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| Historian Randall O'Rourke |
DIFFLE COUNTY UPDATE
East Greenville held a referendum on the city name after their Town Constable, Johnny “Bearhug” Bartlesky made an amazing discovery. He was driving to Quakertown to pick up a prisoner from the county prison when he got lost, with the help a gas station attendant or two. He ended up in East Greenville- in Montgomery County! When he returned home with this revelation, the Town Council was furious and wrote a letter to the imposter East Greenville demanding they change their name.
Since the Montgomery County town was established over one hundred years before the Diffle County town, there was no way they were changing their name. Instead East Greenville, Montgomery County sued East Greenville, Diffle County to force a name change.
In the course of discovery, it was revealed that a significant number of tax bills were being sent to the wrong town by a somewhat confused US Postal Service. Since the homes in Montgomery County were higher in value than the homes in Diffle County- our County tax fund greatly benefited.
“You don’t look a gift horse in the mouth”, testified Diffle County Chief Tax Assessor Randall O’Rourke at the Superior Court Hearing last April.
That was a sticking point with State Judge Anthony Grube, a former Montgomery County Prosecutor who ruled that Diffle County's East Greenville would be audited, the monies returned to the right and proper East Greenville, and a binding referendum on a new name placed on the ballot in November. Then Judge Gruber sealed the court record.
Diffle County Council formed a Name Committee and by September three names were added to the referendum: Greenvale, PA ; East Greenvale, PA , and Westgreen, PA. The third name was chosen when it was pointed out to the Committee by the town historian, Randall O’Rourke that the Diffle County seat is located on the West side of the creek, and not the East side as previously thought.
The winning vote was East Greenvale. There were a few write-ins that gained traction but fell a few votes short. The top write-in three vote-getters East Greensucksville; Gruberville, and West Easterly.
West Easterly actually won the most votes, if you count the two absentee ballots sent in by the Sean and Maggie O’Rourke. They were vacationing in Ireland at the time of election, and asked their son Randall to drop their absentee ballot off at the post office. He forgot.
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In other news - Barry Stettler was plowing snow part-time for Grinold Township when he fell and broke his leg.
Last October Barry put up a shed right on the property line and his neighbor Jim Catinera filed a complaint with the zoning office. Barry had to rent a skid-steer to move the shed five feet beck from the line. That cost him a hundred and seventy five dollars for the machine rental and permit fee. Barry was not a happy camper.
When winter arrived and it came time to plow the roads, Barry was assigned to plow Caterina’s street. Big Don warned Barry beforehand. “Don’t even think about doing damage to Catinera’s mailbox. “ Barry politely nodded.
After four sweeps of the street, each time pushing snow closer and closer to the mailbox, finally Barry took one last swipe. The heavy, wet snow flew, the post cracked, but the mailbox did not fall over. Furious at this, Barry drove for a fifth time at the mailbox, opened the truck door and gave the box a good hard kick. Then he lost his grip on the steering wheel and fell out of the truck. His leg hit the step rail awkwardly, then his own weight slammed down and snapped his femur like a big ol' pine branch getting whacked by a chainsaw.
The Truck continued on plowing without him, rolled down an embankment and pinned itself between two oak trees. Big Don had to rent a crane to remove the fully-loaded salt truck from its woodland perch. Barry was fired and Jim Cantinera received a brand new mailbox and half a pound of deer sausage.
Three weeks later, Barry’s shed blew up. “Must have been a Meth lab!” Big Don said with a big-ol’ grin. Breaking Bad - right here in Diffle County. You just never know.
