The Dallas Post Dallas, PA__ Wednesday, October 7, 1992 Pe —— — A To © ——— The economic viewpoint y i ‘T-MINU5 AND COUNTING.. Local governments face fiscal dilemmas local budgets and meet the de- By HOWARD J. GROSSMAN As the noose tightens around the federal budget deficit, the local governments of Pennsylvania face increased obstacles to fiscal health. The problem has shown up in a number of situations in the state in which a new legislative program has been empaneled to help over- come some of the difficulties brought forth through financial hardships. The problem is com- pounded by the inability toachieve tax reform in Pennsylvania which, if enacted could accommodate the needs of local governments as well as counties and school districts. The problems are multiplied as a result of the Commonwealth having more local governments than any other state except Illi- nois. Local officials in parts of the Commonwealth plead for more state aid, yet it is unlikely that the Commonwealth can provide the resources necessary to balance mands of local citizens who re- quire services. This is why tech- niques such as joint cooperation in the delivery of municipal serv- ices by local governments, coun- cils of government, and other similar techniques make much sense. While local governments strive to meet financial obligations, the Commonwealth has established the Financially Distressed Munici- palities Program (Act 47) to assist communities to regain fiscal health through the use of technical assis- tance, and in some cases financial aid. Emphasis is placed on long term solutions to municiapl. fi- nancial difficulties which include fiscal management improvements, economic development activities, and the early identification of municipalities with tendencies toward financial distress. In Pennsylvania several muni- ciaplities have determined to be distressed, with municipal re S ery plans adopted and curre being implemented, and ot forms of financial and manag technical assistance have b provided to these municipalit Those who would like fur information pertaining to t program can write the Munici Program Division, Bureau of Lo Governmental Services, 582 rum Building, Harrisburg, 17120 (717 783-4657) or cont the Scranton Regional Office of tt Pennsylvania Department Community Affairs, 4571). Put at end of column: Howard Grossman is Executit Director of the Economic Deve ment Council of Northeastern Pe sylvania. He lives in Dallas. 360 Stat Street,. 100 Lackawanna Avenut Scranton, PA 18503 (717 964 ¥ It's easy to subscribe to The Dallas Post... and right now new or extended subscriptions come with a free map of the Back Mountain. Look for the order coupon on page 9. ® A. Case for conservation RT Tar vee WW | i The most obvious problem is a specifically for this purpose. Other Ln ; Jack of proper education. This cities have areas of the downtown ¥ 3 applies to learning to be a pedes- (Josed to vehicular traffic during ; | Arian, a biker, or a driver. Drivers the day so that shoppers can move E . “should be taught to expect toshare about more easily. The shoulders £ r «the roadway unless it is a limited- thatwe dohave mustbe kept clean 1 t 1 access highway where other modes so that bicycles will not lose trac- ar | or Ca 101. W Ou : ; f! transportation are forbidden. tion on the small stones. o e ne of the quickest ways to make There are other ways to encour- + f (ome angry is to honk your horn at age biking. One of the simplest is ) : | me while [ wait for a pedestrian to to provide bike racks or lockers at A X U a Qe bo 5 clear the crosswalk before making workplaces, schools, grocery PS 1, "a furn. Please consider the rights stores, and in other parking areas. i k Xfothers and, when indoubt, apply Some city buses have bike racks : h “the Golden Rule. on the rear so that one can com- Open a soda. Open an account. Check your roast. Check your balances. Get a snack. Get a ly | “-“ Drivers also seem to think that bine the two modes of transporta- : : speed limits were set for their tion. Another option is to provide . | benefit and that if they can go covered bicycle parking at fre- loan. If you're a Mellon customer, almost anything you do in a bank, you can do on the + 45mph in a 25mph zone without quently-used bus stops. No one 5 | ,.tunning into another car or getting should have to tie a bike toa phone “caught by the police then it must pole or tree. : A : ; ichts. There’ N | el Er rR eo many otlier Ways 10 phone. With a living, breathing person when you want. All week long, even nights. There's in .; with heavy traffic or dangerous Hake a peighborhiagg Yicycie and n.eurves, in-town speed limits are a pedestrian friendly. It is not my ‘ . : MN S | Erin safely of aon driverst . inicnt to catelog them all I only one hitch, though. First you have to have a checking account. But we'll give you a phone a- | : oh down so at rents hioge to increase gous i | =, ean safely push a stroller, children of the situation so that you can try : 11. . . bg {an safely walk to school, and in some small (or big) way to help and six months of Telephone Bill-Paying free when you open one. And if you already have | bicycle riders can safely arrive at solve the problem. 10- | a checking account, well, you can get free stuff, too. Just call 1 800 245-4920 for details. Or o- | Vietnam Veterans Meeting October 7 ct- | “42! The Vietnam Veterans of America, Chapter 539 will hold its regular : : he | “heeting on October 7. The meeting will a held at the Dallas Hy stop by any office. After all, we may never have the opportunity to see you again. ree | “Route 415, and will start at 7 p.m. All veterans and interested parties Ca- “are invited to attend. 1se : : ed .-Yacht Club holds family night Mellon Bank er- 171" The Harveys Lake Yacht Club held its monthly family night program ™ N at the oH on Tuesday night. The buffet ih WE Youre why we do our very best 2d provided by various members of the club. Commodore Clinton J. a ~ Lehman, MD, presided over the business part of the meeting. Those or who attended were privileged to hear the violin debut of Cuong Huynh. = he oHuyn hs program included La Cinquintaine (Gabriel- Marie), Sonatina Free phone offer limited to one per customer. Offer not applicable to Basic Checking Accounts. We reserve the right to substitute an item of comparable value. L- Cars vs. bicycles: Who owns “BY ALENE N. CASE A te; Sg . Did you know that one-tenth of all the oil used in the entire world -¢éach day is used by American sworkers simply going to and from heir place of employment? If one recent of those drivers left the car Hin the driveway one day each week, we could save 96 million gallons of gas, each year. My husband re- =cently calculated that he saves a -whole pint of gas by riding his >bigycle two miles to buy his morn- sing newspaper. Multiply that by the number of people in the US who use a car to do short errands and we could probably reduce our dependence on foreign oil to prac- tically zero. .. So, why don't more people walk ‘or ride bicycles? Partly, it's habit - "Sie're so accustomed to hopping o the car that we don't even “tonsider any other options. We “dso think it's quicker. Yes, driving "faster than walking, but you tainly don't burn off as many ories. And, biking can be just as “fast as driving. My son can bike to owntown Wilkes-Barre in the Eiki amount of time that he can “drive over the same route. In fact, "one study showed that people who 1.6 . ¢ommuted by bicycle arrived at “work on time more often than their "dar: ‘using colleagues. In some cit- es’ such as Los Angeles, the aver- “age speed on the freeway is down “fo'18 miles per hour. At that speed, biking begins to look more attrac- “tive! | ‘We could always try to blame ¢ weather. Surely it is too cold or k “rainy too much of the time around “here for the use of alternate trans- “port. But then, how did Seattle WA, Madison WI and Montreal, ‘Quebec become three of the top “ten cities in North America for “bicycling? (By the way, Orlando FL was listed as one of the three worst, in spite of its sunny clime!) No, our problem is much deeper - it is downright dangerous to walk or-bike on most roads and streets in" the Wyoming Valley. There are »several reasons for this situation. the road? their destinations. If drivers are going to respect the rights of pedestrians and bi- kers, we must also learn to follow the rules of the road. Children should be taught from infancy that the road is not a place to play. They should always be accompanied by an adult until they can cross the road safely. If children see adults jay-walking, they will tend to do likewise no matter what they have been told. Parents should not let children use their bicycles on the street until those children can fol- low all the rules of the road consis- tently. That means stopping at all stop signs, using hand signals to indicate a turn, staying too close to the white lines on the side of the road, looking behind themselves without losing control of the bi- cyle, etc. It also means teaching them how to get into a line of traffic at a stoplight so that they can turn left or go straight ahead without getting run over by a car. When they can handle all that (usually about 10 or 12), make sure they have proper reflectors and helmets and keep a close eye on them. Even if we all enrolled in safety courses tomorrow, our roads would still be dangerous. Engineering is the other half of the equation. It is high time that walkers and bikers were taken into account when streets are built or roads are wid- ened. It seems that the first casu- alty of road “improvement” is the sidewalk and the second is the shoulder. The next person who designs a street around here should be required to push a baby car- riage up Center Street to the King- ston Township Park. Then, I'll bet the plans would suddenly include a sidewalk and/or wide shoulder! (Also, consider the effect of a 2-4 inch drop-off when a road is resur- faced and the shoulder is not in- cluded. Try maintaining your bal- ance if you have to get off the road on a bike.) It is especially important to provide safe areas on bridges for the use of cyclists and pedestri- ans. Many cities build separate bridges across busy highways -inG (Beethoven), Allegro (Mozart) and Brahms’ Hungarian Dance #5. ‘Huynh was accompanied by Joan Williams. Most Reople Choose Mellon Bank, N.A.-Member FDIC, Northeastem Region. © 1992 Mellon Bank Corporation LENDER & Win i GLE
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