Bowman Field after the Outlaws

"I did that," said Council President Bill Hall in a follow-up telephone call. Did what Mr Hall? Sign off on this bad idea when it was presented to the City Council that you preside over? Also, does anybody here beleive that it makes financial sense for the city to pay lawyers to sue a defunct(as in they have no money)entity?

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I have an idea, tell the Mayor to go to Lowes and buy an ice chipper!

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Francine, I think he was referring to 'getting the $20,000 payment.

"Damage and costs to repair the field in time for baseball season have been estimated at $15,000 or more." -- Just another example of why this was so poorly thought out. What was the plan for baseball if the Outlaws had STAYED? Still having to pay 20,000 for damage and repair? If this idea was 'damaging' to the baseball field, the baseball field should never have been used in the first place.

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Many of us knew this would come back to bite taxpayers.

Elected officials are typically not qualified to negotiate with seasoned professionals as they allow their emotions and personal interests into the discussion.

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There is no one here to blame but the elected officials who voted in favor of this arrangement. The Mayor, and each councilmember who voted in favor of this should chip in equally, out of their own pockets, to pay for the repairs to the field. They can consider it a lesson learned. Idiots.

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I certainly hope the Council and the City residents remember this fiasco whenever Gabo the Clown comes up with another of his incredibly stoooopid ideas. Seems as if the Council needs to learn how to say only one word and, folks, it's an easy one to pronounce. Ready? Repeat after me: NO!

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All Gabe did was cry about getting this hockey team in town and look what happen, maybe if he would cry to his mommy she will get her checkbook out and bail out baby boy!

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Instead of passing the blame around (even though I would blame city council more) who and what will it take to restore our ball park? What about the city pool near by?

As I recall in the agreed set-up of this fiasco 'No taxpayers money will be used.... ' City council voted on this as well as the Mayor.

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And that's the irony isn't it? But here's the question more important question; How many citizens are prepared to stand up against the city when our tax dollars start getting taken at a higher rate because of this fiasco? You tell me when and where and I'll be there.

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Read the article folks. The field repairs will be covered by the $20K bond . . . The utility bills appear to be the outstanding expense, not the field. Athletic fields everywhere are used for different things all the time. No big deal, ya just change it back. As for the light bills, I will never understand why they used those big lights for open skating anyways, about 6 100W quartz lights or dusk to dawn type would have more than illuminated the rink for ice skating. When I was a kid skating on outside ponds, we only had one light at each end.

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You know it is extremely sad that one thing goes wrong "granted pretty substantial thing" and everyone wants Gabe's head on a golden platter and everytime I read comments on here it is negative Gabe that negative Gabe this how about the other side of the story of what Gabe has done that has been a success "to a point". 1. Less shootings 2. Less violent crimes 3. Khol's 4. New Parking deck to help with parking issues

It is sad and shameful as a citizen of this city that I have to here nothing good coming out of people's mouths about anything. If it is not a direct help to someone directly it is a bad idea and shouldn't be done.

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Not to mention the fact that it is shameful for someone to bring the person's family into it that has no bearing on the issue at hand (Jeff33). This is not a world of what have you done for me lately. This is a world that is evolving to that ideal and is going down the crapper because of people like this never thinking of the positives one person does and always the negative. Such a shame that we as human beings the most powerful creatures on the planet act more like animals than the animals do.

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Greiner2009 - I disagree 1. Less shootings - I read in the paper of at least 8 cases of shots fired or shootings in the past two months 2. Less violent crimes - See #1 3. Khol's - How many jobs did Kohls really create for residents? I would guess twenty, maybe thirty 4. New Parking deck - The city is being sued over that too.

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Learn to Swim think back to the admin before Gabe and how many shooting there were then now look present day through his entire admin and tell me what is less for shootings and violent crime and also think of it this way 1. would khol's every thjought of coming here unless crime rates dropped or stayed the same before and two the average Khol's creates 65 jobs and that is better than none at all. Also to point out i was not a resident of Williamsport during the last admin before Gabe but let me tell you i heard a lot more about shootings then when i lived in loganton than i do know living in the city

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gree that it is entirely inappropriate to bring one's family into something like this that has nothing whatsoever to do with their personal life.

But to say that Mayor Gabe's "accomplishments" include fewer shootings and less violent crime????? What city are you referring to??? It surely can't be the same Williamsport that I live in!!!!

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--clicked 'post' too soon

As for Khol's--they are here at what cost? And those few jobs are nearly all minimum wage jobs, not jobs you can support a family on and contribute to the economy or tax base in any significant way.

As far as the parking deck--BFD. Sure it creates more parking, but that isn't anything I would consider a major accomplisment. Any mayor would likely have done the same thing.

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"BOOMTOWN"!!!

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Citizen when i moved to this city (which is right before gabe won election) there was a shooting if not four every week. Now it is intermintent rash of shooting that happen then stop and as for placing blame for crime rates lets serve it where it needs serving...... CITY COUNCIL. After all they turned down a grant let me repeat that A G R A N T not a loan a grant which means FREE MONEY and they turned it down to hire if memory serves right 3 count them 3 new cops. Not Gabe City council did that so maybe instead of Gabe taking all the heat for everything we must remember this.... There is more than just one politician in this town.

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That and if he is that bad of a person or politician with horrible policies then how in the world did he get reelected he must be doing something right

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"if he is that bad of a person or politician with horrible policies then how in the world did he get reelected he must be doing something right" Not necessarily Greiner2009. I think his re-election is symptomatic of the fact that many people vote along strict party lines, even if the their party's candidate is not the best candidate.

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And, of course, there may have been an issue of who he was running against.

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Greiner I don't know if the mayor is your son-in-law, cousin, boss, crush or best friend, but obviously you have some sort of agenda in order to see him through your rose-colored glasses (no pun intended) and wishful thinking rather than reality.

As far a re-election, I think it was a combination of apathy, his opponents, as well as, to some extent especially among older voters, voting strictly along party lines as previously suggested---pretty much the same way Obama got re-elected. In both cases I think among those who bothered to vote at all and those who don't necessarily vote the party, it was mostly a case of what they perceived (rightly or wrongly) as 'the lesser of the evils'.

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And also, if we are supposed to lay so much of the blame for all the bad things on council, how about we praise council for the parking garage and Kohl's too??

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sure council did good on making those things happen and you just proved a point for me we are all human and all tend to make mistakes and no one would want me for mayor cause i would run all the Philly rif raf out of town and let them shack up elsewere then maybe there wouldn't be the shootings and violent crime that was influxed in by mayor whats her face (then again she is only human too)

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Oh and fyi i am not related to the mayor in anyway shape or form and also not a republican or democrat and i did vote for gabe and barack

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