VOL. 85 NO. 12
Under Home Rule
TWENTY CENTS
Kingston Township is destined to al-
most change its system of government
completely if a report on a proposed
home rule charter study is adopted by
voters in the May primary election. And
that’s what the home rule charter com-
mission chairman John Hibbard suggest-
ed should happen when he addressed
township supervisors Wednesday night.
TiQy recommendations made by the
cominission were contained in a booklet,
2,000 copies of which will be distributed to
residents in the township prior to the
election.’
Mr. Hibbard told supervisors that the
first recommendation of the commission
was that the proposed charter be placed
on the May 21 ballot for a yes or no vote of
township residents. Secondly, he said
that the commission recommends that
the township government be changed to a
council-manager form with a board of
supervisors consisting of five members,
to be elected to four-year terms. The
township manager would be appointed by
supervisors and would serve as head of
the government.
Under the commission’s plan, the
manager would be responsible for the
hiring and supervising of all township
employees. Citizen initiative and referen-
dum to initiate legislation or withdraw it
by Kurt Weidner
Gasoline.stations in the Dallas
are in slightly better shape this month
than they were in February, according to
a polleconducted by the Dallas Post Tues-
day, th only one out of seven contacted
out of gas. Some dealers said they have
had their allotments refigured and are
getting more gas; several said they are
depeigyos on the emergency hot line
should” they run out.
Arco station operators said their gas is
so expensive that people simply aren’t
buying it.
None of the dealers polled said they
would cooperate with a planned shutdown
March 25, and none said they thought the
Federal Energy Office was doing a good
job with the new allocating system.
Rough estimates made by local station
operators indicated vast inequities in the
allocation system. Ken Martin, who was
out of gas, said he was only doing about 40
percent of the business he was a year ago. :
“I don’t know how this thing could get
any harder for me,” he said. ‘My gas
doesn’t last anytime at all. I called up on
the state hot line but there is no guar-
antee they will come through.”
DongHinkle, a Citgo dealer in Trucks-
ville, Who is getting 90 percent of the gas
he received in 1972, said he isn’t having
any trouble at all. “I’ve been able to get
just about all I need,’’ he told the Post. ‘I
cut my hours down a few times to make
sure I wouldn’t run out, but I haven’t had
much trouble getting gas. In fact, my
company just cut their price to me by
four cents a gallon.”
An Arco dealer in Shavertown, Gerard
an «0 perry uh allotment
over last year, said he can sell only 70
percent of what he sold a year ago be-
cause of the price. ‘I have more gas in
the ground than I can use. The people
aren’t buying it at these prices. Two
weeks ago Arco put their price per gallon
up four cents more than anybody else.”
Most dealers said they did not expect
the situation to get worse during April
and May. They said under the allocation
system they expect to be entitled to an in-
crease in their allotment for the peak
months.
Mr. Schmid seemed to sum up the
group’s sentiments of the FEO. ‘Once
the government gets their hands on any-
thing, they mess it up.”
In nearby Lackawanna County, a
Greenstreet News survey indicated al-
most an opposite viewpoint. ‘‘Any dealer
who doesn’t shut down is not being fair to
his customers,’ James Summa, a Dun-
more service station owner and head of
the county Pennsylvania Service Station
Dealers’ Association, said. The PSSDA
has set March 25 as the tentative date for
a statewide shutdown in hopes of obtain-
ing increased gasoline allocations and
other concessions from the FEO and the
oil companies.
Service station owners in the Abington
area north of Scranton indicated the or-
ganized shutdown may be ccademic by
Monday anyway, because they will vir-
tually be out of gas by then.
Schmid, with
is included as a provision of the charter.
It also contains a provision for a recall of
elected officials.
Mr. Hibbard noted that the major
change in the present form of govern-
ment would be that the township would
operate under its own administrative
code rather than the one set by the state.
Members of the commission were Mr.
Hibbard, chairman; William Clewell,
vice-chairman; Joseph Purcell, secre-
tary-treasurer; Ambrose Gavigan, Ed-
ward Richards (chairman of the present
board of supervisors) David Phillips and
William Pugh.
Mr. Hibbard requested that since the
commission, which had begun work on
the charter study in November of 1972,
had completed their assignment it should
now be discharged. The board of supervi-
sors unanimously voted to dismiss the
group.
The study will be submitted to the
County Board of Elections for placement
on the ballot in the primary election.
Should the township residents vote in
favor of the charter, it would become
effective in January 1976.
The Giant (Conrad Gonzalez) and his wife (Helen Rudolph) a)
prepare to go to sleep as the Harp (Kitty Chowske) plays a
lullaby in this rehearsal scene from the Misericordia Players oi
production of “Jack and the Beanstalk.” The Children’s Theatre
by Russ Williams
Testimony was completed March 13 be-
fore Luzerne County Orphans Court
. Judge Edward Lopatto in the case of
former Jackson Township police chief
Robert Cooper, charged with contempt
for allegedly making juvenile records of
the current chief, Donald J. Jones, and
constable Corey Askew, both of RD 5,
ed after Judge Lopatto hears arguments
from attorneys for both sides.
In their quasi-criminal action, Mr.
Jones and Mr. Askew attempted to prove
contempt by showing that Mr. Cooper,
while Jackson Township police chief, ac-
quired their private juvenile records and
made them public to certain individuals.
Mr. Cooper has since been relieved of his
police chief duties by township supervi-
sors (who offered him the position of
assistant chief, which he refused) and re-
placed by Mr. Jones. Mr. Cooper, in a re-
Evidence of skyrocketing building
costs was apparent when bids were
opened March 12 by the Lake-Lehman
School Board for the renovation of the
Lehman-Jackson Elementary School.
The architect’s estimate for the project,
which will convert the elementary into a
junior high school, called for expendi-
tures of $294,012;; actual bids totalled
$331,066.
Noting this discrepancy, project archi-
tect John Gregorski of the firm of Lacy,
Atherton & Davis observed that while the
higher bids were not seriously out of line
with estimated costs, ‘‘the so-called Taj
Mahal Act requires that a public hearing .
be held if the bids exceed by eight percent
the estimated costs.” The bids opened
Tuesday night were 11 percent higher
than the architect’s projected cost.
Two days after the meeting, however,
Mr. Gregorski told the Post that he had
learned that no public meeting would be
required inasmuch as the project was
“primarily renovative in nature rather
than new construction.
Apparent low bids for the project were:
General construction, Bilmar Enter-
prises—3$157,000; plumbing construction,
Hughes Corporation—$61,200; heating,
ventilating and air conditioning—$31,846;
electrical construction, Brennan Elec-
tric—$84,280.
The welcome news that the Pennsyl-
vania Gas and Water Company has once
again agreed to waive a penalty charge
levied against the school district for ex-
cessive gas usage was reported by Atty.
Charles D. Lemmond Jr. The solicitor in-
formed the board that he was assured by
a PG&W spokesman that penalties im-
posed in January and February would be
(continued on PAGE EIGHTEEN)
chief position through legal action, based
on his contention that his removal was in-
valid because supervisors gave him no
formal reason as required in the Police
Tenure Act. ;
Since the initial action by supervisors
to replace Mr. Cooper, they have voted to
and conduct unbecoming an officer,
stemming from the contempt proceed-
ings. Mr. Jones was formerly a salaried
cer of Luzerne County, first witness in the
case, told the court that he allowed then
chief Cooper to look at the private file of
Donald Jones because the chief told him
that he was investigating the patrolman
Jones had a record.”
He also told the court that Mr. Sooper
it is unlawful for a man convicted of a
felony to carry a gun.
Based on that, Mr. Adonizio said, he al-
lowed _his secretary to send a typed ver-
batim copy of the juvenile record to Mr.
Cooper. He said he had no record of any-
and he said scveral times that he remind-
ed the chief that such records should not
be ‘Passed around.’
Adonizio handed the records to him.
Atty. Joseph Gale, representing the
complainants, emphasized that juvenile
offenses are not considered criminal
offenses or felonies, and are therefore not
affected by federal gun regulations.
sonal attorney Ben Jones III, and Joe
Police Chiefs Association. Several area
police chiefs attended the two-day trial.
The county association and the Back
Mountain Policemen’s Association have
ffered support to Mr. Cooper in his at-
Jtempt to regain his former position.
' Prosecution witness Frank Elenchik, a
township supervisor, testified that he
(continued on PAGE EIGHTEEN)
Unless the state Department of En-
vironmental Resources and local vege-
table growers canreach an agreement on
new standards for migrant labor camps
within ‘“‘a matter of days,” vegetables
will be a scarce, and expensive, commod-
ity this summer. o
That sobering prediction was made last
week by Keith Eckels, Schultzville, chief
spokesman for a group of farmers who
are protesting new regulations for
migrant labor camps imposed this year
by the state. Eckels, a member of the
ciation and the Pennsylvania Farmers’
Association, will meet with state officials
in Harrisburg today in an effort to iron
out the problem. But he said it may al-
ready be too late for many farmers, who
have decided to go out of business rather
than comply with the DER directives.
The dispute, which may force 80 per-
cent of the vegetable growers in the area
out of business this year, stems from
NAR RE Ean LS
several new regulations which the DER
has established for the migrant labor
camps. The regulations affect approxim-
ately 30 farms in the area which employ
900 migrants and produce more than $3
million worth of vegetables for the North-
east, Eckels said.
The new regulations which the farmers
are protesting include:
—mandatory central heating in all
housing units in the camps;
—farmers must maintain clean bed-
ding in all housing units in the camps;
—electrical wiring must conform to the
National Electrical Code;
—camps must be ready for inspection
45 days prior to occupancy.
“We have no sympathy for operators of
‘outlaw’ camps,’ ‘those that aren’t licen-
sed by the state,”’ Eckels said. “But most
camps in the area have always complied
with state regulations, and now, all of a
sudden, the DER steps in and changes the
rules without warning.
“When the DER made its initial inspec-
tion of the camps,’”’ he explained, ‘it was
after the growing season was over and
the camps weren’t occupied. So of course,
they were run down, and many had been
buildings. But they would have been
cleaned up and repaired by next summer
before the migrants came, just as they
always were. Now they (the DER) want
prior to occupancy. That would mean the
farmer would have to work on the buil-
season. And even if the camps were
ready then, what would be the point?
They would naturally deteriorate some
before the workers came. Certainly, the
camps should be inspected, but not until
about 15 days prior to occupancy (about )
August 1) as in the past,” Eckels said.
(continued on PAGE FIFTEEN)