Letters: Thompson is present, engaged in district; Shop safely in Centre County

Editor’s note: The Centre Daily Times welcomes letters endorsing candidates in the Nov. 3 general election and will accept letters that are received by 5 p.m. Oct. 27. Election letters will be published through Oct. 31. Letters are subject to editing, must be based on facts and should avoid mean-spirited attacks.

Thompson is present, engaged in district

I was personally saddened when redistricting took away from me an excellent Congressman, Glenn “G.T.” Thompson.

Not only does he vote right, but he is a man of the people. You in his present district are so fortunate to be represented by someone who is nearby you and he is “one of the people.”

G.T., who resides in Centre County, can be seen often at local events or anywhere locally conversing with his constituents.

If G.T. were still my representative, I would cast my vote for him on Nov. 3. I would ask you to do just that when you vote.

Explanation for punctured gas line?

The punctured Bellefonte gas line may have been unmarked, but it probably wasn’t unknown. Here’s how that can happen: Planners plan a line. Then they submit the plans to the appropriate politicians who edit and approve it. When construction starts, workers find an obstruction or have been warned to work around someone’s ancestral burial ground or the home of a major campaign contributor or a driveway used by school buses.

The workers, always under pressure, improvise a work-around and may or may not document it. Ten years later, or 50, the ground has to be reopened. The openers have copies of the original plan but not the revision. Poof! There’s gas in the air or sparks. By now, the original builders are retired or otherwise moved away. There’s nobody left to say “hey, wait a minute. When we built that, we found a boulder no one knew about so we routed our pipe around it.”

Someone knew but didn’t tell. Or he or she told but the revision was misfiled or left unfiled. This isn’t unique here. It happens everywhere. Someone in the original chain of command or the follow-up either didn’t follow up or the follow-up was fouled up. Good thing the operator of the backhoe didn’t stop to light up a cigarette when the iron teeth took a bite out of the iron pipe.

Plans, not complaints needed from candidate

Steve Yetsko is the Republican running against Scott Conklin for election to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for District 77 this Nov. 3rd.

Steve knocked on my door to say he wanted things to return to the way they were before the pandemic. Sounds good, but when I asked what he planned to do about it, he said “I don’t know.” And when I asked why he was running? He answered that Governor Wolf’s social distancing rules had kept him from attending his son’s football game.

Since March, COVID-19 has killed over 220,000 Americans, over 8,524 in Pennsylvania. Folks are losing their jobs as businesses close; families are facing eviction and hunger. “I don’t know” isn’t good enough. Making a small sacrifice isn’t too much to ask if it protects our neighbors. I’m grateful that masks and social distancing slow the spread of this virus. I appreciate the courage of leaders who lead by example, making difficult choices to save lives.

Steve Yetsko has no plans and no ideas of how to fix things. All he has are complaints about Governor Wolf’s efforts to limit the spread of coronavirus in Pennsylvania. We have big problems to solve and we need leaders with vision who aren’t afraid to lead.

This November I’m voting for Scott Conklin because when Joe Biden becomes our president in 2021, he will need the help of elected officials in state and federal government to clean up the mess left behind.

Shop safely in Centre County

Weis shoppers beware. The Weis Market mask wearing policy is one that “encourages” the use of masks while in their store, while Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club “require” their shoppers to wear masks. We live in Centre County where the COVID-19 rate is out of sight and would it be any wonder with the “carefree” policies of some of the stores in our area. Please shop intelligently if not “Weis”ly.