I personally received a copy but you can view this letter online. I wonder if Kanjo can "hear" what they are saying.
INEXCUSABLE ACTIONS OF MR. KANJORSKI
We (Neal and Paul DeAngelo) would first like to start by thanking our families, friends, employees and their families, the business community and each and every one of you in our community who have given us your overwhelming support over the last several weeks as Mr. Kanjorski ran numerous (too numerous to mention) political advertisements in various forms (TV, radio, mailings) that have been false, inaccurate, damaging and misleading.
We made a conscious decision to stay out of the public media so as not to increase this frenzy, especially since we are not running for any public office. However, we feel it is time to let everyone know the real facts surrounding the issues that Mr. Kanjorski has so badly distorted.
First, neither DBI, our companies, nor ourselves ever bought anything from Mr. Barletta; not even one single share of any stock he owned in any business. The business we believe Mr. Kanjorski is referring to is a business where we purchased one hundred percent (100%) of the stock in November of 2000 from Mr. Barletta’s wife and other family members.
Second, the reference to over one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) still paid to the Barlettas is grossly misleading, and to us is simply lying by omission. The business we purchased from Mr. Barletta’s wife had been operating on a five acre parcel of land, including a few buildings, in the City of Hazleton for many years and has been owned by the Barletta’s since then. When we purchased the stock of this company back in November of 2000, this property was not owned by the business but by the Barletta’s, and we continue to lease this property from them to this day for approximately one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) per year.
Third, the mistakes we made that Mr. Kanjorski is referring to actually happened in the 1986 to 1988 time frame, now over 20 years ago. This is another important fact that Mr. Kanjorski failed to point out in his advertisements. We paid for these mistakes dearly at the time in many ways. These are not mistakes we will ever be proud of, as a matter of fact, just the opposite is true. We learned some very very valuable lessons from this that still guide all of our decision making today. There are no short cuts in life, and the wonderful thing about our country is that for those who learn from their mistakes, work hard and have ambition, you can still succeed.
Today we are very fortunate to run our Corporate headquarters and two Regional offices out of the City of Hazleton where we were born and raised and both our families still live. We currently employ over two hundred thirty (230) people in Hazleton alone and over one thousand (1,000) nationally. We do business throughout North America with many of these dollars coming back into the Hazleton community both through our employees’ salaries and through all the business we do with many local companies. Even in the current economy we continue to grow our business significantly and will continue to create many additional local jobs and opportunities for local businesses.
We have, since the beginning of our business, given back countless dollars to many local charities, frequently anonymously. We truly believe there are many people in this area that are much better off because of our efforts and that the entire Hazleton area has benefitted. We will continue to do this and again thank each and every one of you for your continued ongoing support as we continue to share our successes in the communities throughout Northeast Pennsylvania.
We find it interesting that throughout our thirty (30) years in business and Mr. Kanjorski’s numerous years in Congress he has never even spoken to either of us, let alone done one single thing that contributed to any of our successes. Furthermore, it is disappointing that any individual, especially an elected official, would take a good story (a mistake made many years ago turned into positive contribution to the community) and distort it into a twisted story that disparages our family, employees and our accomplishments simply for their own political gain in an effort to get re-elected.
We are proud to know Mr. Barletta and his family. The Barlettas have really shown us their true character and what kind of people they are throughout this process. It would have been very easy for them to throw us under the bus; instead they have continued to support us. Additionally, Mr. Barletta has supported our business over the years and has done things that have contributed to our success and for that we thank him.
Mr. Kanjorski’s actions are completely inexcusable, incomprehensible and disappointing and have greatly hurt our families, our employees and our employees’ families. We cannot understand why a man would lower himself to this level or what any of Mr. Kanjorski’s negative and mistaken campaign against us has to do with what he will accomplish for the community if re-elected.
Again, we very much appreciate all the overwhelming support we have received from family, employees, friends and our community who know the real Neal and Paul DeAngelo. We wish the Kanjorski campaign had gotten to know us prior to this pathetic attempt to discredit our accomplishments, because if they did, they probably would not have used us as pawns in the negative politics of their campaign.
Neal and Paul DeAngelo
CEO, President and Founders Since 1978
DeAngelo Brothers, Inc./Interstate Road Management Corp.
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