June 6, 2006 by Matt Heckman.

For some of our out of state readers The Schuylkill Valley Metro Rail is a proposed rail line from Wyomissing to Philadelphia in an attempt to control the congestion along the Route 422 corridor that normally backs up from Collegeville to King Of Prussia during rush hour.

Reading Pennsylvania has not had commuter rail service since 1981 when the South Eastern Transportation Authority (a.k.a. SEPTA) took over the commuter service from Conrail.  Some people say it was a big factor in Reading’s decline, along with the continued isolation of Berks County.  Some would also say the Reading Outlet stores along 9th street would never have shut down if such a rail line was still in existence due to the fact that people from Philadelphia would come in droves for the good deals.

As gasoline prices continue to increase and Alan Piper from the Berks Planning Commission telling us to “Fuck Off” regarding any future projects to reduce congestion, or to solve the isolated infrastructure problems that continue to hurt the county.  This is where the Schuylkill Valley Metro Rail proposal comes into place.

The Metro Rail line would be a strong asset for Berks County considering the fact that the County’s population continues to grow which mainly consist of commuters to New Jersey, Philadelphia, and even New York City.  The Metro Rail was proposed back in 1998, and lost stem involving funding in 2002 when Congress declared the project a non urgent matter.  The latest price tag for Metro Rail runs about $2.5 Billion in its current proposed form.  It’s consists of a full electric powered line all the way to Philadelphia’s Market East Station.  Some other ideas that came along to reduce the cost is to run diesel powered trains along the line in the short term until such funding is available to run electric power, but the obstruction there is SEPTA not wanting to run diesel engines through the commuter tunnel that connects Market East Station, and Suburban Station.

In my opinion there are quite a few things that have been obstructing this project from happening.

First we have Congress.  When the Metro Rail project was first proposed the cost of it ran about $700 million which consisted of all diesel powered trains in the short term to Market East Station using the existing tracks.  With SEPTA throwing a fit about it the plan was revised in its current form by running new track, and electric lines.

Second we have SEPTA who really does not want this project to happen.  One of the things SEPTA did after taking over the commuter service in 1981 was do away with all diesel powered engines and run fully electric.  Most of the meetings involving SEPTA have been shut to the public, and not many people know the whole story.

I come to the conclusion that the biggest problem is the turf wars going on between SEPTA, BARTA, and some pointy headed individuals worried about keeping their jobs.  I want to know why we should even listen to SEPTA about this considering they are so far into the hole financially it’s not even funny.  In my view SEPTA is the biggest factor in derailing the Metro Rail project.  If SEPTA does not want to play with us why not propose another station in Philadelphia to handle the Metro Rail?  Keeping SEPTA out of this would drastically reduce the cost.  If we really wanted to do things right then I would propose to Harrisburg about disbanding SEPTA and the other mass transit companies in Pennsylvania and put them under one roof.  Part of our costs with Metro Rail involves obsessive turf battles which if taken out of the picture would secure even more funding.

Now that I have started the topic lets bring in the ideas.  If anybody has photos of some of the old rail lines that were proposed please let me know I would love to see them.  I’ll setup an e-mail address so you hard core engineers can send prints, and proposals of your own.  Now I turn it over to you.

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June 6, 2006 by Matt Heckman.

When I was a kid growing up I would always be told about right and wrong, and what to do to make things right. I would review what I was doing wrong, and correct it. This is a quality that has been lacking from President Bush and the Republican Party. Instead of listening to their base on what they are doing wrong, they choose to ignore it and throw them a bone as most recently seen with the Constitutional Amendment banning homosexual marriage. The Republican Party and the President continue to treat their base like dysfunctional children that constantly throw a temper tantrum. They figure that throwing this amendment at the base will calm them down, because they are a bunch of Jesus Christ, Bible thumping, Christian hicks. If these people think for one second that this will keep them in power, then they are more delusional then originally expected.

Conservatives like myself know that no such amendment would ever pass. In my view this is a States rights issue, and all of these challenges against some states that enacted a homosexual marriage ban will be upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court as such.

Another thing the Republican Party and President Bush fail to notice is that the base of the party is not mad at them over issues such as homosexual marriage, but the lack there of by failing to patrol our borders, giving social security to illegal aliens when the system is already in peril, and many other social services that we the taxpayer pays year after year.

The base is angry and rightfully so. When you have an Amnesty bill in the U.S. Senate that allows Illegal Aliens that stole Social Security numbers from hardworking taxpaying American Citizens to keep that number and collect the benefits from it despite that some American Citizen put that money into the system for his, or her own retirement then you can say damn right the base is angry. When our own government is giving information to the Mexican Government on the location of the Minutemen patrols so they can illegally cross the border then damn right the base is angry. When you have President Bush ready to sell our ports down the river to the United Arab Emirates an organization that has been proven to support terrorists as documented in the 9/11 commission report on where they cost us a chance to kill Osama Bin Laden in 1999 then damn right the base is angry.

This is just a small example of why the base of the Republican Party will only get more angry come election time. The Republicans that continue to ignore their base will learn the same lesson as David “Pussy Cat” Brightbill, Dennis Leh, and all the rest. The more the Republican Party continues to act this way, the more seats they will lose come November.

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June 6, 2006 by Matt Heckman.

I wanted to comment on the recent incident in West Reading where police recently arrested a 17 year old that shot a 9 year old kid riding on a school bus. I have more knowledge about this considering the fact that I know the shooter personally. Police won’t give out her name, because she is a minor, but I will at least give out her first name. Her name is Amber, and she was once a good kid. My step brother Ron Helbert’s half brother Tim Rowlands used to be extremely in love with her, and were a couple for years until after their breakup about a year ago when Amber like most kids these days got mixed up with the wrong crowd. Amber’s mother was a complete drunk, and her dad left them years prior. Amber just like most kids in the wrong crowd eager to fit in resorted to drugs like pot, cocaine, and crack. A kid that once worshiped Britney Spears began to worship the Devil which led to her intentions against this 9 year old kid, and others that have been attacked prior being a sacrifice. The police were able to arrest Amber based on tips form Tim, and Matt Rowlands among other people in the neighborhood.

Now despite the fact I know this girl through Ron, Tim, and Matty I believe that she should be fully punished for her crimes. The choice was Amber’s alone to pull the trigger, and she will have to face that on her record for the rest of her life.

This is another example of why Parents should always step it up and play an important role in their children’s upbringing. Just as Amber will have to live up to what she did, her mother will have to face the reality of her actions of choosing the bottle over being there for her daughter to prevent things like this from happening.

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