Laurel: To paying back volunteer firefighters. Both Westmoreland County Community College and the Community College of Allegheny County offer tuition-waiver programs for local volunteers. These are great opportunities that should entice many. Sadly, it's one of the few incentives for young firefighters as the ranks of volunteers continue to dwindle.
Lance: To aggressive union tactics. If the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 23, which represents Giant Eagle employees, wants to protest against nonunion Wal-Mart -- as it did at Waterworks Mall on Wednesday -- fine. But to march through Wal-Mart, thereby disrupting its business and annoying shoppers, is nothing but an attempt to intimidate.
On the "Watch List": Westmoreland County's probation crunch. There are not enough probation officers to supervise defendants on house arrest. About 20 prison inmates are awaiting electronic monitoring. But county commissioners, who determine whether additional probation officers will be hired, had little to say about the problem at a recent prison board meeting. Can we expect they'll have more to say, and preferably an action plan, at the next meeting?
Laurel: To the Allegheny Valley School Board and the A.V. Education Association. The district and its teachers union have been without a contract for almost a year, but the sides have continued to negotiate. The latest: an agreement to enter fact-finding arbitration, which precludes a strike that could have seriously disrupted the remainder of the school year. Let's hope the sides pay more attention to the arbitrator's report than their brethren in the strike-addled South Butler School District.
Laurel: To Serious Windows. When the parent company of the former Kensington Windows abruptly went bankrupt in 2008, the California manufacturer of "green" windows bought the Parks Township plant. Serious promised ex-Kensington workers would be rehired and its been true to its word -- almost all of the 60 employees are returnees. And Serious reports its sales are rising and there appears to be improvement in the home construction industry. We hope Serious can rehire an many of the approximately 90 former employees as possible.
