PG, I'm done with you.

As a 40+ year subscriber, I have canceled my subscription to the Post-Gazette. My carrier, Malcolm Andrews has been providing excellent service for many years, and I thank him and his family for their dedication. This is not a reflection on you, Malcolm, but it is based solely on John Hayes' weekly lies. The final straw was in his article today, Other towns also face deer dilemmas.

If protesters think Mt. Lebanon is done with its deer debate, they’re wrong. About 200 pregnant does are expected to deliver 300 or more additional deer to Mt. Lebanon in the coming months.

Where the hell are you getting your numbers, Mr. Hayes? Is this based on your estimates that Mt. Lebanon has THOUSANDS of deer?  I'm tired of you, Mt. Lebanon commission, Mt. Lebanon staff, and other media sources blaming "protesters" for Benner's blunder.

You write:

Activists opposed to the municipality’s plan to kill enough deer to decrease deer-car collisions by 50 percent in five years are still celebrating their victory.

The deer-car collisions plan is BOGUS!

• In Mt. Lebanon, people got hurt in over 90% of reported car crashes that involved pedestrians and/or bicyclists. (This is compared to 35% for regular car crashes and 3.8% for deer/car crashes.)
• In the last 4 years, there have been 50 reported injury-causing crashes involving pedestrians and/or bicyclists. (This is compared to 6 reported injury-causing deer/car crashes. In other words, there are 8 times as many for ped/cyc as for deer.)

Tom Moertel's in-depth analysis will be posted on Kelly Fraasch's blog in the near future.

Try to cancel a subscription online. It can't be done. I ended up finding this, Subscription Questions. I am sooooo done with you, John Hayes.

Commissioner Fraasch writes about the Muni's involvement in the appeal hearings - UPDATED

Take a look at Kelly Fraasch's blog, Muni involvement in property assessment appeal hearings… As I had written in a previous post and commented at last night's meeting, there was an item on last night's agenda, where the motion was made, but not seconded for Consideration to financially participate in the Mt. Lebanon School District’s involvement in property assessment appeal hearings. 


From reading Kelly's blog, it appears that the Commission never discussed this. Dave Brumfield said that it was his idea.  Kristen Linfante made the motion, so it looks like the school board liaison is all for it too.

Make sure you see the link Kelly provided to Tom Moertel's map on Blog-Lebo which illustrates the large concentration of over assessments in Ward 5 as well as Ward 1.


Update May 31, 2012 11:18 pm To be fair, here is a link to Kristen Linfante's blog, Why I voted "no" (anyone hear "Dueling Banjos" playing in the background?) She writes:

The commission met this past Tuesday night and had a lively discussion about a variety of issues.  One such issue was a propsal [sic] that Kelly Fraasch and Matt Kluck jointly proposed with regards to spending money out of our undesignated fund. 

She goes on to say:

It is my hope that we will come to a consensus that a bond is not only necessary, but the right thing to do.

As well as:

A bond, (and I'm not talking a huge bond, but a bond) along with a portion of our undesignated fund could address these concerns.

Her previous post was about Field Signs/New Revenue

...it is the responsibility of the commission to find new revenue sources for the municiaplity [sic]. 

 I am confused.  Is a bond, not a huge bond, but a bond a way to find new revenue sources?

Want to see something incredible?

Over on Blog-Lebo, Tom Moertel created an interactive Google map of Mt. Lebanon's reassessments. Making Sense of the New Assessments: Winners and Losers This is incredible, folks. Tom incorporated the Mt. Lebanon reassessment figures with Google Maps to estimate who dodged the bullet and who will be faced with higher taxes.  Well done, Tom!