WashTimes

The mayor is ready Things are shipshape up in Wilkes-Barre. Tom McGroarty, mayor of this northern Pennsylvania town, has stockpiled $500,000 worth of emergency mattresses, sleeping bags and water containers, all bought at a surplus store down in Harrisburg. Cheap, too. The mattresses were $8 each, sleeping bags $4. It's all for a new fallout shelter to be located in the basement of City Hall — once it gets cleaned out. "You have to be prepared," Mr. McGroarty said, and vows to give city residents a "sense of security." But for whom is the new fallout shelter intended, officials wonder? "For whom?" asked council Chairman Jim McCarthy. "The executive branch? I guess when you sit down and realize it, it's like Washington, D.C. You have to ensure the continuity of the government." "I'm not sure anyone would want to blow up Wilkes-Barre," observed Mr. McCarthy. "Except for a couple of councilmen who want to blow up City Hall."

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2001