Press And Journal
WEDNESDAY, JULY 23, 2014
VOLUME 124 - NO. 30
12 PAGES
Klinepeter retires, accepts job in Steelton By Noelle Barrett
Press And Journal Staff
File photo
Ken Klinepeter, Middletown’s public works director, submitted his retirement notice on Tuesday, July 22.
Middletown’s longtime public works director submitted his notification of retirement on Tuesday, July 22 and will take a job as Steelton’s superintendent of public works. Ken Klinepeter, who has worked for Middletown for more than 34 years, will retire effective Aug. 11. He submitted his retirement notice to Borough Manager Tim Konek on Tuesday. Klinepeter will start his new job with Steelton on Aug. 12. “This was a difficult decision to which I gave long and careful consideration,” Klinepeter said in a press release he issued on Tuesday. “My decision to retire was strictly a business decision on my part after Middletown and I were unable to agree to future terms and conditions
of my employment in a timely manner.” His exit from Middletown Borough follows that of Greg Wilsbach, Middletown’s former electric department supervisor, who resigned effective July 10, after working for the borough for 26 years. Klinepeter will receive a salary of $71,500 in his new position in Steelton. He currently makes $78,852.80 in Middletown. Steelton’s superintendent of public works position has been vacant since Joseph Conjar retired in 2013, and the borough had contemplated not filling it, according to Maria Marcinko, Steelton Borough Council’s vice president. Initially, Steelton was seeking a replacement for Dan Scheitrum, the former water plant superintendent and chief operator who was terminated Please See KLINEPETER, Page A6
$3 million line of credit approved
By Dan Miller
Press And Journal Staff
Middletown Borough Council gave final approval on Monday, July 21 to changes in the water and sewer rate structure that will increase the sewer bill by an average of 39 percent for borough customers. The measure, approved by a 7-1 vote that overrode Mayor James H. Curry III’s veto, goes into effect with the next billing cycle, said Mark Morgan, the borough’s financial consultant. The average sewer bill will increase from $43 to $68 per month with the new rate structure, the borough has said. The water rate increase is smaller; however the new structure eliminates the current 2,000-gallon minimum water charge placed on customers. Starting the next billing cycle, customers will pay only for the amount Please See RATES, Page A6
OUR NEXT TOP COP? John Bey
Stephen Mazzeo
Travis Thickstun
The subject did not come up during Mazzeo’s brief public interview session on Monday, July 21 with the Middletown council’s public safety committee. Sites told the Press and Journal on Tuesday, July 22 that the committee was aware that Mazzeo had been demoted in May. He said the committee chose to move forward with Mazzeo as a candidate because, in Sites’ view, the committee felt there was more to the story than what had been publicly reported. “You’ve got to give everyone a fair shot,” Sites said of Mazzeo. All three finalists were the strongest candidates based on their track record and employment history, Sites said. Mazzeo told the committee he wants to be Middletown’s next police chief so that he can be closer to his children, who live in Philadelphia. According to published reports, he served as Easton’s police chief from 2004 to 2005. During his public interview, Thickstun referred to citizen involvement as “a force multiplier” when it comes to the ability of police to do their job. He later met with several residents who attended the committee’s meeting. “You only have so many police officers, right?” Thickstun said. “If you look nationally over the last couple of years, 85 percent of the police departments have had their budgets cut, or remain basically the same. Only a handful of departments are actually increasing their budgets, so you have to be as efficient with the resources you are given from taxpayers as possible.
“You can’t have a dozen or so police officers everywhere all the time, right?’’ he asked. “But you have an entire community of people who are already everywhere. If the police department is structured in such a way that the officers are professional and willing to communicate with you, which if I am selected as your chief I would certainly be from day one, if you have that then you essentially have police all over the place.” If chosen as Middletown’s next chief, Thickstun said he would undertake a community survey of residents and business owners. Among other things, the survey would address the crimes that residents and business owners feel are of most importance, how crime is impacting Middletown neighborhoods, and issues concerning the relationship between borough residents and the police department. Thickstun also said he would make extensive use of social media as a way to foster two-way communication, especially between the borough and students at Penn State Harrisburg. Bey said he wanted to leave the state police to become Middletown’s next chief because “It’s time. I have over 25 years’’ with the state police, and “I’m ready to get back down into boots on the ground.’’ Bey, director of training for the state police Bureau of Training and Education and a senior master sergeant in the Air Force Reserve, said he has been “reading the papers’’ and is well aware of the challenges and issues that confront the borough and its police
Three finalists want to be Middletown’s chief By Dan Miller
Press And Journal Staff
T
he three finalists for the job of Middletown’s police chief arrived at borough hall last week for interviews by Middletown Borough Council’s public safety committee – and two of them met afterward with residents and the press. John Bey, of Susquehanna Twp., a 25-year veteran of the Pennsylvania State Police, and Travis Thickstun, of Bloomington, Ind., a 12-year veteran of the Indiana State Excise Police Force, talked to the public and answered questions from the media after their interviews. The third, Stephen Mazzeo, former Sunbury police chief and a 37-year veteran of law enforcement, declined to talk to residents at the committee’s public meeting, and refused to answer questions from a Press And Journal reporter afterward. Commitee chairman Scott Sites said that Monday, Aug. 4 is the target date for choosing a new chief. Mazzeo was demoted to patrolman in the Sunbury police department in May by Sunbury Mayor David Persing, according to a May 13 article in The Daily Item of Sunbury. The demotion was announced during a Sunbury Borough Council meeting on May 12, and Persing would not comment further because it was a personnel matter, the article said. The action was opposed by many Sunbury residents at the council meeting who spoke in support of Mazzeo, the article said.
Residents call for president’s ouster, spokesman’s termination Press And Journal Staff
Press and Journal Photo by Noelle Barrett
Steelton Borough officials had hoped to turn the vacant liquor store on North Front Street into a senior citizens’ center.
In Steelton, a vacant liquor store captures the imagination of buyers The air was musty. The roof leaked. Dust and dirt layered the floors and an assortment of paint colors layered the walls – those walls that were not stripped down to the brick. The former liquor store at the corner of
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Pine and North Front streets in Steelton has seen better days. Now it may see many more with a new owner. On Saturday, July 19, about a dozen people stood inside the building, preparing to buy it from Steelton Borough at auction. Some were ready to bid with Please See DREAM, Page A6
Please See CHIEF, Page A6
MIDDLETOWN
By Dan Miller
Press And Journal Staff
YODA
46%
GANDALF
54%
Yoda versus Gandalf in a death match. Who wins?
Pennsylvania Turnpike increases speed limit through Middletown area
DREAM HOUSE?
By Noelle Barrett
Visit our website to cast your vote.
NEWS
Press And Journal Staff
M-town council approves sewer rate increase
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By Dan Miller
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MIDDLETOWN
Middletown Borough Council has voted in favor of pursuing a $3 million line of credit that would be obtained through PNC Bank. But before acting on the measure, council inserted an amendment that would require any proposed expenditure using the line of credit money to be first approved by council before any of the line of credit funds can be drawn down. The vote on the overall proposal, with the amendment, was 5-2 on Monday, July 21, with Councilor Thomas Handley abstaining. Councilors Scott Sites and John Brubaker voted against the measure. Handley had asked that council put off acting on the measure until the borough can resolve a situation that has resulted in all state grants to the borough being put on hold. The hold is a result of the borough not yet having submitted to the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development an audit that borough officials say is being held up
75 CENTS
A former Middletown Borough Council member on Monday, July 21 called on council members to replace Chris McNamara as president. Diana McGlone, who blogs about Middletown government and politics, called on a change, citing an investigation by Dauphin County District Attorney Ed Marsico over the alleged use of borough funds to trim trees at the home of one of McNamara’s neighbors. In light of the investigation, “I behoove council to re-organize and remove [McNamara] as president,” McGlone said during the public comment period of council’s meeting Monday. Council took no action regarding McGlone’s request. McNamara did not offer any comment in response. The District Attorney’s investigation stems from allegations raised during council’s July 7 meeting by former borough electric department supervisor Greg Wilsbach. Wilsbach, who resigned from employment with the borough effective July 10, publicly alleged that McNamara had authorized the expense of $850 in borough funds to pay for the trimming of trees in a neighbor’s yard.
While making his comments, Wilsbach handed Mayor James H. Curry III an envelope – the contents were never revealed – and asked the mayor to investigate. Curry turned the envelope over to Marsico. Marsico has confirmed that his office is investigating the material that Wilsbach provided to Curry. “With these current allegations surrounding the council president, our community has been greatly affected and the borough once again has a negative black cloud hanging over us,” McGlone added. “I no longer have any faith in our elected officials, as individuals of this body of council continue to act in an unscrupulous manner, while jeopardizing taxpayer finances with their reckless actions.” Council also heard two residents call for the termination of Chris Courogen, the borough’s director of communications. Wilsbach and another former councilor, Rachelle Reid, called for the resignation, both referring to an argument between Courogen and Curry that occurred following adjournment of the July 7 council meeting. Council took no action.
The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission has increased the speed limit to 70 mph for a 100mile stretch of turnpike between the Blue Mountain interchange in Cumberland County and the Morgantown interchange in Berks County, a stretch that cuts through the Middletown area. The increased speed limit will be in place beginning Wednesday, July 23. “Our studies have shown that the design of our system in this area can safely accommodate the higher speed limit,’’ said Mark Compton, the turnpike CEO.
Demey School to be demolished this month Penn State Harrisburg will begin to demolish the Alice Demey Elementary School later this month, the university has announced. A security fence was installed around the school, and work on the interior will begin soon, the university said. The school, at Wharton Avenue and Catherine Street in Middletown and adjacent to the college’s campus, was purchased by Penn State in 2003 after the Middletown Area School District closed it for good. It’s more prudent to raze the school than renovate it, the college said. It will become a recreational site, parking or possibly student housing.
New York man charged with attempting to buy gun with fake ID A Brooklyn, N.Y. man was arrested after he allegedly tried to buy a handgun at an Elizabethtown gun dealer with a fake identification, then tried to get another man to buy it for him, police said. Kevin Zarbailov provided a clerk at Lanco Tactical, in the 400 block of W. High St., with a fake ID card while attempting to buy a .45-caliber Smith and Wesson handgun on June 10, Elizabethtown police said. When the employee rejected the ID, Zarbailov left the store, then solicited a passerby to purchase the gun for him for $100, police said. The employee saw the solicitation, however, and the sale was not completed, police said. Zarbailov was charged with sale or transfer of a firearm using a false ID, and criminal solicitation to commit a sale or transfer of a firearm, police said. He was released from Lancaster County Prison on bond.
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