Laurels & lances: Efficient vaccine clinics and not-transparent leasing

Laurel: To a well-oiled machine. When it comes to large gatherings of people for a specific purpose, sometimes the operation can function perfectly. Sometimes it turns into chaos. Anyone who has tried to get out of a parking lot after a big concert can attest to best laid plans going awry.

So it is a pleasant surprise to see large vaccine events going off as smoothly as they are. Reports of quick lines and easy processing have been the hallmark of area mass clinics put on by various medical groups and sponsors like the Pittsburgh Penguins.

That is something that has happened even in the face of the Food and Drug Administration placing administration of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine on pause on Tuesday. UPMC and Allegheny Health Network had Johnson & Johnson events planned but seamlessly shifted to continuing with doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines instead.

At the same time, in Westmoreland County, Excela Health is working with local EMS providers to do the very opposite of mass events — taking the vaccine directly to the homebound who are unable to make it to stadiums or pharmacies.

This is the very model of what the state and federal governments should have been doing from the beginning. Planning, preparation and anticipation.

Lance: To being in the dark. On Tuesday, the Westmoreland County Airport Authority was due to vote on a renewal of the lease for DeNunzio’s Italian Chophouse — the restaurant at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport. Instead, Chairman Paul Puleo asked the property committee to develop requests for proposal for the property.

There is nothing wrong with opening the field to other operators. There was also nothing wrong with renewing the lease for DeNunzio’s, which has been the restaurant on site since 2004.

What is unfortunate is how it happened. Westmoreland County Commissioners Doug Chew and Gina Cerilli Thrasher asked for open process, referring to an April 1 letter from a Pittsburgh attorney representing a prospective tenant. Louis DePaul said he believed the $2,000 per month for rent, and another $2,000 for utilities, is “significantly below market” for the property.

The process of renting property owned by a government authority should be as open as the law allows. It is in the best interest of the people to have that information be public. It was not fair to DeNunzio’s or to other would-be operators to have such a last-minute change happen when a public process could have been started weeks ago.