Last week The Morning Call ran a story concerning local SEIU president Nick Balzano and his apparent interest in an Eagle Scout project done at Kimmet’s Lock. Mr. Balzano was allegedly troubled by this project. It would seem to him that it may be the kind of project that Union workers could have done and bee paid to do. I would imagine that Mr. Balzano thought this volunteer effort violated terms of the Union contract with the city of Allentown.

The story made the rounds across the local mostly conservative blogosphere. It’s a polarizing story that adds a little local heat to a long running conflict between conservatives and unions. The difference here is that Mr. Balzano and his issue with this volunteer project is uniquely rooted in a particular problem with layoffs, volunteer projects and the city of Allentown.

Given that the SEIU has suffered the greatest amount of layoffs here in Allentown, I understand why such a volunteer project would be troubling to Mr. Balzano had it been sponsored or encouraged by the City of Allentown. It was not however and the story should have ended there. It has not. As a matter of fact, this morning I found the story on foxnews.com which is disturbing because god only knows what those hucksters will use this story to legitimize or spin.

The bottom line here is that there is an issue in Allentown that is unfortunately, difficult to solve. There should be an active volunteer park stewardship in this city. Any city that isn’t Allentown, that would have the amount of park land we do, would have such a stewardship. I guarantee it. People want to be a part of things like this and I know first hand how difficult it is to attempt volunteer work in our parks because of the fear of violating the Union contract.

This story never should have made it to faux news. There really isn’t a story here to begin with which is why I hesitated before writing about it. The SEIU is not going to go after this kid. In truth, we do not even know in what context Mr. Balzano made his now infamous comments. Bottom line, this is a non issue and the actual issue here is the need for the City to work with the Union to figure out a compromise that will allow greater volunteer efforts in our parks. It is a glaring issue in my opinion and one that needs to be addressed.

For the record, these volunteer projects should exist, not because the City shouldn’t pay people to do the work. They should exist because as I have documented just two weeks ago, these kinds of projects reinforce and help build community ties and identity. These projects allow a deeper connection to develop between citizens and their parks. They allow people to quite literally become part of a park or playground.

I wish Mr. Balzano luck. It would seem only a matter of time before this story reaches the nonsensical hands of jester Glenn Beck or one of the other ideologues parading around on that channel.

In the meantime, I hope a compromise can exist soon to end future conflicts over volunteer activities. Until then, things are pretty much going to continue like this:

Warning, opinion below.

Glenn Beck is a moron, for the record.

Don’t miss today’s other post:
Indian Summer

UPDATE

The aformentioned moron, Glenn Beck, has already commented about this on his crazy time hour TV show. No surprise but his coverage was misinformed and inane.