IORA, day afternoon. Other principals in the on-the- air ceremonies included, left to right: campus director George Bierly; Roy Morgan, general manager of WILK radio and part time PSU broadcasting instructor; WPSI station mana- ger student Clifton Eshbach; and Dr. Oswald. The new station is located on the FM dial at 89.1. by Kurt Weidner - Grants totaling about $600,000 are being with®eld from the Swoyersville Sewer Authority by the Economic Development Administration and Housing and Urban Development primarily because four men have claimed wage violations under the Davis-Bacon Act. As of an adjourned meeting Monday night the authority had about $275,000 in its accounts with approved claims totaling around $400,000, most of it due Insana Construction Co., prime contrac- tors on the job. The dispute involves four truck drivers for the: Nutche Trucking Co., Bennett Street, Luzerne. John Nutche Jr., who owns the firm, said he did not pay his men the prevailing rate because he was not a sub-contractor. He said neither the contractor nor the engineers told him he had t® pay his men the prevailing rate. ,Sp@esmen at the U.S. Labor Depart- ment office in Wilkes-Barre said the Davis-Bacon Act states all persons working on Federal jobs must be paid the preying rate plus time and a half after each eight hours of work. The prevailing rate is the rate the contractor agrees to pay at the start of the job. Lawyers for the Insana Co. also maintain that Nutche was a material hauler and not a sub-contractor. But the Labor Department spokesmen said it was the prime contractor’s responsibility to post the prevailing rates on a bulletin board at the job site and to inform all companies working for him of the prevailing rates - material haulers in- cluded. The Insana Co. is presently holding about $50,000 of Mr. Nutche’s money until the problem is cleared up. Nutche started on the job last December and pulled out several weeks ago. Ron Black, spokesman for Insana, said his pany had asked Mr. Nutche for his roll records but Mr. Nutche had refused to supply them. He felt it was unfair of HUD to cut off all grants. par- ticularly since he had Mr. Nutche’s $50,000 and wasn’t about to give it to him No Recount Seen Likely On Charters lh uzerne County Board of Elections. official tabulation for the Kingston Borough Home Rule Charter showed the charter winning 2,517 to 2,342. News re- ports had indicated the charter won by a mere 80 votes. The official tabulation was made Fri- day at the Luzerne County Court House. Chester Kurkowski of the board of elec- tions was in charge. The final counting started at 9 a.m. and was completed by 12:30 p.m. Daniel F. Ripa, director of the Luzerne County Board of Elections, said there was vir- tually no possibility anyone would chal- lenge the Kingston Borough charter count. A recount would have to be called within seven days after the final tally is posted. The board hires official counters from throughout the county from both political district by district. until the dispute was settled. The engineers are supposed to keep copies of all payroll records but all they have are Insana’s records. Accordingly, they should have kept records of all Evans Asphalt workers, and anyone else who ever worked on the job. North- eastern spokesmen said this simply was not feasible. continued on Page 10 AA TR TUN VOL. 85 NO. 46 The Wilkes-Barre office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban De- velopment has received 1300 checks to cover a retroactive pay increase granted in January 1973, and the agency is having a hard time trying to locate some of their former employees. According to John Hylton, HUD’s Assistant Director for Administration, all Federal employees who were working between October, 1972 and Jan. 7, 1973, are entitled to a retroactive increase for that period of time. The reason is that congress passed a Federal employee pay raise late in 1972, making it retroactive to October 1. Presi- dent Nixon impounded the funds, but congress eventually pried the money loose and HUD received their checks . by Kurt Weidner Wilkes-F ~+ve. City Council, at last Thursday’s meeting, took under. advise- ment a batch of recommendations from the Citizens Choice Coalition on pro- cedures they think the city should follow in spending roughly $24 million in Federal block grants over the next three years. Gives Away Mercy Vehicle Kingston Township Ambulance Assoc- iation has donated their old ambulance to the Kunkle Fire Company. The vehicle was turned over to Kunkle officials at a special ceremony Nov. 8 at the fire hall. Present for Kingston Township were Ed Carey, president; Nancy Buss, auxili- ary president; Allan Nichols, secretary- treasurer; E.J. Brown, captain and vice president. Receiving the ambulance in behalf of Kunkle were Ted King, fire company president; Conrad Higgins, vice president; Jack Dodson, fire chief. continued on Page 14 The funds, which will total about $8 million per year-“o «ext three years, are available because the Federal government eliminated programs such as Open Spaces and Urban Renewal. H. Meritt Hughes, spokesman for the coalition, said the group is keeping an eye on council to see what kind of committee council sets up to advise them on how to spend the funds. They want council to pick a broad base of representatives from each section of the city. ‘“We want to see a sufficient number of people on the advisory committee so there is adequate representation from all sectors of the community,”” Mr. Hughes said. continued on Page 24 about six weeks ago. HUD’s problem now is that many of the people who worked for them during that period have moved without leaving a for- warding address. Mr. Hylton has three employees working on tracking the people down, but they have their regular payrolls to make out and the three have been working on the job when they can get the time. Working alphabetically, they are now down to ‘““T,”” and have mailed out about 800 checks. should mail a note to HUD listing their name, present address, and social secur- ity number. The note should be sent to HUD Disast- er Field Office, Attention Personnel Pay- 18701. Harveys Lake Borough Council, at last Thursday’s meeting, presidentFred Merrill’s action termina- ting a tax collection contract with the Don Wilkinson Agency. Council also ap- pointed a three-member zoning board. The three people picked for the zoning board and their terms of office are: Ben Orfaly, Outlet Section, a two year term; Andrea Fulton, Sandy Beach, three year term; and Joseph Ruotolo, Point Breeze, four year term: In a letter to council, Rosenn Jenkins and Greenwald, Wilkes-Barre attorneys for the Don Wilkinson Agency, main- tained a telegram received Nov. 2 from council president Fred Merrill informing the agency their contract was to be dis- continued at the end of December was not sufficient notice. They also said the ac- tion violated the Sunshine Act which states all decisions that affect the public must be made at a public meeting. The issue of the borough using one agency to collect its taxes and the school board another was brought up at the William Thomas Orr, 48, who died in a family suicide pact along with his 13-year old daughter in the New Mexico wilderness near Almagordo last week, taught at College Misericordia during the second semester in 1964-65. Mr. Orr taught a course in speech and ~ Bulletin At press time Tuesday, the Dallas Post learned from unconfirmed re- ports that the Back Mountain por- tion of the proposed North Cross Valley Expressway may be deferred for another six years. The project, long overdue, has re- mained a high priority with PennDot for years, and portions of the major artery are in construction stages. The new highway would link the Back Mountain area with Interstate 81 near the Veterans Hospital in Wil- kes-Barre. Sources close to the planning of the greater highway network in Northeastern Pennsylvania told the Post that during a Tuesday meeting in Wilkes-Barre’s Gus Genetti Hotel, representatives of the Scranton and Wilkes-Barre and Hazleton Cham- bers of Commerce, the Wyoming Valley and Scranton Motor Clubs, PennDOT, and the Luzerne County Planning Commission’ discussed — shuffling highway priorities in the two-county area, and placing at least the Back Mountain portion of the North Cross Valley Expressway in less than a high priority status. Further discussion of the express- way is on the agenda of a meeting scheduled today (Wednesday) at the Treadway Inn, Wilkes-Barre. Following a meeting of the Pennsyl- vania Transportation Commission at 10 a.m., the Commission will meet with county commissioners, county planning directors, and Chambers of Commerce representatives from 12:15 to 3 p:m. According to news from the Economic Development Council of Northeastern Pennsylvania, the Commission is in the area at the invitation of the EDCNP and David Schooley, regional representative on the Transportation Commission, which is responsible for establishing highway priorities throughout the Commonwealth. one in general psychology. He claimed to have received his doctorate in psychology from the University of Heidelberg, Germany, in 1957 but college officials determined otherwise and Mr. Orr was let go after one semester. One college official said Mr. Orr once claimed to be a professional baseball player among other things. ‘He was something akin to The Great Imposter, only not very good at it,’’ the official said. Mr. Orr, his wife Lillian, 44, their three sons, William Jr., 12, Joseph, 11, Gregory, 7, and their daughter Annette, 13, left their home in Exeter last May and took to the road to live in a van. The Orr family had lived at 105 Belles St., Exeter. After they left in May on what neighbors described as a religious pilgrimage, their home was discovered in livable condition with food in the refrigerator and clothes in‘ the closet. Neighbors found nothing unusual about this; they said the family had made pilgrimages in the past, sometimes lasting as long as a year. Last Wednesday afternoon a rancher had been parked in the same spot for six or seven days. Other Otero County residents saw the woman and boys in and around the van and thought they were camping. The rancher found Mr. Orr dead in the driver’s seat. His daughter was wrapped in a blanket in the rear of the van. Both had died of carbon monoxide poisoning from a burning bag of charcoal on the front seat. continued on Page 13 HT { UE BERR a Calvin McHose. At that time he recommended council and the school board use the same collector because some residents were getting delinquent notices from one agency when their employers had paid all their taxes to the other. mendation at that time, except to refer the matter Lo the finance committee. Bul even if it had the contract could not have vote. to expire, the contract would auto- Even so, the telegram arrived on Nov. he had not polled council to find out their continued on Page 13 Guild Strike Striking Newspaper Guild workers at the Wilkes-Barre Publishing Co. will meet with state mediator Anthony An- dreoli and company spokesmen this Thursday at 10 a.m. in the Gus Genetti Hotel, Wilkes-Barre. According to spokesmen at strike head- bring some reporters salaries up to $291 a week. Secretaries would get something less than the company-stated figure of $170 per week. A. DeWitt Smith, vice president of the Wilkes-Barre Publishing Co., stated the latest company offer would push reporters salaries to better than $300 per week. without a contract since Dec. 1, 1973. In- ternational Typographical Union em- ployees have worked without a contrac since last month. : Wages are the only issue to be resolved at this time. Spokesmen at strike head- quarters claim the latest company offer is inconsistent with the present rise in the cost of living. Management officials of the Publishing Company met last Friday with leaders of the mechanical union. According to reports, the company issued statements showing the company was in a declining financial position. Company officials refused comment on the meeting as did mechanical union representatives. Some mechanical union workers tried strike began. They were kept out by Guild building.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers