CliffWeber.com

ASKING THE WRONG PERSON

I would never ever imaged dealing with such a catastrophic time as that
in which we are currently involved. I was made aware that Luanne
Stauffer, who it seems has been director for a hundred years of the local Chamber of Commerce, was mentioned in an article concerning the Coronavirus situation. I gathered from the article she was asked about her thoughts and
involvement with the life threatening pandemic. I found that
frightening, to say the least.

In circumstances like this history is so important. Two major happenings
in the recent history of the Valley were the expensive, tax-raising new
middle school and Wayfinding signs project which used up well over
$500,000.00 of tax money. As you might remember, I pointed out in past
blogs the disaster that was, and is, the Wayfinding sign project. Most
of us remember Luanne Stauffer was the head cheerleader and promotor of
those Wayfinding signs now spread all over the community. Let’s not
forget to give credit to others very involved with this Wayfinding sign
debacle. At the top of the list would be our illustrious State Senator
Bob Mensch and, locally, Pennsburg Mayor Vickie Lightcap and former
Mayor of East Greenville Ryan Sloyer among others.

I feel it is extremely important to point out Vickie Lightcap is now
running for the office of State Representative for this area.   The last
thing the citizens of this community need is Ms. Lightcap representing
us in Harrisburg. These people, Luanne Stauffer, Bob Mensch, Vickie
Lightcap, Ryan Sloyer, led the effort to squander at least $500,000.00
of our tax money on the Wayfinding signs! The truly sad part of this
story is I feel the majority of taxpayers in this community did not want
any part of these signs and spending over $500,000.00 tax dollars on them.

A group of citizens were so enraged that they started a petition to stop
this foolishness. I was one of the people involved in circulating the
petition. The next thing that happened was a letter to the editor in the
local newspaper by John Mansfield of Pennsburg criticizing my
involvement with the petition and slandering me a number of times with
total factual lies. I initiated legal action against him and during the legal
process Mansfield admitted he received the lies from his son-in-law
former Mayor of East Greenville Ryan Sloyer. Needless to say, I won the
case and all I can say is East Greenville citizens certainly did the
right thing in voting Slayer out of office at the last mayoral election.
I wonder if Mr. Sloyer provided part of the legal expenses incurred by
his father-in-law considering he provided lies his father-in-law
used in his slanderous letter.

Another issue regarding the Wayfinding signs history was the dedication
ceremony for the signs. I believe many Valley residents were not aware
the dedication ceremony even took place for the reason that it was
accomplished in the same way as the new middle school ground breaking
ceremony.  Luanne Stauffer followed the same procedure as the middle
school ground breaking ceremony. She made it by-invitation-only, once
again insulting the tax paying citizens of this community by excluding
from invitation taxpayers who paid the bill for the signs. I
attended the dedication ceremony and was asked by one of Ms. Stauffer’s
lieutenants whether I had an invitation. I stated, yes, I contended that
my tax dollars that paid for the signs gave me the invitation to the
event. It was obvious this answer was not well received. Then she asked
who I was and I told her that she should ask Luanne Stauffer. That ended
the conversation and she went fidgeting away. I did feel I wasn’t
welcome at this event for which I and the rest of the Valley paid.

While I watched the dedication proceedings, a person came up to me. This
person remarked how he didn’t like the comments I had made in the past
about his wife, Luanne Stauffer. He stated how altruistic and
considerate he and his wife are to the community. I stated to him I felt
she was attempting to control and manipulate this community to her
whims. I feel she uses the directorship of the local Chamber of Commerce
as her platform for influence.

What I think impressive is individuals who contribute greatly to this
community anonymously, people who don’t need to be the center of
attention, sincere and truly caring people who don’t need to be on stage
as the focal point of attention, these are the people I admire.
Hopefully before too many years Ms. Stauffer will no longer be involved
with the Chamber, allowing the Chamber a fresh start with a new
director and a more effective board of directors to point the Chamber in
an inclusive, community-wide direction. Then and only then will I feel
the director of the Chamber might have some valuable input for dealing
with such a crisis as we now face.

One last item I would like to address concerns a Chamber board member,
Ed Buchinski, owner of the local theater. I am the person who retired the
train display at B &H Home Market this past year. I made the decision to
end the display because of old age and the lack of volunteers. I realize
the train display, running for the past 13 years, had become a local
institution. My good friend Bob Esposito who set up the trains the last
few years and good friend Brian Bitting who owns B & H were willing to
continue the train display. The problem was that the display became far
too much of a burden for Bob to continue to setup and take down and I
realized how unfair it was to him, so that is the reason it was retired.

Unfortunately, I was informed that it was circulating around the
community that the reason the display ended was that Brian Bitting and I
had a falling out. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Brian and I
remain good friends and he mentions to me when I stop in on how the
trains are missed, but he totally understands why I did it. The rumor
that Brian and I had a falling out was ludicrous. I was able to trace
the rumor back to Ed Bushinski, board member of the Chamber of Commerce
and owner of the local theater. It was certainly disappointing to find a
director of the Chamber of Commerce could stoop to this level.

This is just one example of rumors I have heard in the past that have no
basis in truth. But it seems certain individuals have little else to do
so they create these untruths. Shame on them.