We had to ask for the money.

Thank you, resident and Lebo Citizens reader, Nick Meduho, for asking!

From: John Bendel [mailto:jbendel@mtlebanon.org]
Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2015 2:50 PM
To: Nicholas Meduho Jr
Cc: <sfeller@mtlebanon.org>; Commission
Subject: Re: donations

The municipality was notified yesterday that the Endowment has an additional $6,195 in funds that have been collected through the Field Improvement Fund since their last contribution. Steve Feller has requested the funds and a check to the municipality should arrive soon. 

This will bring the total non-municipal contribution to $263,928.73.

On Jan 8, 2015, at 12:14 AM, Nicholas Meduho Jr wrote:

Mr. Feller and Commissioners,

On Monday evening during citizen comments I asked the following:

“Since July 10th when MLCE submitted a check for $15,267 for turf donations, have there been any additional donations made since that time to the MLCE. If so, in what amounts and have those fund been transferred to the municipality?” 

Because no one knew the answer to this question, can someone please take the time to find out the answer.

I have asked MLCE several times, they are refusing to answer this simple question.

Thank you,

Nicholas Meduho
Mt. Lebanon, PA

Another Lebo [Citizens] Alert

The traffic lights are out at the intersection of Terrace and Connor Roads. I understand there is a power failure in the Foster School area. Please stop at this intersection when the traffic lights are out.

Keep in mind that there was no LeboAlert for Sunday's water main break on Castle Shannon Blvd.

From the PIO:

From: LeboALERT <noreply@mtlebanon.org>

To: EGillen476 <EGillen476@aol.com>

Subject: LeboALERT: Mt. Lebanon Communit...

Date: Tue, Dec 16, 2014 9:24 am

“This is an important notice from LeboALERT.
Mt. Lebanon Community Endowment offers gift cards which donate $25-$100 to the local charity of the giftee's choice. Details:rkang@mtlebanonendowment.org”

Where's Gateway?

Below is the "Account Detail Report from 04/01/14 to 07/31/14. " Why is the reporting period from April 1 to July 31? Gateway donated in 2013. How can a report be postdated? What is the final check reference number?

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Stephen Feller" <sfeller@mtlebanon.org>
Date: Jul 10, 2014 12:06 PM
Subject: Fwd: Wildcat Middle Field
To: "Commission" <commission@mtlebanon.org>, "David P. Franklin"<XXXXXXX>, "Audrey Bode" <abode@mtlebanonendowment.org>
Cc: "David Donnellan" <ddonnellan@mtlebanon.org>, "Dan Deiseroth" <ddeiseroth@gatewayengineers.com>, "Andrew McCreery" <amccreery@mtlebanon.org>

Please be advised that as of today we have received $255,733.73 from non-municipal sources for the Wildcat/Middle Field turf project. Attached is the Account Detail Report from the Finance Department. 

We appreciate the hard work of everyone involved in this effort. 

"Leboleaks" Funding

I am trying to get as much of this uploaded as I can before tonight's meeting, since commissioners are learning about this stuff right along with everyone else.

On January 1, 2014, John Bendel emailed Dave Franklin and Tim White about a funding strategy for the turf project. He asked if either considered asking for a grant from the Mt. Lebanon Community Endowment (MLCE). I don't know anything about grants, but I thought I would share John Bendel's idea here.

The second email exchange is interesting (to me, at least). Dave Franklin wrote to Audrey (MLCE) about a proposed Project Fund Agreement. This agreement is one of the missing documents from my RTK. I copied the Office of Open Records (OOR) appeals officer, as instructed, when I sent my long list of missing documents to Steve Feller. In Franklin's note, he stated that the municipality will send a request for funds AFTER awarding the project. Donnellan clarified Franklin's statement by saying that the funds are needed PRIOR to awarding the project. John Bendel confirmed it. So there it is in writing, Folks.

More on our "official community magazine"

When I had my little Market District get together last week, Bill Lewis was kind enough to share this letter to the editor of Mt. Lebanon Magazine.

Bill raised many concerns in his 2006 letter in regard to the July/August 2006 article, Around Town Community Endowment Launched. As usual, Mt. Lebanon Magazine only reported the entertaining part, and not the rest of the story of community issues.

• The Municipal government spent $36,000 in tax funds to create the MLCE. 
• The Commission wasted $40,000 when sports organizations backed out of funding support for McNeilly Field/Park.
• The Mt. Lebanon Soccer Association was to contribute $135,000 to the MLCE for the specific purpose of developing athletic fields. [Why is this sounding like déjà vu?]
• Public officials and youth sports leaders were claiming that people with children wouldn't move here and housing prices would fall if we didn't have more fields. [Remember, this was in 2006.] 
• When was spending $36,000 discussed in a public forum? 
• Why does the magazine taint the good thing it does with editorial and publisher hype and managed news?

Thank you Bill, for sharing this letter with me and now, the rest of the community. I looked in the Blog Lebo archives to see if anything was written about this. As usual, I got side tracked because of all the information in those archives and found this about Mt. Lebanon Magazine and the TIF issue for Washington Park. Laurels and Lances Some things never change. Anyway, I did find this post on Blog Lebo called, Donation Allows Endowment

As one reader pointed out, Mt. Lebanon Magazine is definitely not a news magazine. In the words of former Commissioner Humphreys, Mt. Lebanon Magazine remains the "house organ" and "propaganda tool" for Mt. Lebanon.

"Whoa," says the EPA. UPDATED

The EPA has had a change of heart regarding the safety of artificial turf.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has “stepped back” from previous safety assurances about artificial turf made from recycled tires, according to a written press release.
“EPA now admits that it has no idea about the extent of chemical exposure to children and athletes playing on these surfaces,” said Jeff Ruch, executive director of the nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.

This quote came from The New Haven Register article, More studies needed on artificial turf fields, EPA says. What concerns me is that if you watch the Sports Advisory Board meeting video from Thursday evening, you will see David Donnellan mention that developing McNeilly is in the Capital Improvements Projects (the CIP, a.k.a. The Wish List). So hazardous artificial turf would be installed on three municipal fields, as well as the artificial turf presently at the high school.

I hope people take the time to watch the SAB video. Chip, we all heard what you said about the resident missing from the meeting. Shame on you.

Highlights include: John Bendel connected the SAB to the Mt. Lebanon Community Endowment. This would eliminate the need for the SAB to file for 501(c)(3) status. Donations would go into a separate project fund account, with the details TBD of who has access to it, the SAB or the Municipality.

Donations received so far:

1st official donation came from Gateway Engineering for $4,000 in 2013. There may possibly be more coming in 2014.
$25,000 Baseball Association (which amounts to $29/player) Pledged
$5,000 Football Association (which amounts to $31/player) Pledged
$5,000 may be coming from Softball.

The MLCE fee for this is $1,000, I believe.

Another thing that came out of the meeting is that if the SAB does not meet their target of $250,000, that the donations will be used for field maintenance.

Update January 14, 2014 10:34 PM During the Citizen Comments portion of tonight's commission meeting, I handed out reprints of the EPA website article, The Use of Recycled Tire Materials on Playgrounds & Artificial Turf Fields, in addition to reprints of the letter to the executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) from the United States Environmental Protection Agency dated December 16, 2013. I asked for organic fill, if the project goes through.

Update April 12, 2014 9:30 PM Knowing what I know now, I retract what I wrote on January 14. Organic infill doesn't make the turf safe. The blades of "grass" and the backing are also toxic. The only safe turf is natural grass.