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B36
BRIGHTON,
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GREA0
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Vol. 96, No. 8
25 Cents
Letter writing begins
"By CHARLOT M. DENMON
Staff Correspondent
A\ letter campaign protesting the
meirger of Back Mountain Magister-
ial Districts 11-3-08 and 11-3-09,
administered by Justices Leonard
Harvey and Earl Gregory may have
been effective when the decision
was inl the making, but it is too late
now that the decision has been
finalized.
That iis the opinion of both Harvey
and Gregory, since it is the Pennsyl-
vania Supreme Court who decided
that upon Harvey’s retirement in
October, "he Back Mountain District
should be merged into one under the
supervisicin of District Magistrate
Gregory. (iregory has two years in
office: befoire his term ends. If he
opts to run again, he will have five
additional municipalities in which to
campaign.
Neither Gregory nor Harvey are
particularly pleased with the court’s
decision, but both magistrates
explained they have no say in the
matter.
‘According to Harvey and Greg-
ory, after every census count the
Court of Comrnmon Pleas decides
whether or not redistricting should
be done. Following the 1980 Census,
Judge Robert Hourigan decided the
districts should remain as they
were, but the Supreme Court
decided on redistricting.
“According to the 1980 Census, it
was indicated that there was a drop
in population in Luzerne County,
thus the decision to merge some of
the magisterial districts,” said
Harvey. ‘‘The ironic part of the
whole matter is that the population
in the Back Mountain is growing.
Since the completion of the Cross
Valley Expressway more people are
moving back here.”
Harvey said he believed some of
the downtown districts should have
been merged. His opinion is that it
would be more logical to merge
districts such as Kingston and
Swoyersville which are more cohe-
sive as far as geographic location
and population. :
He pointed out that the Back
Mountain districts are widespread
and Gregory’s jurisdiction includes
over 15,000 population and his dis-
trict includes over 16,000. When
merged into one, without Plymouth
Township (now under Harveys
(See LETTER, page 8)
By CHARLOT M. DENMON
Staff Correspondent
Superintendent Joseph Ryan of
the State Correctional Institution,
Dallas, told members of the Jack-
son Township Area Cornmittee that
the new $1.5 million cell blocks
which should be comipleted by
August, 1985, will house 300 prison-
ers. He also said that the prison is
presently processing 28 new secur-
ity personnel and by the completion
date of the structure they: hope to
have 30 additional personnel.
At the present time, the institution
employs 290 security guards: includ-
ing 215 C.0. Ones, 39 traine'ers, an
the balance sergeants, lieutenants,
captains and majors. The original
960 capacity prison now has a popu-
lation of 1629 prisoners. Both the
number of prisoners and guards
have increased since the Citizens
Committee first met with prison
officials.
The project for the construction of
a fence, installation of a lighting
system and a siren to sound warn-
ing if a prisoner escapes is expected
to be completed by May 1, 1947,
Ryan told the residents.
Committee members said they
thought that was too long to wait for
Artist at work
a new siren since they can’t hear
‘the one the prison has now. Commit-
tee chairman Pat Rusiloski said
residents did not believe a steam
whistle would be loud enough, but
Ryan explained that there were a
variety of greater volume steam
whistles than the one now being
used. He also explained that the
architect would decide what type
whistle would be best.
Ryan said that in order to move
up the date for installation of a new
siren, pressure would have to be put
on the Pennsylvania Legislature. He
said that he would write letters to
the legislators representing the
local areas. These include state
representatives Frank Coslett, R-
Kingston; George Hasay, R-Shick-
shinny; Stanley Jarolin, D-Nanti-
coke; and Senator Frank O’Connell,
R-Kingston.
Rep. Hasay said that the legisla-
tors had been successful in improv-
ing conditions at SCID and that it
has been the citizens committee’s
cooperation and interest that has
been instrumental in helping them
(the legislators) get funding for the
projects.
Mrs. Rusiloski expressed appre-
ciation on behalf of the committee
for the legislators interest and par-
ticipation.
Dallas ost/Charlot M. Denmon
locakfarmhouse.
«
»
Good luck, Charlie!
i flanked by family and
is past Saturday at the
By CHARLOT M. DENMON
Staff Correspondent
up or send mail.
police work.
children.
working.
By CHARLOT M. DENMON
Staft Correspondent
“Somthing’s missing and it may
be on your bookshelf at home.”
That is the phrase local residents
will be hearing and seeing a lot
during the next two weeks since the
Back Mountain Memorial Library
has declared the period from Feb.
25 through March 16 “Forgiveness
Weeks” for overdue books.
Forgiveness Week is the brain
child of Beverly Marchetti, one of
the library volunteers, who moved
to the Back Mountain three years
ago from White Plains, N.Y.
Two weeks or so ago when Bev-
erly was involved in getting part of
the collection of books in storage on
the shelves of the library at its new
location on Huntsville Road, Dallas,
she discovered that many books had
Women in business
By CHARLOT M. DENMON
Staff Correspondent
(EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the
fourth in a six-part series entitled
“Women in Business.” The series
features Back Mountain business-
women who relate their feelings on
working in what used to be a
“man’s world.”’)
Sue Hand, owner and director of
Imagery Art Studio, Main Street,
Dallas, sets her goals in two cate-
gories — short range achievements
and an ultimate or long range ambi-
tion.
Sue has achieved some of her
short range goals, such as helping
her students become aware of the
world surrounding them, not just
seeing it but learning to appreciate
its beauty through their sketching
and painting. She has also provided
the incentive which prompted 18 of
her former students to major in art
in colleges along the Eastern Sea-
board and has one student who will
have a large senior art exhibit at
Pennsylvania State University’s
Main Campus this spring.
Her ultimate goal is to open a
large art complex in the Back
Mountain, one which will contain
facilities for all types of art media,
not only sketching and painting but
photography, sculpture and other
forms of the medium.
‘There .are so many talented
people in the Back Mountain,” said
Sue, ‘that there is a need for such a
complex. My hope is to provide such
a facility.”
The former Sue Larish of Orange,
Mrs. Hand has loved art since a
young child before old enough to go
to school.
“My mother believed that every
child should take lessons in some-
thing,” she said. ‘Since I knew I
had to do this, I decided to study
something I really liked so I elected
to take art lessons.”
Sue’s first art instructor was Dor-
othy Brace Barber, whom Sue said
not only taught her painting, but
how to live as well. Sue’s mother
was very supportive and, according
to Sue, sacrificed a lot to provide
her daughter with the art supplies
she needed.
Sue also gives much credit to
Fern Whitby, a teacher who was her
idol, and to ¥reda Hughey, one of
her elementary teachers who gave
Sue time to draw or paint, once she
had her math done. Sue also gives a
great deal of credit to New England
artist Phil Richards, who taught art
in the junior high for a semester.
“He was excellent in watercolor
and taught me how rewarding that
art medium could be,” said Sue. ‘‘It
is still my favorite medium.”
Sue attended Kutztown State Uni-
versity where she received a degree
in art education. Following gradua-
tion, she taught art in grades one
through six in Maryland but when
she married Joseph Hand and they
moved to the Back Mountain, Sue
was unable to obtain a teaching
position and settled for a position in
the record department of a store.
Later she taught for five years at
Gate of Heaven School, where she
enjoyed her work, especially the
children and the people with whom
she worked. While teaching there,
she started taking just a few stu-
dents evenings and during the
summer.
“That was the turning point in my
life,” said Sue. ‘The number of
students increased gradually and I
(See WOMEN, page 8)
disappeared.
In a conversation with Librarian
William Frederick, Beverly learned
that the Back Mountain Library
hadn’t had an ‘Amnesty Week’ in
eight years. For our readers, who
are not familiar with Amnesty
Week, it is a period during which
those persons who have overdue
books or ones someone in their
family forgot to sign out, they may
return them without fines or ques-
tions asked.
More than 5,000 books are missing
from the Back Mountain Library
and Beverly has set a goal of at
least 1,000 returned between now
and March 16. The average cost of
replacing a book is $18, so if only
1,000 books are returned it means a
savings of $18,000.
Since the Philadelphia Library set
a 75,000 goal and had 160,000 books
returned, Beverly believes 1,000 is a
low figure.
She has contacted local radio sta-
tions, TV states and the Dallas
Cablevision requesting Public Serv-
(See CHECK, page 8)
Inside The Post
Calendar ............... 8
Classified ..... 13,14,15
Commentary ......... 4
Cookbook ............... 5
Crossword ............. 2
Obituaries ............. 2
People .................6,7
School ................. 12
Sports ............ 3,10,11
HS
5