South Abington, part 2.

[M2]

the day: tuesday, july 6th.
The place: my brother's backyard, right off of state street and on the bottom of clark avenue.
the time: 4:00 in the afternoon.

alright, now that the suspense is all built up... i look out my brothers window and see what i thought was a shadow, but as i looked again i saw nothing less than a HUGE black bear. i have seen bears a lot before and this one was a winner. it must have been at least 5 feet long and weighed around 300 pounds. enormous.
so my brother calls 911, and we get a dispassionate, couldnt-care-less operator asking if the bear had gone in the woods yet (?!?!?!). my brother dutifully left his address in the hope that maybe they would send a cop car over to check it out. no such luck.
we stepped outside and saw the bear running up clark avenue, in and out of people's yards, obviously frightened.

so we call clarks summit police department, twice. no answer at either time. and then we tried several animal removal facilities, again with no answer. finally, on our second call to the fire station we got a reply, and it was simply "yeah, we got a few calls. dont worry"
no questions, not even for an address to have some sort of general idea where the bear might be. nope, instead they likely sent cop cars all around clarks summit and clarks green, looking for the bear passively.

no reports of maulings or property damage,so thats ok. but DAMN shouldnt the police be at their desks?! how could such a vital component of a city be...how it was?

[davidk]

Unless the bear was attacking someone or causing serious damage the local officials really don't care. they need a valid excuse to kill it and act like heros. Short of that it's the same ol same ol.
If the bear is a nusance the Game Corporation (it's proper name) needs to be called. Officer Figured will set a trap for it and have it moved to a rural area.
Where were the police? I don't know. I haven't seen any in SA in a long time. As long as they are not sitting at the illegal stop sign on Summit Lake Road I really don't care.
I've yet to see them here in Newton either though I will be watching the bills to see what we are charged

[char]

i was just going to post about the bear... the mama and cub were spotted in a yard on valley view drive and the papa... who i hear is huge was seen on summit lake road....   as for that stop sign on summit lake road... is it illegal?  it is so stupid... it should be a yield sign... you could see up the road for a mile....  

[davidk]

Char,
If those bears are seen so often they will not last long come the seaosn. Not here in Newton.
The stop sign as far as I know is illegal as it is being used to regulate speed. I haven't looked into the exact legality of it.
It neeeds to be removed and the bridge widened, though I am told that is not feasable as it is historic.
How it is historic I don't know but that is what Jim Wansacz told me when I contacted hom about getting it taken care of.
Has anyone seen a SA patrol car in Newton yet? I haven't.
The meeting is Monday night and i will have to ask.