About the "COATESVILLE SOLAR INITIATIVE (CSI) CONDITIONAL USE HEARING"

I don’t know if KEARES Electrical Contracting, INC developers of the planned solar array in Caln that will power the Veteran’s hospital planned it that way or if it is serendipity but a mostly solar powered military hospital (Coatesville VA Medical Center) is a perfect fit for our new military.

SEE:

COATESVILLE SOLAR INITIATIVE (CSI) CONDITIONAL USE HEARING 

Thursday, October 06, 2011 at 7:00 PM 

Last updated 9/14/2011 11:50:14 AM

Some people are already aware that the satellite driven communications like streaming video and GPS mapping that are now a part of everyday life were developed more than a decade ago by our Department of Defense. I know about it because a DoD employee friend of mine's team developed that satellite communication system. Several everyday ceramic materials and computer systems were developed by NASA. Before that the internet was developed, again by the Department of Defense, as an assured communication system in the event of a nuclear war. New technologies that grew into “can’t live without” products and enormously profitable industries grew out of our military’s and NASA’s technological need.

Gasoline and electric rates have not zoomed upwards because our economy is in a severe recession. A lot of people are not driving to work because their jobs are gone. Several businesses that used electricity do not exist anymore. Once the economy comes back gasoline prices will zoom upwards, companies will use electricity and electric cars will make more demands on our electric grid.

Electric companies love solar arrays. Solar is an ideal fit for mitigating sharp demands on the electric grid because they produce during the peak demand hours for electricity.

Just in the last year solar power start up costs have dropped dramatically. Solar generation is very close to parity to coal generation. If the coal, oil and gas industries seem desperate it's because they are well aware that their end is near.

Right now our military is poised to make a permanent and wide ranging transformation from fossil fuel dependence to renewable energy. Our entire society, our industries, our corporations and infrastructure will follow in their footsteps.

The US Marine Corps has transformed its forward operating bases from fossil fuel dependent to renewable on site energy generating systems. Our US Navy is planning a “Great Green Fleet”.

“The energy risks and challenges facing DoD are evident in its energy profile.  It is the single largest consumer of energy in the United States and one of the largest institutional energy users in the world, having consumed 819 trillion BTUs of energy in 2010. Oil products accounted for 80 percent of DoD’s final energy consumption. In 2009, DoD used more than 375,000 barrels of oil per day, more than all but 35 countries. 

Another 11 percent of DoD’s energy is delivered in the form of electricity. DoD’s oil and electricity use are reflected in the department’s emerging organizational structure for advancing energy innovation.   Fuel is primarily used for operational energy requirements and is in the purview of the newly created position of Assistant Secretary of Defense for Operational Energy Plans and Programs, currently held by Sharon Burke.  Operational energy has been referenced by DoD as the “energy required for training, moving, and sustaining military forces and weapons platforms for military operations.” The energy risks and challenges facing DoD are evident in its energy profile.  It is the single largest consumer of energy in the United States and one of the largest institutional energy users in the world, having consumed 819 trillion BTUs of energy in 2010. Oil products accounted for 80 percent of DoD’s final energy consumption. In 2009, DoD used more than 375,000 barrels of oil per day, more than all but 35 countries. 

Electricity is primarily needed to fulfill the energy requirements of fixed installations and bases.  Installation energy management is overseen at DoD by the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Installations and Environment, Dorothy Robyn.”

FROM:

The honor in being a Republican is gone.

If you are a regular reader of this blog you probably know that I like several of the local Republican officials here in South East Pennsylvania. That’s because they came up 30 years ago or so when being a Republican was still honorable.

People like Mitch McConnell, Eric Cantor, Newt Gingrich, George W Bush, Dick Cheney, Sarah Palin, Scott Walker, Michele Bachmann, Pat Buchanan and Rick Perry have made the title Republican a badge of dishonor. They have made the Republican Party the political party for thieves and fruitcakes.

Maybe there is still hope for the Republican Party but it sure doesn’t look that way right now.

Grilling of Coatesville Finance Director and the GL Specialist who suddenly skipped off to India.

A long time city employee, a GL Specialist (General Ledger Specialist) with access to cash and the ability to delete finance files abruptly leaves for India when there is at least $168,000 unaccounted for. Not even a whimper about it from City Hall.  

Some Coatesville residents paid their trash bills and other bills in cash and one of the people who took that cash in payment was, you guessed it, the GL Specialist Dharmesh “Raj” Kalaria.

There is nothing from 2 members of the Coatesville City Council but a grilling of the finance director. That same finance director who discovered the missing $168,000 and that same finance director who discovered the delinquent trash bills of 3 city council members and that the city overpaid sick pay and vacation pay to another city council member when he had a part time job with the city.

We all know that whistle blowers usually are fired. Ms. Bjorhus is probably checking her LinkedIn right now.  Guess you have to be very careful just who you blow the whistle on in Coatesville.

This is sections of the Finance Report of the City of Coatesville Finance Director Stacy Bjorhus at the Coatesville City Council meeting on Monday September 26, 2011.

Make sure you listen to the recording below. The tone of the voices is important.

At 6:24 on the recording:

“This month it has been extremely rushed between everything we’ve been trying to do; learn a new task, GL. Because as you’re aware or may not be aware, Mr. Kalaria walked in 10:30 Monday morning on August 22^nd and left.

We didn’t have any cross training. There was no information about where the files were…”

At 7:19:

“He would also upload from the raw data that came in from the accounts payable and the cash receipts…”

At 7:57:

He left with inventory at his desk. We had no idea where his files were. Where he downloaded information from; we didn’t have the benefit of any of that information.

Mr. Brazzle,

“As a director do you feel that it’s important that you knew how to do the GL?”

Ms. Bjorhus,

“That I knew how to do the GL?”

Mr. Brazzle,

“Yes…

Ms. Bjorhus,

“Not necessarily….Anyplace I’ve ever worked the finance director had assumed that the GL maintenance was done by the GL maintenance. It’s basically a clerk’s function. I would review and give Mr. Kalaria journal entries based on things that I thought need to be corrected. But actually getting in knowing which modules to pull, knowing when a payroll came in how the upload was done; no. And Mr. Kalaria kept that information to himself. He did not look for assistance. He did not look for information…

9:28-

You want someone in the department who is overseeing. Not to be able to get in and manipulate the data. You want one person to have that access. One person is responsible for controlling the GL.  If you have more than one person controlling the GL then you can have chaos. It’s basically part of the separation of duties…

10:36-

When Mr. Reed was here, I had requested for Mr. Kalaria have less influence on the GL but Mr. Reed had defended Mr. Kalaria’s position as being the sole determinate of the GL. And he did have rights in the system that I did not think he should have but management had deemed that they were warranted. All I could do is look at the data confirm the entries going in; look at the audit trails monitor.

Mr. Simpson,

“You know Mr. Reed is gone.”

Mr. Brazzle,

“What about Mr. Rawlings, did you bring it up to him?”

Ms. Bjorhus,

“Yes”

Mr. Brazzle,

“And what did he say?”

Ms. Bjorhus,

“He felt that….”

Mr. Rawlings, “The Finance Department is in a transition. We have the auditor coming in one day a week to try and help Stacy out to make sure that things are being properly posted. I’ve authorized additional part time to help do the clerk work within the Finance Department. And of course I’ve talked to council about getting an assistant to the Director position going to split some of the duties up…

Mr. Brazzle,

“I got all that but my question was not just answered. When she brought this to your attention what did you say?”

Mr. Rawlings.

“Which part?”

Ms. Bjorhus,

“About Mr. Kalaria’s involvement with the, in deleting files, having the ability to delete the files.”

Mr. Rawlings,

“Was that where we got into the system of administrative… there was a lot of names, on the, what do you call it, the software?”

Ms. Bjorhus,

“But also in terms of …”

 Mr. Rawlings,

“You mean what he could take off it?”

Ms. Bjorhus,

Right; there was, Mr. Kalaria was the GL maintenance and that was his function. That was his job function. We had recently redvised his job function.”

Mr. Simpson,

“Did you specifically go to Mr. Rawlings and say he’s in charge of GL maintenance and we need to add more people to help with this?”

Ms. Bjorhus,

“O know, O know, I only, I advised Mr. (Rawlings) about Mr. Kalaria’s permission to assist in deletion rights. But even Mike Lewis who comes in, our lead auditor does not; you have one person to do the GL. And look, we’re scheduling web training which is coming up. I had hopes to have that position filled and held off on the training but in this point in time we’ll have the training, Carol and I will go and sit in on it….

14:13:

Ms. Jorgensen,

“We need much more sophisticated accounting systems and we’re working with 4Gov. And what we need is some stability in our accounting system. That’s what our issues have been for the last, how many years? The last 4 years.”

Mr. Simpson,

“And it seems like we had a system in place.”

Ms. Jorgenson,

“OK, and it’s not there anymore.”

19:33:

Ms. Bjorhus,

“We did not have good closure numbers from 2008, couldn’t get them. So we move into 2009 and you still have bad numbers and then you go through 2009. But remember in March 2009 is actually when the city moved from Cassel to 4 Gov. So for the first three months of the year they were taking receipts in Cassel and expenditures out of 4 Gov. It wasn’t until 2010 that they reconciled the first three months of 09… OK so now we’re in 010 and our ending numbers are better; all they are, are better.

Mr. Simpson,

“Well we already had a financial accounting of 010, correct?

Ms. Bjorhus,

“A statement, yes.”

Mr. Simpson,

“But there won’t be an audit because there’s not enough, there’s insufficient data to do an actual audit correct?”

Ms. Bjorhus,

“Because the auditors could not come to good numbers again.”

Mr. Simpson,

“So I’m a little bit confused when you say now is not the time.”

Ms. Bjorhus,

“We’re still knocking down numbers you’re right. Are we back in 08? No we’re not back in 08. We’re very, very far in 2011.

Mr. Brazzle,

“So we’re guaranteed to get an audit in 2011?

Ms. Bjorhus,

“Yes, not a statement, an audit.”

See:

Some city officials owe trash bills

Published: Thursday, June 09, 2011

By ERIC S. SMITH
Staff Writer

COATESVILLE — Three City Council members, two Redevelopment Authority members and one city employee have outstanding trash bills owed to the city, according to city documents.

See:

Coatesville council pursues new look at billing

Published: Tuesday, September 27, 2011

By ERIC S. SMITH
Staff Writer

See:

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2011

Can the FBI, in India, interview people that worked in the USA?

This is also interesting for historical background:

FRIDAY, JANUARY 14, 2011

Reposting a recording of Keith Gargus speaking about Coatesville’s financial software

Can sitting Judges help to write legislation?

Maybe I’m wrong but I thought that Judges couldn’t write or assist in writing legislation.

That's the first two pages of Judge Koon's letter to the City of Coatesville. The entire document is below:

"COATESVILLE — The city has created a new position for an employee to perform general labor in the public works department and write citations for code violations such as high grass, grafitti and excessive or illegal trash. 

The employee would split time between labor and code enforcement, according to city officials. Salary and other details regarding this position have not been released. City Council authorized city staff to create the position and seek applications. 

During an April 11 meeting, Councilwoman Ingrid Jones said she opposes 'creating a position for someone who was not qualified in their current position."

MORE AT:

Coatesville creates job with dual responsibilities

Published: Monday, April 18, 2011

By ERIC S. SMITH, Staff Writer

On Monday evening Judge Koon will swear in Harry Troupe in his new position:

Gee why do you think the ADL was so very interested in Coatesville’s Bloc of Four Government?

- Hatewatch | Southern Poverty Law Center - http://www.splcenter.org/blog -

Montana Freeman Leader Dies in Prison

Posted By Bill Morlin On September 21, 2011 @ 3:33 pm In Antigovernment, Extremist Crime, patriot | 4 Comments

"LeRoy M. Schweitzer, the one-time leader of the Montana Freeman and a dean in the antigovernment “Patriot” movement, has died of apparent natural causes in the federal “Supermax” prison in Florence, Colo. The 73-year-old Schweitzer was serving a 22-year federal prison sentence related to crimes prosecuted after the longest police-standoff siege in U.S. history."

Religion is the key to the Freemen's beliefs, and they spell them out in their legal documents:

• There are two ``seed lines'' within Genesis: one from Adam and Eve, descended through their son Seth, and one from Satan and Eve: ``Simply put, Eve had sex with Satan and then Adam,'' writes Skurdal. Cain, their offspring, went into exile after killing Abel, mating with the ``beasts,'' or mud people created before Adam: ``It is the colored people, or the jews, who are the descendants of Cain,'' says the ``Edict.''

• Events recorded in II Kings show that the children of Israel were scattered after a war with the Assyrians, or Edomites, and all the tribes but Judah went into exile. These became the northern Europeans, or Aryans.

• Thus, white people are the true children of Israel; black people and other races are merely soulless ``pre-Adamic'' races. The satanically descended Edomites now call themselves the Jews.

This system of beliefs is called Christian Identity, and its presence is probably the single greatest common denominator among all the various fragmented factions of the radical right wing in America. It is practiced by the neo-Nazis of the Aryan Nations, by the leaders of the Militia of Montana, by remnants of the Ku Klux Klan in the South. Its foremost preacher is the Rev. Pete Peters, a Colorado-based minister whose 1992 gathering in Estes Park -- drawing such luminaries as Col. James ``Bo'' Gritz, John Trochmann, Ku Klux Klan leader Louis Beam, and onetime Pat Buchanan adviser Larry Pratt -- is often credited with being the chief formative event behind the militia movement.

The core beliefs of Christian Identity are so far astray from those of mainstream Christianity -- and so repellent to so many average Americans -- that they induce in the religion's followers a cult-like closed mindset: a sense of persecution coupled with self-righteousness that is supported by the group's social peers. True believers -- often drawn from the ranks of the disenfranchised -- will not be dissuaded by any amount of logic and reason.

 They live in a kind of alternative universe, complex and wholly unlike anything in mainstream life. It is populated by soulless non-humans, satanic conspirators and a handful of true Christians who abide by ``God's law.'' By closing off the other world, they reinforce each other's beliefs in the confines of their tight social circle. At the stark, isolated setting of the Clark ranch, this cycle has reached intense proportions, especially as the Freemen's leaders have scoured a library full of law books for documents, rulings and obscure citations that will reinforce their beliefs. Coupled with a siege mentality, the beliefs have spun a web that fully ensnares those inclined to join it, putting them outside the reach of longtime neighbors and friends, even family members. Forget about law enforcement officials.

In the Freemen's world, the Federal Reserve is a Jewish hoax, money is merely counterfeit currency printed by the conspirators, taxes are an illegal form of blackmail by a renegade corporation that calls itself the United States, and the courts have placed themselves above God's law, thereby issuing a series of satanic and perverted rulings that are destroying the nation.

FROM: 

Patriot Spring: Showdown in Big Sky Country

By David Neiwert

Copyright 1996, Pacific Rim News Service 

THURSDAY, JULY 28, 2011

Pat Buchanan dumped Larry Pratt because of Klan connections & Pat Sellers picked up Pratt. I wonder what Sellers thinks of Anders Breivik now that Buchanan endorsed him.

Debriding the festering wounds in Coatesville’s Government

There is a legacy in the City of Coatesville's government from the Walker Administration. I believe that parts of that legacy have led to festering wounds among the City of Coatesville employees.  I think that if those wounds are not resolved by investigations there will be a strong odor in the air in Coatesville from festering wounds.  

I believe all the posts below had origins in the Walker Administration and are related to each other:

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2011

Can the FBI, in India, interview people that worked in the USA?

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

Concerning threats to City of Coatesville workers

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2011

August 22, 2011, I asked “Is it true that Raj from the Finance Department didn’t show up to work today and that he is on his way to India?

SUNDAY, AUGUST 21, 2011

Were there were physical altercations between a city employee and Forensic Auditor Manny Dechter?

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2011

Jarrell Brazzle received benefits as a part time City of Coatesville employee. Allegedly, he was not entitled to those benefits.

 

TUESDAY, AUGUST 23, 2011

In 2007 the PA Commonwealth Court ordered landlord Amrit Lal to pay the City of Coatesville $110,000. It never happened.

 

TUESDAY, AUGUST 9, 2011

Is the missing $160.000 the sticking point on approving City of Coatesville finance reports?

SATURDAY, MARCH 19, 2011

An excellent comment was made in regards to: The first duty of a new City Manager is to make the streets safe

MONDAY, AUGUST 22, 2011

Be sure and read Karl Markings “Goodbye and Thanks”

"I will crush them." Barack Obama

Can you hear the Republican bones breaking?

Barack Obama in 2007: "I'm always best as a counterpuncher. You know, if somebody comes at me, I will knock them out. If not then I'll try to understand their point of view. That actually serves me well. I give people the benefit of the doubt. I try to understand their point of view. If I perceive that they try to take advantage of that, then I will crush them."

Flashback from:
Daily Kos

Excellent article on Undermining Democracy in the USA

“This week, in one of its greatest acts of elective chutzpah yet, Republicans in the state of Pennsylvania set forth a plan to split the state's electoral votes for president proportionally by congressional district. This is not illegal, or even unprecedented. Two other states have this system. And some people have been arguing for years that the whole country should abolish the Electoral College altogether in order to avoid such undemocratic messes as the 2000 election. Many of them have settled on the idea of all states simultaneously adopting the system of alloting electoral votes proportionally instead of winner-take-all as a sort of compromise.
  

But that's not what's happening here.
  

Suffice to say that the Republican move in Pennsylvania is not motivated by the idea of a more democratic method of electing presidents. Instead, it's a cynical manoeuver to take advantage of redistricting to ensure that a state Obama will likely win will no longer be in play in the 2012 election. Nobody has ever had the nerve to do that before. Indeed, changing something so fundamental to our federal election system for craven short-term gain would have been unthinkable in the past. Not anymore.
  

As it happens, there has been pushback from Pennsylvania's Republican members of congress, and as a result, the plan is unlikely to pass. It turns out that even though the plan might be helpful to the Republican presidential candidate, it could end up hurting Republican congressional candidates, because Democrats would be able to move resources to challenge them in their districts. But it's notable that the idea that it would be injurious to our democratic system to go about changing the rules to suit the partisan configuration of the moment hasn't been mentioned. This is all self-serving political expediency. Principles have nothing to do with it. 

Undermining democracy 

Voter intimidation and vote suppression had long been a part of Democratic politics in the South, in places where African-Americans had been granted an illusory right to vote. But as the South made its dramatic shift to the Republican Party in the wake of the Civil Rights Act, and as African-American voters in the North then shifted to the Democrats, the Republicans began to dominate the process and thus began the decades-long GOP project to suppress the vote. Along the way it has developed into a full-blown operation to undermine democracy in general, at whatever choke points are available.”

 Much more at:

Vote Suppression in the US revs up

 "In recent years, the Republican Party has accelerated its efforts to make voting more difficult for Americans."

Heather Digby Parton Last Modified: 19 Sep 2011 14:17

Also see:

A Really Bad Idea

September 16, 2011

G. Terry Madonna & Michael L. Young

Can the FBI, in India, interview people that worked in the USA?

Just daydreaming a little here but; I think that the FBI has the authority to interview Raj (formerly the City of Coatesville Staff Accountant) in India. And since Coatesville type threats don’t reach to India, at least I think they don’t, if he does have any useful information he might be more willing to cooperate.

Raj came here on a work visa during the Walker Administration.

SEE:
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2011 

August 22, 2011, I asked “Is it true that Raj from the Finance Department didn’t show up to work today and that he is on his way to India?  

At the August 22, 2011 Coatesville City Council Meeting: 

I asked, “Is it true that Raj from the Finance Department didn’t show up to work today and that he may be on his way to India? 

City Solicitor John Carnes, “That’s a personnel matter, that can’t be discussed in public.” 

Me, “OK, but it’s in the public record.” 

John Carnes, “Well, I mean… 

Me, “Now it is.”

 At last night’s City of Coatesville RDA meeting:

RDA Chairman Joe Disciullo, “Can you get us a cash flow please?”

Ms. Stacy Bjorhus RDA Director Finance and City of Coatesville Director of Finance, “Yes, well the cash flows have been done every single month except for this month, because…

Joe, “OK”

Ms. Bjorhus, “I lost my GL  and I’ve been swamped.” 
Note-(GL-General Ledger Specialist)

Joe, “OK then we can get them for next month, great.”

RDA member Matt Baker, “What do you mean you lost your GL?”

Ms. Bjorhus, "Mr. Kalaria is gone, Raj".  (Former City of Coatesville Sr. Staff Accountant Dharmesh Kalaria)

Matt, ”Ahhh”

Ms. Bjorhus, “So I’ve been without a GL maintenance guy…”

Matt, “So then we have a… temp or anybody to back you up? So, wow…Whatever his payment that we’re not paying salary and benefits can’t we get a temp starting tomorrow to do that?

Ms. Bjorhus, “They have someone coming in once a week to assist me.”

Matt, “When did this individual leave, quit, whatever?”

Ms. Bjorhus, “8/22”

Matt, “Today’s the…”

Joe, “19^th “

Matt, “19^th, 8/22; so we’ve gone almost an entire month without a GL specialist.”

Matt, “I’m sorry, you know I read the paper but... as a taxpayer we just took $2 million out of the trust… that’s part of the problem."

Joe, “That’s for the council meeting Matt not here...”

Phoenixville Green Team Forum for September

ENTILTED, HELL YES!

Don’t let Wall Street traders and their Republican lackeys take it away. 

Liberal Defined:

lib·er·al   [lib-er-uhl, lib-ruhl]  Show IPA 

adjective 

1.favorable to progress or reform, as in political or religious affairs. 

2.( often initial capital letter ) noting or pertaining to a political party advocating measures of progressive political reform. 

3.of, pertaining to, based on, or advocating liberalism. 

4.favorable to or in accord with concepts of maximum individual freedom possible, especially as guaranteed by law and secured by governmental protection of civil liberties. 

5.favoring or permitting freedom of action, especially with respect to matters of personal belief or expression: a liberal policy toward dissident artists and writers.

FROM:
DICTIONARY , COM;  http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/liberal

Liberal sure sounds like a good thing to be in a democracy. Maybe not in a dictatorship but being liberal is a perfect fit in a democracy. But Republicans made it a dirty word.

Don't let them make entitlements a dirty word so they can give your money to Wall Street traders to lose in their casino. 

The political climate among extremists that culminated in the Oklahoma City Bombing is reborn and is rapidly expanding into the mainstream of the Republican Party.

SPLC INTELLIGENCE REPORT

The Year in Hate & Extremism 

Issue Number: 141 | Spring  2011
"Led by antigovernment 'Patriot' groups, the radical right expands dramatically for the second year in a row"

THE PARTY OF OLD WHITE MEN

 "The future of the Republican party is threatened by one simple thing: demographics. But instead of recognizing that fact, and adjusting to it with policies that are more in line with a younger and less white electorate, they've settled on a solution of stacking the deck at the voting booth."

SEE:

DAILY kOS 

FRI SEP 16, 2011 AT 12:02 PM PDT 

Republicans step up voter suppression efforts in run up to 2012

If you are know about what Chester County Republicans call “Just Politics” you know that coercion of voters, coercion of candidates, cheating on multiple levels and election fraud are historically intrinsic to the campaign tactics of the CCRC. But since Democrats have made a county wide toe hold; things like loosening front wheel lug nuts on Democratic candidates’ tires have, I hope, stopped. 

Without really knowing what hit them the citizens of Coatesville experienced firsthand a government put in place, at least partly, by people that I believe are White Nationalists.

SEE:

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2010 

Were any White Nationalists involved in the “Bloc of Four’s” campaign?

 Although there are extremist elements in the Chester County Republican Party and some "gangster politics “ remain, I believe that pressure from Democrats and Independent Voters has made the CCRC an exception in nationwide Republican Politics.

Since at least the Nixon years the Republican Party national campaign strategy has been partly wide ranging cheating, and election fraud. 

But something different is happening in US politics something not seen since the US Civil War:

 I believe the extremist views of Larry Pratt of "Gun Owners of America" are now the views of the Republican Party “base” and as the election draws nearer I believe we will see “gun sight crosshairs” on Democrats; outright death threats to Democratic candidates and supporters, with the possibility of acts of violence.

BANANAREPUBLICAN

I think that our democratic process, at least on the Republican side,  is evolving into a “banana republic”. 

A leader of the Republican Party Extremist Right Wing, Larry Pratt, developed his plan for America “Armed People Victorious" based on his experience with the Citizen Militias or “Death Squads” in Guatemala.

SEE"

“Eight Lanes Out 

Larry Pratt, 58 

"Larry Pratt, a gun rights absolutist whose Gun Owners of America (GOA) has been described as "eight lanes to the right" of the National Rifle Association, may well be the person who brought the concept of citizen militias to the radical right. 

In 1990, Pratt wrote a book, Armed People Victorious, based on his study of "citizen defense patrols" used in Guatemala and the Philippines against Communist rebels — patrols that came to be known as death squads for their murderous brutality.Picturing these groups in rosy terms, Pratt advocated similar militias in the United States — an idea that finally caught on when he was invited for a meeting of 160 extremists, including many famous white supremacists, in 1992. 

It was at that meeting, hosted in Colorado by white supremacist minister Pete Peters, that the contours of the militia movement were laid out. 

Pratt, whose GOA has grown since its 1975 founding to some 150,000 members today, hit the headlines in a big way when his associations with Peters and other professional racists were revealed, convincing arch-conservative Pat Buchanan to eject him as a national co-chair of Buchanan's 1996 presidential campaign. 

The same year, it emerged that Pratt was a contributing editor to a periodical of the anti-Semitic United Sovereigns of America, and that his GOA had donated money to a white supremacist attorney's group…”

See:

Eight Lanes Out in-

False Patriots Profiles of 40 antigovernment leaders

“While the NRA is the biggest player in terms of money and publicity, the gun lobby is in fact much broader, with tentacles that reach not only up into Congress but also out to the margins of American society that Identity believers and anti-government conspiracy theorists inhabit. In that sense, Larry Pratt is emblematic of today's gun lobby: He has one foot in the political mainstream and the other in the fringe… 

In addition to lobbying, GOA also puts put videos. Five days before the start of the 51 day siege near Waco, Texas (and four months after the Estes Park meeting, David Koresh showed one of GOA's videotapes to Robert Rodriguez, an ATF agent who had infiltrated the Waco compound and was attending Branch Davidian Bible sessions. The video "portrayed ATF as an evil agency that threatened the liberty of U.S. citizens," according to a Treasury Department report. Pratt has written more expansively on those views, arguing in his 1990 book Armed People Victorious that professional law enforcement should be replaced by militias. "It is time that the United States," he wrote, "return to reliance on an armed people." 

See:
Armed and Dangerous (The NRA, Militias and White Supremacists are fostering a network of right wing warriors) 

Rolling Stone Magazine/November 2, 1995 

By Leonard Zeskind 

Pulver Hotel Restaurant easement with the City of Coatesville

Coatesville City Solicitor John Carnes, “There are two development projects that are currently in front of the City: one is the Pulver plan that we had a meeting just about two weeks ago with representatives of Pulver, Councilman Simpson was present as well. It was a very positive meeting."

Coatesville City Councilperson Ed Simpson, “The big thing that we accomplished at that meeting that was the fact that they did move the easement to give us a better easement but at the same time it’s a joint easement with them. So now they’re basically going to be paying for the light at the intersection, the roadway into it…

If we had an easement up further where we wanted to use it, we would have to put in the turning lane, the light study and all that.  So now we’re putting it in with them, with their actual access easement for a future restaurant, yet to be named. But we kind of forced them to put it in with theirs. And now it’s not going to cost us anything."

John Carnes, “They were obviously listening at the last meeting when this was expressed by council. That is fantastic."

I never realized that the City had actually intended to pay for roadway improvements for our easement. I thought the issue was over a more expensive or less expensive bridge over the Brandywine, maybe for a trail.

Anyway if it has roadway access to Coatesville’s 75 acres of undeveloped land on the other side of the Brandywine it’s a good thing. 

Once it’s no longer landlocked, that 75 acres and the land adjoining it  will be transformed from the most worthless land in Chester County to prime real estate.

Now we can speculate about what will be built there:

So far I have heard about three things.

 A park with walking trails. 

The Velodrome group had an interest in putting a BMX bicycle course there. 

Some Coatesville residents speculated that a wind farm electric generation station could be built there.

Once it’s not landlocked and since it’s so close to RT. 30 and can be seen from RT. 30 almost anything could go there; even a golf course. 

Norman Guthrie Rudolph mural in the 1st Niagara Bank 1st Ave. & Lincoln Hwy. in Coatesville, PA

This is the Norman Guthrie Rudolph mural in the 1st Niagara Bank. It needs to be cleaned up. It probably has cigarette smoke staining. 

About Norman Guthrie Rudolph:

"He was born in Darby, Pennsylvania 10th November 1900 to George Cooper Rudolph and Adele Guthrie. 

Norm won scholarships to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art, and the Grand Central Art School in New York. He was a student of John Dull, Daniel Garber, Thorton Oakley, and Fred Wagner. 

After completing school, he began his successful fifty-year career as an illustrator of books, magazines, and advertisements for A.D. Fleming, the Associated Artists of Philadelphia, The Press of A. Colish, Colliers Magazine, Doubleday, the Franklin Printing Company, Githens-Sohl, Liberty Magazine, the Macmillan Publishing Company, National Lead and Cities Service, Random House, and the Richard Foley Advertising Agency. He held memberships in the American Watercolor Society, the Artists Fellowship, the New York Artists Guild, the Salmagundi Club, the Society of Illustrators, and most importantly the Philadelphia Sketch Club from 1922 to 1973.In December of 1985. 

Norm died and was buried at the Arlington Cemetery in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania. We can still see his work, not merely in the many books for which he was the illustrator, but at a website dedicated to him, created by Christy McNeil, his proud granddaughter. Invites readers who have access to the internet to visit”:

http://www.normanguthrierudolph.com/

MUCH MORE AT:

Philadelphia Sketch Club-Past Members of Note.

Biographies written by Bruce H. Bentzman at:

http://www.sketchclub.org/PSC_memOfNote.html#NorGut 

Note:

The bank is not now open to the public. There is damage to a ceiling lintel.

Brandywine Bike Trail, Coatesville to Modena

At the Coatesville City Council Meeting September 12, 2011

Mr. Rawlings attended a meeting in 08/16/11 with the Borough of South Coatesville and their consultant Kairos Design Group, LLC to put together a Transportation and Community Development Initiative (TCDI) feasibility study for a Brandywine Bike Lane Trail.

The bike trail is proposed to go from the Brandywine Riverwalk in Coatesville down First Avenue into the Borough of South Coatesville and Modena.

This worthwhile project will supplement the Velodrome Project and add to the improvement of Coatesville.

The application is to the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission.

Mr. Bachik from Kairos Design Group, LLC, “If we’re successful in getting the grant application we would help you find the $2,500 much of it through community donations so that you don’t have to spend it out of the general fund.”

The City of Coatesville’s match is $2,500, the Borough of South Coatesville is matching $7,500 and also committed in kind services in excess of $30,000. The total project is about $150,000.  At this time Modena’s match is unknown.

It’s my understanding that “community donations” are help from volunteers and the City of Coatesville’s Streets Department.

Mr. Bachik, “The goal here is to make a collaborative project between three municipalities, because everyone benefits...

The goal is to include the City in the process with limited or no financial exposure.

Goal number one is to submit the application.

Two is to be successful with that submission.

Three is getting the money to make it happen”

Coatesville City Councilperson Jarrell Brazzle asked again, “Back to this… where are we going to get this $2,500 from?"

Coatesville City Manager Gary Railings, "We can budget it for next year and I think the Council has to start looking at the budget in terms of trying to do some things with our money than just pay salaries.  We have to start using our… to do things like this to improve the community. 

I’ll be coming to you the next couple meetings with a quality of life program that gets into all sorts of things; from vacant houses, to roads, to street signs and things. And you've got to start to think about what to do about it, especially street signs.

We’re losing cases because the street signs are so faded that the judge is throwing them out. That's ridiculous!  So we've got to do something with these signs in town.

So we’ve got to start budgeting for that, trying to replace these sign to do something with different aspects of the community to make it better for people to live."

Councilperson Ed Simpson, “It’s just totally falling apart. I’m mean the money hasn’t been there but there comes to a point in time where we have to say, we got to do something with it.”

Mr. Rawlings, “The Velodrome Project is that close to being a go and this will be an additional attraction for people to come here and just ride this bike trail out into the country. In fact it’s going to start right by the Velodrome Riverwalk. So it’s going to be a nice addition."

Mr. Bachik, “And if I could just for the sake of comparison, if we’re successful that $2,500 actually represents to the City about $50,000 to $70,000 of physical improvements. So, the commitment of $2,500 has a great benefit of real hard improvements as far as the successful applications. I think there is great merit from it because it helps get some of those things done that I think Mr. Rawlings was pointing out."

Mr. Rawlings."We have to start addressing some of these things that might help us down that road."

David Collins, good choice for Coatesville’s 4th Ward.

 I have two posts concerning Mr. Collins:

FRIDAY, APRIL 23, 2010

Neighbors comments at the Zoning Hearing on May 9, 2007 DAVID COLLINS

David Collins lives next door to Ms. Ellerbe:

SUNDAY, JUNE 5, 2011

Coatesville Bike Race-“There’s an estimated between 3,000 to 5,000 people who are going to be here.”

Coatesville council selects David Collins to fill unexpired term

Published: Tuesday, September 13, 2011

By ERIC S. SMITH, esmith@dailylocal.com