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In this Update:
- Attention Residents of Cambria and Bedford County Impacted by Tropical Storm Ida
- Visit to Conemaugh Valley Elementary School
- The Pennsylvania Forest Products Association 2021 Annual Meeting
- Citation Presented to Detective Tom Keirn
- Antlerless Deer Licenses Continue To Be Sold
- Auditor General Releases Audit Critical of Wolf Administration’s Business Closure Waiver Process
- Hearing Explores Positive Experiences of Local Governments During COVID-19
- Committee Discusses Ways to Preserve Life-Saving Care Provided by Firefighters
- Proposed New Nursing Home Regulations Examined by Senate Committees
- Scammers Continue to Exploit COVID-19
- School Mask Mandate
- September is National Literacy Month
Attention Residents of Cambria and Bedford County Impacted by Tropical Storm Ida
Representatives from PA Emergency Management Agency will be in Cambria and Bedford Counties this week to assess damage from Tropical Storm Ida. If your property sustained major damage, please report to your Emergency Services Department, as soon as possible.
Cambria County -814-472-2050
Bedford County –814-623-9117
Visit to Conemaugh Valley Elementary School
Last week I had the privilege of speaking to Mrs. Meyer’s 6th grade social studies class at Conemaugh Valley Elementary School. I would like to thank student teacher Bethany George for inviting me and the students for the questions and conversation.
The Pennsylvania Forest Products Association 2021 Annual Meeting
This past week I had the privilege of speaking at the Pennsylvania Forest Products Association 2021 Annual Meeting. It was great to catch up with my former colleague, former State Representative from Clearfield County Matt Gabler.
Antlerless Deer Licenses Continue To Be Sold
Pennsylvania’s more than 132,000 unsold antlerless deer licenses may be bought over the counter through your county treasurer’s office for any wildlife management unit (WMU) where unsold licenses exist.
Here’s a link to a list of WMUs that have licenses remaining for purchase:
https://huntfish.pa.gov/pa/antlerlesswmu/remainingquotas
New for this year – no more than six licenses may be purchased by any individual, including licenses that may have been acquired during the July and August sale periods; however, an additional license MAY be purchased should you harvest/report a deer.
Citation Presented to Detective Tom Keirn
I had the honor of presenting a Senate of Pennsylvania Citation to Detective Tom Keirn who recently retired from the Richland Township Police Department after 42 years. Detective Keirn began his career as a part-time officer in 1978 and was promoted to full-time in January 1989. He was one of the first members of the Cambria County Drug Task Force, served on the Johnstown-Richland Special Emergency Response Team and the Cambria County Special Emergency Response Team, which he served as Team Leader beginning in 2004. Promoted to Detective in 2000, he was appointed to the Federal Bureau of Investigation Safe Streets Task Force in 2010.
Detective Keirn has served his community with integrity, honor, pride and distinction. Congratulations on this well-earned retirement. Best wishes and thank you!
Auditor General Releases Audit Critical of Wolf Administration’s Business Closure Waiver Process
When Pennsylvanians voted in May to put limits on Gov. Wolf’s emergency powers, part of their concern was over his pandemic business closures and his administration’s handling of closure waivers. An audit by state Auditor General Tim DeFoor found voters’ concerns to be justified.
The auditor general released a performance audit examining how the Department of Community and Economic Development handled the process to grant waivers to businesses seeking to stay open during the shutdown, stating:
“This audit revealed a flawed process that provided inconsistent answers to business owners and caused confusion. While the pandemic certainly presented some unique challenges, the process was hastily assembled on the fly, unevenly administered and should be reformed before anything like it is ever used again.”
A preliminary audit by the previous auditor general uncovered similar problems. The new audit also found that Gov. Wolf’s shutdown order was more restrictive than federal guidelines, resulting in more business closures.
The General Assembly should review the recommended changes included in the audit to determine what needs to be done to prevent a repeat in any future emergencies.
Hearing Explores Positive Experiences of Local Governments During COVID-19
The Senate and House Local Government committees held a joint hearing exploring the positives experienced by local government entities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Testifiers described the transition to virtual and hybrid meetings, technological advancements in conducting municipal business with the public and other government organizations and improved transparency. They also highlighted ways the pandemic led them to make regulatory changes, improve efficiency and modernize procedures.
You can view hearing video and written testimony here.
Committee Discusses Ways to Preserve Life-Saving Care Provided by Firefighters
The Senate Veterans Affairs & Emergency Preparedness Committee held a public hearing to listen to fire chiefs, firefighters and others about how to improve recruitment and retention of the next generation of volunteer firefighters across Pennsylvania.
In addition to explaining the impact of funding challenges, testifiers highlighted the need for communities to work together in support of first responders to preserve critical access to life-saving care for all Pennsylvanians.
In the 1970s, Pennsylvania boasted 300,000 volunteer firefighters. Today, that number is fewer than 40,000. To help bolster those ranks, the Senate this year passed Senate Bill 83, which would provide grants to establish fire training programs for students during the school year with the hope they will remain firefighters for years to come.
You can view hearing video and written testimony here.
Proposed New Nursing Home Regulations Examined by Senate Committees
The Senate Health & Human Services Committee and the Aging & Youth Committee held a joint hearing to examine new regulations for long-term care nursing facilities being proposed by the Wolf Administration.
The committees brought together administration officials as well as industry experts and others to provide feedback on the proposed regulations, which the administration says is the first in a series of proposed changes that will be combined to create a final, comprehensive regulatory package.
You can view hearing video and written testimony here.
Scammers Continue to Exploit COVID-19
Since the start of the pandemic, fraudsters have been trying to exploit it for financial gain. The arrival of vaccines changed the nature of the scams but did not eliminate them.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says consumers should be on the lookout for these signs of vaccine scams:
- Requests that you pay out of pocket to receive a shot
- Ads for vaccines in websites, social media posts, emails or phone calls
- Marketers offering to sell or ship doses of COVID-19 vaccines
Other scams have sought to steal stimulus money, while the FBI says con artists advertise fake COVID-19 antibody tests in hopes of harvesting personal information they can use in identity theft or health insurance scams. AARP has the latest information on pandemic-related scams.
School Mask Mandate
The latest order from the Acting Secretary of Health comes a year after the administration did essentially the same thing. For months, last year and this year, the administration and Department of Education publicly stated that they would not get in the way of local control and local decisions by our individual school districts. As a direct and proximate result all of our school districts expended significant time, money and resources to develop an appropriate plan for their individual districts tempered with guidance from multiple stakeholders.
Now, just as was done last year, the rug has essentially been pulled out from underneath them. All of the work these districts did has in essence been deemed to be not good enough as the administration feels it can force its one size all approach on our children.
Rest assured that I will continue to fight and advocate for local control, which I believe is the true benchmark of democracy. I look forward to an expeditious resolution to the lawsuit filed against the Acting Secretary of Health and believe that a legal opinion will be delivered indicating the Department lacked the authority to make this order.
Please stay tuned to Enews for further developments on this issue.
September is National Literacy Month
Children who learn good reading habits are more likely to develop a lifelong love of reading, which supports early writing and reading skills and builds their vocabulary. Here’s to exploring the world through reading during National Literacy Month and year round.
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