Sunday, February 01, 2009

Hazleton Cargo Airport

“It is clear to me that all the questions need to be answered of the individuals surrounding the project. I’m going to suspend my support until all the questions are answered.” -House Majority Leader Todd Eachus of Hazleton


It's good to see Eachus finally question the motives of the people involved in this project. The rest of us smelled a rat right from the beginning. The same people that built the juvie jail in Pittston Twp. and were paying off the Judges wanted to find another way to profit at the public trough, as one local elected official explained, "it sounds like a plan to sell land using taxpayer money."

Wired for sound Participant number 1, Robert Powell, was until recently a principle in Gladstone Partners, the company that wants to build this fantasy airport. He sold his interest to his partner, Gregory Zappala in this company and PA Child Care. The word is that Powell is liquidating every asset he has and has experience moving money to the Caymen Islands.

Todd has been a staunch supporter of this piece of corporate welfare even sending out a newsletter to people in other districts promising 100,000 jobs would be created if the airport was built. He also inserted a $16.5 million authorization for the cargo airport in a House bill listing projects under the Pennsylvania Gaming Economic Development and Tourism Fund. The slots money is supposed to be used for reducing school taxes but it has to be hard for any politician not to think of a way to spend this big pot of gold on something else.

For more background see this site:

Hazleton's Cargo Airport

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Flight: Hazleton approach, Caravan 765 Foxtrot Echo inbound for landing with information bravo.

ATC: 5 Foxtrot Echo hold flight level 4 thousand Cyrstal Lake.

Flight: Hazleton, 5 Fox Echo, what are we holding for?

ATC: Fox Echo, Hazleton, bear with us, we have no runway available or airport.

Flight: Roger, 5 fox echo low on fuel please advise.

ATC: Roger on that fox echo, no money, no airport, radar service terminated sqwak 1200, frequency change approved, good day.

Anonymous said...

Eachus is always in good company