Thom "The Tick" - Now The Victim

Our good old friend Thom "The Tick" Greco is back in the news but this time he claims that he is a victim. "The Tick" claims that he paid the city of Wilkes-Barre a fee of $350.00 to open one of his doomed downtown businesses. As we all know, "The Tick" constantly opens new businesses downtown and then runs them into the ground until they close. In fact as we speak, some poor bastard is going to open a new Martini Bar at the site of the old Grogg Shop. Good luck with that because you are going to need it. There have been numerous trys to open a business there but no success has been achieved. It's almost like Red Jones running for office. Anyway, Greco claims that the FBI told him that the $350.00 fee was nothing more than a "Shakedown". "The Ticks" revelation brought a quick response from Wilkes-Barre Mayor Tom Leighton who said, “There is absolutely no merit to this frivolous allegation”.

Thom "The Tick" was renovating the old Kings College football weight room to put in yet another nightclub he calls The Mines and claimed he had a valid occupancy permit for a place of assembly and that it should be grandfathered to include The Mines. The city informed him that it could not and that he had to put in a sprinkler system. Greco agreed to making the place safer and installed the system. Our man "The Tick" then wanted to have an art show there without the sprinkler system being fully functional and the city told him no. They told him that he would have to pay 2 off duty fireman $350.00 to be there in case something happened. When asked, Mayor Leighton confirmed that Greco wanted to open the nightclub/restaurant when the fire suppression system was inoperable. The International Fire Code permits two firefighters to be present to conduct a “fire watch” so that the event can take place, the mayor added. “This is standard practice and the firefighters were paid directly by the property owner for the service,” said Leighton. “The city did not benefit financially from this transaction at all.”

At first glance, this looks like a total shakedown by our friends in the city. However, after further review, it appears that this is part of standard procedures to insure the safety of business patrons. I do know for a fact that there are times that organizations hire off duty police officers to be present at functions and this seems no different. This is just that parasite Greco trying to throw a little shit on the city to get some free publicity. I will say this, what we don't need is another Greco business scarring the city. As in the past, "The Tick" will open the doors and close them about a year or two later leaving the building to deteriorate until some poor sucker comes along with a business idea. I think we may have another Grogg Shop incident here. You can't fool us again Thom. We are not that stupid, or are we?