A Greenstreet News Co. Publication Section B The Wyoming Valley, still recovering from the 1972 flood, will be hit harder by the heating oil crisis than most areas of the country, according to government officials and oil distributors. And most predict the stiuation will get worse before it gets better. ~ The nationwide crisis will have a greater impact here, most officials say, because the heating systems of many homes destroyed in the flood have been converted from coal to oil. And since most allocation quotas are based on oil use before June, 1972, all Wyoming crunch. The problem here is compounded by the fact that nearly 7,000 families who lost their homes in the flood are living in poorly-insulated mobile homes, most of which require oil heat. One aspect of the shortage on which almost everyone agrees is that govern- ment’s attempts to control the crisis so far hide been unproductive. Blanket controls, it seems, cause inequities, and the more centralized the A Syracuse, N.Y., area resident gave form of government before members of the Luzerne County Government Study Commission, Dec. 11. John H. Mulroy has served as an executive for Onondaga County, N.Y., since the first day of 1962, when the county began implementing their, new home-rule charteresigned systd@n of government. The Luzerne County Study Commis- cou for changing the existing form of county government, sought to find the ad- vantages and disadvantages of the home rule government that was designed for Mulroy ~ ficers to help him explain the workings of _ his county’s administrative, legislative, and judicial functioning. As with the type of government the study commission seems to favor for Luzerne County, Onodaga County has a the county executive; the legislative, 24 representative supervisors, ih from districts of equal population. Mr. Mulroy added that he believed that the legislature would function better under 16 to 18 supervisors, rather than the 24. The New York county government used to be in the hands of 38 supervisors, re- neighboring towns and villages. Luzerne “ers, elected at large. ~ Mr. Mulroy, who was appointed to a one-year term at the start of 1962, elected to a five-year term at the start of 1963, and re-elected to four-year terms at the beginning of 1968 and 1972, told the com- mission that the ‘‘key to a good charter is a strong executive, hopefully elected.” He gave the opinion that the selectively appointed county executive, although usually better educated for the position, controls, the more widespread the inequi- ties. William Wilcox, Pennsylvania state (TREE — You're Invited! The staff and employees of the - Dallas Post and Greenstreet News Co. will entertain the newspapers’ ~ friends, neighbors and ' business associates during the traditional Yuletide open house at the Dallas Post Building, 41 Lehman Ave., the firm’s officers have announced. In addition to wishing the com- munity at large a happy and pros- perous season, the staff and management extend this invitation to tour the facilities and meet em- ployees Friday, Dec. 28, from 2 to 5 p.m. Snacks and beverages will be provided. \_ ot is usually not a native of the area, can be easily ousted by an unfriendly legislature and tends to sometimes leave a county al- most helpless, by accepting a higher-pay- ing position elsewhere: Asked if the fact that all legislators are selected from districts, with none elected at large, creates problems of pro- vincialism in that segment of govern- ment, Mr. Mulroy said that they haven't experienced many such problems, but admitted that a ‘‘city versus the rest of the county problem?’ does develop on some issues. The study commissioners, who have been considering about cutting back on the number of elected offices existing in the Luzerne County Court House, asked the Onondaga executive about his county’s method of dealing with court- house functions. He explained that an elected county clerk is responsible for the recording of deeds, mortgages and wills, as well as civil and criminal cases and “60 or 70’ other things that the county re- quires records of. An elected sheriff is responsible for criminal work, for civil legal duties, in- cluding the serving of papers, and is in charge of the county jail. The two remaining elected positions in Onondaga County government are the district attorney and a controller. Mr. Mulroy emphasized the centralized efficiency that a good county government can provide. The New York county went from a 1962 budget of $31 million to a 1974 budget of $174 million. Local monies are raised from a property tax and a three percent provide $40 milliori, however, as a strong county aid-seeking program has resulted in federal and state monies to meet the ambitious budget. Mr. Mulroy gave the opinion that his job and that of the other elected officials should be full time positions. by Larry Hertz The president of one of Wilkes-Barre’s largest independent trucking companies said this week he sympathizes with the problems his fellow owner-operators are facing but denounced the violent methods being employed by some of them to pro- test their predicament. Robert Wood of Friedman Express, whose 500 trucks carry freight between Sunbury and Long Island, said price- gouging of diesel fuel is “‘widespread’’ ~ but ‘“‘violence won't solve anything.” Relatively peaceful earlier this month have evolved into vio- lence on major truck routes throughout the country. Several outbreaks occurred Northeastern Pennsylvania as truckers trying to organize a nationwide shutdown of truck traffic hurled bricks and other objects at driver who refused to stop their rigs. The truckers are protesting high fuel prices, reduced fuel allocations and lower speed limits. Mr. Wood said that to his knowledge none of his drivers had taken part in any of the blockades or the attempted shut- down, and none so bar have been victims He added, however, that many of his truckers are being denied fuel at truck S { : py Sle i; . : 6 nod on D A LR UC) cials in Dunmore. is working with a complicated set of Federal regulations, themselves under- going ‘interpretation’ and revision, in a complex marketing situation, with an ab- sence of basic statistical data. On this shaky and uncertain base we are trying to establish an administrative and organizational mechanism to assist the people of Pennsylvania. Frankly, I doubt that any government has faced a more difficult problem of this type since the 0H.” Mr. Wilcox said the state and federal governments will try to set up a number of local allocation boards to provide in- formation (on problems unique to a specific area) to the Federal Energy Administration. But he noted that it has not been decided whether these boards will be set up on a county or regional (several counties for each board) basis. Luzerne County officials have been asked to state their preference on this question, but to date no decision has been made. The county commissioners were expected to make such a recommen- dation at a meeting yesterday (Dec. 19). Edward Heiselberg, executive director of the Luzerne County Planning Commis- sion, emphasized last week that Wyoming Valley would best be served if local allocation boards were set up in each county, rather than on a regional basis. “That way,” Mr. Heiselberg explained, “we could better articulate the unique situation in the Wyoming Valley. If regional boards were set up, our problem may not be given as much attention.” Mr. Heiselberg said the present plan (to provide the area with more heating oil) is to allocate it from a ‘10 percent state reserve.” But Mr. Wilcox noted last week that ‘‘the well-publicized state reserve is largely illusory and of undeter- mined amount at any moment in time. It is based on the middle distillate fuel (such as heating oil) amounts held by the wholesale purchasers at that moment in time, but, unfortunately, there is as yet no .adequate record to disclose that amount and in some cases the amount could conceivably be zero.” On the federal level, U. S. Sen. Hugh Scott (R-Pa.) said last week that he has reiterated a request to William Simon, President Nixon’s chief energy advisor, that an investigation into fuel allocation here be undertaken. Sen. Scott said that he had made the same request to John Love, Nixon's former energy chief, in late November, but the request came days before Mr. Love was fired. He said, however, that he is optimistic that the federal government will agree with his proposal and that it will be acted upon ‘“‘within a few days.’”’ Many local fuel oil distributors, however, view government efforts to solve the problem here with skepticism. Some, in fact, say any and all govern- ment controls are counterproductive. George Butler, vice president of Mahaffey Oil Co., Luzerne, said his com- pany is referring all new requests for heating oil to the state allocation board. ‘““The information is put into a com- puter,”” Mr. Butler explained, “which refers the caller to a dealer in his area who has the necessary fuel.” The system appears sound in theory, but its actual effectiveness is question- able, Mr. Butler said. “Most dealers try to comply with the state requests,”’ he said, ‘‘but criteria change so often that it’s impossible. There is supposed to be a new system in effect on Dec. 27, and we’re supposed to have filed special forms with the Federal Government by now. But the government hasn’t printed the forms yet.” A fairer and simpler procedure, Mr. Butler believes, would be for the govern- ment to ‘‘equalize allocations among the 30 major oil producers instead of among 10,000 distributors. “Bring all the refineries to the same level and. (the government would) only have to deal with 30 people instead of 10,000,” Mr. Butler suggested, “But I guess this would be unpopular with the ~major oil companies.’’ “The more the government tries to use iis power,” Mr. Butler continued, “the by Larry Hertz The Luzerne County Recreation Authority has scrapped plans to erect an air-supported ‘‘bubble’’ at the Levy Play- ground in Kingston because of the antici- pated shortage of heating oil. But the authority is going ahead with plans to ex- pand recreation programs in Kingston, Dallas and Mountaintop. George Partilla, executive director, said last week that the authority had planned to use a $65,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Community Affairs to purchase the air bubble, to be used as a year-round recreation facility at the Levy Playground. “But with the escalation of fuel costs and the growing shortage of fuel we de- cided not to put it up,”’” Mr. Partilla said. A county-financed recreation program is planned at the Kingston National Guard Armory beginning in January, however, and the authority plans to use part of the funds from the state grant for expansion of facilities there, Mr. Partilla said. Similar programs already are under- way at the West Pittston and Nanticoke armories, Mr. Partilla noted, and in addi- tion to the Kingston program, the author- ity plans to provide recreation in the Dallas and Mountaintop areas early in 1974. “We have met with school officials in the Dallas area to co-ordinate the use of school facilities for our programs,’ Mr. Partilla said, ‘‘and we’ll meet with local government officials after the first of the year.’ Activities at the Kingston armory and at sites (still to be determined) in Dallas and Mountaintop will include basketball, volleyball, adult physical fitness, arts and crafts ‘‘and almost anything else the people in the local communities want,” Mr. Partilla said: “We have the staff and, to a limited ex- tent, the funding, to provide (recreation) programs for people throughout the county,” he noted. ‘‘All we have to do is meet with local authorities, find out what the people want and, within limits, we can provide it.” Mr. Partilla explained that he is wait- ing until January to meet with local offi- cials in Dallas and Mountaintop because “municipal governments re-organize at that time and new appointments will be made to local recreation committees.” by Russ Williams Local and State bankers have express- ed concern over a recent decision by a federal court which declared most banks’ repossession policies unconstitutional. In his ruling Nov. 8, Judge Louis Bechtle of U.S. District Court, Eastern Pennsylvania District, declared that a citizen has a right to a court hearing be- fore his auto can be repossessed because of alleged default on loan payments. Although the Eastern District Court does not have jurisdiction in this area (the Scranton-Wilkes-Barre area is in the Middle District) local bankers fear that the same decision would be rendered here if a test case developed. The bankers claim the decision could result in a vast revision of bank loan pro- easily, require higher down payments and be much more readily refused. Legal services lawyers argue, how- ever, that the banks will be hurt some- what by the decision, but not to the extent that it would outweigh the right of an in- dividual to have a court hearing before his automobile can be repossessed. The repossession laws were being abused be- fore this decision, they claim. Some of the several thousand indepen- dent automobile-repossession agents licensed by the state have been repos- sessing cars in the small hours of the morning, because the state law allows for repossessions without a hearing only where they are executed ‘‘peacefully’’. The possessor of the car is not notified excited individual calls to report that his car has been stolen. Carl Kasper, installment loan head at the United Penn Bank, Wilkes--Barre, asserts that advantage will be now taken of Judge Bechtle’s ruling, which he terms “a poor decision.” He said that the banks that face this ruling will have to look out for the individual who would take advan- tage of the period of the banks going through the courts to recover their cars, to “beat them up, hide them or leave town with them.” He added that the decision coes not necessarily apply to automobiles, ‘it could apply to anything’’, he said. Mr. Kasper asserts that the car is really the bank’s car, not the driver’s, be- cause ‘‘you don’t own something until you've paid for it.” In the past, he said, the banks extended credit to almost. always get their car back.” Now, with this new ruling requiring that the banks go through expensive court procedures to make a repossession for non-payment, the loan executive ar- gues, the bank’s operating procedures will have to be seriously changed. If the decision spread to his banking district, Mr. Kasper predicts that there could be ‘‘a very telling effect on our business and the availability of credit.” Down payments would no doubt be raised and loan requirements would get tough- er, he indicated. ‘Perhaps only ‘A’ and maybe ‘B’ credit risks would be given loans...to protect our own interests,’”’ he said. FO a n U0. Wal mi » Yla »
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers