Letters: Benner Township needs C-NET; Hateful behavior has no place in community
Editor’s note: The Centre Daily Times welcomes letters endorsing candidates in the Nov. 7 election and will accept letters that are received by Oct. 30. Letters are subject to editing, must be based on facts and should avoid attacks on other candidates.
Benner Township needs C-NET
The fall issue of Benner Township’s newsletter, Crossroads, includes an article titled “Zoning 101.” According to the article, the township has received complaints about the types of development on the Benner Pike. Some people, according to the article, don’t like the idea of another convenience store or a certain type of restaurant and so on. The article goes on to explain how the land along that portion of Benner Pike is zoned and what uses are permitted, whether residents like them or not.
I’m not surprised that people don’t know the details of how government works. Unless you let your grass grow too high or don’t pay your taxes on time, you may never hear from anyone in local government.
So the growth spurt on the Benner Pike is a teachable moment, which the supervisors should seize upon. The township should become a member of C-NET, the government and education television agency whose members include most of the municipalities in the Centre Region, the county commissioners and two of my favorites, Bellefonte Borough Council and the Bellefonte Area School District.
As a member of C-NET the township can have designated meetings taped for later viewing. Residents can watch meetings at their leisure. And viewers don’t even have to watch the entire meeting. The videos come with a table of contents that enables a viewer to jump right to a specific topic without sitting through “all the boring stuff.”
We can learn a lot watching local government on C-NET.
R Thomas Berner, Benner Township.
Hateful behavior has no place in community
On behalf of the board and members of Altrusa International of Centre County (AICC), we want to express our condemnation of the recent antisemitic actions and intimidation that have taken place in State College. This type of hateful behavior is unacceptable in our community at all times. Altrusa “believes that everyone is able to make a positive difference” in the world, the nation, and locally. To that end, AICC supports all religions, creeds, races, ethnicities, abilities, ages, genders and sexual orientations. Every human being deserves to be treated with dignity and honor. We operate under a mission of service, community and education. State College is a diverse town whose residents should be respected and valued. At no time should we as community citizens accept hateful behavior in any form. We support all efforts to end the tyranny of bullying and domestic terrorism. AICC will continue to work toward an inclusive State College, Centre County, United States, and world.
Jackie R. Esposito, State College. The author is the AICC secretary.
Don’t pass on November election
The 2023 Pennsylvania Municipal Election is on Nov. 7. It is an “off-year” election: there will be no Congressional or Legislative or Presidential candidates on the ballot. But the positions to be filled are still vitally important to Centre County and to the Boroughs and Townships within the County. Don’t give away your right to vote by passing on this election.
The Democratic ticket for State College Borough Council is very strong. I urge you to vote for all five of them (four for 4-year terms; 1 for a 2-year term). I especially support a vote for Evan Myers. He has the experience of 8 years on Council as well as several years on Planning Commission. He is a progressive Democrat who understands that State College Council should work for the good of all of us, including our disadvantaged and under-represented citizens.
Peter Morris, State College
