Is Todd Eachus Out Of Touch? Education Is The Priority

Today, Todd Eachus presented a check for the auditorium renovation currently underway at Hazleton Middle School in the amount of $1 million dollars. Unfortunately the taxpayers of Pennsylvania won't be getting the credit they deserve for providing the money. Instead the consumate politician, like a chess player, calculated and plotted this move for political capital.

At a time when we need the potholes fixed in our streets and more police patrolling our neighborhoods Mr. Eachus gives us the "Wizard of Oz".



Currently the Hazleton Area has two excellent venues for the performing arts, the J.J. Ferrara Center and the Hazleton High School Auditorium. According to the Pennsylvania Theatre For the Performing Arts(PTPA) website they have additional venues at The Strand in McAdoo and The Factory in Nuremberg. In fact the PTPA went on to purchase the J.J. Ferrara Center in January, 2010.

Why would the Hazleton Area School District want to compete with the Pennsylvania Theater For The Performing Arts, a non-profit group? Non-profits are struggling today with the current economic environment. As a matter of fact Governor Rendell is proposing further cuts on top of the ones already leveled at the arts in his 2010-2011 budget.

Not one other Middle School in the Hazleton Area School District has an auditorium. Not Valley, Freeland, Drums, McAdoo or West Hazleton. Are we providing an auditorium for elementary and middle grade students to entertain them or should we be more concerned about their educational needs?

Mr. Eachus had an opportunity to provide some meaningful funding for educational needs and blew it. At the present time there are not enough textbooks for our children so they may take one home to help with their studies. They are being taught in modular trailers.

Students in Ninth grade currently must travel between up to four buildings to get their education-the former Hazle Elementary School now part of the High School Complex, modular trailers, the Hazleton Area Career Center, and the Hazleton Area High School building. There is not enough time between classes for these children to eat lunches or get their coats for the inclement weather. There are security concerns expressed over the fact that students must walk from building to building. But they will get to see "Toto and the Tinman" courtesy of Eachus et al.

The Hazleton Area High School currently houses over 3,200 students constructed for approximately 1700. Inmates in our prisons are not subject to overcrowding of that magnitude.

The Hazleton Elementary Middle School lacks the proper parking for any significant event. The auditorium itself was never designed for quality performances. With the Mohegan Sun Arena, Penn's Peak, the Scranton Cultural Center and Kirby Center the last thing this area needed was another venue. With the facilities available in the Hazleton Area the market was hardly saturated demonstrating a need to throw a million dollars into a school auditorium.

Eachus, like Frank Harrison, lost touch with the needs of our communities. Instead he is focused, just like his participation in the Bonusgate shenaningans, on winning elections. Today's announcment was a "feel good" action for his cronies who can claim they are getting their pet project completed. A million dollars would have gone a long way to purchase more textbooks, pencils, paper, and notebooks for our students. A million dollars would have gone a long way to construct some classrooms to aleive the overcrowding. After all education is the priority here, or should be.

When will the needs of our children come first over winning elections? Of course, when one refuses to repay an illegal pay raise and uses per diems to fund a mortgage on a second home why would we expect anything less?

Tom Gabos- When Is Enough ENOUGH? Or Is It Just Plain Wrong?

After a recent Hazleton City Council meeting Tom Gabos was finally able to make a claim. Gabo’s tenure as a City Councilman is not loaded with lofty ideas to help Hazleton. Until that meeting Tom Gabos failed to introduce one piece of legislation to address the pressing issues facing Hazleton. Hazleton City residents had to pay Gabos for over 3-3/4 years before he stepped up to the plate and did what the electorate asked him to do. In his re-election bid it will be hard for Jim Perry and Karin Cabell to debate Gabo's record. He really has none.

Reason would have it that Mr. Gabos was busy with other projects that commanded more attention than the City Council position. After all he owns his own electrical contracting business.

In his entrepreneurial spirit he opened an arcade, along with his wife, Gale Zelenack, in downtown Hazleton which was announced here on July 22 , 2009.

But, as all of us know, in these dire economic times things are very tough for the unemployed. Having a political position allows one get to the head of the line for consideration.

As if those two businesses were not enough money for Gabos he was hired April 23, 2009 as a part time substitute maintenance person. Even the money from that position wasn't enough. He was hired as a full time maintenance person for Hazleton Area School District on September 24, 2009 for the Hazleton Elementary/Middle School, also known as "The Castle". Not only did he use his political position to get himself hired but he also used it to be placed at "The Castle" where he is part of the Castle Fund trying to raise money to repair the auditorium. According to records twenty eight candidates applied for that position.

The Board of Directors of the Castle Fund includes himself as President and three Hazleton Area School Board Members, Elaine Curry, Steve Hahn, and Carmella Yenkevich, who voted to hire him full time as a maintenance person for the Hazleton Area School District this year. This Standard Speaker article found on McKissick Associates from 2004 highlights the close association between Tom Gabos and Bob Childs, another member of the Hazleton Area School Board. Childs isn't, but knows the building well, as he is close to Tom Gabos and Bob Tombasco.

Gabos is President of the Greater Hazleton Historical Society along with his wife, Gale, as a fellow member of the Board of Directors. According to this HASD agenda dated March 26, 2008 under Finance Committee 39 - Recommend Board approve the payment of $2,500 to the Greater Hazleton Historical Society and Museum for cleaning and related costs of the chandeliers in the Hazleton El./Middle School. So the school board members who hired Gabos as a part time maintenance person voted previous to pay another charity where he is its President $2,500.00 to clean chandeliers. This action begs the question on whether Tom Gabos ultimately received the $2,500.00 as President of the Greater Hazleton Historical Society for cleaning the chandeliers.

A review of IRS 990 Forms found on www.guidestar.org confirm that as a member of the Board of Directors of the Greater Hazleton Historical Society Tom Gabos has been paid for work every year since at least 2002. Gabos is President of the Greater Hazleton Historical Society, his wife a member of the Board, and the same society that received payment from the Hazleton Area School District voted on by three members of the HASB that sit on the Castle Fund where Gabos is President.

According to those IRS 990's filed for the Greater Hazleton Historical Society (2008, 2007, 2006, 2004, 2003, 2000)
he was paid a total of $7,233.00 for electrical and maintenance work from 2002 (excluding the year 2005 because that return is not on the net or at www.guidestar.org ) through April 30, 2008 as a member of its Board of Directors then becoming President in March, 2008. The form for the year 1999 to 2000 there is no notation that he was paid for electrical or maintenance work. The prior year, 1997-1998, indicated no payment.

As an example here is the statement submitted to the IRS for the year 2006.
DURING THE YEAR ENDED APRIL 30, 2006, THE ORGANIZATION CONTRACTED WITH GABOS ELECTRICAL, INC., A FIRM OWNED BY TOM GABOS, A MEMBER OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS, TO PROVIDE CERTAIN ELECTRICAL AND MAINTENANCE SERVICES TO THE MUSEUM IN THE AMOUNT OF $3,371.

Gabo's wife, Gale Zelenack, was also approved as a substitute maintenance person for the Hazleton Area School District listed as item #73 on the HASD June 25, 2009 agenda.
TIMELINE
Gabos- Electrical Contractor
Member Board of Directors- Greater Hazleton Historical Society with yearly contracts
Elected to Hazleton City Council- 2006
Hired as Part-Time Maintenance Substitute- April 23, 2009
Wife Hired as Part Time Maintenance Substitute- June 25, 2009
He and Wife open Arcade - July 22, 2009
Hired as Full Time Maintenance Person- September 24, 2009

Tom Gabos and his wife, Gale, should win the Nobel prize for making lightning strike multiple times in the same places. In summation Gabos is an electrical contractor who owns an arcade business, paid as a Hazleton City Council Member, paid as a full time maintenance person for the Hazleton Area School District, paid as a part time maintenance person for Greater Hazleton Historical Society, and a wife who was hired as a part time maintenance substitute with the Hazleton Area School District. And that is just plain wrong.

Tom, when is enough ENOUGH? How about leaving a job for some poor family who is struggling to make ends meet and could use a job for a family member. It's a shame that Gabos and his wife are getting jobs because of political favors during an economic slowdown when many blue collar workers are losing their jobs.

Kanjorski Like Soup Nazi to Hazleton- No Money For You

As part of Barack Obama's pledge to bring transparency to government an online database has been created where Joe Taxpayer can search for earmark requests by his Congressman. Here are Paul Kanjorski's requests.

There are 74 projects in all totaling $142 million according to Josh Drobnyk at the Morning Call. He has requested $700,000.00 for the Castle Auditorium project. There is another $162,127.00 request for a Breast Coil and Biopsy package for the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine located at the Hazleton Health and Wellness Center. However the Health and Wellness Center is located in Hazle Township.

Out of $142 million the City of Hazleton receives nothing, nada, not a dime. Keep in mind that the Castle project belongs to the Hazleton Area School district. That request only represents four tenth's of one percent of the total amount.

He is seeking $3 million for the New Jersey Transit under the guise of the Lackawanna Cut-Off Passenger Rail Restoration Project.