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.