If You Ask Me / By Martha Knight

Before I forget, let me mention a fascinating detail local history repository George Todd supplied after reading last week’s column.

I had listed many permutations of the Canoe Place Inn, from when it was a tea room, through its various transformations and expansions. We hear people bemoan the “loss” of the landmark building, but which form do they think should have been preserved, changeless, through changing times?

One feature I did not know about was the miniature golf course. George tells me it was in the front lawn, maybe in the early 1930s. “Nine holes with packed tan bark fairways. It cost 50 cents to play. I was an infrequent player. The outline of several holes lasted many years as flower beds.”

Now I’ll have to look at some photos of the Canoe Place in its early years, still owned by the Widow Lay.

Trying to imagine people playing a highly restrained form of golf, I was reminded of Angelica. N.Y.’s croquet lawn in its Circle, and of its many evening games there, men, women, children playing, leagues and tournaments in the summer. There was a croquet event in Bolivar, too. Now to think there was a little golf course right on Main Street, here!

And that makes me think of the rebirth of skating on the Square. Last I looked, some group was making preparations for containing the ice and creating a skateable surface. Whenever Port Allegany, Remember When… has photos of the downtown skating rink, many people chime in with their memories of what fun that was.

And now for something completely different (since this may be one of those Monty-Python-style columns, with seemingly unrelated topics, some of which you will recognize as dealing with matters that recur in this space):

Do you have a “regular” guitar (hollow, the kind you can play without an amplifier) you aren’t using? Would you be willing to give it, lend it, or sell on a “highly affordable” basis? This would be a worthy cause.

Alternatively, do you have a guitar amplifier you could provide, on the same basis?

You can call me at 642-7552. Email drymar@gmail.com.

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Do you have a COLA? That is, does your pension have a COLA? A Cost Of Living Adjustment? That scientifically calculated acknowledgement of how inflation removes some value from pensions, year after year. so that to keep the buying power of the pension from dropping, some plans add a percentage, which they announce to us each year?

Not all pension plans or retirement programs have COLAs. Social Security does enhance SSA payments a bit, usually. They tell retirees the amount each year.

Port Allegany Borough has employees for whom the borough government provides salaries and benefits. That is, the borough’s taxpayers provide the salaries and benefits, and the borough government is tasked with the responsibility of determining the salaries or wages and the benefits.

Benefits include health care coverage, other insurance, paid vacations and leave, and pensions.

Borough employees include uniformed and non-uniformed employees. Uniformed employees are the police. The officers comprise a bargaining unit, and they negotiate with the borough council for their wages or salaries, benefits, working conditions or terms of employment, job security and so on.

The non-uniformed employees are the “borough crew,” who work on streets and drive snowplows and deal with water leaks and sewer problems and operate the treatment plant and so on. They also have a bargaining unit, and negotiate with the borough council periodically.

In fact, as recently as December the non-uniformed group signed a new agreement with the borough, after considerable negotiation.

Also employed by the borough but not in a bargaining unit are the borough manager and the borough secretary. They are administrative staff, who are to carry out the decisions and policies of the borough council, and who work at the pleasure of the borough council. But it has been the practice here for the borough council to award them raises and enhanced benefits along the lines of those the non-uniformed bargaining unit receives.

As it happens, the agreement with the uniformed employees includes a COLA. Two retirees are receiving their pensions, according to UNIVEST, which administers that program for the borough.

One, Joe Knell, has been receiving COLA enhancements to his pension that amount to about $400 difference every month, between what his base pension would be, without the COLA, and what it is. That’s between a fifth and a fourth again as much as the straight pension would be.

Former police chief Don Carley has accumulated fewer COLA increases, not having been retired as long. But his salary was higher, so his base pension amount is too. It is about $378 more per month with the COLA than it would be without—an additional 14 percent.

When recently retired (but still serving part-time, until March 31 or when a successor comes online) borough manager Dick Kallenborn discussed Knell’s and Carley’s latest COLAs with the borough council last week, he mentioned that the non-uniformed retirees, “of which I am one,” do not receive a COLA, and declared that that is not fair. He suggested that this difference should be studied, and the non-uniformed retirees should start receiving COLA pension enhancements.

It seems to me it is the borough council’s prerogative to decide when and whether the provisions of the union agreements should be reconsidered. Both groups have negotiated with the borough recently. Other contract provisions may differ as well, but the time to discuss various trade-offs was during negotiations. And I would assume that did happen, and the non-uniformed settled on terms they found acceptable.

It seems an odd service by any administrator working for the borough government to suggest a unilateral benefit increase for employees. How is it in the public interest for a borough administrator to call for an increase in labor cost, with no commensurate gain in service? Especially when bargaining has just been concluded?

As it is, the pension plans are not fully funded—that is, the liabilities represented by the current and future retirements are greater than the assets of the plans, and somehow more money will be needed before long, to cover those deficits.

Peace.