The LuLac Edition #572, Sept. 14th, 2008

PHOTO INDEX: THE LATE GEORGE WALLACE MAKING AN APPEARING AT THE WILKES BARRE SCRANTON AIRPORT IN AVOCA DURING THE 1968 CAMPAIGN, OUR 1968 LOGO, LUZERNE COUNTY COMMISSIONER MARYANNE PETRILLA AND WILKES BARRE MAYOR TOM LEIGHTON.

M.A. TO WB: NO!

The Coal Street Park renovation project has hit a snag. Wilkes Barre Mayor Tom Leighton had asked the county for 2 million dollars in funding but Commissioner Maryanne Petrilla turned him down saying there was essential no more money left. Petrilla and GOP Commissioner Steve Urban pointed out that the Diamond City saying that the county has made significant investments in Wilkes-Barre projects including the downtown riverfront complex. The rub is that the money was promised verbally in the past but that the Commissioners did no formal vote on it. In the past these earmarks have been funded through bond projects but Petrilla noted that there is no longer a cushion for the bond money and the county needs to stick to the financial plan in place. Petrilla did not leave the Mayor high and dry, saying the city could re-program a 1.8 million dollar grant for the Coal Street Park, originally bookmarked for housing. To Leighton's credit, Wilkes Barre has done well in getting the financial cooperation of the county over the years but obviously the County is sticking to a plan that will bring it to a level of fiscal responsibility not seen in decades. Meanwhile, Leighton will continue in his quest to renovate Coal Street Park which in its time was a gem. I remember playing in softball games there and in college using the tennis facilities in a feeble and unsuccessful attempt to be an adequate player. I stunk but man what a great place to fail. The rink was also a host to the late Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle in 1985 who signed autograpghs for two straight days. Many local residents have memories of that event. So I hope the project comes to fruition.

ECONOMICS 101

The McCain campaign got an arrow through the heart this weekend from Alan Greenspan who said the country can't afford tax cuts of the magnitude proposed by Republican presidential contender John McCain — at least not without a corresponding reduction in government spending. McCain has said that he would offset his proposed cuts — including reducing the corporate tax rate and eliminating the Alternative Minimum Tax that has plagued middle-class families — by ending congressional pork-barrel spending, unnecessary government programs and overhauling entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security. No specifics were given as to how the Arizona Senator would change those two program. Democrats pounced on Greenspan's comments, in part because McCain professed last year that he was weaker on economics than foreign affairs and was reading Greenspan's memoir, "The Age of Turbulence," to educate himself.

1968

French General René Cogny and 94 others die in a Air France Caravelle jetliner crash near Nice………………On the campaign trail President, Third Party candidate, former Alabama Governor George Wallace gets on all 50 statewide ballots across the country. It is an amazing feat given the fact that each state had at that time byzantine election laws. Wallace dispatched a dedicated group of lawyers who found every loophole to put his American Independent Party on the ballot….In Illinois, a coed is found dead in her dorm room committing suicide over the failed campaign of Senator Eugene McCarthy….….Statewide in the Treasurer’s Race, Grace Sloan kicks her campaign in high gear against GOPer Frank Pasquerilla. Sloan will later thump him in the General…..in Wilkes Barre, Mayor John V. Morris is honored with a testimonial dinner….Also in Wilkes Barre a Catholic High School (later to become Bishop Hoban) is planned for the downtown renewal area project….in Pittston Detato’s Supermarket opens as the first superstore and provides this blog editor with his first taste of hard labor and forty years ago this week, the number 1 song in LuLacland was “Harper Valley PTA” by Jeannie C. Reilly.