My fence needs to be painted

Maybe I should hire this guy who is down on his luck


WILKES-BARRE – Former Luzerne County judge Mark Ciavarella is painting for a living these days. On Thursday, Ciavarella was painting a porch at 313 McLean St. owned by Bob Kadluboski, owner of City Wide Towing.

Cupcake, as Wilkes-Barre Mayor Tom Leighton affectionately calls him, has been in the news lately for engaging in his favorite pastime of disrupting city council meetings complaining about his competitor LAG Towing suggesting some sort of corrupt bargain. Kadluboski is a civic minded person who has taken time out of his busy crime fighting schedule to be a such thorn in the side of W-B city council that they are considering changing the rules about public comments at their meetings.

I have to commend Mr. Kadluboski for giving a convicted criminal a way to make a living while he awaits sentencing.

For some reason this reminds me of a book I recently read


"I Heard You Paint Houses"

The Hook strikes again

Our own version of Batman is in the news again. Some poor guy parked in the Penn Plaza parking lot then walked across South Main St. in Wilkes-Barre to grab his lunch returning 15 minutes later to find that his car was gone. He thought is was stolen but he was just another "customer" of City Wide Towing. His lunch ended up costing him 152 bucks.

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City Wide is owned by Bob Kadluboski who was once described by Citizens Voice Columnist Mike McGlynn as the closest thing Wilkes-Barre has to a terrorist. Councilman Bill Barrett is looking to stop predatory towing.

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Kadluboski has always been a colorful character.

He has rammed his tow truck into suspected criminals and apprehended a fleeing felon at gunpoint showing his commitment to fighting crime. When his dogs escaped from his compound and mauled someone he defended them proving he is an animal rights advocate. When you have to deal with him after he towed your car a you get a lesson in customer service. He placed an ad before the 2006 election without disclosing who paid for it, and the paper that published it let him do it, affirming his commitment the first amendment. The ad was a clear violation of election law. Pennsylvania election code requires political ads to clearly identify the people or groups who pay for them. Haven't heard a thing about it since.


For all the effort W-B has made to bring people into the city it just takes an incident like this to setback years of progress.

Could have been a contender

TL:

Write-in ballots for jury commissioner showed Robert Kadluboski received 78 votes; David Yonki received 21 votes and Greg Gulick received 21 votes. Another 209 write-in votes were scattered with various people being listed.

Quick hits

So many stories I wanted to blog about this week but the combination of my schedule (I work nights and get home around 2AM) and a remodeling project at home has eaten up my time.

Batman (Bob Kadluboski )is on trial for ramming a car he was chasing after a stabbing incident. Not the first time he's done something like this. More here.

A push poll in the Luzerne County commissioners race. The Republicans deny they did it and the Dems won't admit to it.

Kanjo says the Cornerstone thing is old news. The story will not go away.

Plains has money to burn thanks to the slots. Some want a property tax cut but the Supervisors are being cautious. I agree.

The witch hunt of Judge Lokuta continues.

The Lackawana County Commissioners race got more interesting with baseball Bob 's best friend getting busted by the FBI.

Homer Simpson once asked " if we don't have immigrants who will play shortstop or kick our extra points?"

The latest O'Brien/Washo ad:

Luzerne County Commissioner

Eight people have applied to fill out the term of Todd Vonderheid who quit before his term was up to move on to the Chamber of Commerce. So now he can lobby the various local governments to grant tax breaks for economic development projects that promise "good jobs." He knows the lingo; KOZ, LERTA, etc. and will use his knowledge of local government to get more tax forgiveness for our local titans of industry. I'm not going to miss this half of the Bond Brothers.


The eight are:

• Charles V. Hatchko, a retired corrections officer from Jenkins Township


• Tom Tigue, a former state legislator from Hughestown


• Rose Tucker, a former county commissioner from Exeter


• Antonio Rodriguez, retired teacher from Hazleton


• Thomas Dombroski, a consulting firm president from Kingston Township


• Beth Ann Wenner, an educator from Freeland


• Thomas P. Cooney, a Jenkins Township resident and the development director of the A+E Group Inc.


• Bob Kadluboski, a towing contractor from Wilkes-Barre

It's either going to be Skrep's Favorite Rose Tucker or everybody else's choice Tom Tigue. Our county fathers in the form of 9 Judges will make the decision Monday. Should be an interesting meeting since some of our jurists don't have a high regard for each other and they all seem to have problems with Ann Lokuta.

My pick would be Wilkes-Barre's favorite tower Bob Kadluboski just for the entertainment value.

Bob brings a lot to the table. He has rammed his tow truck into suspected criminals and apprehended a fleeing felon at gunpoint showing his commitment to fighting crime. When his dogs escaped from his compound and mauled someone he defended them proving he is an animal rights advocate. When you have to deal with him after he towed your car a you get a lesson in customer service. He placed an ad before the last election without disclosing who paid for it, and the paper that published it let him do it, affirming his commitment the first amendment. He wears great sunglasses and listed getting Commissioner Greg Skrepenak to lose weight as one of his top goals on the vacancy application paperwork

Mayor of Wilkes-Barre

No one seems to want the job except Tom Leighton. To my great disapointment the man in the shades with a quick hook, Bob Kadluboski, passed on the race. The quick hook refers to his talent of towing any illegally (or not) parked car when he is not busy playing batman ramming into cars. He also dropped an anonymous attack piece in the CV just before the last election. The ad was a clear violation of election law. Pennsylvania election code requires political ads to clearly identify the people or groups who pay for them. Haven't heard a thing about it since.

Former Police Chief Tony George will not run because "I would rather spend the time with my family." Can't blame him for that.

Tim Grier has filed petitions to run for city council and Mayor. We'll see what office he wants to run for.

There's a Republican!

Republican Linda Stets said she will run for city council and mayor with a focus on on the neighborhoods. I did a Google search but didn't come up with much.

A list of who's running for what is available at the Luzerne County website.

Take it to the people

WILKES-BARRE – Four men known for peppering council members with criticism during meetings at City Hall now want to sit on the other side of the table.

Tim Grier, Sam Troy, Bob Kadluboski and Walter Griffith Jr. have acquired nomination petitions for council, mayor or both.

Great! The upcoming election in Wilkes-Barre may become a lot more interesting. These gentleman have been very critical of Mayor Tom Leighton and the city council for some time and now they will have the opportunity to tell the voters what they would do differently.

Last minute mud

Some people got a hit piece about Eddie Pahinski in the mail the last few days. I'm disappointed I wasn't one of them. It attacks him for being a teacher, union leader and his present employment. When people start mouthing off about how school teachers have their health insurance paid for I reject the envy and ask why isn't everyone's? The tag line is Eddie will raise your taxes. What politician, Republican or Democrat, hasn't raised taxes in Pennsylvania? Right before the primary that paragon of virtue City-Wide Towing owner Bob Kadluboski had a similar piece of garbage printed in the Voice without attribution. I doubt if Christine Katsock had anything to do with this as she has always been squeaky clean.

Mark is all over it.

Mischief maker or Vigilante?

Wilkes-Barre's version of Batman is in the news again. The man with the dark sunglasses who used to videotape council meetings, tows everything in sight and is known for out of control dogs makes the headlines again.

City tow truck driver charged for ramming car

...Bob Kadluboski of City-Wide Towing rammed his tow truck into a Honda Accord police linked to a Sept. 7 stabbing, injuring the driver and causing the vehicle to hit a police car, according to charges filed Monday....After ramming the car, police said Kadluboski boasted, “Like the Honeymooners, bang boom to the moon … She wasn’t going to get away.” Short of being praised, Kadluboski was credited after a similar incident in March 2005. He rammed a car fleeing a shooting at a city bar and detained two suspects until police arrived.Wilkes-Barre police Capt. Donald Crane said there’s a “fine line between when to help and not to help,” and police believed Kadluboski crossed that line.

TL: Kadluboski, 50, of New Frederick Street, is charged with three counts of simple assault and one count of criminal mischief, all second-degree misdemeanors, and a summary offense of reckless driving. The charges, filed Monday, will be served upon him via mail.

He also the source of an illegal ad before the May primary. Haven't heard much about that since it happened.

Mischief maker

The source of the last minute attack ad that appeared in the Citizens Voice on Monday has been identified as City-Wide Towing owner Bob Kadluboski. It turns that the ad violated the election code by not identifying who paid for it.

CV: The advertisement was extremely critical of two candidates — optometrist Brian O’Donnell and Luzerne County Clerk of Courts Bob Reilly — who ran unsuccessful campaigns for the Democratic nomination for state representative in the 121st Legislative District. The bottom of the advertisement identified it as a “paid political ad not authorized by any candidate.”....We regret we made a mistake and it’s never going to happen again,” Citizens’ Voice Publisher Scott Lynett said. “We make our best efforts to ensure all ads are factually accurate.”O’Donnell and Reilly said Thursday they might take action against the person who placed the advertisement, identified by the newspaper’s advertising director Mark Altavilla as City-Wide Towing owner Bob Kadluboski. Altavilla also admitted the paper made a mistake by publishing the anonymous ad.Kadluboski declined comment Thursday, but hinted he may say more at a press conference he is planning.