Parents In Lake-Lehman Jointure Will Be Sick At Heart
When the clear-thinking, enlightened citizens of the
| communities making up the Lake-Lehman School Jointure
have an opportunity to inspect the new Dallas High
School, as I did last night, and to look out over these
everlasting hills at sunset with a jet plane spilling a
golden vapor trail across the sky, they are going to be
sick at heart—and what is more,—ashamed!
This is one of the most magnificent schools I have
ever had an opportunity to visit anywhere—and it is
costing me more than $700 in school taxes this year!
I have no children to enjoy its facilities and have
never sent a child to public schools . . . nor am I a wealthy
man.
There are many things that I might not incorporate
in this new school building. were I to be consulted. I
don’t like the contours of the roof. I might do away
with the athletic field, the tennis courts and the band
room. The cobblestoned interior courtyard with its low
growing and colorful shrubs is probably a frill—for all
its beauty; but some of my neighbours who have children
in school think these are essential. I don’t know that it
is even necessary to have cold running drinking water
fountains at every corner. I don’t have it in my own
shop, but there are those who like cold, convenient water.
So TI string along with those I have helped to elect
to the school board—men who I thought were capable,
and men who were willing to shoulder the responsibilities
and the abuse that I was unwilling to assume,
These men hired other men who they thought were
capable administrators— individuals with more training
and experience in school affairs—to counsel with them
and advise them in making wise decisions.
I trust these ‘men because I know them intimately.
They are my neighbours—the same fellows who are in
church when I go there . . . the same ones who shell out
when a fellow citizen is down on his luck . . . the same
ones who contribute generously to the United Fund and
are Jonny ondliespat when the Library Auction needs
a hand.
They are not wealthy men. Most of them are heavy
taxpayers. Many of them have no children in school and
will have none to enjoy this fine building. They are paid
nothing for the hours they spend studying school pro-
blems, hours that are just as ‘valuable to them as to you
and me for golf, arguing in the saloon or working in the
garden.
They, I now, are not playing politics, greedy for
power or having their hands greased with graft. None
of them has used his job as a stepping stone to political
or business advancement. None has ever had a contract
paid by the Government. They are not that calculating.
Like all of us they make mistakes. They are not
infallible, but they are not living in the past. They have
had a glimpse of the Atomic Age and they are not ob-
structionists.
I have found during fifty years in the Back Moun-
tain Country that those who pose as the greatest friends
of the people usually have an axe to grind, a selfish poli-
tical ambition, a greed for publicity or a desire to save
their own pocketbooks at the expense of someone else.
Those who yell the loudest about political corruption
are the first to accept a county job. Those who scream
the loudest about taxes turn every stone to retain unfair
assessments, Those who deplore the United Fund are
not the ones who keep it running or even contribute
their meager share for the services they employ. Those
who detest the library most were never inside its doors
and never contributed a cent.
But most of us out here are not hoodwinked for long.
Those sound-thinking and frugal people who were duped
into signing a petition to prevent the construction of a
new school for their own and their neighbours’ children
have signed a paper which states clearly that the new
school will cost $5 million dollars. That is either a down-
right deception or a statement written by persons who
were misinformed and had neither the fortitude nor basic
honesty to set the facts straight before going off the han-
dle.
Maybe we are in this jam over the financing of a
school—and in a lot of other governmental financial jams
as well—because we have been unwilling to get all the
facts and too willing to string along with the politicians
who promised us “the good life, and al] for nothing”
without first asking “where does the Government get
the money?”
I have sympathy for those who rebel against the
high costs of government—even the costs of public edu-
cation—but I have no sympathy for those who are willing
to accept and encourage every government handout
whether it is surplus food, a soft snap job, an undeserved
pension, free hospitalization or a new school and then are
unwilling to bear a fair share of the costs. There really
is no Santa Claus!
If we are to be sheltered by a benevolent government
from the “cradle to the grave” then we must expect that
the government, State and Federal, will have something
to say about the independence we exercise as citizens.
In fact we are going to lose a lot of that independence
and freedom of choice because we sacrificed our own
initiative and the control of our own destiny by letting
the government do for us what we could normally do for
ourselves.
‘Where does this lead? To this simple fact: if the
State Department of Public Instruction is going to expend
great sums for our new schools, it is going to demand
that those schools meet definite State standards. We
have then lost our right to dictate just the kind of build-
ing we want to build at a cost we know we can afford—
and we are going to have to pay our share of the cost just
the same as the people in Tunkhannock, Montrose and
Bryn Mawr. That's what happens when we sell our
individual initative and independence—our right of self
determination—for the pottage of “something for noth-
ing.” In one way or the other, we are our own Santa Claus.
It is not on the level of local School Boards, Borough
Councils, and Boards of Supervisors that we in the Back
Mountain Country get less than our money’s worth. Look
to the County, State and Federal spenders if you would
have the spirit, the desire and the gumption to do some-
thing!
the buck to some one else to do their thinking.
This time they have passed it to calculating persons
with an axe to grind who in turn have selected five others,
totally unrepresentative of a progressive community, to
ask for an injunction to prevent the construction of a
needed school by the Lake-Lehman Jointure.
None of the five has ever taken a constructive step
in the leadership of his community and some of them
whom I have known for a lifetime have taken very des-
tructive ones. The facts might well be printed here!
The sound, honest and unselfish people of the com-
munities of the Lake-Lehman Jointure should begin to
search their souls and answer only to themselves, “Why
am I opposed?”
If they are first of all true to themselves, they will
not be parties to the present farce that is robbing them,
their neighbours, and citizens yet to come of a school that
can stand on a par with the one now opening in Dallas
District.
Good schools do not come without effort! Good com-
munities are not built by obstructionists, but by young
vital families. Look about you. This is the Atomic Age!
I am writing this not as an outsider, but as one who
has always been interested in the welfare of the whole
Back Mountain Country and as one who has been scarred
in many of its battles for advancement. As a youth I
attended the inferior schools in Noxen Township. As a
man I shall have to pay my fair share of increased taxes
on property I still retain there to give those of another
generation an equal chance.
Howard Risley
- People who simply sign petitions of protest are sub-
stituting ink for thought and initiative and are passing
72 YEARS A NEWSPAPER
| Oldest Business Institution
| Back of the Mountain
THE DALLAS POST
-
TWO EASY TO REMEMBER
Telephone Numbers
. ORchard 4-5656
OR 4-7676
TEN CENTS PER COPY-—FOURTEEN PAGES
New Goss Manor Home To Be Scene
Ot YWCA Holiday
Hostesses Mrs. Henry Ward and
Mrs. Ward Jacquish invite members
and prospective members of Back
Mountain Home-Makers Holiday to
a garden party next Tuesday at Mrs. |
Ward’s home in New Goss Manor. |
Registration for fall classes offered
by the YWCA will take place. |
Luncheon will be followed by a card |
party, for which guests are asked
to bring their own cards.
The affair is presented in order |
to raise funds for operation of the |
nursery, an arrangement inaugurat-
ed last year to ease the burden on |
young women who have more than |
I
|
one pre-school = child, permitting |
hem to register all their small chil- | |
dren for the price of one child.
The nursery, under direction of |
Mrs. Thomas Smith, is staffed by !
members of the Junior League.
/"Customarily, thirty-five children are |
register ed for each weekly session.
Harter's Dairy Tops Lazarus 2-1
To Win Little League Playeois
Harters defeated Lazarus for the
playoff championship on Monday |
night in a ding-dong battle right |
down the wire. Although they were |
‘outhit by six to two the Dairymen |
Rd the hill battle.
"trouble.
came away with the victory by a |
9 to 1 count. Kern and McCrea |
tangled in the best mound duel of |
the season. Hits were few and far |
etween and strikeouts predominat-
Dubil started the scoring in the
game with a blast over the fence]
in the fourth inning and this seemed |
like the margin of victory until the
top of the sixth as Lazarus came
up for a last ditch ‘try. Kostraballa
led off the inning with a triple and
Parry followed with his second hit
of the night to drive in the winning
run. Kern got tough and got the
next three batters with ne more
In the bottom of the sixth
the Harters gang bounced right |
back to get the win.: Coombs
singled and Vandermark was put
in as a runner. Sponseller reached
first on an error and Vandermark
went all the way to third. McCrea
struck out the next hitter, but Dubil
strolled to the plate and hit a hot
smash in the infield that was erred
and the winning run scored.
The big hitters for the day were
Kostraballa with a triple and single
and Parry with two singles.
{learn a craft or enjoy a painting |
: steering committee: Mesdames Ken-
Lazarus AB. R. H
McCrea, p-3b 00 nik 3-0. 9D
Dennis, ss; oli aun gency en,
Police Continue
Investigation In
Extortion Effort
Chopack Charged With
Blackmail Of Idetown
Amputee Gun Collector
State Police investigation is con-
tinuing en the black mail and ex-
| tortion "attempt on Eli Mengines,
{Idetown, a gun collector and World
I War 2 2 amputee.
John Henry Chopack, 40, a Star
| Route, White Haven construction
worker, was arrested and arraigned
‘last Thursday following an attempt
| to. extort $15,000 from Mengines,
Edgar Kenney, 47, 142. Poplar
| Street, Wilkes-Barre was arrested
, the same day in connection with the
| case and released under $500 bail
on a charge of accessory after the
fact.
Chopack was charged with black-
mail, a felony, and committed to
Luzerne County prison in lieu of
$2,000 bail.
The extortion case began approx-
.© imately one and one-half years
cane a chair. | ago when Megines purchased a group
of guns from several men at his
home for $1,700.
| confronted by an unidentified man
| at Harvey's Lake a short time later
and told not to sell the guns.
They were stolen from Mengines
in January, 1961.
Three weeks ago Mengines re-
ceived a letter telling him to fol-
low instructions because the guns
had originally been stolen from a
wealthy man, and if the theft were
reported to’ police, this would get
Mengines in hot water.
State Police investigation re-
vealed the guns were acquired leg-
ally.
Megines was then ordered to
place $15,000 at a designated place
along Route 118 near Shades Glen
last Tuesday morning. Police were
notified and eight plain clothed
State Troopers were staked near
. the scene.
"When the blackmailer picked up
the purse, minus $15,000, Sergeant
Edward McGroarty jumped from the
Garden Party
Children are cared for from 9 a. m. |
to 12 noon, while their mothers |
class, make hats or
Mrs. A. A. Sinicrope is chairman.
Classes are scheduled for eight
weeks, one day a week, beginning
| Tuesday, September 19.
On the committee for the garden
| party ‘are these members of the
neth Bayliss, Michael Bucan, G.
| Douglas Cassar, Donald Davis,
‘ Wayne Freels, Paul Goddard, Carl
E. Hontz, George Jacobs, William
King, Donald Peterson, Loren Sam-
sel, Willard Seaman, Charles E.
Sprenkel, Alan Wilkinson and Ward
Jacquish.
Registration will be for these
courses; art, braille, bowling, Del-
la Robbia wreaths, first aid and sur-
vival, millinery, needle-craft, and
beginners sewing.
Kaschak, ¢ .... 3 0 0/shadows and grabbed him. - The
| Kostraballa, 3b e301 2gtate trooper was left holding the
Parry, 2b viioiiontens 30 00 2 Pyare boots, as the blackmailer es-
{Cheney, cf .........at 3 0 0 caped across the highway and down
[Thudale, dbo. 3 0 0}, 30-foot embankment.
| Berkey, 1f St BO] McGroarty recognized the sus-
| McDonald, rf =e a Zo 0 pect when State Police went to his
/ ~~ T_ "7 |bome near Shades Glen Thursday.
TOTALS . .. .. 26 1 6} (hopack’s trial will be held at the
Harters AB, R. H. |, ..¢ Grand Jury session this fall.
Sponseller/2b :... 55.531" 0 0 eR
T. Jones, 1b. a ERE SD
wis 3 1 1To Crown Queen
| Kern, p om 2 4:0
Bertram, 3b oli. 2d) 0 n =
K. Jones, cf io o At Shickshinny
Viagoarr ol ool Lai 2 0 0
Coombs, If z 2 0 ° [Governor David L. Lawrence will
Yapqurntrh, rc - 0 a __ | crown the Queen at the Shickshinny
Centennial Ball Wednesday evening,
TALS aay tn a 2 2 according to ne of =
(Gee remlic of other play-off Executive Committee.
Governor Lawrence is scheduled
to arrive in Shickshinny at 8 p.m.
He will tour the town in'a con-
vertible, and make a short informal
speech at the corner of Main and
Union Streets.
Crowning of the Queen will take
place at 9:30 in Northwest High
games in Section B—Page 5.
Sordoni In Florida
Andrew J. Sordoni, who has been
spending the summer at his home
at Harveys Lake flew down to
Miami, Florida, Monday for a few
days, leaving here at 5 A.M. and ‘School gymnasium.
arriving there around 11 AM. Plans for the gala celebration of
| Shickshinny’s 100th birthday are at
[fever pitch with . Centennial Belles
| and Brothers of the Brush prepar-
ing for the most memorable event
in the town’s history.
The celebration opens officially at
Out Of Hospital
Chief of Police Irwin Coolbaugh
has returned to his duties in Dallas |
Township after several days as 2
patient at Nesbitt Memorial Hos- |
pital, (Continued on Page 2 A)
Mengines was |
NO FIGURES YET
AVAILABLE FOR
CHURCH AUCTION
No figures are yet available
on results of the Center More-
land Methodist Church Auction,
but response was amazing. The
huge field was filled with
parked cars, every bench on the
auction ground was occupied,
“and the chicken barbecue did
a thriving business in a large
tent, oven to the cool breeze.
The weather, rainy in the
mornings both Friday and
Saturday, was perfect by late
afternoon and held through
the evening,
Falls Forty Feet
From Decayed Elm
Marcy Bvans, = 28, Follies Road,
fell forty feet from a dead elm tree
which he was removing from in
front of a Lincoln Street residence
in Wilkes-Barre Monday afternoon
Taken to Mercy Hospital in a pol-
ice cruiser, he was found to be suf-
fering from broken ribs, an injured
spine, and extensive bruises and
brush-burns.
His mother, Mrs. Florence Sor-
doni Evans, watching from the win-
dow of a friend, saw him high in
the tree, and the next instance flat
on his back on: the stone pave-
ment, with a large dead branch
falling on top of him.
Kingston Twp.
Accepts Housing
_Carverton Road Site
For Vanguard Village
Construction of seventy-two low
cost homes on Carverton Road east
of Checkerboard Inn was approved
by the Kingston Township Board
of Supervisors at their meeting last
week. The project was previously
accepted by the Trucksville Plan-
ning Commission.
The project, known as Vanguard
Village, is sponsored by the Unit-
ed Home Improvement Company.
Homes, priced at $9,000, will be
situated on 75’ x 150’ lots. Six dif-
ferent Colonial and contemporary
models will vary the housing pat-
tern. }
Each home will have three bed-
rooms, a living room, kitchen-din-
ing combination, bath and a large
storage area.
Frank LaBar of the Home Im-
provement Company said twenty-
five homes already have prospec-
tive buyers and there is a demand
for low cost housing in this area.
Construction will begin this fall.
If the company gets approval
through FHA to install public sew-
age, 120 homes will be erected on
the ‘twenty-three acre site, instead
of the presently approved seventy-
two.
In other business at the super-
visors’ meeting, a resolution was
approved ‘giving the Commonwealth
Telephone Company permission to
fill a dry well on Lewis Street, dis-
covered while the phone company
was working on a conduit from
Lewis. Street to Carverton Road.
Austin Line, chairman of the
board, was authorized to buy a new
jack and two mew tires for the
police cruiser. :
Lester Hauck and other members
of the Planning Commission ex-
| plained the thirty-foot building line
| on new construction applies to both
sides of a corner lot. However, if
a -real hardship should exist in
order to comply with this footage,
( Continued on Page 2 A)
Bldg. Authority
Votes Yes On
Lehman School
Residents Stampeded
By Circulation Of
Misleading Petition
A large number of residents of
the Lake-Lehman jointure area, who
ing of the proposed new school
under the impression that the school
would cost $5 million, say that they
are now anxious to get their names
.tolfithe list.
- The petition, circulated widely,
gives the figure of “approximately
$5,000,000” as the expense to the
tax-payers of building a high school,
a figure it claims, “which is un-
reasonable, arbitrary, and unjust.”
Edgar Lashford, president of the
joint school board, says that the
figure of five million would in-
deed be unreasonable, arbitrary, and
unjust.
The only trouble with the esti-
mate is that it is untrue.
The figure for building the new
510.
The remainder of the proposed
construction program of $2,088,510
is to make necessary modifications
at Lake and Lehman Buildings.
This morning at Luzerne County
Court House Judge Jacob ‘Shiffman
will hear a defense to an injunc-
tion procured against the building
of the school.
Last Thursday night, the Building
Authority passed a resolution to
build the school.
John Hewitt, chairman, did not
vote.
Ben C. Banks explained at length
why he did not want the school,
then voted for it.
Dr. Lewis Thomas voted to go
ahead.
Edgar Darby, strongly in favor of
construction from the start, voted
in favor.
Sheldon Cave resigned, claiming
that being on the Building Auth-
ority was wrecking his business.
Released From
Nesbitt Hospital
Escapes Death In
Head-On Collision
Mrs. William O’Brien, Huntsville
Road returned home from Nesbitt
Hospital Tuesday afternoon, her
torn knee repaired with thirty sut-
ures.
Mrs. O'Brien, heading west on
Memorial Highway early Saturday
morning, signalled for a left turn
onto Highway 118 at the Game Com-
mission building. Her car and that
of a Wilkes-Barre driver were in-
volved in an almost head-on col-
lision at 2 am.
As Mrs. O'Brien’s car rebounded,
it struck a car being driven by
her husband, who had also signalled
for a left turn.
A car driven by a For ty-Fort
man, slowing down to avoid hit-
ting the three cars, was rammed
from the rear by a Swoyersville
driver.
Mrs. O’Brien was taken to Nes-
bitt in the Dallas Community Am-
bulance, staffed by Donald Bulford,
Ray Titus, and William Berti. In-
vestigating Chief of Dallas Town-
ship Police Irwin Coolbaugh was
assisted by Lehman Chief Joseph
Ide, and a passing motorist Harold
Kocher of Dallas.
J
signed a petition to cancel out build-
Junior-Senior High School is $1,727,- i
MORE THAN A NEWSPAPER, A COMMUNITY INSTITUTION
VOL.
73, NO. 33, THURSDAY, AUGUST 17, 1901
Three Scientists Establish Laboratory Here
Dr. George J. Young, president
of Surface Processes Research and
Development Corporation, supervises
a research project for a client. Dr.
Young with two associated scientists
has established a new research lab-
Area Chairman
8 | Morgis of
Jointure Elects
New Teacher
Places Insurance
On Football Squad
Lake-Lehman directors, meeting
Monday evening, elected Donald
Glen Lyon, to teach
seventh grade at Noxen. Mr. Mor-
| gis, a 1960 graduate of Wilkes Col-
JOHN LANDIS i “i lege, is qualified in English and
; stint | Social Studies
John Landis, Oak Hill: district | .
Fh ol the Commonwealth | Robert Laux Insurance Agency
Telephone Company, has been
named chairman of the Back Moun-
tain section of the Torch Campaign
of the Wyoming
Fund.
Landis’ acceptance of the Fund
Campaign post was released by J
J. O'Malley, Chairman of the 1962
Torch Campaign. :
The Back Mountain section in-
cludes Dallas Borough, Dallas Town-
ship, Jackson, Lake
man Township. It will be Landis’
responsibility te organize and dir-
ect the solicitation of small bus-
inesses in those areas.
Landis is active locally in Dallas
Rotary, George M. Dallas Lodge No.
531, F. & A. M., Caldwell Consis-
tory and the Irem Temple. He is
a member of the Red Cross, Greater
Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Commerce
and Keystone State Chapter of Inde-
pendent Telephone Pioneers Associa-
tion. Landis also served on the
highly successful Industrial Fund
! Campaign, : 3
and Leh- |
| was given the contract for insur-
; ance for football players, at $17.25
per player, and insurance for school
Valley United | children at $2, the cost of child-
lren’s insurance to be assumed by
their parents. Cost of football in-
surance is assumed by the school.
Lehman School Authority was
slated to meet with the joint board
at 10 PM., a time set at its own
request, but at the conclusion of its
meeting with chairman John Hewitt
{ at his home, decided that nothing
would be gained by further con-
ference, and did not appear.
Water May Be Discolored
Dallas and Shavertown Water
Companies advise consumers that
engineers will be in the area Aug-
ust 24 and 25, to conduct flow
tests. There is possibility of colored
water, and/or interruption of serv-
ice for a short time on these days.
Such annoyance will be of short
duration.
® © Three young
oratory on Country Club Road, Dal-
las.
Three Young Scientists Establish
Laboratory On Country Club Road
Alfred University Professor and Accociates
From Suface Processes Research Corporation
scientists, friends
and associates for a number of
years as college instructors and. as
students, have staked their all on
a newly formed independent chem-
istry research organization, Sur-
face Processes Research and De-
velopment Corporation, and have
selected Dallas as the location for
their new laboratories.
President and treasurer of the
George J. Young, until
firm is ‘Dr.
this summer associate professor of
chemistry at Alfred University, Al-
fred, N. Y., in the Finger Lakes
country. Secretary is Joseph Peter
Hall Jr: an associate of Dr.
Young's during Lehigh University
days.
Third member is Ralph B. Rozel-
le a former student of Dr. Young's
at Alfred University and also an
instructor in chemistry there until
the formation of the new research
organization.
Their recently completed labora-
tory is located on a seven-acre
plot- just off Country Club Road, a
short distance from the old Irem
Horse Show Grounds. The labora-
tory is the first of three attractive
structures that will be set on land-
scaped grounds. Eventually the
homes of the members of the firm
may be constructed in the vicinity
of the laboratory.
Before considering Dallas as the
location, Dr. Young said, he and
his associates drew a circle on a
map surrounding Washington, D.C.
Philadelphia, New York and the
northern New Jersey complex.
Their main consideration was not
distance but elapsed time between
points for they will be doing re=-
(Continued on Page 84)
N