Metzgar

About five years ago, after a meeting of the Logan Township supervisors, Chairman Jim Patterson and Supervisor Joe Metzgar went to Texas Hot Dogs.

Metzgar didn’t have any cash with him, so Patterson paid the bill and told his colleague that next time, it would be his turn, Patterson said in a phone interview Tuesday.

The next time never came: Metzgar, 82, died Monday at home — “So (now) he owes me two hot dogs when I get to heaven,” Patterson said.

As a supervisor for the past nearly 20 years, Metzgar “could put a smile on your face, even in intense times during meetings,” Patterson said.

Metzgar could also fall for a joke, at least early on.

When he first became a supervisor, Metzgar showed up for the Juniata Memorial Day parade with his BMW convertible in a dress shirt — but one without a collar, and wearing a gold chain, Patterson said.

Patterson suggested that when representing the township, Metzgar should wear a suit and tie — and Metzgar obligingly went home and changed into the kind of attire Patterson had advised.

He didn’t realize that Patterson, who was wearing a Harley Davidson vest and a red, white and blue tie, wasn’t being serious.

Later, they would joke about Patterson’s preference for going without a tie, allegedly due to his 18 and 1/2-inch neck.

Over the years, they “had a great relationship” and “a lot of fun,” Patterson said.

One of the highlights of Metzgar’s time as supervisor was his initiative several years ago against “unfunded mandates” — requirements passed down from higher level governments, both federal and state, to municipal governments, without the money to pay for putting those mandates into practice.

Metzgar spent six months obtaining a consensus from the associations of township supervisors in 66 of the state’s 67 counties condemning such mandates — Philadelphia, the remaining county, has no township association.

That consensus led to a resolution condemning unfunded mandates that was approved at an annual convention of the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors, according to Patterson and Supervisor Ed Frontino.

PSATS continues to push at the state level for a law prohibiting the imposition of unfunded mandates, Patterson and Frontino said.

Metzgar was a good supervisor, honest and fair, who looked at all sides of any issue before voting based on his “logical conclusions,” Frontino said.

He took “a common-sense approach,” Patterson said.

He was guided by “reasonableness” and by how he felt proposed changes would affect the “health and safety of the residents,” he stated in a biography on the Logan Township website.

Metzgar was also a dedicated family man who took care of his ailing wife in the last years of her life, took care of his children and grandchildren and “attended more games for his grandkids than anyone I’ve ever talked to,” Frontino said.

And he was a good friend, Frontino said.

Metzgar attended Bishop Guilfoyle High School, the Altoona School of Commerce and York College and took continuing education courses in accounting, auditing and computer skills, according to his biography on the township website.

He coached youth baseball for 23 years and was involved in the BG Speech and Performing Arts Association; the St. Therese Athletic Association, the George B. Kelley Baseball Federation; the Scouts, the Central Blair Recreation and Parks Commission, Blair County Community Action, the Intermunicipal Relations Committee and the Logan Township Planning Commission, according to the bio.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.