Letters: Amendments will safeguard citizens’ rights; Food deserts in Centre County

Amendments will safeguard citizens’ rights

As a public policy consultant, I have been disappointed in Governor Wolf’s arbitrary, discriminatory and dictatorial decrees over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. His often inconsistent and at times illogical treatment of businesses has resulted in unnecessary and unjust loss of thousands of jobs in the commonwealth and the literal destruction of numerous small businesses.

Governor Wolf’s questionable and extended use of emergency powers has once again exposed the dangers of unchecked, concentrated power in the executive branch of government. The power of the governor to impose restrictions and limitations on citizens’ constitutional and civil rights in an emergency must remain limited in scope and duration and must revert to the legislature as soon as practicable.

Two proposed amendments to the Constitution of Pennsylvania will ensure that, after a reasonable and adequate period, the General Assembly will be empowered to debate and legislate whatever emergency actions may be required. These amendments are worthy of support. I urge a “Yes” vote on these amendments to safeguard the constitutional and civil rights of all our citizens.

Food deserts in Centre County

Enough grocery stores? Really?

There is one grocery store outside Bellefonte borough. There is no regularly scheduled public transportation in Bellefonte or eastern Centre County that allows easy access to that store. There is no other grocery store in Lower Nittany Valley, Little Nittany or Lower Bald Eagle Valley until you arrive in Mill Hall in Clinton County. There are four Dollar General stores in this area and several convenience stores with higher prices that make it possible for them to be profitable, but they do not generally provide fresh produce. The people of these areas are living in a food desert.

I would like to say thank you to the county commissioners Mike Pipe, Mark Higgins and Steve Dershem for supporting the addition of a Giant supermarket on the Benner Pike near Bellefonte. It is obvious that the number of grocery stores and access to them is not nearly as easy in all parts of Centre County as it is in others. We welcome the construction of another grocery store in the Bellefonte area!

Now what can be done to help the upper Bald Eagle Valley, Penns Valley and the Mountaintop/Philipsbug areas?

A transparent Corman would serve us better

The best way to judge people’s ethics is to find out what they do when no one’s looking. Using that standard, I have to question State Sen. Jake Corman’s recent unannounced appointment of a fellow senator’s wife to the state’s Gaming Control Board at an annual salary of $145,000.

As reported by the news service Spotlight PA, Corman, Senate president pro tempore, awarded the job to Frances Regan, wife of Sen. Mike Regan, a fellow Republican from York County. Corman told Spotlight that Regan is qualified because she used to be a federal probation officer, which, according to ziprecruiter.com, is someone who “supervise(s) defendants and offenders, provide(s) correctional treatment, maintain(s) personal contacts, and otherwise support(s) the criminal justice system of the United States.” The state’s gaming control board, according to its website, says it focuses on helping people who are compulsive gamblers, a job I would think would be filled by a psychologist.

This is not Corman’s first brush with a lack of transparency. Spotlight PA reported in 2019 that Corman listed $73,769 in obscure spending in credit card payments reimbursed by taxpayers. Spotlight PA also found that Corman had spent $2,290 for 90 bottles of vodka in 205, $3,816 in 180 bottles of rum in 2016 and 2017, claimed as holiday gifts.

Corman is a native of Bellefonte, the home of governors, and I assume that he would one day aspire to become governor. If that is the case, he needs to behave differently when no one’s looking.