By JOHN HOINSKI
Staff Writer
Four Back Mountain police chiefs and members of
their respective councils will meet next Tuesday night
at the Dallas Boro building to discuss, among other
items, the controversial hiring of a full-time dis-
patcher at Dallas Township.
Phyllis Walter, who had worked at the dispatcher
position as a part- -time employee for four years, was
recently hired as the fourth full-time dispatcher. But a
number of persons close fo the situation say the move
was political and that her father, Dallas Township
township supervisor Phil Walter, was the main influ-
ence that led to the hiring.
Dallas Township Police Chief Carl Miers said that is
not the case, however, and, in fact, it was he (Miers)
who brought up the idea and eventually hired Ms.
BOX 336
Walter for the position.
Police chiefs from Dallas Township, Dallas Borough,
Kingston Township and Harveys Lake Borough, along
with other officials, hope to resolve the ‘controversy
behind closed doors next Tuesday at 8 p.m. If they
cannot solve the situation, however, the flap may
jeopardize the forming of a Back Mountain Police
Commission between the four which was planned to go
into effect by January 1.
Until now, Dallas Township has listened to input
from the other three departments who pay for the
dispatcher services, but who do not have the final say.
Under the proposed set-up, the four groups would meet
to discuss various problems with each: community
having an equal say. But many people are upset at the
township’s latest move.
Some police officers seem to have mixed feelings on
whether or not Walter should be allowed to remain on
the job.
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BRGAQ |
“In my experiences with her, overall, I would say
she should not have been hired, » said one police
officer. “But you never know how these things will
turn out. Look how well she performed when they had
have done what she did. (Walter was the on-duty
dispatcher in early June when a Noxen man allegedly
walked into the township’s Municipal building and shot
two police officers. Walter alertly depressed the
microphone, alerting surrounding departments to the
fracas, allowing assisting officers to quell the problem
quickly).
But Miers says that he has had no complaints about
her disposition and has never personally had any
problems with her job performance.
“I know there are alot of rumblings,” Miers said.
“But our policy is that if someone has a complaint
about another person then we check it out and if it’s
valid then we tell that person about it and see if we
could correct it.”
Miers said he hired Walter to help with increased
calls that come in from Thursday to Saturday and to
help with data that must be attended to. He also said
she fills in on other shifts for people who are sick or on
vacation. Miers said the townsip has two other part-
time dispatchers, one of whom has another full-time
job and another who is efffectively retired and can
work only a limited number of hours.
Miers also said that because he is in charge of the
department, he has the authority to hire individuals
without going through a public meeting.
But one official disagreed, saying, ‘They may have
to rescind hiring her.”
Walter, who receives $5.35 an hour plus benefits, is
being paid with the collective monies from the four
communities. Previously, she had been working three
part-time jobs, but now holds only the dispatcher
position.
Vol. 97, No. 39
25 Cents
Aspiring firefighter?
By CHARLOT M. DENMON
Staff Correspondent
The purchase of the former Calvary Baptist Church
property on Main Street, Dallas, made recently by
contractor Tim Carroll came three months after the
church was closed in June and advertised for sale.
The property was formerly purchased by the Cal-
vary Baptist Church congregation from the Back
Mountain Library Board prior to the library moving
into its new building on Huntsville Road, Dallas.
Immediately after purchasing the property, church
representatives began renovating the buildings and
had three of them partially renovated hefore the
congregational members unanimously agreed to sell
the property.
According to J. Patton, former treasurer of the
Baptist Church and a deacon at the time the property
was placed on the market, the congregation did not
increase as expected.
Baptist and some very high active members,” said
Patton. “We didn’t expect the congregation to increase
overnight but it didn’t grow as we expected.”
Patton said because of the high cost of maintaining
the property and since there were other churches in
the Back Mountain that could meet the needs of the
members, it was a unanimous decision of the congre-
gation to close it and attend other churches in the
area.
“All the members who were still active in Calvary
Baptist Church are now attending other churches,”
said Patton. Patton said it is his opinion that Dallas
suffers from being a community where many people
belong to a church and although they do not always
attend, go on considering themselves members of
particular churches.
When Carroll decided the property would suit his
purposes and was willing to buy the property at the
asking price, officials of the church accepted his offer
and the transaction was completed.
Carroll explained that he purchased the entire
property because he planned to move his contracting
business into one of the buildings and rent the other
buildings.
He plans to renovate and make two apartments in
the building which was formerly the Children’s
Library. These will be for rent and so will the auction
barn once renovations are done on it. Carroll will use
three rooms off the main building as offices for his
contracting business and the permanent stands on the
former auction grotinds for storage.
Karl Samuels, Samuels Insurance Agency, Dallas,
also an officer of Calvary Baptist Church, said the
church was closed because there was ne pastor and
“costs were too high to continue the operation.
Also closing its doors last week was Chicken Plus,
located in the Dallas Shopping Center. That business
ceased its Back Mountain operation on Saturday, Sept.
27, and transferred the employees of the store to its
location on the Sans Souci Parkway, Wilkes-Barre.
Manager Bill Davis and the clerks employed at the
Dallas ‘Store were fransferred to positions in the
Wilkes-Barre store. According to employees, the
company moved into one location because it was
interested in a high volume of business operation and
believed combining the two would accomplish that
goal.
By CHARLOT M. DENMON
Staff Correspondent
Two busloads and numerous cars
full of area residents took part in
the Luzerne County Conservation
District’s Seventh Annual Farm
Tour on Saturday.
The tour stopped first at the apple
orchard of Benjamin Spencer on the
top of the Plymouth-Larksville
Mountain, just beyond the Jackson
Township line.
The homestead is surrounded by
grassy mounds speckled with apple
and plum trees and overlooks the
valley. The Spencer farm has been
passed from father to son as are
many farms in the area, and Mr.
Spencer has spent 60 years in the
homestead and orchard. There are
20 acres of apple trees, more than
1,000 trees of McIntosh, Delicious,
Northern Spy, Red Spy, Ida Red
and others and more than 100 prune
trees.
At one time, cider was made on
the farm. The cider press is still
there, but no longer in use.
Leaving the Spencer farm, the
group visited the Manzoni Brothers
Farm where the family has main-
tained its 265-acre dairy farm for
more than 100 years. John, Francis
and Alfred Manzoni are presently
engaged in the daily operation con-
sisting of 130 head of a variety of
breeds with milking cows.
The Manzonis have used a
number of conservation practices to
insure their acreage protection
since 1966 and were selected by
Luzerne County District’s Board of
Directors as recipients of the 1986
Cooperator of the Year Award.
Following the stop at the Manzoni
farm, the group traveled to the
Centermoreland United Methodist
Church where they partook of an
old-fashioned buffet lunch prepared
by Betty Weaver, who prepares
(See FARMS, page 4)
Honor and pride reigns once again
for the award winning Dallas Area
Band as the marching Mountaineers
remain undefeated in ‘“The Battle of
the Bands’ competition sponsored
by the Arthritis Foundation held at
Wilkes-Barre Memorial Stadium.
Upon its victorious return to the
Back Mountain Sunday night, the
band was given an escort by the
Dallas and Shavertown fire compa-
nies.
Performing in Group I, which
consists of up to 45 playing mem-
bers, the band won first place with
a score of 63.3. It was also awarded
specialty trophies for Best Music
and Best Band Front in their
respective group. There were eight
bands competing in Group I.
The band is under the direction of
Steven Saive and is led onto the
field by Drum Majors Kristen
McHenry and Patricia Chismer.
Dallas Area will have its next
competition on Sunday, Oct. 12, at
Wilkes-Barre Memorial Stadium
with G.A.R. as the host band.
A Harveys Lake home was gutted
late Monday afternoon by fire that
may have resulted from a spark
from a woodstove.
The residence of Charles Dolloff,
P.O. Box 123, Harveys Lake, was
completely destroyed by the blaze
that broke out at approximately
3:15 p.m. No one was injured and
firefighters had the situation under
control by 4:30 p.m.
The Daniel C. Roberts Fire com-
pany of Harveys Lake and the
Kunkle Fire Department responded
to the alarm.
Wakin’ up with Willard
Lake-Lehman Band Director John Miliauskas poses with
Willard Scott of NBC's ‘‘Today’’ show on Public Square,
Wilkes-Barre last Wednesday. Scott, in town as part of The
Times Leader's Lecture Series at the F.M. Kirby Center for
the Performing Arts, did the national weather broadcast from
Public Square that day. Scott, who work a Lehman Band hat
during his national broadcast, called the Lake-Lehman Band
“‘the best high school band in America."’
By JOHN HOINSKI
Staff Writer
The Kingston Township Police
Department, in conjunction with the
Exploring Division of the Penn
Mountains Council, Boy Scouts of
America, recently announced plans
to organize an Explorer Post pro-
gram that will afford high school
students a chance to learn about
law enforcement.
The program, which began
approximately five years ago in
large Metropolitan areas, will now
be offered for high school students
who might be interested in a career
in some area of law enforcement.
“The program will involve stu-
dents from Wyoming Valley West,
Dallas and Lake-Lehman,”’ said Bob
Belles, exploring executive. ‘What
we are doing is career exploring
involving co-ed youth. We did sur-
veys involving kids from the three
schools and asked them to fill out a
questionnaire. Rating from 1-3, we
asked them to circle the number
that would indicate their degree of
interest in law enforcement with 1
being the highest.
“We had 80 kids circle 1, then we
added another 20 from those who
circled two.”
Supervisors
schedule
clean-up
The Kingston Township Board of
Supervisors remind Township resi-
dents that the annual fall cleanup
will be held at the Township Mainte-
nance Building located on East
Center Street on Friday and Satur-
day, October 10 and 11, from 7 a.m.
to 6 p.m. each day.
Items not permitted to be dis-
posed of include washers, dryers,
refrigerators, television sets, hot
water heaters, boilers, furnaces,
stoves or large appliances. No tree
stumps, concrete or rock, or house-
hold garbage.
The first meeting will be held on
Tuesday, October 14, at 7 p.m. at
the Kingston Township Municipal
building in Trucksville, and will be
open to all high school students 14 to
20 years of age.
The program is the first of this
sort in the Back Mountain and will
run for an hour or two once every
one or two weeks for approximately
eight or nine months.
“This is new territory,” Belles
said. “But it has been successful in
the past. Eventually what we're
hoping for is a ‘cluster’, that is,
students from different communi-
ties with similar interests getting
together. Then we could take them
on tours to different places like the
state police barracks or the commu-
nication center at the court house to
see how different areas of law
enforcement work.”
Kingston Township Police Chief
Paul Sabol will primarily run the
program, acting as an overseer.
‘When I was first approached
about the program, I thought it was
a good idea,’’Sabol stated. “So I sat
down with Fred (Potzer, township
manager) and we discussed how it
would be run.”
Potzer said the class would
mainly consist of a seminar-type
setting with members of the Back
Mountain Police Association as well
as others who specialize in a partic-
ular field, coming in as guest speak-
ers.
Inside The Post
Births ........... sensed
Calendar .......... 15,16
Classified ......... 13,14
Cookbook ............... 8
Entertainment ....... 2
In Our Town ......... 6
Obituaries .......... “i2
iPeople .......:........ 12
Property ir transfers 3
School ............ verve 14
Sports. ..........:: 9,10,11