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Diamonds once again to the wide ranging community services provided by students attending our area colleges and universities, put on rich display this week by each of the three four-year private institutions of Luzerne County. Wilkes University began a week of the “Red Flag Campaign” to raise awareness of intimate partner violence and held an opioid awareness walk that raised money for Naloxone used by the Wilkes-Barre Fire Department on overdose victims. King’s College invited people to get their heads shaved in support of the St. Baldrick’s Foundation to raise money for cancer research. And Misericordia University sent about 40 students to St. Jude Elementary in Wright Township for the sixth annual “Math Day,” an event that provides education in numbers masquerading as fun for some 200 students in all grades from pre-K through eight. As is almost always the case when our institutions of higher education take actions beyond the classroom, these are valuable programs raising important issues and offering help in solving them while encouraging community spirit.
Coal to Wilkes-Barre City Council for failure to resolve a budget issue centered on Mayor Tony George’s proposed increase on the annual recycling fee. This isn’t necessarily an endorsement of George’s plan to increase the fee by $10 — though, frankly, $60 a year still sounds reasonable to help keep plastics and metals out of landfills by reusing the materials. But as Jerry Lynott reported in Tuesday’s paper, council’s inaction since deadlocking on the increase about two months ago has already cost the city $35,000 in added revenue. In a city that seems annual on the brink of insolvency, it behooves council to either openly pass or reject the fee increase. If the latter, Council members who vote to kill it should offer suggested cuts or other revenue sources to make up for the loss of money planned into the mayor’s budget.
Diamonds to Luzerne County for moving forward, albeit in a small way, on upgrading the 911 emergency radio system by inviting vendors to bid on the project, estimated at around $20 million. As 911 Executive Director Fred Rosencrans told Jennifer Learn-Andes for a story in Tuesday’s paper, “Now it’s time to give council and the county manager real numbers to work with so we can figure out what we’re able to afford.” It’s a logical first step that will give County Council what it needs to take the next move. With 410,431 calls processed last year by the center, we should strive constantly to keep the system upgraded as much as can be afforded, and there is no way of knowing what that means without getting these proposals.
Coal to local fans of West Coast rapper Nipsey Hussle who opted to show their support for the late musician and community activist by, of all things, defacing properties in Wilkes-Barre with spray-painted graffiti. It is worth marking Hussle’s murder at age 33 after a young life spent both making money and using it to help revitalize downtrodden communities in Los Angeles, but marring other people’s property isn’t the right way. Indeed, without the rapper around to offer his own opinion, it feels antithetical to his own efforts at improving communities.