Can't fight City Hall
You know, doing the right thing shouldn't be that difficult. But then, you can't fight City Hall.
During the night of the Dallastown Halloween Parade, five of us had our vehicles towed. We had parked on a section of East Maple Street that the borough posted with temporary no-parking signs.
Why did we park there? Laziness? Selfishness? Because we are criminals intent on thumbing our noses at authority?
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No. We parked there...BECAUSE THE SIGN FELL DOWN...and nobody saw it.
Imagine, a poorly secured sign, placed on uneven ground, on a windy night, fell down!
The borough took no responsibility, of course. Even Mayor Beverly Scott denied culpability. It wasn't their fault the sign fell down, she said. And if it did, oh well, sucks to be you. In essence...pound sand!
Nice!
I wonder if their answers would have been so calloused if they'd seen the families with young children standing forlornly in the dark that evening wondering what they had done wrong and where their vehicles had gone?
And who was at fault in this unfortunate situation? I submit that it was the borough's incompetence, not the willful negligence of some good folks out to enjoy a wonderful event on a beautiful evening, that was to blame.
So, instead of utilizing some common sense and empathy to do the right thing, Dallastown Borough officials instead hid behind the wall of governmental obstinancy.
Instead of saying, yes, we screwed up, or, yes, we see your point, they instead chose to blame the blameless.
Mayor Scott, you and your minions should be ashamed. You could have done the right thing. Would that have been so difficult?
The arrogance of City Hall is shining brightly in Dallastown.
Be careful where you park.
Scott Lilley
York Township
The borough's handling of the Dallastown Halloween Parade is one of the reasons I moved out of Dallastown. Every year, it is the same mess. You would think, by now, they would have figured out how to move traffic and deal with parking. The funny thing is - they will tow the cars parked on East Maple Street during a two hour parade, but when it snows and cars aren't supposed to be parked on that street (it's a Snow Emergency Route), tow trucks are nowhere to be found - and the main thoroughfare through Dallastown, should Main Street be blocked off for any reason, suddenly turns into a clogged one-way street. Every year there is another problem during the Halloween parade, whether it be signs falling down or straight up incompetence by the borough. I lived on East Maple Street and survived three Halloween parades. The last straw came in 2006 when I tried to park in the alley behind Maple Street, since you couldn't park on the street. The borough had the alley roped off and the fire police wouldn't let me through despite showing them my drivers license proving I was a resident. They told me to go to Red Lion and hang out until the parade was over. Good riddence Dallastown!