Beyond the Byline: Sincere thanks to David Barasch

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) Chairman David M. Barasch announced this week that he is retiring from public service, which includes almost six years in the leadership position of the agency board.

Appointed to a three-year term on the board as chair by Gov. Tom Wolf on Oct. 8, 2015, Barasch accepted a second three-year term in July 2018.

Barasch’s decades-long career serving both state and federal government included Consumer Advocate for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Special Assistant to Gov. Bob Casey, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, and Deputy Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue.

According to a news release from the Gaming Commission, during his term as chairman of the PGCB, Barasch helped guide a period of growth in the Commonwealth’s gaming industry second only to the initial period of licensing and opening of casinos in the mid- to late-2000s.

“The Gaming Control board and the public benefited from David Barasch’s deep experience and steady hand during the past six years,” said PGCB Executive Director Kevin O’Toole. “At no time in the history of this agency were those qualities more important in a Board Chair than during the past year of unexpected and unprecedented disruptions to the gaming industry due to COVID-19. During that period under Chairman Barasch’s watch, the agency not only carried out its casino oversight responsibilities but continued its important work of assuring the new forms of gambling were successfully rolled out.”

I got to know Barasch back in 1983 when he was Consumer Advocate and we here in NEPA were going through the giardiasis crisis. It was 38 years prior to the COVID-19 when our area had what could be described as a “close call.”

That’s when some busy beavers contaminated our water system with giardiasis — politely defined as “an infection of the intestine with a flagellate protozoan, which causes diarrhea and other symptoms.”

In a word, it was disgusting.

Jim Chester was the director of the regional office of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources (DER) — which evolved into the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

I interviewed Chester and I left there very concerned.

First, Chester said this:

“Thank God it was only giardiasis.”

Yeah, right, wait, what?

Chester indicated that there were far more devastating diseases that could have been borne of a neglected and ill-maintained water system.

Back in those days, the water company — Pennsylvania Gas & Water Co. — told me that chlorine would take care of any serious problems. That never did sit well with DER’s Chester.

“I could tell the water company that there was a (expletive deleted) rhinoceros in the watershed and they would tell me the chlorine would get it,” Chester fumed during one interview.

The entire episode culminated in PG&W being mandated to build water filtration plants to assure another outbreak, or one even more serious, would not occur.

And today’s steward of our water system, PAWC, has done a terrific job doing just that.

Barasch was for us throughout the giardiasis crisis. He fought for us and he took on PG&W and we all should be grateful that he was our Consumer Advocate when we really needed a consumer advocate.

When giardiasis hit, we were told to boil water before consuming. The water company was ordered to build filtration plants to assure the product delivered to our homes was not tainted. And the water company began to replace its water lines, many of which were damaged, causing all sorts of things, like sticks and mud to enter the system.

The point is there was a multi-pronged fix to the problem.

In 1983, the water company’s image was as tainted as its water.

But thanks to guys like Consumer Advocate Barasch, we survived and moved on to a much better day.

Enjoy your retirement Mr. Barasch.