fo VOL. 86 NO. 4 DALLAS, PA. solicitor Atty. John E. Morris, III, has begun his new duties as solicitor of Franklin Township. Morrissucceeds Atty. James Reinert of Trucksville, who served as township solicitor the past three years. Morris is the son of Atty. and Mrs. John E. Morris, Forty Fort. He graduated from Wyoming Seminary and Brown University, Providence, R.I. He completed studies for his law degree at Dickinson University Law School, i entering the United States Air Yorce. While serving in the USAF in Thailand during the Viet- namese , he was attached to the office of {i® Judge Advocate General where he served for three years in the Foreign Claims Settlement Com- mission. He was honorably discharged with the rank of Captain. He is married to the former Caire Palchanis of Kingston. They have a son, John. Morris has law offices in the Blue Cross Building, S. Franklin St., Wilkes- Barre. With him in the law firm are his father, Atty. John E. Morris, II, and Atty. Stephen B. Killian. The new solicitor is active in many ‘civic endeavors. He is a currently serving as a director of Nesbitt Hospital and the Oaklawn Cemetery Association. He is a member of the board of directors of the Central YMCA, Wilkes-Barre, a past com- mander of American Legion Post 132, ee and has served as a director "of Greater Wilkes-Barre Kiwanis Club. In 1972, he served as chairman of the fund-raising drive of the Luzerne County Cancer Society. Blood drive Back Mountain residents displayed a concern for persons in need donating 232 pints of ‘blood to the Red Cross Bloodmobile, Feb. 4th. The number far surpassed the given quota. Twenty people were deferred. Dozens of area volunteers, directed by Mrs. Robert Cartier, co-ordinator, assisted the drive while employees of Commorswealth Telephone Company and members of several local churches put the drive over the top. Gate of Heaven Roman Catholic Church, Dallas, host parish; St. Francis Cabrini Roman Catholic Franklin supervisors 1 re appoint Bartholomew Richard Bartholomew was reap- pointed Franklin Township police chief at the recent meeting of Franklin Township Supervisors. He has served in that capacity since 1967. Supervisors also renamed the following, who will serve as special officers on a per diem basis: Nelson Dymond, Orange; Daniel Sekera and Richard Jatkowski, both of the Car- verton section of the township. Discussions on ‘‘change order’’ problems with Contractor Louis Pugh, Jr. and the feasibility of sewering the ‘“illegal’’ residents of boat houses encompassed the main points of contention at a meeting of the Harvey's Lake Sewer Authority Monday night in The public meeting, chaired by Supervisor George Alles, did not erupt into the heated discussions until after an hour of correspondence was read by the sceretary, Albert Gulitus. The correspondence, although containing some present, was mostly between Pugh, the authority and the authorities engineers, Glace and Glace. Alles asked comment on the letters from Earl Mummert, a representative of the engineering firm. Many of the persons attending left upon hearing their letters discussed or answered. Tom Cadawalder asked the super- visor if it would be possible to obtain the $800,000 estimated as necessary to complete the sewering project. The supervisors said no one knows how much anything is going to cost. Cadawalder’s answer did not come 52540 although, until the verbal battle ensued between Louis Pugh, Jr. and the supervisors, with Alles doing most of the supervisor's talking. Pugh said he has not received any satisfaction on ‘‘change order’ payment requests submitted to the supervisors. Alles answered that change orders must be in the form of formal requisitions, submitted to the engineers who would in turn advise the Sewer Authority. The argument con- tinued until Solicitor Donald McFadden joined the argument termed Pugh’s letters ‘ridiculous’ and calling for an end to the discussion. McFadden again told Pugh to submit formal change order requisitions to the engineers explaining that the super- visors themselves are not engineers and cannot make qualified decisions on such matters. Pugh asked permission to begin work on one of the proposed sites the following morning. Alles answered that Pugh had neither the ability or the material to begin. Pugh replied that the site was not prepared for him by the supervisors. The end result of the discussion was Pugh’s decision to ‘‘take his chances in court”. Telling Mec- Fadden he would hear from his lawyers in the morning. The problem of sewering the residents of the boat houses on the Lake was brought ot the discussion by Bud Hoblak, former council president who asked the superviosrs not to put in the hookups to the boathouses until the legality of such an action was discussed with the state attorney general. Alles explained the difficulty in getting an answer from the attorney general and expressed the fear it would take months. He said the sewering might be completed and the road resurfaced before a decision could be reached. Alles contended it best to put the systems in with the rest. Hoblak contended that sewering the “illegal” residents might set precedent to allow them to stay, or more to move into boathouses. Discussion was if this sort of ten- tative approval should be granted the residents of the boat houses, despite the illegality of Pennsylvania residents living over water ways, or if it would Continued on Page 3 Feb. 21-23. Dallas Borough Tax Collector Thomas E. Reese announced this week that property tax or rent refund claim forms for 1974 are now available in his office for calimants who qualify. Reese said the forms are available to all persons age 65 or older as of Dec. 31, 1974; the permanently disabled; widows or widowers aged 50-65 as of Dec. 31, 1974 or persons married to a spouse age 65 or over as of Dec. 31, 1974. The form also requires that claimants are property owners or renters and either status must be supported by proof of either a property tax receipt or rent receipt. Reese said his office at 68 Main St., Dallas, is open daily from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. BY TERRY BONIFANTI Local pharmacists have voiced ob- jections to the new PAID Prescription program initiated for welfare recipients by the state government which took effect this month. Some pharmacists have refused to sign into the program at all, while others ex- press the fear that should the situation not change, they too will be leaving the program despite a recent Federal Court consent, decree permitting them to participate until March without signing a contract. Many would rather see the reinstitution of the old program. Under the old program, druggists were asked to fill prescriptions of up to them cost and one-half. This provided the druggists with an approximate 33 percent mark-up, a figure they feel necessary to allow them to remain in business. The new program,. with PAID Prescription, Inc. of California pays prescriptions of up to $15. The druggist is only reimbursed $1.85 over cost, however. This provides the druggists only an approximate 16 percent overall markup, according to Leonard Bolesta, pharmacist at the Rea and Derrick drug store in Dallas. At the first implementation of the program, some of the local druggists indicated that receiving a volume of the $1.85 low-priced prescriptions would make up for the small mark-up received. Bolesta said this idea was defeated by a PAID order to allow doctors to prescribe large quantities for drugs to be used over a long period of time. Bolesta said he has filled prescriptions for drugs that will last over two yerrs. The most frequent complaint in regard to the mechanics of the program is the deluge of paperwork placed on the druggist. Dominick Fino, phar- macist at Fino’s Drug Store in Dallas, counted 16 or 17 entrieswhich must be filled out on the form for the new program as opposed to six seven on the ld forms. A prescription that takes two or three minutes to fill may be followed hy six or seven minutes of paper work. And although Fino states that stores who do a large volume of business, such as his, do.come out fairly even with the old program at the end of the month, they are not compensated for the extra paperwork, and in some cases, the extra employees needed to complete it. The program also does not include compensation for containers. Druggists Fino and Bolesta have placed in- dividual prices on vials and bottles from 10 to 30 cents. John Hughes, pharmacist at the Stapinski Walgreen Agnecy Drugs on Dallas, shared Fino’s contempt for the forms and paper work involved in the new program, terming it ‘‘ridiculous’’. While his store is filling prescriptions under the program, he agreed with the other druggists that there is much room for improvement in the program, Peace, Epsicopal Church, Dallas; Carverton, Mt. Zion, Orange and Dallas United Methodist Churches; Trinity United Presbyterian; Centermoreland Methodist; Dymond Hollow and East Dallas Methodist, Centermoreland Baptist, Dallas Baptist, and Dallas Community Christian were counted among the donors: The next visit of the Bloodmobile to the Back Mountain area will be on May 29th at the Lake Lehman High School. Mrs. Gordon Dawe, R.N., will serve as "Ambulance service was started in Kunkle as of Feb. 1. The ambulance will cover the same area as the fire company, Kunkle, Township, Beaumont area, Monroe Township and parts of Vernon crea. Prior to the new ambulance, Dallas Community Ambulance covered the area in Dallas Township. The fire company and community extended its thanks for the good job they did in serving the area. The Noxen and Harvey's Lake ambulances helped in covering the Beaumont area. They All of the ambulance personnel have taken first aid courses. Thirty five personnel have just finished a course at the fire hall. There are five crews which handle night calls between 7 p.m. and 8 a.m. All other calls are handled by ambulance personnel who are available at the time of the call. There are 5 on a crew. Each crew is on call for one week at a time. All personnel have been working hard in training and in the operation of the ambulance and fire equipment. Fire chief, Jack Dodson has extended his thanks to everyone for a job well done. sapecially in the area of paperwork. Even with the program designed to speed up the payments to the phar- macists, paperwork errors and com- puters not containing up-to-date price changes still result in payments arriving two months after prescription dates. This, although, an improvement over the four and five month delays under the old program is still a serious handicap to the smaller pharmacies. The small independent pharmacist will also be the one who suffers the most from the change in payment. The cost plus $1.85 of the PAID program is based on direct cost. In many instances to get the minimum cost from the drug Members of the Franklin Township Volunteer Firemen’s Association are sporting a new fire truck which arrived during the week. It is housed in the association’s building in Orange. The new unit, purchased for $34,000 gives the volunteer firemen’s association three pieces of fire fighting equipment. The old unit, in use since 1950, is presently housed in the garage at the former Orange Farms Dairy plant, owned by Edward Dorrance, and an auxiliary water tank unit, is housed in the same building with the new unit. The new fire truck is of the latest warehouses, it is necessary ‘to have minimum orders of $125 to $200. Although this would be a small order for a chain store buyer to fill, the small independent pharmacist often does not meet this minimum . Although Bolesta now works in a chain store situation he stated that were he the owner of his own small store, he too would find it hard to be able to compete under the PAID program. While all the' local pharmacists contacted voiced opposition to the PAID program, most are participating presently and will continue to do so vith type, a combination volume and high fires and was manufactured by American Fire Apparatus Company. It is mounted on a GMC truck body. Franklin Township Volunteer Firemen’s Association is currently composed of some 50 members and serves residents of both Franklin Townshipin Luzerne County and Nor- thmoreland Township in “Wyoming County. \ : Robert Friot of Vernon, Wyoming County is serving as president of the the. hope improvements are for- thcoming. Although a one year contract the Pennsylvania General Assembly has unanimously passed a resolution calling upon Gov. Milton Shapp to delay implementation of the PAID prescription program until all con- cerned have had a chance to provide input towards a fairer welfare prescription program. The general attitude prevailing is that something must be done, the sooner the better. Because of the state’s one year contract, it may take that long. But, as druggist Hughes puts it, there may be trouble even after that. Association, ‘succeeding Mike Fuller. Other officers are vice-president, Marty Fuller; Orange; secretary, James DeRemer, Vernon; treasurer, Harold Hoover, Orange; buildings and grounds, Allan Shaver, Orange, and Robert Brown, Vernon. Robert Smith, Orange is presently serving as fire chief. He succeeded Robert Appleby of Orange. Assistant fire chiefs are Richard Love, Upper Demunds; Mike Fuller, Orange, Phil Culver, Vernon, and Jack Roberts, Orange.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers