More lawmakers like Rep. Boyle needed

Kudos to Rep. (Brendan) Boyle for his outstanding leadership on stopping wasteful government spending on outdated and inhumane dog experiments.

Last month, President Trump signed a spending bill that includes language cutting funds for painful dog experiments at the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA). As our watchdog group first exposed, for years the VA was secretively spending our tax dollars to give puppies heart attacks, cut into their brains, and sever their spinal cords. On Capitol Hill, Rep. Boyle helped lead a bipartisan coalition that has been tirelessly working to end this waste and abuse opposed by a supermajority of voters, most veterans and many national veterans’ groups.

Washington needs more lawmakers like Rep. Boyle who are dedicated advocates for taxpayers and man’s best friend. – Anthony Bellotti President and Founder White Coat Waste Project

Upper Providence BOS at odds over ambulance

At the end of January, Upper Providence’s three newly elected Democrat board members decided to put off a vote on an ambulance purchase. Having only 35 days in office under their collective belts, they claimed they needed another 60 days to “further study” the issue and get staff recommendations on the best way to fill the recognized gaps in the Township’s EMS service.

Even though the Democrats had already exhibited strongly held opinions against the measure, I took them at their word and agreed to postpone the decision, hoping that they would use this time to get educated and familiarize themselves with the results of two years of intensive study by the staff and the previous Board of Supervisors. It was my hope that they would come to the same obvious conclusion that the prior Board had been on the cusp of implementing: Upper Providence is the largest township in Montgomery County by population without an ambulance based within its borders. Providing a centralized EMS service using contracted professionals is the best solution for our community.

On April 4, the township held a special public meeting in order to have staff present their recommendations. I naturally assumed it was the first time that anyone, including myself, had seen the final presentation.

The first hint that something was amiss was the inclusion of a photograph at the beginning of the slide presentation whose sole purpose was to illustrate Board Chairman John Pearson’s opening anecdote.

As the presentation progressed, my unease grew. Slides showed budget numbers that were obviously skewed by omitting approximately $100,000 of critical ambulance company income. There were far more “pros” presented for a brand new “medic” solution, which had never even been proposed in the over two years that this issue has been intensely examined. Most troubling of all, not a single Democrat had a single question about this issue, an issue to which they had all admitted ignorance only two short months ago when they pleaded for more time to “further study” it.

I realized then that I was looking at the presentation of Chairman John Pearson, not Upper Providence staff.

John Pearson needed that 60 days to come up with an alternative that does not include a full service Advanced Life Support Ambulance; instead, he promoted a myopic half-measure that short changes our residents’ safety and costs the Township almost double to operate - over $200,000 more - after year one.

It is one thing for board members to disagree on policy; it is quite another to use your position as leader of the majority faction on the board to bully the staff into presenting tampered numbers to recommend your preferred solution to the public as an objectively reached conclusion.

The board’s duty is to our residents, not the political agenda of protecting the status quo of the EMS community. Quite literally, the Democrats are playing politics with our residents’ lives. Upper Providence deserves better than this. – Albert Vagnozzi, Upper Providence Township Supervisor