Nice thing about 17% elections, if you get one really dedicated group it's easier to swing it your way.

You would think that you and the other self proclaimed know it all Stony would have realized by now the neighborhood watch groups are formed by groups of concerned citizens. They are not formed by police or elected officials. Do a quick search on it and you may have some help pulling your heads out of you #$$es. Where and when did our police chief PROMISE what you claim? Did you any Stony volunteer?

Those Better in Bradford commercials have been airing in the spring time for many years. Nothing new there. Great way for the radio station to make some money by trying to get people to focus on some of the many positives about the area instead of all the negatives booted around by the small circle on this site daily.

On the subject of blight, I recently read that the city is about to spend $200K on demolition. The current mayor has been very critical of code enforcement and not so long ago referred to it as an epic failure. Doesn't sound like he's trying to skirt the issue to me.

Newt, i am with you on a couple points, but Stony is exactly right about most of his. One being that mayor Riel would have been the biggest fan of a site like Bradford today had it been around when he was running for office. It would have been a much more effective way to get his word out about the sitting mayor, police chief, fire chief, etc, than all of those slanderous signs he used to hang up around town. He may not have ended up in court either. I am also pretty sure that the majority of the "small circle" of critics here on BT were at one time, staunch supporters of Mr. Riels, be it for council and/or either of his runs for mayor. Some may still be. I will agree that mayor Riel has never been a big fan of Code Enforcement. As far as the neighborhood watch is concerned, yes citizens are what ultimately make it work, but the mayor and police department needed to do more than they did to encourage, support and facilitate getting it off the ground. That did not happen. One area that the working taxpayers of Bradford are really sick of, is the lowlife factor here in Bradford. This personally is a dealbreaker for me, as well as a lot of Bradford residents that i talk to frequently. I really hope the mayor figures out a way soon to clean up the crime and drugs in our city, increase the visibility of the police, and be more open with citizens about all of it.

I never claimed to know it all! BUT I did correctly predict that "the powers that be" wouldn't let a neighborhood watch form in Bradford. For reasons I won't go into here.

Quit with the smoke and mirrors about the citizens not the police forming the neighborhood watch. Yes, citizens can call for it, and help organize it, but they have to work with a police agency to make it work. As I understand it, there was a civilian city servant and a police officer from the Bradford police department who was assigned to get it going. Why did they drop the ball and stop calling for meetings?

I have been in favor of the neighborhood watch from the beginning, and would have done all I could to support the idea, however, I didn't volunteer to be a block captain just because I'm often away and I believe there are others who would make better block captains in my particular area.








The commercials just simply sound disingenuous! Most residents just laugh about them! They are just a joke and a bad joke at that!

If I may speak for the citizens, we would rather hear a commercial about how our city government is addressing some of the more serious problems and what positive steps are being taken to minimize or eliminate some of them.

Pick a topic that needs to be addressed: teen pregnancy, drug use, drug sales, drug related crime, blight, domestic violence, bad roads, illegal vehicles running up and down the streets, cars being broken into, homes being broken into, drug related violence ...... Just to name a few!

This site also talks about great things in Bradford, people who make a positive difference and great things about living in Bradford.

Having the University of Pitt in Bradford is a great thing that can't be overstated, the Tuna Valley Trails Association does great things for our area, the water authority opening up the reservoirs for recreation is a great thing, the farmers market is a great attraction as is the lunch in the square, and how many times did I personally take crap from posters because I defended the mayor and what he was doing to make this place a better place for the residents? We talk about a lot of stuff here, good and bad!

You can even say that the mayor himself "taught" us to complain about stuff in an effort to make it better or to make changes!

"We" did complain about Code Enforcement quite a lot here and look what happened .... we now have a much better functioning and more fair Code Enforcement team who is doing a great job! The new team was dumped with quite a mess and they really seem to be sorting through it the best they can.








And is that something to brag about? Demolishing houses and therefore further reducing the tax base that the rest of us citizens have to bear the burden for? I'd rather see a program (from the OECD?) that REBUILDS the dilapidated houses one by one keeping them on the tax roles. Many ARE savable (having done it myself), but some may take more work than others. Look what the OECD did with Onifro Street ..... once one of the worst blighted neighborhoods in town, that is now one of the better neighborhoods.

Demolishing houses is a FAILURE not, a success to brag about!









How is it OK for him to complain about "stuff" and not anybody else complain about the same type of incompetency?

Why is there a double standard?

Why the hypocrisy?

We should let the readers and the rest of the town decide who has their heads up their asses or worse .... the asses of somebody else!

I am not 100% sure on this, but I think the radio station that is running these ads could be running them as PSA's (Public Service Announcments) which the station does not charge to run the spot. Maybe someone can answer this? From what I remember when I was in radio, a radio station by law had to run a certain amount of PSA's during the year. That law could of changed since the FCC has relaxed a lot of laws since I was in radio.

I just heard another one but from Sam Sylvester. It wasnt bad, it sounded like his words, not scripted at all.

This guy was (allegedly) involved in an attempted robbery and terroristic threats to a local merchant before this incident. Maybe its just me, but I dont think we will be hearing a "better in Bradford" ad from him anytime soon. http://1490newsblog.blogspot.com/2012/0 ... l?spref=fb

Here's a plug for Tez and his Bradford Pa news and info site:

http://www.bradfordnews.net/2012/04/res ... more-13739

It's a rant that is on topic with what we are talking about here.

AND there is a reply at the bottom from Kathy Obermeyer talking about our mayor.

Tez seems to feel the same way as other citizens I've talked to about the 911/police/state police situation.

I suggest reading both Tez's editorial and the letter following it.

Here is the original thread on the dispatch issue from 2009, interesting reading after 3 or 4 years of this setup... viewtopic.php?f=8&t=962 also a couple more issues that we are still talking about... viewtopic.php?f=8&t=801 and... viewtopic.php?f=8&t=927 Its interesting how many things havent changed, just a little role reversal! OH yeah, a prophetic line from Tez regarding removing dispatch from the police station; "The mayor, city council, and the county commissioner have no idea of all of the hell that they just unleashed on Bradford."

Anyone remember the circumstances surrounding this quote? "We had met with police at a work session, but we were not afforded an opportunity to discuss other options,” Neidich said, adding that other options could be having a civilian dispatcher or having some officers at the station to assist residents who come in off the street."-Connolly, Patrick, "Bradford City Council Members Claim Dispatch Vote Rushed", The Bradford Era, 12 Nov, 2009."

An interesting post by newt from "back in the day"
newt





Post subject:

Posted: 13 Nov 2009 04:43











BT Regular






Joined: 02 Sep 2009 13:21
Posts: 195




I have been following this topic in the news and formed a simple thought process on it.
1. All of those towns/cities listed in the article in the paper have 911 handle ALL calls. That is what we are paying for in the extra phone fees. It works for those towns/cities. Why not Bradford as Mr. Benton suggests? Bradford has a way of doing business that lags by 10 plus years compared to other towns.
2. We need more police on the streets. The city claims to not have any money, so they musn't be able to hire more police. Put the city dispatchers on the streets. Let McKean 911 do dispatch. They do the rest of the counties dispatch.
3. Are the city police afraid of the county 911 knowing what's happening in Bradford? Think about it. If the county handles calls will their be so much handled or hidden by cell phones?
4. The issue has been public for months. News articles, meetings, radio, letters and secret meetings? City council had all the time they needed to ask questions. Onueffers comment in the paper today about what would have happened if the election went the other way says it all.
5. The unions will continue to run Bradford.

I just heard one of these ads by Ryan Race from Northwest Savings, very good, probably the best one yet.