Antennas and the Upcoming Primary

Two short news items today, one from the past, one for the future.

CELL PHONE ANTENNAS

Remember the cellular antennas that Cingular and T-Mobile are moving off the hospital roof? The Times Herald reported that there was a Zoning Board meeting about it on April 10. Since this was a Thursday, it wasn't a normally scheduled meeting. It was never listed on the town calendar. I suppose it might have been advertized in the paper, but I'm guessing most residents never knew it took place.

The result of that meeting is that, thankfully, the 84-foot cell tower on wheels was denied. However, all the antennas will now be placed on the elevator penthouse of the parking garage. This tower is supposed to be less than 15 feet above the roof of the elevator. This is only a temporary location, approved for 9 months. Still, if Einstein and Elon are allowed to go through with their demolition of the hospital, I'm not sure where those antenna would be placed permanently. I should note that, according to the codes department, there's been no application yet for a demolition permit.

PRIMARY ELECTION

The primary election is Tuesday, May 20th. Put it on your calendar and plan to vote because this is an EXTREMELY important election. We'll be voting for candidates for governor, lieutenant governor, US congressional representative, and state legislature. Except for the latter, there's more than one choice on both the Democratic and Republican tickets. (You can view a sample ballot at http://www.smartvoter.org/ - just put in your address and zip.)

We're in District 13-the epitome of gerrymandering.

It's likely, especially in the US Congress race, that the person you vote for in the primary will end up representing us. So don't stay home, and don't simply go into the voting booth and play eeny-meeny-miny-moe. Don't rely on flyers you get from candidates or TV ads. Do your homework. Check candidates' websites and articles from reliable news sources--find out where everyone stands on the issues. I'll report whatever I can find out.

For governor, there are 2 Republicans running: Tom Corbett and Robert Guzzardi. On the Democratic ballot, you have 4 choices: Robert McCord, Katie McGinty, Allyson Schwartz, and Tom Wolf. Frankly, all I know at the moment is that Corbett has taken education funding away, as well as state funds for things like libraries, and he's given money our schools desperately need to the fracking industry. He's also refused to allow state health insurance exchanges or expanded Medicaid in the state. We have so many low income families and self-employed individuals in Norristown, many of whom don't qualify for Medicaid under the current guidelines, yet they're now required to buy health insurance. They end up paying more than they can afford in premiums. So my take is, for the good of Norristown, we need a new governor. As for where the other candidates stand, I'll let you know what I uncover.
 

Candidates for PA's 13th

Yesterday I had the chance to meet 2 of the candidates running for our congressional rep--Daylin Leach and Val Arkoosh. I asked both of them what they'd do to help Norristown if they were elected. I'm not going to tell you their answers yet. I'm going to wait and see if I can get replies from the other candidates first. On the Democratic side, Brendan Boyle and Marjorie Margolies are also on the ballot. Beverly Plosa-Bowser and Carson Dee Adcock are running as Republicans. I've heard that there have been some debates, though apparently none around here.

Perhaps one or more of our organizations would sponsor a debate at one of our theaters? It might be telling just to see who'd be willing to come to Norristown.

As I hear of candidate appearances or debates, I'll list them here on the Diary, so you can go meet these candidates and question them yourselves. The only one I know of right now is a Meet-And-Greet for Daylin Leach at a private home in Bluebell on May 4th from 3 to 4:30 pm. If you want to go, call Beverly at 610-275-7665 for directions.