Congratulations Brian! Brian Reitzel is PittsburghTownships new councillor winning by a slight margin over Richard Moller. Time to take a seat, breathe in, and relax after a tough and well run campaign.

Welcome back, La Salle students and staff! I have been asked to write a monthly column for Kingston East News on what it is like to be a student at La Salle Secondary School. I will attempt to report on newsworthy items which involve La Salle, a smaller high school with 700 students and 70 staff members. As the only high school “on this side of the bridge”,
La Salle serves a unique part of both rural and urban Kingston which has a strong military contingent. This gives the high school many unique advantages over other high schools and helps to create a very strong community atmosphere.

It was an intense and heated evening in the Council Chambers on September 7th as Councilors defeated the Barriefield Affordable Housing Project 6-5. In Leonore Foster’s closing arguments against the project, she translated the costs involved into housing units that would have been lost.

Let’s hear it for the 61 women and men who are off and running for the privilege of getting elected to City Council and our local school boards for the next four years.

With only 24 seats up for grabs, the majority won’t make it but it is a tribute to them and our community that they are all willing to serve in times when issues are increasingly complex, money is in short supply, and the public is demanding and cranky.

Special Feature – Taste It This Fall

Steven Galloway writes, “Civilization isn’t a thing that you build and then there it is, you have it forever. It needs to be built constantly, recreated daily.” In The Cellist of Sarajevo, this is exactly what each of the characters tries to do in the midst of civil war. They try to recreate their old existence under terrible circumstances. Every day, the characters attempt to go about their daily tasks not knowing if they will be killed by a sniper or bomb blast. As their spirit deteriorates, it is the simple gesture of a cellist, playing an adagio at a bomb site that brings back their grace and humanity.

I guess I’m no spring chicken. The signs of aging are hitting me in the face – literally. And every day brings a new reminder that if I’m planning on having a mid-life crisis I need to get a move on. But with age brings tiredness and a crisis of any kind seems like too much work.

By phone, email, and on the street residents are asking me whom they should vote for in the upcoming election. To be fair, I am not willing to publicly support any of the four candidates running in Pittsburgh, although I have discussed with residents in one on one conversations the attributes of the candidates. The mayoral position is a vote “at large” and some weeks ago I publicly supported Mark Gerretsen as I think of all the candidates running, he has the strength and experience to do the job, and those are important considerations when choosing a mayor.

Mark October 14th on your calendar. Pittsburgh’s four Council Candidates and two School Trustees will be on the hot seat. The Kingston East Business Association (KEBA) will be hosting a debate / open forum at Lundy’s Lane School, 57 Lundy’s Lane on the Base, where you can ask your questions and tell them your concerns.