What appeared to be a deliberate boycott by
representatives of Dallas Borough Council of the
final joint police meeting held May 20, was ac-
tually, according to councilman William Berti, a
conflict of dates. Said police committee chairman
Berti, ‘by the time I found out that a meeting had
been called for Wednesday, I already had made
other personal plans.”
Announcement by Dr. Hugo Mailey of the final
meeting with Dallas Township, Kingston Township
and Dallas Borough to discuss the details of a joint
police force was made in a letter to council at a
spegial meeting May 18.
he final draft of the proposed merger of the
three police departments was reviewed by
representatives of Dallas Township and Kingston
Township, but Dallas Borough—whose
representatives at previous meetings were
customarily Mr. Berti and Mayor Stephen Hart-
man Jr.—was not represented.
In explaining his absence, Mr. Hartman also
pleaded a previous engagement, but added that “I
had no intention of going to the meeting anyway.”
He did not inform Dr. Mailey that he would not
attend, he said, but did ‘‘talk with each one of the
councilmen individually and told them I wouldn’t
be going.” :
Mr. Hartman is opposed to the police merger
and@rgues that it “would be of no benefit to the
borough.” He explained that he had attended the
a meetings because he was ‘sticking it out
and®hoping that something could be worked out
beneficial to the borough.” Such was not the case,
Dallas Boro. balks
at police merger
he said, and it was his ‘whole impression that
things were going too fast.”
What the police merger would mean, he in-
sisted, was that ‘‘Dallas Borough would receive
less coverage for more money.”
Dr. Hugo Mailey, director of the Institute of
Regional Affairs at Wilkes College and coordinator
of efforts to form a joint Back Mountain police
force, disagrees sharply with Mr. Hartman’s
views.
“The fact of the matter,” Dr. Mailey pointed
out to The Dallas Post recently, ‘is that Dallas
Borough would be paying less money than it is
currently paying for its own police operations and
receiving more police protection. Instead of $19,600
budgeted in 1969 by Dallas Borough for police
services, the cost of police service under a joint
force would be only $14,290.40.” ;
The lower figure, he said, is based on a formula
which would apportion combined police ex-
penditures for a merged police department on a
basis of 50 percent population and 50 percent
assessed valuation. The formula was agreed upon
by representatives of the three communities at an
earlier meeting, Dr. Mailey said.
“If any community stands to gain in this
merger,”’ Dr. Mailey added, ‘it’s Dallas Borough.”
When asked if he was opposed to a merged
police force, Mr. Berti said that he would ‘rather
not say until after a police committee meeting”
scheduled for last night. Earlier this year,
however, Mr. Berti visited The Dallas Post and
(continued on PAGE SIX)
long Natona strike predicted
If the scuttlebutt making the rounds among
Natona picketers is to be believed, the strike at the
Dallas plant will be a long one. This was the senti-
ment expressed by several Natona workers with
whom The Dallas Post spoke recently, with one
picketer suggesting that ‘‘as long as we're out now
we'll stay out and get what we want.”
The strike began May 23 following the collapse
of negotiation talks between Natona’s new union,
the Textile Workers Union of America, and
Natona’s management. According to Robert
Graham, plant manager, midnight of May 22 had
been set by Natona employees as the deadline for a_
newiontract with the textile company atter a union
meeting at the Gate of Heaven Church May 16.
When a final offer from management was turned
down at an evening meeting May 22, Mr. Graham
said, no union employees reported for work and
picketers with placards reading “No contract, no
wo” lined the drive to the plant shortly after noon
on May 23.
The previous labor contract was held by the
Michigan balloon
lands in Dallas
A little bit of Michigan landed in Dallas last
week in the form of a helium filled balloon that
drifted over 600 miles across the continental United
States and then settled in the quiet back yard of the
Robert Cartier home on Upper Demunds Road.
Carol Cartier 12, and her sister Barbara 9,
found the dark green balloon about 7 p.m., May 28,
laying on the ground behind their house. Inside was
a note ‘Visit Beautiful Michigan. Released May 23,
find send to Mrs. Duane Miller, Route 2, Hast-
ings, Michigan.”
The two sisters, both students at Gate of
Heaven School, excitedly told their parents, Mr.
and Mrs. Robert Cartier, and their four sisters and
one@¥ other about their incredible discovery. The
girls themselves, sat down and wrote an answer
“Dear Mrs. Miller, We found your balloon on the
ground in our back yard May 28, 1970. We live in
(continued on PAGE THREE)
United Textile Workers Union following a power-
grab Nov. 8, 1969, that many employees considered
illegal. When the contract expired Feb. 23, a
scramble ensued among several unions jockeying
for position as bargaining agent for Natona’s
workers. The question was settled by a National
Labor Relations Board election held March 5 which
resulted in a runaway victory for TWUA with 147
votes. Other contenders in the election were the
Communications Workers of America, 81 votes; the
UTW, 26 votes; and District 50 of the Mine Workers
Union, 10 votes.
In addition to the 250 textile workers, the strike .
is being supported by teamsters employed at the
Dallas plant. According to one member of the
TWUA, the teamsters’ support “was guaranteed
because we observed their picket lines when they
were out on strike a year ago January.”
Although representatives of both management
and the TWUA have agreed not to discuss terms of
contract negotiation with the press, The Dallas
Post learned that wording of the contract was
nearly completed before the talks were discon-
tinued. The impasse which finally disrupted the
talks resulted from an inability of management and
labor to come to terms on ‘‘the economics of the
contract and certain fringe benefits pertaining to
these same economics.” Additionally, another
Natona employee stated that ‘‘out International
(union) feels that we are underpaid and is trying to
get us up to minimum national standards.”
The picket line is being maintained by striking
workers in four hour shifts, 24 hours a day. Follow-
ing the first two weeks of picketing, the TWUA will
pay picketers $12 per week. Back pay for the
strikers—including pay for the Memorial Day
holiday—will be among the issues TWUA repre-
senatives will bring to the bargaining table when
talks resume, one picketer said. No date has yet
been set for resumption of talks.
Chief negotiator for Natona is Gerald L. Butler,
director of personnel and industrial relations of
Native Laces and Textiles Co. The TWUA’s bar-
gaining force is headed by the union’s assistant re-
gional director, Joseph Coponi.
‘mini-recession’ hits
a by J. R. Freeman
+
With predictions of doom running rampant
over the American economy, while the stock
market slid to the lowest point since the 1929 crash,
Northeastern Newspapers Inc. went in search of a
depression in the Luzerne-Lackawanna- County
area this week, but found no more than perhaps a
“mini-recession.’’
During interviews with bankers, labor
analysts, retailers, industrialist, utility officials
and statisticians, NNI found a general healthy sign
for the regional economy with the indication that if
indeed the economic prosperity of the area is to lag
in coming months, it would probably be because of
national trends more than because of anything
within the two-county metropolitan region.
After all, the market is a criteria to
businessmen, big business is paying its bills slower,
the war effort in Indo-China is shaky at best, and
President Nixon appears unable to halt inflationary
spending. This could mean that small businesses
may suffer the brunt of any unstable economy first.
But all is not lost, at least not yet.
Retailer Optimistic :
A Boston Store executive, David Schooley, said
absolutely “no” when asked if he thought a
recession had hit the area. ‘I have extreme con-
fidence in our economy which we have built up on a
building block approach,” he explained to NNI.
“We have experienced no booms like other
metropolitan areas, but have steadily progressed
from a one-industry area to a multi-industry area
in the last 25 years. People are being more selec-
tive, perhaps,” Mr. Schooley conceded, ‘‘but they
have improved in paying their bills.”’ He added that
“he saw a two to three percent real growth for the
area for each of the next few years, “over and
above inflationary figures.”
Edgar Lashford, a Wilkes-Barre Chamber of
Commerce executive, said that he had seen and
i
HE
\LLAS
L
VOL. 81 NO. 22
wv
ed. group picks leader
The public has been invited to join a large
group of Back Mountain citizens at a meeting to-
night at 8 o’clock in St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, 196
N. Main St., Shavertown, to discuss plans for the
betterment of education in the Dallas School Dis-
trict.
Over 45 concerned citizens attended a meeting
last month in the Dallas American Legion Hall and
agreed to formally organize to improve the quality
of education in the public schools. A committee
appointed at the first meeting will present a slate of
officers at this meeting will present a slate of of-
OST
DALLAS, PA. THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 1970
> \\e J A Pras
“aie
College Misericordia’s stained glass window on new chapel
taken from interesting angle by Vincent Maier, assistant pro-
fessor of physics at the college.
ficers at this meeting and nominations from the
floor will also be entertained. The official title of
“The Back Mountain Association for Better Educa-
tion” will be proposed and by-laws drawn up.
report from the six member committee who met
with the Dallas School Board Director, May 17, to
discuss the proposed $2,925,00 budget for the 1970-
1971 school year. This meeting was requested in an
effort to establish better communications between
the school board and the people.
(continued on PAGE FIVE)
reater metro region
heard of some ‘‘mild signs of recession in the retail
trade.” But he hastened to add that because most
industry in Northeastern Pennsylvania is not tied
to defense work, this factor will help keep any
recession down. ‘“‘There are no big lay-offs ex-
pected anywhere in the area,” he concluded.
Employment Steady
Kenneth Jones, a labor analyst with the Bureau
of Employment Security of the Pennsylvania
Department of Labor and Industry, preferred not
to prophesy what lies ahead in terms of unemploy-
ment in the area. But he pointed to rather strong
signs that unemployment has remained stable over
a period at least since 1968.
April’s 4.2 percent unemployed, for example, in
Luzerne County, was compared by Mr. Jones with
March’s 4.6 percent and February’s 5.2 percent for
three months this year. Last year at the same time,
April showed 3.7 percent, March 4.2 percent, and
February up slightly with 4.9 percent.
In 1968, Mr. Jones said, April showed 4.1 per-
cent unemployed, March 4.1 percent arid February
4.8 percent.
Lackawanna County figures indicated about
the same sort of situation with last April showing
5.2 percent unemployed, March 6.1 percent and
February 5.4 percent. 3
As compared with 1969, the best year ever for
the entire area, the trend did not vary extensively.
In April 1969 unemployment was 4.4 percent,
March was 5 percent and February was 4.9 per-
cent, indicating only a slight increase currently.
But as one bank executive in Lackawanna County
"pointed out, these figures do not take into consider-
ation the 600 or more new jobs-that will be created
with the location of Metropolitan Life’s new South
Abington Township data processing plant, and the
new Sandvik Steel Co. plant now under construc-
tion, also in South Abington Township.
Mr. Jones said that the primary loss in employ-
(continued on PAGE THREE)
FIFTEEN CENTS
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