SRICHTON BINDERY CO.
35
JRIGHTON, 10W4 52540
to times past. (Photo by Bill Herron)
in transcription.
space available.
The annual fund drive of . the
Trucksville Volunteer Fire Company
and the . Kingston Township
Ambulance Association is underway
in the Trucksville, Bunker Hill,
Midway Manor ‘and Carverton areas
of Kingston Township.
Letters of explanation have been
mailed recently, Enclosed in the letter
are emergency phone number
stickers to be placed on telephones.
Trucksville Volunteer Fire Com-
pany - recently pourchased a new
pumper to replace its 1951 pumper.
The cost of the new pumper was ap-
proximately $40,000 of which $20,000
(as borrowed from the state.
The new pumper carries 500 gallons
of water, has special lighting
equipment and generator, air packs,
first aid equipment, a gas driven saw
capable of cutting through metal,
wood and concrete and many other
items making it a quick attack
pumper.
The Kingston Township Ambulance
Association has a committee formed
to look into the purchase of a new
ambulance at this time.
Both organizations are “keeping up
with the times’ by undating their
equipment as often as possible.
“With the continued support of the
residents of Kingston Township, we
can stay ahead of the times,” said
Charles Woolbert, chairman.
VOL.98 NO.6
by Tom Mooney
No, the Wyoming Valley area is not
in a state of war or siege, with
necessities being rationed or in short
supply and prices soaring out of sight
as the enemy closes in:
But it might as well be, for, ac-
cording to good sources, supplies of
gasoline and heating oil are adequate
for the immediate future only, and
prices can be counted on to rise
steadily for as far as anybody can see.
These pessimistic conclusions seem
inescapable on the basis of a sampling
of the views of area gasoline and fuel
oil dealers.
Frank Orloski, owner of the Orloski
Service Stations, a major gasoline
retailing operation, said that supplies
at the moment are generally ‘‘tight”’
so far as the oil firms are concerned.
He foresees not so much a shortage
of gasoline for consumers as a
‘‘tightage,” which he defines as a
pattern of temporary shortages or
delays in supply, particularly of
unleaded gas.
“This situation is generally true
nationally,” he points out, though
some other areas of the country,
located at greater distance from
refineries, will probably feel the pinch
more than we will.
Bill Spurlin, operator of the Dallas
Exxon, said that he as well foresees no
sudden and dramatic shortage,
though adding that his supplier ‘has
not told us anything yet.” He did
predict that dealers representing the
larger refiners, such as Exxon, could
others and have better supply, taking
note of one chain, holding many
stations in the area, that has repor-
tedly told its dealers to prepare for
Sunday closings. :
The home heating oil situation
appears also to be a bit shaky at the
moment. Anthony Butler, president
of Mahaffey Oil Co. in Luzerne, said
that there are ‘no problems’ right
now but that if the winter were just
beginning we would be in some supply
trouble.
“We're coming out of the heating
season now,’’ said Butler. ‘‘But as for
next fall, God only knows.”
Oil refiners, Butler continued, are
about to convert from heating oil to
by Liz Seymour
Thanks to the efforts of the
dedicated members of the Back
Mountain Wrestling: Club, the out-
standing USSR wrestling team will be
making Wilkes-Barre its first stop in
an American tour later this menth.
The Russians, who have dominated
world wrestling in recent years, will
spend a total of four days in the area.
The purpose of their visit is a
wrestling meet to be held with an all-
star American team at King’s College
on March 28th.
“We’ve been working on bringing
the Russians here since last May,”
explains Bob ‘Hislop of Trucksville,
®)e of the organizers of the event.
" “We were in some pretty stiff
competition at the beginning. Places
like Princeton, Penn State, and other
big schools all wanted the team to
come to their gyms, but in the end it
boiled down to two choices: a sports
complex in Orlando, Fla., and the
Back Mountain Wrestling Club. We
got /organized early, did our
homework, and -in the end were
chosen.”’ The Club worked through the
AAU, of which it is a member.
The Back Mountain Wrestling Club,
which was organized primarily to
promote wrestling among elementary
school age children, has a total
membership of about 300, of whom 50
or 60 are actively involved in the Club.
“When we submitted our proposal
to the AAU we emphasized our desire
to promote wrestling in this area”,
Hislop says. ‘Northeastern Penn-
sylvania is strong on collegiate-style
wrestling, but freestyle or in-
ternational-style wrestling is very
weak here. This meet will give people
a chance to see a different kind of
wrestling.”
The ways in which the two styles
differ will be explained to spectators
on the night of the meet. Hislop
characterizes international-style
wrestling as ‘100 percent wrestling’’
in which contestants have to be
wrestling at all times. Most holds are
legal, and the scoring differs sub-
stantially from that for collegiate-
style wrestling.
The names of the ten Russian team
members will not be made public until
about ten days before the meet, but it
is known that the team will be coached
by former world champion Yuri Shak-
muradov, the Soviet national coach;
he was recently outstanding coach of
the world by a group of international
world calibre coaches.
Assisting him will be Zagalov
Abdudekov, a former Olympic
champion. The Russian team will be
accompanied on its tour by an official
representative of the United States,
Richard Voliva, a silver medal winner
at the Berlin Olympics.
The American all-star team will
also have the benefit of a
distinguished coaching team, headed
by Stan Dziedzic, a world champion
wrestler. His assistants will be Dan
Gable, the only US Olympic gold
medalist in wrestling, and Bill Weick,
a national champion and coach of last
year’s Junior World and World Cup
teams. 2
The Russians will wrestle - the
Americans four times in the course of
their trans-continental tour. Since the
Americans will use those meets in
part to determine what wrestlers
should go into the World Cup cham-
pionship, the team composition may
change as the tour moves along.
The ten wrestlers for the March 28
meet have been chosen, however.
They are: Bob Weaver (105) and
Mark Lieberman (177) from Lehigh;
Gene Mills (114) from Syracuse:
Randy Lewis (126), Tim Cysewski
(136), and Bruce Kinseth (149), from
Iowa University ; Wade Schalles (163)
from Clemson University; Jeff
Blatnik (220) from Springfield
College; and Greg Wojcichowski,
wrestling in the unlimited
heavyweight class, from Toledo
University.
The tenth member is one who will be
watched with special interest by local
fans. He is Floyd “Shorty” Hitchcock,
a Bloomsburg State College graduate
and former Olympic wrestler, who
now coaches athletics at Lake-
Lehman High School. He will be
wrestling at 198 pounds.
In addition to the meet itself, the
coaches of the two teams will offer a
wrestling clinic, tentatively planned
(Continued on P. 11)
gasoline production in anticipation of
heavier summertime driving, which
would mean that we are past any
possible crisis point for the time being
at least.
The other area in which consumers
are getting hit is that of price. Not
only are there definite tightages and
possible shortages, but constantly
rising prices for what gasoline and
heating, oil is available appears a
certainty.
George Laskaris, president of the
Keystone Garage Owners
Association, a federation of local
service station and garage owners,
and proprietor of a service station in
Kingston, made the most pessimistic
predictions.
“Prices are going to go,”’ he con-
tended, saying that he foresees a
fairly standard charge of 75 cents a
gallon by spring at least.
“Most dealers had to raise their
he observed. He said that prices of 75
to 80 cents a gallon are to be expected
before long, with dollar-a-gailon costs
before the end of the year a definite
possibility,
Orloski predicted a slower. but
equally steady rise. “I look for
gradual increases of a cent or so a
month,”” he said, which would
probably bring prices well up into the
80's by the end of the year.
For the immediate future, he
predicted, don’t - be surprised at
having to pay 70 cents a gallon for
regular.
Spurlin noted that Exxon has not
increased its prices this month but
said that costs to dealers and con-
sumers ‘‘probably will rise’’ as time
goes on. He suggested that users of
gasoline had better anticipate an
increase of about 20 cents a gallon for
foreseeable future. :
Heating oil prices have likewise
been on the rise. Last year
homeowners paid about 40 to 45 cents
per gallon to heat their homes. This
year they're paying more like 52 to 56
cents, and the temperatures have
been lower.
Butler acknowledges that his firm
has had to move prices up, but he
points out that he has been responding
to his own rising costs.
about why constant increases, passed
on to dealers like himself, are
necessary. “I can’t find the
justification in the increases we’ve
been getting,’”’ he continues.
Heating oil prices, according to
Butler, have recently gone up faster
than they did during the 1973 Arab oil
embargo, when shortages were
distinct and acute.
What to do about it all? There's
where real disagreement sets in
Orloski suggests that freeing the oil
firms from .government regulation
would enable them to find more oil
and ease dependence upon foreign
sources.
Some service station owners say
privately that, as long as prices edge
upward, supply will continue as far as
they can see, suggesting that the oil
suppliers are playing a push-and-pull
game with the public.
Yet there are studies that indicate
that the major oil refiners have actual
supply problems and are caught in a
price squeeze just as surely as the
service station owner or the motorist
or homeowner.
With next year hazy, all predictions
have tobe limited to a few months at a
time. But what seems certain is that
it’s going to cost more to drive
anywhere or to keep warm at home--
and there may be some inconvenience
in getting the oil products to do either.
SIGN OF SPRING--David
Lewis takes advantage of
the slightly warmer weather
to get out the bike. Hope he
isn’t acting too soon.
(Photo by Mark Moran)
Residents of the Back Mountain are
urged to support the Red Cross
bloodmobile on March 9, by Ms.
Phyllis Mazula, Chairperson.
The bloodmobile willbe setup at the
Gate of Heaven School Cafeteria from
1:15 to 6:15 p.m.
The goal is 250 pints of blood. Many
volunteers will be on hand to assist the
Red Cross staff with the processing of
donors to achieve the goal. Members
of the Dallas American Legion, Post
672 will serve the donor refreshments.
for the convenience of donors at the
school. ae]
Mrs. Mazula reminds Back |
Mountain residents that success of the
collection will assure sufficient blood
for patients in the 47 hospitals served
by the Northeastern Pennsylvania
Regional Blood Center in Wilkes-
Barre. 1
Toby’s