2 3 5.0 | RET OR 3 id Ferrer 3 NTT TIRE x ren BT RATE = ah oo —— a ex JiR a big % bain 1 PETTY TRUAAL VERZAnhaWI IZ eR IIA SFT ; Tie SPDALLASCPoSsT A Publication of Pennaprint, Inc. DAVID F. CONNER General Manager DEBBY HIGGINS Editor Off the top BY DEBBY HIGGINS Dallas Post Editor Most Back Mountain residents are quite aware of the rapid growth rate of our many areas on the west side of the river. Planning commissions, local governments, and zoning officials are some- times painfully aware of the rapidity of the growth and the problems that arise when that expansion superceeds the existing regulations concerning growth. Our founding fathers saw the need to include in their many plans ~ for this country, a pattern for future expansion that would address potential problems before they actually became problems. Some had difficulty believing things would come to that point but 50 or 60 years down the road, they were glad they had had the foresight to . think about them all those years before. In the January 6th issue of The Dallas Post, staff reporter Bonnie Dombroski, wrote that Jackson Township supervisors were consid- ering a state grant to be used for recreational purposes. What that should mean is that everyone who lives in the township may be in store for a park or an athletic field or a recreational area of some sort which would be a benefit to the general population. And from this point of view, that’s a good thing because an area that is ever- increasing its population needs to provide recreational parks, as well as other community oriented locations for residents. Unfortunately, this is sometimes long in coming and currently, state and federal monies are not as readily available as before to provide the funds necessary to build these parks. But the demand still exists. And residents should not have to go outside their general neighborhood to satisfy that demand. ~ The sad fact remains that many areas have not anticipated rampant growth and the plans that should have addressed future growth were not in place way back when. If a municipality is lucky enough to procure a grant, plans must be in effect to utilize that ~ money so that it affords optimum benefit. Many stipulations concerning the grant money must be adhered to and one of those stipulations is time. Getting the money is one thing, using it wisely in the alloted time is another-without the pre-planning. Three cheers for Jackson Township! Here’s hoping you get your grant. Here’s hoping residents will someday soon have a park or athletic field to enjoy. But along with the encouragement comes a little preachy advise: don’t let the thought of $50,000 throw you. Use that money, when it - comes, to make life a little nicer for the people who live in that neighborhood. It sure will make many people happy. Feulner morns super-stars’ passing BY EDWIN FEULNER Special to The Post Some months back, Steve Glass, a reader from St. Louis, dropped me a note mourning the passing of Fred Astaire, his | ‘favorite superstar of show biz.” The note has been sitting on my desk nagging me ever since. With the exception of Milton Berle, George Burns, and a ~ handful of others, all of the people who brought us se much joy over the years - Jimmy Durante, Bing Crosby, W.C. Fields, the Marx Brothers, Rudy Valley - are gone now. The names are really unim- portant. The operative word in the sentence above is ‘‘joy.” And that’s what’s been on my mind in the months since I received Steve Glass’ letter. Americans seem to have lost the capacity to have fun the way they used to. Instead of song-and-dance men and women, of course, such as Ginger Rogers and Gracie Allen - we have an entertainment industry today more preoccu- pied with promoting causes (usually left-wing) than enter- taining. With what special qualities are the Jane Fondas of the world endowed - other than good teeth and great bodies - that they should be invited to testify as ‘“‘experts’ before Congress? Making a $25 million movie about a struggling farm family does not a struggling farmer make. The trouble is that these Hol- lywood goo-goos take them- selves so seriously. And Washington...well Wash- ington just fawns over them, in a comic version of Jimmy Stew- art’s classic “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” Somber-faced and deadpan serious, our elected representa- tives parade the glitter-queens and macho-men - all properly sensitized to the issues of the day, of course - into their cham- bers for a ritualistic perform- ance that (Surprise!) will some- how be deemed newsworthy enough for the network news. P. R. directors meet The public relations directors of the five area colleges met recently for a luncheon at the Educational Conference Center of Luzerne County Community College for the purpose of reviewing upcoming plans of the Greater Wyoming Valley Council of Presidents. Thomas J. Moran, president of Luzerne County Community College presided over the meeting and gave an overview of future plans of the Council. Among those in attendance for the meeting are, from left, seated, Jane Manganella, Wilkes College; and Phyllis Belk, Penn State Lehman Cmapus. Standing, Linda Stallone,” College Misericordia; Ray Burd, King's College; Marianne Puhalla, Penn State Lehman Campus; and Pauline Carmody, LCCC. Rooney hates surprises BY ANDY ROONEY Special to The Post Why is it that everything always costs more than we think it’s going to? How come we never get used to that fact and figure it in when we take money out of our pockets to pay for something? We all know about the taxes on everything we buy. Why does it come as a surprise that taxes are added on to the price we see advertised? It may be unfair for us to expect people operating a retail business to absorb the tax and count it in when they write the price on a tag but that’s what I wish they’d do. I hate surprises. I wish the price I see advertised in the papers, listed on the menu or written on the price tag attached to the item, included the tax I'm going to have to pay. We call the plumber or the electrician or the television repairman, and we’re invariably astounded at what he charges. We. aren’t surprised that we’re making $50,000 a year but we’re surprised that the oil furnace repairman expects to make a living, too. We're shocked that, in order to make $35,000 working a 40-hour week with some hours he can’t charge to customers, he has to ask $25 an hour for his time. It doesn’t matter to a repairman that, when he arrives to fix our television set, he finds the only problem is that someone, while vacuuming the living room, pulled the plug to the TV set out of the wall and forgot to put the plug back in. Nowhere is the final amount we have to pay more surprising than in a good restaurant. The steak is listed on hte menu at $16. You're probably with someone so you double that and figure you can get ut of the restaurant for twice that plus a few dollars. Maybe $49. You have a drink first, a salad, dessert and coffee. The waiter gets 5 percent. By the time you get out of the place, the dinner costs you not $40 but $63. When I eat in a restaurant, I always guess what the check is going to be when I see the waiter coming with it. In all my years of eating out several times a week for either lunch or dinner, I have never...never...been surprised by a check that was less than I thought it was going to be. We all know about cars. We all know that there are always additions to the list price. If you want your car with wheels and an engine, they are extra. No matter how many cars we buy, we're still surprised when the final amount we have to pay for a $15,000 car is $18,230.84. The worst experience for a young married couple is finally realizing how much the $150,000 house is actually going to cost them. By the time the banks (there are usually several), the real estate agent, the surveyor and several lawyers take their piece of the action, the couple usually has bought a house they can’t afford. The trouble with having to pay more than you expect for everything is that when you get paid for anything yourself, it’s always less, not more, than you thought you had coming. If you've ever stood in a line with people picking up their paychecks, you've watched while one person after another gets the check, rips open the envelope and looks at it shaking his or or her head. Employees know about Social Security, they know about taxes and deductions for medical benefits but they can never believe that they have so little left when the paycheck comes. I yearn for a world where you get what you pay for and you pay. what is asked for, nothing more. I want all the prices to be in even numbers and to include local, state and federal taxes. Nothing will cost $1.99 or $199. Any gas station advertising unleaded regular for $1.29.9 instead of the real price, $1.30, will be fined ge. 99.9 and they’ll have to pay it in exact change. Trees offered The National Arbor Day Foun- dation is giving 10 free trees to each person who becomes a Foundation member during Jan- uary, 1988. The six to 12 inch trees will be shipped postage paid with enclosed planting instructions at the right time for planting this spring. The Foundation makes its spring shipments between February 1 and May 31. The National Arbor Day Foun- dation, a nonprofit organization, is working to improve the qual- ity of life throughout the coun- try by encouraging tree plant- ing. The Foundation will give the 10 free trees to eac member contributing $10 during January. To become a member of the Foundation and to receive the free trees, a $10 membership contribution should be sent to Ten Trees, National Arbor Day Foundation, 100 Arbor Avenue, Nebraska City, NE 68410 by January 31, 1988. What's news? If you're a Social Security bene- ficiary, you should receive a Social Security Benefit State- ment (Form SSA-1099) in the mail sometime this month. The form shows the amount of Social Security benefits you received or repaid in 1987. You should use the form to help you figure whether any of your Social Security benefits are sub- ject to Federal Income tax. Most Social Security benefi- ciaries do not have to pay any Federal income tax on their Social Security benefits. If your Social Security check is your largest source of income, you probably won’t owe any tax on your benefits. But if you have substantial income in addition to your Social Security benefits, up to half of your annual Social Security benefits may be sub- ject to Federal income tax. Your Social Security benefits may be taxable if your taxable income plus your non-taxable interest plus half of your Social Security benefits exceeds the base amount. The base amounts are $25,000 if you are single, $32,000 if you are married and file a joint return; or $0 if you are married, live with your spouse at any time during the year, and file separate returns. Included with your benefit statement will be an IRS Notice 703. This notice includes a work- sheet you can use to get an idea if any of your benefits may be taxable. If you are married and you and your spouse will file a joint return, be sure to combine your incomes and your Social Security benefits when you fill out the worksheet. If you have any questions about the worksheet or how to figure your taxable income, call any IRS office. The phone num- bers of IRS offices are listed on the back of the Notice 703. If you have any questions about the information on the SSA-1099, you can call any Social Security office. *kk The Wilkes-Barre Family ‘Y’, a United Way Agency, has planned a full schedule of exer- cise classes for the winter. The following classes will be offered: Circuit Weight Train- ing; Early Bird Fitness; The Abdominal Workshop; Noon Challenge; Aqua Aerobics; Yoga and Belly dancing. For more information con- cerning these classes call the Wilkes-Barre Family YMCA. dk The Census Bureau will visit area residents January 19-23 to collect data on the labor force, according to LaVerne Vines Co ih lins, director of the bureau’s Philadelphia office. This month the agency also is collecting data on displaced workers-those who have lost a job in the past five years because of a plant closing, elim- ination of a shift, or a job cutback for various reasons. The local data will contribute to January’s national employ- ment and unemployment BE. ture to be released February by the Bureau of Labor Statis- tics. The Census Bureau collects labor force data monthly for the BLS from a national sample of) ol ay 71,000 households. Information supplied by individuals is kept confidential by law. Only statis- tical totals are published. The most recent data showed a national civilian unemploy- ment rate of 5.9 percent in November 1987, meaning that 7.1 million workers out of a labor force of 120.6 million did not have jobs. kkk Actor, writer, lecturer an€is karate expert Chuck Norris will serve as chairman for the Vet- erans Administration 1988 National Salute to Hospitalized Veterans. In announcing the appoint- ment, VA Administrator Thomas K. Turnage said, “We are delighted Chuck has agreed to help the VA pay special tribute to our hospitalized veter- ans.” The National Salute program, Sunday, Feb. 7, and increase community awareness of hospi- talized veterans and encourages community leaders and celebri- begins with an Open House sh | he i 8 ties to visit the Wilkes-Barre VA Medical Center. The Post asks: Do you faver mandatory AIDS education? ROBERT ROBERTS Robert Roberts L-L Assistant Principal “Very much in favor of the AIDS virus educatioin being mandatory in the school system. The sooner students are made aware of its seriousness the better but they should be taught according to age level.” FLORENCE FINN Florence Finn L-L Guidance Counselor “After attending conferences on the AIDS virus, I'm very much in favor of it being included in the health education courses. The best way to defeat the problem is by prevention through advice. A good place to begin teaching the students is about sixth grade.” JERIS BARANOWSKI LINDA SCOTT Jeris Baranowski Linda Scott L-L Faculty member L-L Health & Phys Ed “It should be mandatory for the protection of the students. Most of them believe it won’t happen at Lake-Lehman and today there are too many sex- ually active youth. I think it should be included in all health education courses with subject matter governed by age level.” “I'm in favor of the AIDS virus subject being mandatory in health education and I also believe that the earlier students are taught ways in which to prevent the disease the better, probably as early as fourth grade.” KENNETH MACIAK Kenneth Maciak L-L Health & Phys Ed “I’m very much in favor of it being made a mandatory topic and the subject should be taught beginning at the elementary level and reinforced through the grades.” MICHAEL TOOLE Michael Toole L-L Home & School Visitor “A course in AIDS and its prevention is one of the most important programs needed now. It should begin in the intermediate grades as children are becoming more sexually active. Too many believe “It won’t happen to me”, they don’t realize the seriousness.” | B ¥ i ng Nd f 1 s Wh 73 INC of = XL 3 3 4 ' t |)
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers