Union Bullies Boy Scout for Dastardly Good Deed
17-year-old's 250 hours of community service angers Allentown union
By TERESA MASTERSON
Updated 3:22 PM EST, Wed, Nov 18, 2009
A 17-year-old Boy Scout worked more than 200 hours to clear a path in his local park so that people could enjoy walking and biking along the river.
Bad move Boy Scout. Now grown men who didn’t get around to doing it for a paycheck are after you.
Kevin Anderson, a junior at Southern Lehigh High School, a varsity soccer player and a Boy Scout hoping to get his Eagle Scout badge, spent 250 hours over several weeks creating a path on the partially complete 165-mile Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor that runs through Kimmets Lock Park in Allentown, reports The Morning Call.
"I decided to do my part in completing this part of the trail. In that way, others could enjoy walking along the river, without having to walk on the busy road," Anderson said in an e-mail, says The Morning Call.
But once the city’s municipal union caught wind of this do-gooder breath of fresh air, it put up a stink at Tuesday’s city council meeting. Nick Balzano, president of the local Service Employees International Unions said its considering filing a grievance against the city for allowing such good, free-of-charge, work to happen.
"We'll be looking into the Cub Scout or Boy Scout who did the trails," Balzano told the council, reports The Morning Call.
Anderson’s act of carving out a 1,000-foot path is not seen as good community service by the union because it was the only group to suffer layoffs in the city’s current financial downturn.
"We would hope that the well-intentioned efforts of an Eagle Scout candidate would not be challenged by the union," said Mayor Ed Pawlowski in an e-mail Friday. "This young man is performing a great service to the community. His efforts should be recognized as such."
First Published: Nov 17, 2009 12:21 PM EST
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