BOX 324 BRIGHTON s Ir Vol. 91 No. 29 E2540 | There are 30 former Dallas School District cafeteria employees, who do not know whether they will have jobs for the coming school year. In a special meeting Monday, July 27, the board named the ARA Food Service as manager of the district’s cafeteria lunch program for the coming year. Following the board’s announce- ment, Mary Law, long-term cafeteria employee, asked the directors if the new food service planned to employ the former cafeteria workers. Director Gloria Brennan said that the directors did not know. ‘‘That will be up to ARA,” answered Mrs. Brennan. “We didn’t make that a requirement as we did with the former food service. We'd like to wash our hands of the cafeteria.” Further discussion revealed that it would be difficult for the district to wash its hands of the cafeteria since its operation is included in the district’s budget and the district absorbs the loss or receives the profit of the cafeteria operation. The food service will be paid $22,837 to manage the operation. School = superintendent . Dr. ‘the company’s policy regarding the Law that he would contact her with information he received from ARA. Shipe also made it clear that the company would not have to contact former employees--that it ‘could advertise for employees. He stated he believed it would be to ARA’s advantage to employ persons familiar with the district’s food ser- vice operation. Earl Fritzges, board president, requested Dr. Shipe to ask ARA to have a representative at the Aug. 10 board meeting to - answer any questions former employees might have. In the meantime, 10 former full- time employees and 20 part-time employees do not know whether they will have a job to return to in September. Some of these women are dependent upon their cafeteria jobs as their only source of income. Some have been with the district for 20 years or more. 2: Mrs. Elmer (Betty) Lamoreaux, been with the district for 24 years. The first four years she was em- vs. Shavertown Water Co. ployed as secretary in the prin- cipal’s office at Westmoreland. Twenty years ago she accepted the position as secretary of the cafeteria. Mrs. Lamoreaux held the position as secretary until last year when, under Custom Management Ser- vice, she was forced to retire as a district employee to become an employee «= paid by Custom Management. She does not believe it is fair if former employees are not given first chance at the jobs with ARA. Neither does she believe that long time employees should be hired at minimum wage. “I believe that seniority and experience should be given con- sideration,” said Mrs. Lamoreaux. “I believe all former employees should be interviewed, evaluated, and if hired by ARA, paid com- parable to seniority and position.” Mrs. Melvin (Marilyn) Morris, Dallas resident, has been with the cafeteria for the past 18 years, most of those years as food coordinator and cashier. “I believe former cafeteria employees should have priority for postions with the new food service. For some of the women it is the only income they have. ‘‘Most of us have lived here all of our lives and pay taxes in the dis- trict while there are other persons who work for the school district who don’t live here and don’t pay taxes here. “It isn’t right to offer minimum wage to workers with seniority and experience--persons who have spent years as responsible, conscientious employees to increase their in- come.’”’ Mrs. Olwen Overman, Kingston Township resident, is a widow, who has worked for the district for 13 years. She has assisted with the students daily lunches as well as ‘special lunches for the teachers, made salads, dressings and at ‘the beginning of last year did baking. Mrs. Overman said ‘“The women are loyal to the district, students and parents. They worked hard making meals palatable for the children. Years of service mean a lot of knowledge and experience about the cafeteria and the children’s likes and dislikes. This should be valuable to anyone operating the cafeteria. “A recent news item reported that we were employees of Custom Management but we can’t be. They told us at the end of last school term that we were finished and we are no longer covered by their hospitaliza- tion plan. g “I believe the new company should set up interviews for all of us and evaluate us for certain positions, taking those with top seniority first. All of the women are concerned about their jobs since for many of them it is their only source of income.” Dallas resident Mrs. Harriet Miller, also a widow, said that it is very upsetting for her since she is dependent upon her job. ‘Come September what do I do? I really need to work until I am old enough to retire. ‘I really believe that Mrs. Prynn did a good job and when she left they should have brought in an individual to manage the cafeteria or have turned it over to one of the’ women. There are several there who could manage it quite well. ‘Many of the women have been there so long ‘they ‘know the children’s eating habits, what they like and don’t like.” Mrs. Miller, assistant to the cook at the junior high’school, has been with the district 20 years. “I guess we will just have to wait and see how they get started. I believe the company will notify us about coming in for an interview.” Mrs. Robert (Mary) Law, also of Dallas, who questioned the board believes that ARA should hire employees by seniority, and pay according to service and ex- perience. She also believes the workers should be covered by hospitalization insurance. “The employees should be people within the district,” she said. ‘They are the ones paying the taxes. ft is their money paying the district’s expenses. Let ARA interview, evaluate and hire those who can do the job.” All of the former cafeteria em- ployees are asking the same question--‘“Why didn’t the school board strongly recommend that ARA hire former employees? Whether they want to or not the directors must be involved because it is taxpayers money paying cafeteria expenses.” Carol and Joe Hayer, customers of Shavertown Water Company, have won a victory - of sorts. Because of their dissatisfaction with the service provided by the water company, they filed a claim with’ the Public Utilities Com- mission seeking the right to with- hold a portion of their payment of water company bills. Last week they received notice they lost that move because the PUC hasn’t the authority to defer payment for water service, a technicality. But the commission also said the reason behind the move by the Hayers to put payment .. monies in ‘escrow’ - inadequate another case, that of Donald Purvin and other Shavertown residents. “In light of that conclusion,” the PUC said, ‘‘the complaint now before us seeks a distinct remedy in terms of a refund or rate allowance for past and future inadequacies.” The commission made it clear in its latest move that refunds may be ‘appropriate in view of the service inadequacies’ found earlier this year by an administrative law judge. “It’s taken a lot of our time,” the Hayers said. “But we have lived this for ten years and it has only gotten worse.” They said they go three or more days at a time without any water, or pressure so low that when there is water in the kitchen, there is none upstairs. A “You can’t begin to know what it is like,” Mrs. Hayer said. “You can’t flush the toilet, can’t fill the washer without making four trips down the stairs. We have had te load up the kids (the youngest child is seven weeks old) and take them to a relative’s house for a bath. You have to go out to eat because the sink is full of dirty dishes.” While the Hayers, who lived at 111 Pioneer Avenue, have suffered with the on-again, off-again water supply for ten years, they say the problem has existed for more than 25 years. One example of inadequate service is that although the Hayer’s home the company’s main, the main is only a three-quarter inch line, Mr. Hayer said. The Hayers are currently paying $61 a quarter for water. Their point, they say, is “Why should we be same service as others, par- ticularly when we have to stay up sometimes until two in the morning to receive adequate pressure?” Two years ago, they said, the Kingston Township supervisors told them to file a complaint with the PUC and provided the Hayers with the forms to-do so. “We got a group of neighbors to sign the complaint, but then neither the township nor the township solicitor would help us. We had to raise the funds amongst ourselves.” They said, however, that they were fortunate in acquiring the semrices of Atty: Al Flora who hasn’t charged them. Mr. Hayer said that the township had even filed a complaint about a fire hydrant behind the Acme Market in Shavertown that wouldn’t work at times because of low pressure, but it would do nothing for the homeowners. Recently Senator Frank O'Connell and PUC Chairwoman Shanaman visted the Hayer residence (and other homes in the area) and, according to Mrs. Hayer, Senator O’Connell implied that the only real solution might be a water authority. ‘“He (Senator 0’Connell) said ‘We could be standing in your driveway five years from now,” ” Mrs. Hayer said. “We take the position that we don’t want our supervisors buying a decrepit system and saddling the taxpayers with it,” said Mr. Hayer, an accountant. “A water authority won't get us any water now.” ‘Match the Merchant Deadline Aug. 12 Marilyn Morris Betty Lamoreaux Mary Law by Tom Mooney Harveys Lake Borough is determined that never again will there be an algae problem such as took place this summer, sharply reducing visitors to the lake and cutting deeply intolocal businesses. At a hastily called meeting of businesspeople and community leaders Saturday morning, borough council president Frank Coulton agreed to a plan whereby the borough would retain the services of a testing firm to monitor water quality each spring and prevent any potentially harmful algae from developing again. The sudden appearance of such a strain of algae on the lake several weeks ago reduced-the tourist trade and virtually took away the best part of the summer from make- area businesses heavily dependent on the hot months. As for the remainder of this summer, the businesspeople agreed to raise funds and hire Ecoscience, Inc., of Old Forge to treat six public beach areas of the lake with copper sulfate (bluestone) in an attempt to wipe out the algae in those spots and obtain assurance of a clean bill of health from Pennsylvania Depart- ment of Environmental Resources. “We're not going to let it happen again,” said James McCaffrey, owner of Sandy Beach, over the weekend. “There is a vast, broad financial impact.” Coulton said the borough will hire either Ecoscience or a similar testing and treating firm for next year, Treating by Ecoscience, along with monitoring by DER, began Sunday, delayed somewhat by a (Photo by Paul Strasser) crowd of onlookers in boats. Test ‘results were expected early in the week. Depending on those results, a second treatment = may be necessary. The chemical was spread on the water at the six beaches by airboat. Beaches in- cluded Sandy Beach, Hanson's, Sunset, Wardan Place, Lakeview Terrace, and Garrity’s. At Saturday’s meeting speakers outlined the nature of the algae and available methods of treatment. The businesspeople agreed in principle on having Ecosystems treat it now and on having council assume responsibility in the future. DER issued its initial report on the potentially harmful algae several weeks ago, and in the weeks since the tourist trade fell off considerably, resulting in lost business and some employee layoffs. New shop coming to Dallas The Heritage Shop is coming to the Dallas Shopping Center. Humford Equities, owners of the shopping center, confirmed last week that the popular card and gift shop from Wilkes-Barre would be expanding to Dallas in the near future. It will move into the quarters presently occupied by The Hut, also a card and gift shop. The lease of Hut owner James Davies expired Aug. 31. Alan Findlay, co-owner of Humford Equities, said of Heritage owner William Mattes, ‘He will put In an excellent store and it will help all the other stores in the center.” Humford owns large shopping areas of downtown Wilkes-Barre, where ' Heritage is presently located. The Humford official would not comment on Davies’ complaint that he was being ‘forced’ out of the center. Davies said he wanted to renew his lease but that Humford “refused to cooperate’’ and “refused to allow me to sell” because “they consider me a poor risk.” - Findlay said his firm had had “a good relationship with Mr. Davies.”’ Humford bought the shopping center earlier this year. Lake-Lehman superintendent Dr. David Preston is having a difficult time in getting the school board to accept his teacher nominations. At its: meeting last week the board gave a job to just one out of three nominees. One more was tabled, and the other was rejected outright. The board did vote to appoint Donald Jones (son of board member Donald Jones) to an elementary teaching post, but only on a split vote and with a lot of complaint from members Alan Keiper and Ed Mark. Keiper objected weeks ago when the Jones name was first raised, claiming the nomination was given to the board only moments before the meeting, and last week he still voted against Jones, he said, “because of the way the subject was handled.” Mark was finally gaveled out of order when he protested what he called ‘fly-by-night ad-hoc com- mittees’” making decisions and called for establishment of a per- manent personnel committee of board members. Board president Angelo DeCesaris announced his remarks ‘in no way pertinent.” Jones got the job, with members Paul Crockett, DeCesaris, Arnie Garinger, Alan Sorchik, Keith Williams, and Gilbert Tough sup- vote. Mark managed to get the ap- pointment of Margaret Holmgren to an elementary job tabled, with Tough saying he was ‘‘unaware of any need for two more elementary teachers.”” After that, the motion to appoint Paul Reinert as a per- manent substitute to replace Kathryn Gregory (who’s going on sabbatical) went down to defeat. Mark and Keiper were joined by Sorchik, Williams, and Garinger in turning it back. In other actions, the board an- nounced the district would not be getting a hoped-for energy-saving grant this year, the result of a state budget slash of the program from $24 million to $7.8 million and the removal of many school districts from the eligible list. © DeCesaris said he could not specify exactly what sum Lake-Lehman might have been set for. : The board also gave permission to the junior high PTSA to open a ‘school store.”” The store will sell stationery, shirts, and school paraphernalia and will help raise funds for the PTSA. ’ x
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