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VOL. 81 NO. 10
E DALLASCP0ST
DALLAS, PA. THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 1970
TEN CENTS
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A picturesque silo towers over the Newberry estate on
Pioneer Avenue, Dallas.
Troop Fund drops inn plan
In a surprise move at the hearing conducted
March 3 by Dallas Township supervisors, Paul
Orson, attorney for the Troup Fund Inc., an-
nounced the temporary withdrawal of plans to
convert the main house:on the Newberry Estate
intora public inn.
he announcement came in the face of
threatened opposition from Township solicitor
Frank Townend, who had researched the legal
implications of the ‘‘spot zoning’ requested by
the Troup brothers and concluded that such
zoni® was in fact illegal.
In a letter directed to the Sapervisots, Mr.
‘Townend cited several cases in which such zoning
had been held improper and noted that the deci-
sion in the case of Putney vs.. Abington Township
“A singling out of one lot or small area
for different treatment from that accorded to
Lake borough approves
new taxpayers association
hairman David Price conducted an unusually
ami®le meeting of the Harveys Lake Borough
Council Tuesday which lasted for less than one hour
Tuesday night. Only four councilmen were present,
majority members David Price, Fred Kohl, Arthur
Gosart and Francis Fisher. The three minority
councilmen, Thomas J. Cadwalader, William
Hoblak and Carl Swanson, were absent.
Mr. Price expressed himself as being ‘‘heartily
in favor” of a newly-formed tax-payers group. A
spokesman for the new group,announced that over
30 people had met last week and would continue to
conduct regular meetings about borough problems.
The next taxpayers’ meeting is tentatively set for
March 31 at 7:30 p.m. They have requested permis-
sion to use the Lake Elementary School building for
the meeting. Members of the group expressed the
desire to offer names of nominees to be appointed
to the sewerage authority.
A motion to change the regular meeting night
was tabled because of the absence of the three
(Continued on PAGE THIRTEEN)
similar surrounding land indistinguishable from
it in character, for the economic benefit of the
owner of that lot or to his economic detriment, is
invalid ‘spot zoning’.”
John Troup, however, speaking later to The
Dallas Post on behalf of the Troup Fund, indicated
that plans to convert the home to a public eating
place have not been abandoned.
“We have learned,” said Mr. Troup, ‘‘that
there is another method of achieving this end
than seeking a zoning change.”
The supervisors’ hearing moved smoothly,
due in large part to an informal gathering of
approximately 25 Pioneer Avenue residents hosted
by John and Oliver Troup the previous Sunday.
Meeting with architect Peter Bohlin of Bohlin
and Powell Architects, the neighbors were in-
vited to ask questions about the proposed devel-
opment and recommend desired changes in the
existing plans.
According to John Troup, the residents
appeared pleased by the consideration extended
to them. He added that many expressed satisfac-
tion that the plans to build nearly 275 condo-
minium apartments on the 85-acre estate repre-
sent the best of all possible solutions to developing
the site.
Mr. Troup pointed out, as did his brother
Oliver at the hearing Tuesday evening, that the
S-1 zoning presently in effect would permit indi-
vidual houses to be scattered over the property
with an equal number of water wells and septic
© tanks.
Such indiscriminate use of wells, Mr. Bohlin
suggested, would jeopardize the water supply of
neighboring families far more seriously than would
the Troup Fund’s plan to locate wells at carefully
considered intervals throughout the acreage.
The plans for development of a self-contained
sewage disposal plant were outlined by Mr.
Bohlin at the request of Andrew Hourigan, attor-
ney for Mr. and Mrs. John Sicher, Pioneer
Avenue residents whose property adjoins the
Newberry estate. ‘Because the Sicher property
(Continued on PAGE TWELVE)
police partiality charged in tow calls
Complaints that police departments in the
Back Mountain are favoring one tow service over
another are being made to Wyoming Valley
Motor Club, The Dallas Post learned this week.
The complaints: have come from persons
involved in auto accidents in which towing was
required and in which club members have
specified AAA towing service, but did not receive
it.
According to Tom Heck, co-owner with Jack
Vino, of Dallas Sunoco, police may be telling
accident victims that AAA doesn’t want their
business.
“We don’t know how many people have,
called for our services, but in the past week
four or five have come here looking for their
car and we didn’t even know anything about
it,” Mr. Vino said.
As an example, Mr. Vino continued, a
woman involved in an auto accident last week
in Kingston Township came into his station
over the weekend and asked for her car. The
car was not there, although she claimed she had
directed police at the scene of the Friday acci-
dent to call AAA for service.
Dallas Sunoco is the AAA representative
station in the Back Mountain.
According to Mr. Vino, the woman later lo-
cated her car at Wesley's Gulf Station, Dallas.
He said this might be attributed to the fact that
Wesley's has a two-way radio and can monitor
police calls, but he said he believes the reason
Commonwealth, UGI
The possibility of rate hikes by both the tele-
phone company and the electric utility appeared
almost certain this week, in the face of a recent tax:
package directed at the utilities and passed by the
Pennsylvania Legislature.
Commonwealth Telephone and UGI are ready
to petition the Public Utility Commission for rate
increases, the Dallas Post has learned.
The utilities indicated they would probably
wait a few days to determine if the legislature
repealed the tax law which went into effect at
midnight Monday—a measure ‘Gov. Raymond
Shafer neither supported nor would sign into law.
. Commonwealth announced Friday that it
would seek approval of the PUC to add a surcharge
to its customer statements beginning in April to
cover the new taxes.
John B. Hibbard, president of the company told
The Post that it is impossible to absorb the unex-
pected tax liabilities and that the company has no
other recourse except to raise its charges in an
amount sufficient to cover the taxes. He said that
was that police just favor Wesley over other
stations.
Another Dallas resident who recently had an
accident on Memorial Highway told The Post
that he distinctly recalls telling police at the
scene to have Dallas Sunoco pick up his car;
because, as he explained, ‘‘they service my car
and I knew it would be watched over there.”
However, ‘when I came for my car it wasn’t
there. I finally located it at Wesley's Gulf. This
means I have to pay them. I not only told the
police, but also showed them my AAA card,”
he pointed out.
The resident, who said he had to ‘live here”
and didn’t want to get into trouble with the
police, said there were a couple of policemen
from both Dallas Township and Dallas Borough
at the scene of the accident.
> The accident victim said when he told the
police he wanted AAA service, he was informed in
an off-handed manner that Wesley's Gulf was the
AAA representative. The Gulf dealer, however,
is not, club officials said.
According to Mr. Heck, police may be telling
accident victims that AAA doesn’t want towing
customers. He said he was told by one person
who happened to be at an accident that a police-
man had informed an accident victim to this
effect.
“We're not too concerned about picking up
wrecked cars,” Mr. Heck said. ‘‘because we
(Continued on PAGE TEN)
may hike rates
the exact amount of the surcharge will be deter-
mined after supporting data is furnished the PUC,
but he estimated tliat it will be about five or six
percent.
Pennsylvania Bell Telephor: has already peti-
tioned the PUC for & five perce (2 oo hi
Had "the tax’ been levied directly on the -
customer, the investor-owned ‘utility president
pointed out, it would not have béen necessary to
also collect the six percent sales tax and the 10
percent federal excise tax on top of the new sur-
charge. As it is, the customer will pay those taxes
on the additional amount, Mr. Hibbard continued.
The last general rate hike for Commonwealth
was in 1953, company spokesman said.
Richard Demmy, UGI vice president, a Dallas
resident, told The Post that his company was
definitely looking at a rate increase now, associ-
ated with the tax situation.
Mr. Demmy said that the company had tre-
mendous increased operating expenses, and now
(Continued on PAGE TEN
Stacked fireplace logs lean toward the barn and slaughter-
house on the Newberry estate.
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