Free Press –
Lawn Chair Flight, Quakertown school tax hike, Q’town water and sewer expansion
Dear Friends,
Good morning. Before I get to my thoughts about the Quakertown School District tax hike and the expansion plans for the Quakertown area water and sewer plant, here’s a cracker jack story that you might have missed.
Have you ever thought of tying yourself to a lawn chair and rise to new heights via weather balloons?
“Riding a green lawn chair supported by a rainbow array of more than 150 helium-filled party balloons, Kent Couch succeeded in his third bid to fly from central Oregon all the way to Idaho,” Jeff Barnard wrote for the Associated Press (July 6).
Couch rode the prevailing wind to McCall, Idaho about 230 miles east, traveling at 20 M.P.H. “You can hear a dog bark at 15,000 feet,” he said.
“He’s crazy,” his wife Susan said. “It’s never been a dull moment since I married him.”
Each balloon gives four pounds of lift. The special lawn chair and carriage weighs 400 pounds and Couch and his parachute (just in case of an emergency) weighs 200 additional pounds.
“I’d go to 30,000 feet if I didn’t shoot a balloon down periodically, Couch said. For that job, he carried a Red Ryder BB gun and a blowgun with steel darts. It was his third flight. Couch is a veteran of hang gliding and skydiving. He estimated that the rig cost $6,000.
Does he have a death wish?
“Couch was inspired by a TV show about the 1982 lawn chair flight over Los Angeles by truck driver Larry Walters, who gained folk hero fame but was fined $1,500 for violating air-traffic rules,” AP wrote.
Not only did Larry Walters fail to impress the L.A. airport, he didn’t get to first base with his prospective bride either. Walters’ plan was to tie enough weather balloons to a lawn chair so they'd elevate him to the second floor bedroom of his girl friend’s house.
Either Walters miscalculated…or his pals gave him bad advice about the number of balloons required to pull off the stunt. As I remember the story, he anchored the flimsy lawn chair to the ground and tied several hundred weather balloons to the seat.
Instead of gently rising to a height of 20 feet, he shot into the sky like a rocket. Pilots descending into the LA airport couldn’t believe their eyes. “There’s a guy that just passed our nose at 10,000 feet one exclaimed!” Another pilot, fearing that his superiors would think he was unstable, refused to acknowledge what he’d just seen.
Those stories just tickle me. After all, news is not when dog bites man…news is when man bites dog!
And now to
business.
You read that the Quakertown school board approved the 2008-2009 budget and raised property taxes 5.4 mills. That will increase an average property owner’s school tax by nearly $158 per year. So the typical Quakertown area property taxes will be almost $3,700 annually. The vote was 6 to 3.
The question every taxpayer should ask is…how’s the product doing? What kind of education are the children receiving? Will it prepare them for a career in the outside world or higher education if they’re college bound?
I wonder.
American public education is not measuring up to Asian and European competition. Foreign kids are out performing our students…especially in math and science. If America isn’t careful, industry will have to import its talent.
What is especially troubling is that public education is a monopoly. With just a few charter schools in the mix, public education has few qualified watch dogs to blow whistles if schools aren’t performing.
How many school directors know how to run a school? How many legislators do?
There’s a disconnect here. Poll after poll reveals that most Americans believe that public education is in trouble. But when asked how their particular school is faring, they answer…“Just fine, thank you.”
The same disconnect happens with the U.S. congress. Congressional approval ratings are dismal…and they should be. Only 20 percent of Americans believe that congress is performing well. But when asked how their local congressman is doing, a typical citizen answers…“Just fine.”
Why don’t we get it?
And finally, the Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority is seeking Quakertown’s approval to increase the capacity of its sewer plant, which treats Quakertown and Richland Township’s waste.
How big should the expansion be? No one’s certain. There are no new houses on the horizon in Quakertown. The borough cannot grow because Richland surrounds it. On the other hand, the township is growing like Topsy.
If you think your school taxes are high now, imagine what they’ll be like when Richland’s open space becomes developed. It’s enough to make one weak, as my friend Phil Miller often says.
Sincerely,
Charles Meredith
PS There’s an important regional meeting on taxes and
spending policy which Richland Township is sponsoring at its municipal building
(1328 California Rd) on Wednesday, July 30 at