B36
BOX
BRIGHTON,
Yol.91 No. 34
_ Another nearby resident
p concern: I was a
A Dallas’ Township resident has
baen charged with arson during the
iksestigation into the suspicious
burning of a shack on Lower
& una Rd., Dallas Township.
Leslie Trudgen, RD6 Dallas, is
being held by the joint investigation
team comprised of the State Police
and the Dallas Township Police
departments who made the arrest
shortly after the blaze was doused
by the Dallas Fire Department last
Thursday.
Trudgen will face a hearing
September 11, before Magistrate
Kar] Gregory of Shavertown on the
charges of arson and criminal
mischief.
SR Ra
Review of the plans for the
building designs of a new nursing
home which is to be constructed
adjacent to the nearly completed
Meadows Apartment complex on
Lake St. and Center Hill Rd., are
nearing completion.
“The U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services (HHS) has
: ‘been reviewing the building designs
for the Meadows Nursing Home for
Condo, Executive Director of
Ecumenical Enterprises. ‘HHS is
95 percent finished with their
review, and we are expecting ap-
proval within a few weeks.”
After approval of the designs,
construction bids will be solicited
for the 120-bed skilled health facility
for the elderly which is being built
by Ecumenical Enterprises Inc. of
Wilkes-Barre, a non-profit
organization.
“Farmers Home Administration
will finance the construction with a
$3.5 million loan, and a local
commercial lender will complete
the balance of the necessary
building funds,” said Condo.
The building will include a
community room to be used for
religious purposes, birthday and
anniversary parties, and any other
festive occasion.
“It is going to be constructed in
Dallas Township because there is a
need for additional nursing home
services here,” said Condo. ‘This
facility should fill that need for the
Police Reports. P.2
People in the News.
3
School Menus. .p.7
Local SportsPp.8,9
School is open. P.11
‘Politics’
Change
of venue
granted
The - case of Michelle Boice,
Harveys Lake councilwoman, and
of Richard Tattersall, her father,
has been granted a change of venue
because of its “‘political overtones.”
Boice, who is facing a hearing on
charges of criminal mischief and
official oppression stemming from
her alleged opening of an outgoing
letter from borough council to the
district attorney’s office, said her
father had requested the change.
Tattersall has been implicated in
the case because he is alleged to
have had possession of a tape
recording that was missing from
the borough building.
Both Tattersall and Coun-
cilwoman Boice have charged that
the letter and tape in question
referred specifically to her and her
father and that the council was
attempting to discredit them with
the public.
Boice is the lone Democrat on
council. Her father has a trash
collection contract with: the
borough.
“My attorney and Magistrate
Harvey decided that since the case
has many political overtones, it
would be best for all involved to
take the case out of the jurisdiction
of Magistrate Harvey and place the
case in a less political setting, such
as the office of Kingston Magistrate
Mitchell,” Tattersall told the Dallas
Post. oT es
Boice contends that since she wal
member of Harveys Lake Borough
Council she is entitled to- know the
contents of official envelopes. She
has also charged that taping of
citizens while at the borough
building is illegal and an invasion of
privacy.
A date for the hearing has not yet
been set by Magistrate S. Keene
Mitchell.
25¢
Wednesday, Sept. 9, 1981
2
BY GLEN HOFFMAN :
The use of a tape recorder by a
member of the Harveys Lake
Council attending the meetings and
hearings of Harveys Lake Zoning
Board, has erupted into’ a juris-
dictional dispute between the two
groups. :
Ben Orfaly, chairman of the
Zoning Hearing Board disapproved
of the use of a tape recorder at a re-
cent hearing by attending coun-
cilman, Richard Myers.
‘One and a half years ago the
Zoning Board passed a resolution
by a two to one margin forbidding
the use of any tape recording
devices at ‘any of the board's
meetings or hearings,” said Orfaly.
Orfaly added, ‘‘I and other
members of the board informed
Myers about the resolution about
one year ago, so he must have been
aware that recorders were not to be
used.”
Myers is reported to have said
that if the Zoning Board does not
want a recorder used, the board
must have something to hide.
“Our meetings and hearings are
always open to’ the public,” said
Orfaly. “My main objection to
recorders is that a tape could be
changed or erased and statements
“Our meetings are always held at
the same time, 8 p.m. on the last
Wednesday of every month,” ‘said
Orfaly. ‘‘So then the public can
conveniently attend our Zoning
Board sessions. We do not hold
closed session so as to circumvent
the Sunshine Law.” 3
Attorney Gifford Cappellini, a
councilman whose motion last week
to, authorize council members to
attend and record any board session
for use by council, said that this
issue involves the responsibility of
the council to the public.
“The council is an elected body,
the Zoning Board is appointed, so
the council has.a responsibility to
the public to insure that the
business of the board is conducted
properly,” said Cappellini.
Cappellini = added, ‘‘a tape
If you ask Thomas Rese, Dallas
Borough tax collector, what are the
duties and responsibilities of his
new job as chairman of the Fifth
District Republican organization,
he will itemize a laundry-list. But
ask him what his new job is really
like:
“I, and the committee persons,
try to’keep everyone in our district
happy,”’ commented Reese with his
characteristic smile.
As a public servant for the last 16
years, Reese forms a . relaxed
relationship with the people who
enter his orbit. But with his robust
manner, Reese hopes he can suc-
cessfully take the place of former
chairman Emerson Harris, who
recently died.
“I will get involved with the
people of the GOP, and coordinate
the efforts of the 18 committee
persons of my district to get the
vote out, register new voters, help
raise funds, organize rallies, recruit
volunteers to man voting booths,
hang posters, and do anything else
that comes up.”
Luzerne County has six districts
represented by one chairperson
from each district, comprising the
Executive Committee. Reese's
district covers West Pittston,
Wyoming Borough, Forty:
: y i he
4 FBOROLIEHS.
“As a chairman representing the
5th District it is my duty to help
formulate county wide policy and
select county candidates that will
Reese who was appointed chairman
by the executive committee several
months ago. “Basically, I am the
go-between of my district and the
Luzerne County Executive Com-
mittee, carrying feed back to the
county and ‘the people of my
district,” added Reese.
Reese will be up for election next
May, during the primary. “I have
not decided whether I will run,”
said Reese. ‘‘I will wait and see
how this term goes.”
“I believe that one of today’s
biggest problems: is voter apathy,”
said Reese. ‘‘One of my main ob-
jectives will be to get more people
to vote more often.”
TOM REESE
recording is the best way to record
the entire board hearing or
meeting. The secretary-treasurer
seals the tape in an envelope and .
the council then has access to every
detail of the session of the board.”
Orfaly said, “Myers and the
council are just trying to harass the
board by keeping a tape recorder
hidden at a recent board session,
and then at the end of the session
recorded the session, which was in
defiance of the board’s resolution
banning the use of tape recorders.”
Myers argued that he has been
taping the board’s mneetings for
years. “The tape recorder was not
hidden; it was on a chair in plain
sight,” he said. \
“The Sewer Authority, the
Council, and the Planning Com-
mission do not bar the use of tape
recorders, why should the Zoning
Board? asked Myers. “Now that I
am zoning commissioner it is my
responsibility to watch over the
matters concerning zoning.”
Year old
hearings
still on
The American Asphalt Com-
pany’s challenge of the Jackson
Twp. zoning ordinance may not be
settled until late this year.
David Roskos, chairman of the
zoning hearing board, said that the
next round of hearings will not take
place until late September and that
it may be necessary to take more
than the normal 45 days for the
board to make its decision.
The American Asphalt Co., which
conducts mining and excavating
operations in the township, is
challenging the legality of the or-
dinance, which places much of the
territory it wants to mine off limits
for that purpose.
Roskos said the next hearings will
be held Sept. 21 at 7 p.m. and Sept.
22 at9 a.m. at the township fire hall.
The hearings have been going on
since early this year. The zoning
hearing board is listening to
arguments by attorneys from the
Dwi
up in 1979. One of its effects was
removal of a large section of the
township from mining to residential
areas. American Asphalt contends
that the ordinance is improper and
that mining should be allowed in the
disputed territories.