

HAZEL E. DeREAMUS

DOB: 1936

EDUCATION: Nazareth Area School District

CURRENT OCCUPATION: Tatamy Borough Sewer Authority secretary-treasurer

QUALIFICATIONS FOR THIS OFFICE: Real Estate Tax Collector 13 years; Earned Income Tax Collector 15 years; Over 25 years working for various accounting firms in the Lehigh Valley; Former officer/bookkeeper Tatamy Fire Company; Borough resident for over 45 years

RESPONSE: Would like to use my knowledge of finance to keep actual expenses in line with the budget during tough financial times.

ROBERT J. HAYES Jr.

DOB: 1958

EDUCATION: 1981, University of Tennessee, Bachelor of Architecture

CURRENT OCCUPATION: Project architect

QUALIFICATIONS FOR THIS OFFICE: Tatamy Borough Planning Commission, 2 years; Tatamy Borough Council, 4 years

RESPONSE: As Tatamy Borough councilman I will endeavor to do what is right as this small borough reacts to the increasing commercial development and vehicular impact caused by our location. I will work to maintain the borough’s sense of historic community and to expand the internal operations to meet the needs of growth.


ROBERT H. FISHER

No response.

Easter Egg Hunt Sunday 4/5/2009

Tatamy Borough's annual Easter Egg Hunt will be held tomorrow, Sunday, April 5, 2009 at 1PM at Braden Park.

I hope to see you there!

Hollo Road - The Saga Continues

** NOTICE ** Although there already is a disclaimer in the header at the top of this blog page, I need to expressly restate that fact. I want noone to mis-interpret that this rant is any way endorsed by, or is any official position of, the Borough of Tatamy. This rant is mine and mine alone. Now on with the story . . .

This afternoon I thought I'd drop a note to Bob Anckaitis, Palmer Township Manager, as a follow-up to our correspondence last week concerning opening the intersection of Hollo Road and ProLogis Parkway, with the hope that I would receive good news. Boy was I wrong.

In a previous post, I learned that Timm Tenges and the folks in Lower Nazareth Township required some sort of reassurances from Palmer Township that Palmer would assume responsibility for some future improvements that were required to support the projected increase in traffic as a result of some of the new construction going on in our area (Chrin project, Majestic, etc.). Palmer submitted to Lower Nazareth's engineering group everything that they asked for. It now appears that Lower Nazareth's Township Manager Timm Tenges is STILL not satisfied. Lower Nazareth is now requesting (perhaps bullying?) Palmer to enter into an intermunicipal agreement. What a crock. It's now painfully obvious to me that Mr. Tenges, and the Chairman of the Lower Nazareth Board of Supervisors Alan Dilsaver along with the rest of the Board of Supervisors don't care about the safety of the folks who risk their lives every time they want to turn left onto 248 from Hollo Road. I can't imagine what kind of intermunicipal agreement is required. Furthermore, I can't imagine why they won't take down the barricades while all this nonsense is worked out. I'm convinced that none of them use this road. If they did, they would know what pain in the you know what it is to try to get out. Nothing will be done until someone gets severely injured - or worse yet, killed.

Mr. Tenges - if you're reading this I would like to remind you and the rest of the Lower Nazareth Supervisors that you are most likely using public funds to signalize what amounts to be a private, dead-end roadway. May I suggest that until whatever beef you have with Palmer Township is worked out, that you turn off the traffic light. It's not doing anyone any good. I had to sit there the other evening - and thought why? Nobody was coming down ProLogis Parkway, but for whatever reason, the light turned red. Ridiculous.

I encourage all of my readers to launch an email/letter writing campaign to the officials in Lower Nazareth (their contact info is below). Explain to them the difficulty that we have trying to get onto Route 248. Explain to them the fact that the recently relocated Majestic plant brought with it a slew of vehicles, that, because ProLogis Parkway and an easy link to Route 248/33 isn't usable, they wind up clogging our roads making their way back to the Slate Belt. Remind them that they're most likely using public money to operate a traffic signal to control a private dead end road. Remind them that we're just plain fed up with their nonsense. I've already done so, and provided a link to this blog post.

Timm Tenges: manager@lowernazareth.com
Alan V. Dilsaver, Chairman: adilsaver@lowernazareth.com
Eric E. Nagle, Vice Chairman: enagle@lowernazareth.com
Ricky T. Johnson: rjohnson@lowernazareth.com
Robert S. Kucsan: rkucsan@lowernazareth.com
Patrick J. Murphy: pmurphy@lowernazareth.com

Lower Nazareth Township
306 Butztown Road
Bethlehem, PA 18020
610.759.7434

I have also forwarded copies of this post to my fellow bloggers, Ross Nunamaker (Nazareth News Over Coffee) and Bernie O'Hare (Lehigh Valley Ramblings), along with Joe Owens from The Express-Times with the hope that they too will post something on their sites to bring more attention to this matter.

Let's hope that this whole mess can be resolved sometime soon.

Traffic Signal Work

Could it be possible that the traffic signal work at the corner of 8th and Main Streets in Tatamy has begun? It would appear so. I'll try to verify, but they've definately started digging holes for what I'm assuming are to be the foundations for the light standards. Now that the spring weather has arrived, I'm guessing that this work will begin in earnest.

It also looks like they're going to be installing lights at the corner of VanBuren and Main (Tatamy Rd).

Tatamy/Stockertown Bridge Update

After reading an online blog post by Joe Owens (Express-Times Editor) a few weeks back, I decided to drop a note to Representative Rich Grucela's office and ask if there was any chance that we could possibly, if nothing else, take a new look at this project and perhaps use some of the new found stimulus money to fund it.

Well, I received a call yesterday from Chuck Lewis, who works for Rep. Grucela who indicated to me that the bridge project is in fact on the "wishlist". There is a meeting sometime in early April with Sen. Wonderling to discuss this and other projects that might be able to use some stimulus funding.

There may be a little glimmer of hope that something may be done. Stay tuned . . .