This page was last updated on January 9, 2013.
Commissioners should protect Friendship Ridge; Rebecca Ross Fischer; Beaver County Times; January 9, 2013. An editor’s note asserts, “The writer is a 22-year employee of Friendship Ridge.”
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“I would like to know where the two Democratic commissioners have been lately. With all the talk about selling Friendship Ridge, the only one talking is Mr. Nichols, the Republican and minority commissioner.”
[RWC] You’ll find Mrs. Fischer doesn’t tell us why she apparently opposes Beaver County “selling Friendship Ridge.” “Friendship Ridge needed” is another letter on this topic.
“Chairman Mr. Amadio, where are you? You should be the spokesman through all this. The union at Friendship Ridge has always backed the Democratic candidates, and now you are turning your back, or hiding, from us when we need help the most.”
[RWC] Maybe it’s just me, but it sounds like Mrs. Fischer described a quid-pro-quo arrangement between “the union at Friendship Ridge” and “Democratic candidates.” That is, “union [management] at Friendship Ridge” provides resources (money and people) to drum up votes for “Democratic candidates” and expects those officials to return the favor. This is not news to most people, but to see an apparent union member put it in writing is unusual.
“Mr. Amadio, do your job, or are you showing us the county can run with one and not three commissioners? My dad, James E. Ross, was chairman of the county commissioners for 12 years, and was the one who spoke for the office and took any crap sent his way.”
[RWC] Here’s some disclosure info. I knew Mr. Amadio when we attended Center High School. Other than running into Mr. Amadio once at Vesuvio’s, though, I haven’t seen him since. As for Mrs. Fischer’s dad, I met Commissioner Ross in 1967 when he and the other commissioners approved my proposed Eagle Scout project involving Brady’s Run Park. I don’t know commissioners Nichols and Spanik.
As for can the county be “run with one and not three commissioners?”, the answer is “yes.”
“Mr. Amadio, we know your sister-in-law and late father were past employees of Friendship Ridge, and your mother was a resident for rehab services. Make yourself known and do your job.”
[RWC] For her sake, let’s hope Mrs. Fischer didn’t violate HIPAA rules when she told readers Mr. Amadio’s “mother was a resident for rehab services.”
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