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YOU DISTRACT Him
AND WE'LL SNATCH
HIS CATCH...
Only yesterday
50 YEARS AGO - MAY 11, 1934
Girl Scout executives from five states assembled at
Dallas for their annual convention. Mrs. Ernest G.
Smith served as chairrnan of the committee which
hosted representatives from councils in Pennsylvania,
Columbia.
Kingston Township Board of Directors held one of
their busiest sessions all year. Three new teachers,
Elsie Prutzman and Adeline Layou, elementary, and
‘Allys Joseph secondary, were appointed. J.A. Martin
was retained as supervising principal. Martin’s salary
ws increased from $2,1000 to $2,400 annually.
Deaths - Penn Spencer, Bedford, Iowa, formerly of
Dallas.
You could get - Sliced bacon 22c lb.; pink salmon, 2
tall cans 25c; leg of lamb, 32c lb.; veal 19¢ lb.; new
onions, 3 1bs. 10¢; baking powder, 6 oz. can 10c; corn
flakes, 2 pkgs. 13¢; Ivory soap, 6 med. cakes 29c.
i: 40 YEARS AGO - MAY 12, 1944
Two Back Mountain boys, Pfc. Robert F. Ressiguie,
son of Mr. and Mrs. Ressiguie and Pvt. Elwood
Blizzard, son of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Blizzard were
reported missing in action. Ressiguie was serving in
North Africa while Blizzard was serving in Italy.
An exploding bottled-gas tank in the back of a
Point Breeze caused considerable damage to property
and seriously burned Charles Kropp, Whitenight fore-
Married - Lieutenant Lewis Culp and Jean Bogert;
Martha Mueller to Thomas Dropchinski.
Deaths - Martin Lutcavage, Lake Silkworth; Hannah
L. Lyons, Shickshinny.
You could get - Pork loins, 25¢ lb.; boiling beef, 19¢
Ib.; hamburg, 25c 1b.; fresh cod, 29c lb.; Lava hand
soap, 3 cakes 17c; spinach, 2 Ibs. 15¢; asparagus, 1g.
bunch, 39c; apple butter, 1g. jar 16c.
30 YEARS AGO - MAY 14, 1954
The Little League season opened in fine style. Three
Back Mountain High School Bands and the award
winning Boys and Girls Drum and Bugle Corps of
Kingston led the parade. Popular radio personality
Little Bill Phillips was master of ceremonies for the
patriotic portion of the program.
Noxen, Lake, Franklin, Dallas and Monroe Township
and Arch Austin met with Luzerne County Superin-
Board to discuss the jointure.
Engaged - Bette Ruth Mathers to Staff Sgt. Walter
i Truscott.
Married - Louise Miller and W. Curtis Prothero.
Deaths - Edwin Kern, Idetown; Frances Kyttle,
Mooretown; Rose B. Waltman, Noxen; Mary B.
Sowden, Shavertown; Hazel Major, Shavertown.
You could get - Large eggs, 3 doz. $1.63; roasting
chickens, 65¢ lb.; steaks, sirlolin, porterhouse or rib,
75¢ Ib.; apples, 4 lbs. 49c; orange juice, 6-6 0z. cans
59c; spaghetti 21c Ib.; Lifebuoy Soap, 3 reg. bars 2c.
20 YEARS AGO - MAY 14, 1964
Dallas School Board approved 178 seniors for
graduation. In other business, W.B. Jeter was
appointed treasurer of the district at an annual salary
of $100 per year. Atty. Jonathan Valentine was
reappointed school solicitor at an annual salary of $400
while Joseph E. Salamon, Jr. was named auditor of
school accounts. Joseph E. Petrenchak was approved
as a new faculty member.
Due to health reasons, Mrs. Albert Jones acting
librarian for the past year at the Back Mountain
Memorial Library, resigned herpost. Mrs. Martin
Davern was her replacement.
Anniversaries - Mr. and Mrs. George Price, Pioneer
Avenue, Trucksville, 46 years.
Deaths - Michael Sikora, Hunlock Creek; Nellie
Mautz, Dallas; Ann Pugh Jewell, Parrish St., Dallas.
10 YEARS AGO - MAY 9, 1974
“The Humanities and the Prison” a program
designed to develop a dialogue between Back Moun-
tain residents and the residents of the State Correc-
tional Institution in Dallas was planned by Sister
Carolyn Burgholzer, Sister Regina Kelly, Sister Const-
ance Mary Kozel, Lee Williames, Thomas 0’Neill and
Dr. Donald Fries, staff members at the college.
Dallas Junior High Band played, Joe Gries, WBRE,
was master of ceremonies and Rev. John Topolewski,
pastor of Trucksville Methodist Church delivered the
invocation at the opening day of Little League
Baseball in the Back Mountain. League president
Robert Law welcomed the players.
Engaged - Connie Pollock and Raymond Barchik:
Suzanne M. Howe to Damon Young.
Deaths - Catherine Olshefski, Swoyersville; Lydia
Hopkins, Valparaiso, Ind.; Helen Lewis Williamson,
Dallas; Floyd D. Sorber; Willard Schmoll, Binghamp-
ton, N.Y.; Raymond Ostroskie, Clifton, N.J.; Joseph
MacVeigh.
You could get - Pork loin, 75¢ 1b.; chuck roast, 88c
Ib.; ground beef, 78c 1b.; Tetley Tea, pkg. 48 bags,
39¢; Charmin toilet tissue, 4 roll pkg., 29¢; Clorox
Bleach, > gal. 35¢; sauerkraut, 4 cans $1; tomatoes,
59c¢ 1b.; cabbage, 11c Ib.
Pl
hat’s going on here?
Football coaches
are being fired, then
rehired. School district cus-
tomers are being lied to. And
parent-teacher organization
money is disappearing.
What is becoming of the
Dallas School Board? Is it
losing its grasp on reality?
The school board is a
group of elected officials -
that’s right, elected - to rep-
resent the taxpayers of the
school district. Thus far this
the Dallas School
Board has yet to conduct
itself in the manner expected
of public officials and nei-
ther has its members offered
their voters the confidence
expected of elected officials.
When Ron Rybak was dis-
missed by the school board
as head football coach at
Dallas High School, the hul-
labaloo caused by the play-
ers and their parents was
proof enough the board had
erred. However, without
ever stepping down and apol-
ogizing to Mr. Rybak, they
simply took another vote and
decided to ‘“‘allow’” him to
remain in his position - a
position he has held for sev-
eral years at the Back Moun-
tain school.
Rybak, however humble,
was smart enough not to
jump at the chance to stay
on with the Mountaineers
football team, but instead
took his time making his
decision, all the time meet-
ing with members of his
team to find out what they
really wanted.
- Right about the same time
Rybak was being fired and
rehired, the school board
was advertising for bids for
the Trucksville Elementary
School Building. And right in
the middle of the bidding
process, there’s Harry Sick-
ler and Tex Wilson allegedly
sipping coffee with an archi-
tectural firm representative
and lying through their teeth
about a possible $100,000 bid
on the building.
So, the architectural firm
sucked more than $40,000 out
of its own pocket and upped
its original bid of $75,000 to
$116,500. The firm won the
contract for purchase of the
building alright, but the next
highest bid was lower than
its original $75,000 proposal.
Then, Harry Sickler and
Tex Wilson are arrested on
bid-rigging charges. Earlier
reports that did Sickler and
Wilson justice by telling you
the duo had turned them-
selves in to State Police have
proved to be untrue, how-
ever, as Sickler himself
denies ever giving himself
up. The two were obviously
simply caught in the act.
While Sickler and Wilson
were having their fingers
printed at the State Police
Barracks in Wyoming,
Dallas Township Police
Chief Carl Miers was con-
ducting an investigation of
an alleged discrepancy of
funds with the Dallas Town-
ship Parent-Teacher Organi-
zation.
Although Miers is not
ready to point the finger at
one particular individual,
speculation is that yet
another member of the
Dallas School Board is
involved in this case, also.
© It’s high time the mem-
bers of the Dallas School
Board take a long, hard look
at themselves and what they
are supposed to represent.
And if any one of them feels
he or she cannot live up to
the expectations of the inno-
cent voters who elected
them, then maybe it’s time
to tender some resignations.
Back Mountain taxpayers
are not going to tolerate
much more dishonesty from
their -elected officials than
they already have.
— DOTTY MARTIN
Guest editorial
By JOHN SLOAN
Each year during May, the nation celebrates Small
Business Week (this year, the week of May 6-11). It is
an opportunity for those of us in small business and
for the rest of the country to focus on the dimensions
nity.
ore than half of our private work force is
employed by small business. some four million small
enterprises employ workers. Self employment is the
main source for about eight million people. And more
than 16% million Americans are involved in some type
of recorded independent business activity.
While the direct contribution of smaller firms to the
Gross National Product has been declining for some
time now (losing ground to government!), small
business produces so many goods and services that it
is the world’s fourth greatest economic power. Imag-
ine, only the United States as a whole, Soviet Russia,
and Japan produce more; West Germany's gross
national product follows American small business.
Many of the inventions that have spawned large
industries in this country and the world have the ideas
of small-business owners; innovations such as air
conditioning, the airplane, catalytic petroleum crack-
ing, continuous casting, the gyro-compass, insulin,
laser technology, the optical scanner, the pacemaker,
personal computer, turbojet engine, and xerography.
A recent study done for the Small Business Adminis-
tration by Gelman Research Associates found that
small firms produce 2% times more innovations per
employee than do large firms, and more importantly,
they bring them fo market in two-thirds the time.
organizational aspects of business. That type of
innovation has as significant an impact on productiv-
ity and growth as does technologica: change. Henry
Ford and Ray Kroc are two examries of pioneers in
organizational reform. Today many large firms are
reorganizing to make their management structure
more like that of smaller businesses.
But perhaps the most important contribution of
small business to today’s economy is in the area of job
creation. Professor David Birch at MIT has deter-
mined that more than half of the net new jobs created
between 1969 and 1976 were in independent business.
He found that 80 percent of the new jobs were in
business locations or establishments with fewer than
100 employees and in firms that had been in business
less than five years. Perhaps more remarkable,
Professor Peter Drucker has noted that during the
depression years of 1981 tgo 1983, the Fortune 500
companies lost a total of three million domestic jobs
while entrepreneurial business, as Drucker calls it,
added approximately one million jobs. The NFIB
Quarterly Economic Report for the fourth quarter of
1983 showed that employment among small-business
owners continued as it had all during 1983, leading the
way out of the recession.
Small and independent-business owners can be
proud pf this role in the American economy. During
May, the rest of the nation is reminded of the
business. ?
(This column was extracted from a speech by John
Sloan, President of the National Federation of Inde-
pendent Business to the Center for Constructive
Alternatives, Hillsdale College, Mich.)
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LOUNDATION
Here is a summary of important
events that occurred on Capitol Hill
last week from Rep. Frank Coslett,
120th Legislative District.
CONSUMER PROTECTION legis-
lation passed the House this week in
the form of a plain language con-
tract bill. The measure, approved
by a 162-37 margin, requires that all
consumer contracts written in Penn-
sylvania contain “plain language,”
readily understood by the general
public. The bill outlines 10 language
Classified Ad
tests a contract ‘must pass and
requires that consumer rights be
highlighted in the contract. The
legislation was developed in
response to consumer complaints
that too much legal jargon and too
many foreign phrases were con-
I SUBSCRIPTION RATES
$14. out of state
Paid in Advance
tained in contracts thus making
them difficult to understand. The
bill was sent to the Senate for
consideration.
-0-
RESPONSIBILITY FOR ensuring
that drinking water in Pennsylvania
sd. Stephen Buckley. ......... Lui oc od oi Publisher meets minimum safety standards
would fall to the state under legisla-
BillSavage..... 0... lL AE Managing Editor tion sent to Gov. Dick Thornburgh
Dotty Martin. . peered -.. . Associate Editor ii Veh rsa te
Mike Danowski. ................ Advertising Representative 183.6. vole after winning Senate
Sheila Hodges... .... 0 0 ui vv Circulation Manager approval, the Department of Envi-
ronmental Resources would estab-
lish an enforcement program to
regulate the 10,000 community and
private water systems statewide.
By assuming responsibility for
water standards, Pennsylvania
| becomes eligible for a $1 million
federal start-up grant to hire a staff
necessary to enforce the law. The
U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency is currently responsible for
enforcing water regulations in
Pennsylvania.
-0-
ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES could
be served in licensed eating estab-
lishments at 11 a.m. on Sunday if a
bill passed by the House is enacted
into law. Current law prohibits the
sale of liquor in restaurants before 1
p.m. on Sundays. The legislation,
which originated in the Senate, also
allows the sale of alcoholic bever-
ages in bowling alleys with minors
present.
0%
REVENUES GENERATED by a
three percent tax on hotel room
rates would be distributed at the
discretion of the county in which
they were collected under a bill
approved by the House Urban
Affairs Committee. Authored by
Rep. Marvin Miller (R-Lancaster),
the measure gives county commis-
sioners the option of imposing the
tax. The legislation stipulates, how-
ever, that once collected the tax
revenue must be allocated to the
areas of local tourist promotion or
historic preservation projects.
Library news
By NANCY KOZEMCHAK
Library Correspondent
We will be showing some very
unusual and different items in our
display case for the next four
has loaned us about 50 of her letter
openers, a small part of her collec-
tion.
It is surprising to see the many
different kinds of letter openers
available. There is one of rare
myrtlewood, grown only in Oregon;
an old wood one made in Russia
before 1916; a reproduction of the
one being stoel in the movie “Top-
kapi’’; and one found in 1938 under
the foundation of an old one room
country school in New London, Con-
necticut.
There is one of connemara marlbe
from Ireland, a real oldie dated
July 25, 1865, one made by a collec-
tor in 1940, one brought from
Buenos, India by Dr. and Mrs.
Abbott in 1930 and a unique letter
opener which includes a knife on the
handle that was used to cut pages in
abook that wa missed. during the
process.
There are two with very heavy
handles, good for paperweights and
five showing advertisements. There
are others from Poland, Greece,
Taiwan, Kenya, Bermuda, England,
Guatemala, Hawaii, Washington,
D.C. and Dallas, Texas. These make
an intriguing display and will be at
the library until May 30.
The May meeting of the Book
Club will be held on Monday the 21st
x
ence Crump will preside at the
business meeting and guests are
invited to attend.
Considering summer vacation
ideas? Whether your plans call for a
trip round the Northeastern Penn-
sylvania area or around the world,
the Back Mountain Memorial
Library can give you background
information. The library has travel
guides, language dictionaries, and
other materials about places to go.
Get basic travel information at your
library.
New books at the library:
“Mayor” by Edward I. Koch is an
autobiography and is the liveliest,
most gripping, most outspoken and
most authentic book ever written
about government. :
“The Color of Light” by William
Goldman is luminous with insight.