Last week I attended the preliminary hearing for accused killer Steve Rebert. I was prepared to listen to the always professional and comprehensive testimony of the Pennsylvania State Police witnesses but what I was not prepare to hear was compelling testimony from the residents of Coal Tipple Road.

I had read the story Courier-Express Editor Nick Hoffman had written after the press conference following Rebert’s arrest for the double murder on Coal Tipple Road. Nick detailed testimony from several neighbors of the deceased couples. In fact the state police gave credit o those people for being so vigilant. Their vigilance led the police to Rebert.

It is one thing to provide the police with a written statement and quite another to give the same testimony in a courtroom. In a courtroom not everyone is going to be friendly to a witness. Their will be at least one attorney is determined to undermine your testimony. There may also be friends and family of the accused or the victim and one camp or the other will not be an ally to the witness.

I have seen some very steadfast people unravel on the witness stand. An attorney skilled in his craft will seek to dismantle testimony to further their cause. It is what they are there to do but it can be a very unpleasant experience for a person who is unaccustomed to court proceedings.

I did not know what to expect when a neighbor of the Shugars took the stand. She is a school bus driver, not someone skilled in detection or observation, but she provided testimony that was clear, concise and condemning. And she was not the only neighbor along Coal Tipple Road who observed something suspicious. What several neighbors saw was a vehicle parked along the road and a man they believed was acting suspiciously. This lady, her husband, and at least one other neighbor took every effort to make certain the suspicious person could be identified if needed later on. It was needed. The man in the car is alleged to have been Steve Rebert. All this took place well before the crime was committed.

This is not a collection of houses out on Coal Tipple Road. These people are true neighbors. They saw something that was a possible threat to them and they took action. They called the state police who responded as soon as possible. The threat was taken seriously and the incident report was used in the later investigation.

These neighbors are to be commended but, sadly, in many cases, this type of involvement is not seen often and is actually discouraged by some officials. That is unfortunate for we live in a society that is in the midst of collapse. Our borders have collapsed; law enforcement is under siege and the courts seemed determined to undermine what little remains of our once vaunted social structure.

The need for citizen action has never been more important. IN Pennsylvania, we see and already stretched state police force so strapped for funding that they cannot fill 300 vacancies. Small boroughs and municipalities have been forced to close police departments all across the Commonwealth.

What message does this send to criminals? We may as well roll out the welcome mat for criminals. In rural Pennsylvania we have come to rely on the state police who do a magnificent job considering how under strength they are. The PSP work with small islands in a sea of crime, municipalities that still can afford police protection. They also work with the support of the county sheriff departments. That is to say when the sheriffs are permitted to act under the disastrous restrictions that have been laid upon the deputies by the court and a legislature unwilling or unable to act on this issue.

It has always been a mystery to me why some states and commonwealths have active sheriff departments and Pennsylvania does not. Even in Pennsylvania Philadelphia and Allegheny counties are permitted to have sheriff’s departments with full police powers.

That mystery was partially resolved for me last week when two of the Jefferson County Commissioners went on record to state their opposition to the granting of full police powers to the sheriff’s department. The reason: Cost; the cost of training and maintaining trained officers. That is a valid argument. Upgrading what has become largely a paper serving force into a real police force would involve training, equipment and certainly an increase in payroll. The county cannot afford these costs. It would be reasonable to hope the state government would share in these costs but past experience, (most of it negative), has served to make the commissioners extremely cautious about state promises.

There is always the federal government which has been forthcoming in some areas since 9/11 but stingy in other areas. Federal promises for funding have always been subject to the prevailing political winds. To often federal promises of funding come with so many strings attached that municipalities often strangle on them.

There is another cost to be considered; Public safety. The commissioners may be  able to quantify the cost of a police car r a new handgun but they cannot quantify the cost of a human life or the emotional cost to a victim of crime.

With an undermanned state police force, vacant municipal police stations and a sheriff’s department tied by unreasonable restrictions, it is little wonder the folks on Coal Tipple Road are watching out for one another. Their actions are an example to the rest of us. We must be more active until our government remembers that one of its key functions is the protection of its citizens

And that is my view from Main Street, Bart.