PAGE FOUR owner. The debris will by The Rev. Charles H. Gilbert .. We have two cats. They are nearly two years old, and we have had them ~ from kitten-hood. We wanted them to be “house cats,” trained to take care _.of all their needs on an indoor basis. = Know what that means? Cat food, Pspecially made for cats and kittens. EEven kitty litter, commercially ssprepared for house kitties; meaning to be ‘‘house broken.” if We know that a‘house-broke cat Ssometimes means house-broke - people! You get what you pay for. + We don’t want cats that live to roam _ far from this, their home sweet home. .~ Commerce takes care that such ~home-loving habits can be paid for. #They eat their cat food straight from Ge big bag, because if it were put in stheir dish, Kynarion the dog would eat Sit instead of her own dog chow which ~ Lis in her dish nearby. Sometimes for . a change of diet they go around and * eat dog chow. y= We want a cat to catch mice. They | “do that. And then they really have no | “use for a worn-out dead mouse that will not play any more! + Neither do we, but we know what to ido with such. And to make sure it’s “not abandoned in some out-of-the-way : place where we will*have to use our ~ «noses to find it, we trade the cat a can _ of nice smelly mackerel for the dead mouse. = That delicious odor also comes in *handy when Twinkletoes dashes out the door and decides to go exploring fin the wilderness or up the weeping B® willow, instead of just munching a | salad of the nearest green grass. | © Ever watch a cat? A living “illustration for over-wrought human GROSSMAN x o = w - = | 2 by Howard J. Grossman i = ; | © The Luzerne-Lackawanna | “Environmental Council, a key | %organization in the improvement of | the quality of life in Northeastern i s-Pennsylvania, needs your help. | & Lu-Lac, as itis affectionately called ~ 2by its friends, has a history of strong | Echvironmental education 3 programming involving many of the wschool districts in ~~ Northeastern 4 ; Pennsylvania. Through the ‘cooperation of the intermediate units @in the region and through the abilities of the staff and board of the «Environmental Council, Lu-Lac, has ®performed admirable services over the years. . # Originally established through the Zefforts of the Tuberculosis and Health meAssociations serving this region, the ~ HLuzerne-Lackawanna Environmental ~ ZCouncil has spent considerable time “on monitoring the environmental ~ mproblems of the region. It basically services two counties, Lackawanna Zand Luzerne, but consideration is being given to expanding the program ~ @of the Environmental Council to serve | at least one other county, Monroe, i Ewhich forms the Northeast “Pennsylvania Standard Metropolitan statistical Area. ; The most recent important work ~ @which the Environmental Council ~ mindicated is the Air Quality Index System which is being reported on by | ® the leading media in the region and - * which helps to guide actions to correct ws air quality problems in the air shed ] « which forms much of Northeastern | Pennsylvania. | ® The Environmental Council has || # offices in Scranton at 700 Vine Street 4 and in Wilkes-Barre at 63 N. Franklin 1 * Street. The Council has a technical * committee which is available to ~ % provide guidance in specialized fields + concerning environmental control. The need for the Environmental f “ Council is self-evident in a region t = which has undergone a history of = landscape scarring and little design creativity as wel ' as the ee ais a nerves. Watch a cat in relaxation. It knows how to relax and let go. It will go relaxed in your arms and let you handle it as if it were a bunch of rags and bones. But watch a cat on alert. He can come immediately alive on the slightest note of movement or unusual noise, sponsored by fear or the smell of special food, or kindled by stimulation to competitive play or racing. . My mind cannot work that fast; I seldom see all those steps involved in the change from sound sleep to quick motion. He is suddenly a highly equipped working instrument of coordinated muscles with an armory as if a battery had just been shorted or a lot of switches turned on at once. When Twinkletoes is in action on the run playing, it is fun to watch him instantly change his mind and without making any directional signal turn around in mid-air and start running in the opposite direction. I never want to run like a cat. But I wish sometimes I could make the cogwheels in my skull suddenly stop whirling and then drop down in sleep and rest as quickly and completely as he does. We never actually saw one of our cats catch a mouse. Usually Twink, but sometimes Goldenrod, suddenly appears with one in its mouth. We try to head them back to the kitchen then and shut the door, so we won’t have a wounded mouse hiding under the sofa. But only Twinkletoes has caught a bat! Three of them so far, the first one the evening after we made the environmental problems raised by mine fires, acid mine drainage and related questions. i The Environmental Council, however, needs your help. Its financial base has not allowed the Council to provide a steady flow of services to Northeastern Pennsylvania. A commitment on the part of Northeastern Pennsylvania’s organizations, community clubs, industries, labor and government to the support of the Luzerne- Lackawanna Environmental Council is of the highest priority. The whole concept of economic development and environmental ?sensitivity in a balanced process to allow the region to have the quality of fife which our residents desire is in Jeopardy without a strong and effective Environmental Council. ((Continued from P. 1) Although an answer was requested wheather or not the borough would participate by the end of the month, council members asked Chief Lyons to have Wilkes-Barre’s Captain Swim appear at the Aug. 9 council meeting to answer any questions they might have before they make a decision. Earl Brown asked if council had opening in the hall ceiling getting ready to insulate the attic. Again, we didn’t see him do it, but can imagine the dark shadow speeding through the dim twilight, then Twink going into with one swoop of an over-sized foot. He didn’t really know what to do with it, or how to handle the ‘flying mouse’ once he had it. He looked a bit bewildered when he came into the living room, the body in his mouth and the wings spread open across his face. We weren’t quite sure what to do next either! He seemed rather relieved to turn the problem over to us humans. We've all gained more experience since then, and we expect there will be more before we can get the attic closed up again. It’s hot up there! One night when I lay almost a- sleeping I saw a big black shadow swoop in silence across my ceiling. I called to Catherine, but before she could come up and get the tennis racket, she found that Twink had already made a catch of a small bat in the kitchen. Don’t know where the big one went; probably back up the black hole into the attic and out through a knothole. We don’t really mind having them swoop around outside catching in- sects on the wing with their wonderful radar to guide them, but NOT in the house. I don’t think they really like being in here either! I remember some poet, maybe it was Tennyson, writing something about ‘‘When the blackbat night has flown.” Twink cares little about poetry, but is delighted with his reward of mackerel for his bat. Growth areas such as the Back Mountain and Mountaintop in Luzerne County, the Abingtons in Lackawanna County, and much of Monroe County are in particular need of the services of such an organization. Areas which have not grown stibstantially such as the downtown centers of Northeastern Pennsylvania and in fact which have lost population; need a focal point by which design improvements can be made on the landscape. The Environmental Council with its leadership and expertise can help in this direction. Thus, the citizens of Northeastern Pennsylvania should rise to call on environmental sen- sitivity in combination with appropriate economic development and support the work of this priority organization, the Luzerne- Lackawanna Environmental Council. received information on the easement in the creek situation near Agway but Solicitor Charles Lem- mond said that to date, he has had no word from the post office. The postal service's failure to reply regarding an easement has hindered any effort to control flooding of properties in that area. Ray Carlsen, Editor and Publisher Mrs. T.M.B. Hicks, Editor Emeritus Sandie Forgue, Advertising Charlot Denmon, Editorial Virginia Hoover, Circulation Bea LaBar, Circulation Asst. Blaze Carlsen, Asst. to Publisher Susan Heller, Office and Production Olga Kostrobala, Office and Production Jane Lutz, Office and Production i Eleanor Rende, Office and Production Sally Riegel, Office and Production, Patricia Rogers, Office and Production Ray Rinaldi, Production Manager Betty Meeker, Graphics r= z [ NATIONAL NEWSPAPER | ASTOCIATION Founded 1933. Free Pras NNASUSTAINING A Key MEMBER—1977 en — rt March 3, 1889. Subscriptions--$7 per year. Telephone 675-5211 or 825-6868. POSTMASTER: Box 366, Dallas, Pa. 18612. O'CONNELL by Rep. Frank J. O'Connell During a lull in the recent budget debate I found the time to go through the mound of memoranda that seemingly accumulates every hour on my desk. After an evening of interesting reading, I'd like to share some highlights with you. So, here are some facts to file away for use at a later date: Did you know that California Governor Jerry Brown has a $3 billion budget surplus while Pennsylvania Governor Milton Shapp claims a $1 billiom deficit? Did you know that in Pennsylvania there are 333 separate State agencies, boards, departments and com- missions? Did you know that the Governor’s Mansion, which cost $2.4 million to build in 1968, remains fully furnished, operated and staffed--but Governor Shapp refuses to live there or allow it to be used for public functions? Did you know that when General Harry Meir, former commander of the Pennsylvania National Guard, pleaded guilty recently to misap- propriating Federal gasoline to make personal trips around the country in the National Guard aircraft, he became the latest in a long-line of Shapp Administration officials to be convicted or indicted on criminal charges? Did you know that the State will collect more than $450 million in additional tax revenue through growth during fiscal 1977-78? Did you know that the State Budget has doubled in size since 1971? And that salaries and fringe benefits of State employes have also doubled? Dear Editor: As you have probably read by now in your local newspapers, PennDOT has called a total halt to all bond-) financed construction included in the Twelve-Year Program for Highway Improvement. . The Department has also been forced to cut its maintenance program back by some $100 million from its original 1977-78 requests in order to work responsibly within the budget passed by the General Assembly July 7th. These are drastic steps, which will directly affect the quality of highways in your area and which threaten to undermine the economy of the entire Commonwealth. As a result of the halt in bond- financed construction starts, just as one example, we must order the furlough of up to 1,000 technical and engineering employes. Hundreds of other workers face layoff as a result of the maintenance cutbacks. The private construction industry and those businesses related to it will, of course, also feel a sharp impact from such extreme attrition. Because you have, in the past, expressed a strong interest in the Department of Transportation’s improvement programs, I felt an equally strong responsibility to explain to you the reasons for our actions, and to enlist your support in our efforts to put the Department on a strong financial working basis. In short, PennDOT simply cannot go on borrowing money for critically needed highway work without some assurance from ‘the General Assembly of having sufficient funds with which to repay such borrowed funds. And the Department can no longer expect to carry out a sound maintenance program while it must use its current available funds to pay off its gigantic debts incurred in prior years. From the mid-sixties until now, we have borrowed some 2.5 billion dollars to generate federal matching funds of more than triple that amount for our highway construction programs. These programs, such as the 1,500 mile interstate program, have provided Pennsylvanians with tremendous savings in fuel and accident costs as well as time spent traveling. At no time has the General Assembly provided specific monies to repay these loans, choosing instead to leave obligations as a preferred requirement of the Motors License fund. As a result, we now have a yearly bill of about $200 million for debt service, which by law, must be paid before we pay for anything else. In other words, before we can patch a pothole, paint a bridge, or fix the berm on a country road, we must first pay out $200 million from the money we realize from gasoline taxes and motor license fees. ; In recent years, while our debt service has soared, our expenses for materials have quadrupled in some cases, overall construction costs have doubled, and State Police Highway patrol costs have risen to $95 million annually. In the face of these snowballing costs, revenues have been declining at a steady and dismal rate. Revenue from the gasoline tax, the principal source of highway funding, was increasing at the rate of five to six percent annually prior to the oil embargo in 1973. The rate of increase has averaged only 0.2 percent annually since 1973. Moreover, the recent increase in motor license fees, which are still extremely reasonable when compared to many other states, has done little more than cover the State Police allotment. Faced with these realities, PennDOT has been tightening its belt beyond what anyone in the transportation business thought possible. Our payroll, just as one example, has been reduced by about 4,000 employes since PennDOT was formed in 1970 when it took on a vast array of new duties, including aviation and mass fransit, licensing and vehicle registration. But even with our manpower reductions--along with our efforts to find less expensive means of performing our maintenance and construction work--our costs have continued to soar, just as I am sure you have found your own household costs soaring. So we have come to the point where we can no longer continue to try to maintain the highways we have and still finance the critically important new construction which our system demands. r And that is where we are today. And in ordering severe cuts in both maintenance and construction, we have done exactly what you would have done in your own household. I am sure that if you saw the prospect of no new income, while at the same time you faced a stack of bills from charge accounts, you would immediately say: “Okay, No more charging until we find the money to cover our bills.” That is exactly what we have said: ‘No more charging until we have money to pay our debts.” So where do we go from here? That is up to the people of Pennsylvania, especially people like you who have expressed an understanding of the important role transportation plays in all of our lives. At this moment, your representatives and senators in the Did you know that as of this date approximately 50 have been either convicted or indicted for abuse of their public office? Did you know that Governor Shapp during his 6% years in office has spent more money than all other governors since World War II combined? Did you know that the State now owns 7,459 cars and if they were all parked in a single line it would stretch for more than 24 miles? These facts are enough to make you stop and think. There-will be more of these columns in the future. phrase which is apropos for “did you know...” it goes like this, “It wonders me...’ It sure does. How about you? tough questions concerning the financial future of the Department of Transportation. Most of these lawmakers are fully aware of PennDOT’s plight, and I think most of them would like to make the moves necessary to put the Department on a sound fiscal footing. But they will probably wait until they hear from you and other concerned Pennsylvanians. What they need, in fact, is permission to do what they know must be done. And I hope you will do what you can to give them that permission. If you will explain our situation to just two of your friends and ask them in turn to pass the message to two of their friends--and to their legislators we will be able to spread this important message throughout the Commonwealth in very short order. And, believe me, you will be heard in Harrisburg. But the time is now. We can’t put this important business off until tomorrow. If we are to have a solid, balanced highway program, we must have additional revenues immediately. And I am urgently enlisting your revenues a reality. Sincerely, John M. Finn, P.E. DISTRICT ENGINEER 4-0 is about what life is departed from him. assemblies, mass media or the light paint-up, mission church. family ties. the garden hose. --Ray Carlsen * N ® »
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