Town council adopts statement on diversity

McCandless has a mission statement and now it also has a statement promoting itself as a place of equality, diversity and inclusivity.

The new statement, which now appears on the town’s website, was approved at council’s meeting Monday, at the urging of the Rev. Donald Green, a Lutheran pastor and former executive director of Christian Associates of Southwest Pennsylvania.

Rev. Green presented a draft of a resolution for the statement to council on Jan. 15, Martin Luther King Day.

The resolution was based on King’s vision for the future, which he noted in his famous speech: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

Based on Rev. Green’s suggestion, council unanimously adopted a Statement of Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity. It reads as follows:

Rev. Green said he hoped that the measure would be in the best interests of the health, safety and welfare of the residents of the town.

Safetyof the town also was on the mind of another local religious leader who spoke at McCandlesscouncil.

Sister Mary Traupman of the Sisters of Divine Providence, a lawyer by training, read a letter detailing the many gifts and benefits the town has received from the Sisters over the past decades and her concern over the spring opening of a shooting range, the INPAX Academy of Personal Protection in an office building in McCandless Crossing.

“You granted a building permit for an office building that suddenly became a shooting range,” Sister Traupman said. “We don’t want a shooting range in our front yard.” It doesn’t fit in with the values of the Sisters who promote gun control, especially in light of recent shootings, she said. The location of INPAX disregards federal and state laws as well as local ordinances, she said.

The range, she said, is less than 1,000 feet from a school and within walking distance of five worship sites, a college, hospital and homes. “It was in August that they finally acknowledged that the ‘office building’ with three tenants will include a shooting range,” she said in an email to the Post-Gazette. “By that time, the appeal period has run. There was no opportunity for public comment.”

None of the McCandless council members responded directly to Sister Traupman’s comments.