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Survivor tells Westmoreland County commissioners women are unsafe; residents press for drop boxes and offer Pride proclamation
Summary
Survivors and residents urged the Westmoreland County commissioners on June 4 to address women’s safety, questioned recent county spending on paper ballots and called for at least one secure mail-in ballot drop box; a local LGBTQ group presented a community proclamation recognizing Pride Month.
Gabrielle Monroe, Survivor Siblings executive director and a survivor of sex trafficking, told the Westmoreland County Board of Commissioners on June 4 that women are unsafe in the county and described a December 2024 encounter with a park officer that she called harassment. “Our government is responsible for 250 years of women being unsafe, abused, beaten, raped, and murdered by men,” Monroe said, adding that she was harassed by a park officer at Cedar Creek Park and later offered to train park officers on women’s safety for free.
Speakers during the public-comment period also pressed the commissioners on election access. Eddy Confer, speaking on behalf of Helen Sitler, and Kathleen Connely Tobin criticized the county’s purchase of paper ballots and urged the board to provide at least one secure drop box for the November election. Confer and Sitler said the county spent $40,000 on paper ballots in November 2025 and an additional $18,000 in May 2026 while only a fraction of voters used the printed ballots; they said 354 mail-in ballots arrived too late to be counted in May and argued a monitored drop box (which they estimated would cost under $10,000) would be a more efficient use of funds.
Ash Franzetti, founder of advocacy group Queer Westmoreland, presented a community-drafted proclamation recognizing June 2026 as Pride Month and invited residents to a June 13 event at the courthouse courtyard. Franzetti read the proclamation language and said the group would circulate a copy for community signatures.
Other commenters included Esther Ulery, who thanked commissioners for repairs to the Hannah’s Town fort, and several people who submitted written comments raising open-meetings concerns and asking that public comments continue to be printed with meeting agendas. The Sunshine Act (65 Pa.C.S. §§ 701–716) was invoked in submitted remarks that urged compliance with public-notice and agenda-posting requirements.
Board members did not take immediate policy action on the safety training offer, drop-box requests or the community proclamation during the meeting; the public-comment period ended and the board proceeded with scheduled agenda items and a series of unanimous approvals for grants, contracts and personnel actions.
