Courage is needed to make local changes
Change for the better is coming to Fayette County and to Uniontown, perhaps.
The admonition at the end of that sentence is needed because rarely is change easy. Change rejects the status quo, requiring new ideas which aren’t always eagerly accepted. Change demands the people proposing and implementing it have courage, which is not readily mustered. Anyone wanting change is challenged by people accustomed to the present, even if it is untenable. And if change fails or shows no hint of progress, those advocating a difference often need something more than fortitude – ear plugs.
Three agents of change are trying to solve some vexing local problems and end prolonged ineptness. Kuddos.
Let’s start with the Fayette County Board of Commissioners. Sworn into office a month ago, the three commissioners – Vincent Vicites, who served from 1996 until 2011 and is the new board’s chairman, Angela M. Zimmerlink, the only commissioner to win re-election, and Dave Lohr, the newcomer – are confronting a crisis they inherited, not created. The crisis, which impacts every Fayette County resident, is a budget that spends more than has money to pay for it all. Zimmerlink, while in office at the time, did not sign off on the unbalanced budget.
The previous majority board of commissioners handed the present board a $2.4 million budget shortfall, even improperly allocating Act 13 money in a feeble attempt to hoodwink us that the budget was balanced. Act 13 revenue, which drilling companies pay for extracting natural gas, is supposed to be used by government entities to foster economic development and capital improvement projects, not to balance a budget.
The financial mess passed on to the current commissioners will require tough decisions. They have no easy choices: Someone’s pet projects may not get funded or get reduced money; taxes and fees may increase; or a combination of expenditure cuts and revenue boosts may be put in place.
The new commissioners accept their challenge. They meet, discuss options and have vowed to work together until they find a solution to the budget mess. The new board working together is a change, and a welcomed one, from the dysfunction of the previous board of commissioners which failed every Fayette County resident.
Next up, county Republicans. A telltale sign of desire for blatant change is a group of people splitting from their established organization. That’s what happened last month when a small group of Republican heavyweights in Fayette County formed the Fayette Reagan Republicans, tearing apart from the long dominant Fayette County Republican Committee (FCRC).
Few clashes create a brouhaha more notable than political divide. Publicly, the schism has erupted into verbal sparring. What’s going on behind the scenes is difficult to say.
Clearly, though, the splinter group didn’t like how the FCRC operated. Various media reports revealed that the Fayette Reagan wing felt isolated, having little or no input into decision making. Towing the party line is what the FCRC wanted and expected of its members.
The splinter group’s angst should not surprise the FCRC. The breakaway group’s anguish mimics that of Republicans nationwide who are frustrated that their agenda has been derailed even though two wave elections gave Republicans control of congress.
The local splinter group put “Reagan” in its moniker, an obvious indication the group favors the principles of its namesake, former President Ronald Reagan. “He (Reagan) realized that in order to get where you needed to go, you had to negotiate and compromise. And, you could do so without abandoning your values,” said Dave Lohr, one of the Fayette Reagan leaders. “Reagan knew to succeed it takes negotiation and compromise.”
The formation of the Fayette Reagans is a saluted change. More negotiation and compromise are needed to move Fayette County forward and solve its many problems. This change in mindset, to deliberate and negotiate and compromised if need be, is a welcomed reversal from the fight-until-the-last-man-stands mentality of the past. It is significant and maybe, just maybe, a march toward progress.
An early tests looms. Lohr is also one of two Republicans on the Fayette County Board of Commissioners. The other is Zimmerlink. After the board gets the county budget issue resolved, the klieg lights will shift to the cantankerous issue of what to do about the crumpling county prison. Bickering among intransigent sides has bogged down any resolution for years. Hopefully now change will prevail. It’s an opportunity for the entire board of commissioners, perhaps pushed by Lohr, to prove that change can triumph.
Finally, this old saw: there is strength in numbers. Rather than continue to operate autonomously and ineffectively, two community groups have merged, a change that should give them more influence in and focus on how best to resolve perplexing issues – street crime, drugs and neighborhood blight – they each confront.
Dwindling membership and apathy, the catalyst for the change, within the East End and the Lafayette and Gallatin Avenue Concerned Citizens groups led to the creation of the new group, the Uniontown Concerned Citizens Association. By expanding membership to all of Uniontown, not just disparate neighborhoods, the outreach might foster participation from more residents. The change is laudatory yet needs nurtured.
“There’s going to be a learning curve,” said Matt Crutchman, executive director of the East End Community Center. “It could be a double-edged sword, but hopefully people are going to want to come together.”
A suggestion for these three agents of change, the county commissioners, the new Republicans and the expanded community association: be like the Lion in the Wizard of Oz. Swallow a healthy dose of courage. You’ll need it. The road of change you’re following isn’t a yellow brick road that leads to a mythical land where happiness is certain.
Richard Ringer resides in Uniontown and is the managing director of MW Group, a “virtual” public relations agency. He can be reached at ringer.mwgroup@gmail.com.