Letters: Library provides critical resource; Casino would hurt community

Library provides critical resource

The Schlow Library is an extremely important resource in our community. Parents of children, from babies to teenagers, depend on the library for its resources in fostering the love of reading in their children. People who live in retirement communities like mine, the Village at Penn State, depend on the library to deliver reading and listening materials right to our homes, since many of us have no cars to go out and pick them up ourselves. Many residents in the library’s service areas do not have computers, or do not have dependable Wi-Fi, and in the past two years have had to count on the library for their children to be able to complete their assigned school work. The generous service hours of the library make it possible for patrons to use it, no matter how busy their schedule is. The resource librarians are available whenever the library is open, to help citizens with their research and information needs.

These services depend on reliable funding, and without the membership of Halfmoon Township, who knows which of these services, which all of us depend on in various ways, would be cut back? Citizens who live there, please beg your supervisors to reconsider this matter and to contribute their fair share, based on how your own residents have used the library in the past few years, to the Schlow Library’s budget.

Casino would hurt community

I’m writing in opposition of the proposed casino. I find it astounding that with so much opposition from those of us that live here, that the effort continues to be advertised as a fight between two people on who gets the license. The reports given on the impact of the local community did not show both sides of such a place. Casinos bring in bad characters, addiction and increased crime. Developers are ruining the character of State College. A casino brings nothing positive to State College. Listen to the people!

Balachandran committed to serving all

The prospect of electing Gopal Balachandran to serve as a judge on Centre County’s Court of Common Pleas fills me with great joy and hope.

I write as a friend and neighbor of Gopal’s. Our families gather for meals and attend Spikes games together; our elementary-aged kids play together through all seasons. I also write as an active citizen in our local community, believing deeply in, and committed to, deliberation and action that serves all, not just some.

Gopal would bring to the court a host of criminal law expertise, cultivated over the past two decades when he served as a public defender and now as the director of Penn State Law’s Criminal Appellate and Post-Conviction Services Clinic. He would also bring a judicial approach centered on compassion for all people involved in our justice system, mindful of how every case extends deeply into the lives of many. His co-creation of the Centre County Pardon Project is evidence of this compassionate commitment to furthering justice, particularly for the most marginalized among us.

Gopal would also bring expertise that has grown out of his other life experiences, like as a family-centered husband and father, inquisitive State College Borough councilman, generous neighbor, active participant in local community life, and naturalized U.S. citizen. This is a person who on the bench will care for and attend closely to the cohesion and integrity of our Centre County community.

I want to live in a county served by Judge Gopal Balachandran.