Publisher's Point Of View

I believe what I wrote here was right on target and so does a expert from the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association.

Simply put, anytime a quorum of elected officials meet to discuss public business, they had better have properly advertised the meeting.

There are some exceptions, one being emergency situations. Even then, they can't do it behind closed doors.

Whether or not the meeting was an emergency, could certainly be debated by reasonable people, even though it was six days after the fact.

From what I gathered the meeting was purely informational in nature because a Norfolk Southern representative had finally made it to the high country to give us the lowdown on the chemical that has destroyed our streams. I guess he didn't figure we have the internet, or even books for that matter, in this neck of the woods.

When word of the meeting first started getting around, I was politely reminded that it was for elected officials and emergency responders.

My point was that there's no such thing as a meeting that is not open to the public if there is going to be a quorum of elected officials there who plan to deliberate public business. And discussing a chemical spill with the company that's responsible for it, is public business, to be sure.

I was told that day, and I have no reason to believe otherwise, that the discussion was being held to outline an order for the meeting, or gathering, an agenda, so to speak.

You won't find that one in the exceptions section of the Sunshine Act.

The Sunshine Act defines a meeting as "any prearranged gathering of an agency attended by a quorum of members held for the purpose of deliberating agency business or taking official action.

It further defines "deliberation" as the discussion of agency business held for the purpose of making a decision."

And defines "agency business" as "framing of enacting any law or policy, entering into a contract or adjudicating right, duties and responsibilities of the agency."

You decide.

I realize fully that everyone was trying to do the right thing. I just believe that the right thing would have been to have the organizational session in public.

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Norfolk Southern is still frantically working to restore the area around the spill site.

They have constructed at least two small dams on Big Fill Run, the tributary that leads to Portage Creek. In the water that's being held back, they have placed full bags of citric acid to try to neutralize the water that leaves the crash site and dumps into the main stream.

Down stream about a mile, where they had built a large dam for essentially the same purpose, the land has been restored to flat and the stream is flowing through there normally.

The water is still hideous, whatever its pH level is.

Leaving the site today, I heard the familiar "gunk" of a green frog very near to the contaminated area, which gives me hope for the acres and acres of surrounding wetlands.