it DaLLASR0ST
VOL. 81 NO. 12
DALLAS, PA. THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 1970
TEN CENTS
®
Three year old Margaret Zaykauski,
Dallas Junior Woman's Club.
vA3lume down at post office
The wildcat postal workers’ strikes in sev-
eral major cities throughout the country have
drastically reduced the volume of mail cur-
rently being delivered to Dallas households.
That's the word from Dallas postmaster
Edward M. Buckley, who acknowledged that
mail deliveries from Philadelphia, New York City,
Long Island, Chicago and parts of Connecticut
and northern New Jersey are nonexistent as a
result gof the postal strikes in those areas. In
additidfi, he says, mail destined for these cities
has been embargoed and is being held at the
post office until the strikes are settled.
Mr. Buckley regards the disruption of mail
Service with a wary eye, commenting that al-
~ though business is slow now, settlement of the
strike will loose a flood of mail. “When we get
hit,” the Dallas postmaster predicts grimly,
“we’ll get hit hard.”
He anticipates some difficulty in keeping up
with mail deliveries at that time, noting that
directives which arrive daily from the Postmaster
General prescribe that first class mail be handled
first, with parcel post and newspapers next,
and third class materials last. Unless specifically
authorized to do so, Mr. Buckley will not be
permitted to hire extra workers to help deliver
the mountains of mail.
According to the Dallas postmaster, the postal
workers at the Dallas office ‘‘are not in favor of
a strike at the present time.” He added that
nobody out at this office has been contacted”
by leaders of the three craft unions represented
in the Dallas office, ‘but if a strike were called
nationally, I don’t know what the men here
would do.”
Dallas, is pictured with
Mr. Bunny at the Easter Egg Hunt Saturday. Over 660 chil-
dren attended the hunt which was a service project of the
oll dealers
charge abuse
AJ POST EAGLE oil dealers freeman htk jen 242
Recent protective action by the Public Util-
ity Commission to grant the state’s energy pro-
ducing utilities even greater monopoly freedoms
has indirectly, at least, affected every citizen in
Pennsylvania. The recent five percent blanket
rate increase was just one example. The most
aware group of such action, however, is the small
independent fuel oil dealers, who not only find
themselves competing against each other, but
with the powerful investor-owned utilities as
well.
In their effort to compete in the mostly home
heating market, these usually small, independent
businessmen have found themselves not only hit
by broadsides from the giant utilities, but
government officials as well, both on local and
state levels.
The recent blanket rate hike by virtually every
utility in the state, granted by PUC so that utility
coffers will not have to provide the added state
taxes, did not apply to the fuel oil dealers, who
have been paying their share of taxes for years.
nuclear reactor
meets opposition
Almost at the same time that plans for a
$250 million nuclear power plant on the upper
Susquehanna River were being announced by
officials in Tunkhannock Thursday, a citizens
gran was preparing a statement in opposition
to .the plant in the same region. An apparent
stalemate in the controversy appears to be form-
ing, with a definite division among citizens of
the area as to which side to join.
Plans for the sodium-cooled fast breeder
nuclear power plant to be located just above
Meshoppen, Wyoming County, was outlined for
residents in a news conference in the Prince
Hotel in Tunkhannock. The conference was
called by officials of Pennsylvania Electric
Company, a subsidiary of General Public Utili-
ties Corp., which has already purchased about
13,000 acres of land for the site. The company
is well along with its plans for the plant, with
construction stages to begin late this year.
The nest day a group of regional residents
known as the Citizens Committee for Environ-
mental Concern issued an opposition statement
directed at GPU and Penelec in an attempt
to let the parent company and its subsidiary
know that they did not want the plant to be
built in their area or any other inhabited locale.
The statement was signed by Mrs. Sidney
Daniels and Dr. Bryan Lee, both of Tunkhan-
nock, co-chairmen of the five-month-old con-
servationist group.
During the press conference,
Charles J. Smith and William Hirst told news-
men that they were not aware of any opposi-
tion to the proposed experimental facility, but
that it would take some rather strong opposition
from regional citizens before the company would
consider other alternatives.
The officials strongly defended the safety
of the proposed 300- to 500- megawatt plant
which was announced in the fall of 1967 to
service not only Penelec customers, but those
of three other power companies in the GPU
Service ‘area. continued on PAGE 11
Penelec’s
park depends on Governor
“All we need now is the governor's signature
and we'll be in business.” This was the optimis-
tic prediction of George Thomas, Dallas Borough
councilman and member of the Dallas Park and
Recreation Authority, who earlier this week
stated that plans for the long-awaited Dallas
park were awaiting the governor's approval.
His statement was echoed less enthusiastically
by Park / Authority Board chairman George
McCutcheon, who acknowledged that plans for
the park had indeed been approved by the state
planning board and that the budget for the
$29,524 facility is. ‘‘on the governor's desk waiting
for his approval.”
Clearly annoyed by the long delay in getting
the park plans off the drawing board, Mr.
McCuthceon stated that the Park and Recreation
Authority had decided ‘‘to go ahead with the
instant recreation program so we'll. be certain to
have some facilities ready for use by this summer.”
The Authority had decided on ‘‘the whole package,
with the exception of the swimming pool,” Mr.
McCutcheon said.
The facilities provided by Instant Convertible
Playgrounds, Inc., would include equipment for
table tennis, volleyball, basketball, as well as
an indoor-outdoor structure complete with picnic
tables and all-purpose game tables.
Mr. McCutcheon was quick to point out that
facilities. purchased from Instant Convertible
Playgrounds, Inc., would in no way affect long-
range plans for the permanent park scheduled
~ continued on PAGE
5
“We are trying to compete at the market
place. The utilities have a ‘‘golden fleece and
continue to pluck it,” Norman H. Cruse, executive
director of the Pennsylvania Petroleum & Fuels
Association, told Northeastern Newspapers in
summation of the problems his industry faces.
“My idea of the PUC is to protect the con-
sumer, but it looks like the utilities have made
it the other way around,” Mr. Cruse continued.
And he did not hésitate to point to examples.
With charges against the natural gas and
electrical power utilities ranging from tax loop-
holes to highway cuts and from promotional
allowances to direct subsidies, the fuel oil dealers
explain their plight in no uncertain terms.
P. H. Arnaud, who operates the Mahaffey Oil
Co. in a Luzerne County area, told NNI that even
at the local borough level of government the deck
appeared to be stacked against him.
In Dallas Borough, Mr. Arnaud said, building
permits must be issued for almost any type of
construction, but a utility can put poles on both
sides of a road, string wire, and get a blanket
permit to cut roadways anywhere without secur-
ing permits. ‘They have only to patch a place they !
have torn up, he added, and do not have to re-
pair damage caused in bad weather because of the
cut they made.” Adauionally, he added, the util-
ities pay no fees.
The fuel oil dealer said that his greatest
inquiry set
IN fatality
A Luzerne County Corner’s inquest will be held
to determine the cause of death of George Thomas
Stoneham, 21 year old Kingston youth who met death
in an accident at Routes 415 and 118, Dallas, March
2.
It was reported by Dallas Township police that
Mr. Stoneham, 434 Warren Ave., Kingston, accom-
panied by his fiancee, Sharan Kay Wehner, 20, 91 N.
Landon Ave., Kingston, was traveling north on Route
415 when the accident occurred.
According to the police, a 1967 Chrysler sedan,
driven east on Route 118 by Phillip John Krasner 16,
Pole 139, Harveys Lake, failed to halt at the stop
sign and continued through the intersection, hitting
the Stoneham vehicle broadside on the driver’s side.
The force of impact r ripped the side and the back seat
from the car.
The Krasner vehicle continued through the guard
rails and on down the enbankment, coming to rest on
its roof 60 feet from the point of impact. The Krasner
automobile skidded 143 feet before colliding with the
Stoneham car. The Krasner youth claimed tha’ iis
brakes failed. Passengers in his car were his broth-
er, Kim Krasner 15, and Robert Stevens 16, Harveys -
Lake. :
Dallas Township patrolman Carl Miers, arriving
on the accident scene, summoned the Dallas Town-
shipambulance and Deputy Coroner Richard Disque.
The coroner pronounced George Stoneham dead on
the scene, cause of death being attributed to a mas-
sive cerebal hemmorage, broken neck, crushed left
chest and lacerations.
Dallas Township ambulance took Sharan Weh-
ner to Nesbitt Memorial Hospital where her in-
juries were said to be lacerations of the forehead
and face, fractured ribs and a cervical injury of
the spine. Her condition is reported as fair. Phillip
Krasner was taken to the hospital with injuries of
the mouth and jaw and loss of teeth. His bro. ,
Kim, was treated for a bloody nose. Both Krast.
boys were treated and released.
Dallas police are charging Philip Krasner with
failure to stop at a stop sign. Investigation is being
made of physical evidence at the scene and reports
of witnesses of the accident.
Patrolman Miers was assisted at the scene by
Dallas Township police chief Frank Lange; town--
ship special patrolman Frank Gelsleichter; Dallas
Borough patrolman Ray Titus; borough special pa-
trolmandJackBertiand Ted Montross ; Kingston Town-
ship patrolman Cliff Culver; Lehman Township
police chief Lionel Bulford and Lehman Township
special patrolman Paul Goodwin.