D h A J 4 page 12 Teams ready for Old Shoe game The Perfect Wedding page 8 Vol. 100 No. 44 "A Centennial Edition" Dallas, PA Wednesday, November 8, 1989 35 Cents Minimum wage hike " “okay here By SCOTT A. DAVIS Post Staff An increase in the minimum wage from $3.35 to $4.25 per hour by 1991 draws generally favor- able comments in the Back Moun- tain. | Many businesspersons in the Back Mountain have expressed pleasure with the rate hike. Shav- ertown McCrory's associate Janet Tracy said she not only agrees with the rate hike, but does not [hink the hike was high enough. N ccording to her, the cost of living has grown way out of proportion to the present $3.35 minimum wage. “The wage increase should have been more,” Tracy said. Neil Bilek, owner of the Trucksville Pharmacy, agrees the rate hike should be higher, but said he believes if the rate contin- ues to raise past that $4.25 level, fewer employers would hirelower income workers. { Bilek also sees the increase as \ > way for businesses to raise prices. “A substantial increase is necessary, but prices will increase sao “ato compensate.” Bilek explained Li "“®that if a person is paid more, they will have to pay more money to Jourchase things with their in- EN creased wages. “People will spend | more of their increased rates to pay for their increase,” he ex- plained. = ‘ Bilek said he has reservations about a training clause included with the rate hike. The clause allows businesspeople to hire workers under 19 years old to work for a training period at a wage lower than minimum. Bilek said the length allowance for the training period is very important. He said that if the training period is for a short period of time, such as two weeks, the clause is good. It would give employers a chance “to train new workers how to do their job without losing money during the training period. But, Bilek points out, if the training period is too long or not specified, workers could be taken advantage of. A person might be hired when he is 16 years old and earn under minimum wage until he turns 20 if there is no limit placed on the training time. Tracy said she believes the training period is a good step. She said workers often start a job and quit after working only a few days. The training period could act as a testing ground for new employees. She said the length of the training period could be a factor, but if kept below sixty days the clause is an improvement. Even with all the discussion (@occurring regarding the minimum \ hike, Bilek said he does not expect the change to effect the Back Mountain as much as larger areas. Bilek attributed his belief to the low local unemployment rate, - which is at four percent; and the fact that most people in this area seek jobs paying above minimum wage now. “This area will not really be affected,” Bilek concluded. Head-Em Up, Move-Em Out Sterling Wagner of Country Club Rd. in Dallas, like many other Back Mountain residents, rustles up the rest of the season’s leaves. (Photo by Charlotte Bartizek) Power outage disrupts businesses and individuals By CHARLOT M. DENMON Staff Writer : A three hour power outage af- fected more than 2,500 Back Mountain UGI customers last Sunday in areas of Dallas, Shaver- town and Trucksville. The outage, which hit about 9:30 a.m., left customers without power over a critical time of the day. Businesses as well as residents suffered hardship from the outage since the power was off during Sunday breakfast hours through lunch at 12:30 p.m. Joseph Rymar, manager of consumer relations at UGI, said downed wires on Route 309 near: the Hess Service Station were suspected to be the original cause of the outage as well as the distri- bution of power by the starting and stopping points of wire. It was also reported that several transformers were shorted out during that time. “The company takes every step possible to assure reliable service but unfortunately, we cannot fore- see what can happen due to storms such as lightning, accidents and other events of nature,” Rymar said. Rymar also agreed that small animals sometimes manage to get in the transformers and also short them out. Numerous businesses were af- fected by the outage, and although it wasn't easy, managed to cope with lack of power over the three hour period. The Jersey Shore Restaurant in Dallas had power and Rea & Der- ick was without power for only a few seconds, but the Acme Market in Dallas was without power throughout. “For about the first hour we had some bad moments,” said one of _ the managers, “But we switched to our emergency power and then switched our computers to battery power, so we were in fairly good shape after that.” Bob Fino of Fino's Pharmacy said his lights flickered off and on several times so he turned off his computers in the event the power was off longer. “Last Monday night, however, the power went off at 10 p.m. and it was still off after 11:30 p.-m.,” Fino said. “A customer leav- ing the store Sunday saw two squirrels in the transformer a short way up Machell Avenue and it blew up, killing the animals,” Fino said. Many residents on Machell Avenue and on the side streets off Machell were inconvenienced when they were unable to use any of their electric appliances, or their electric stoves. Many of them de- layed their dinner until evening. Tom Mertz, manager of Weis Markets, said the store's power went off but they switched to their emergency generator for lighting and for their scanner. “We covered our frozen stuff and produce with cardboard and we kept our freezer doors shut in order to keep the items in the freezers from thawing. Our clerks helped customers find items while the power was off,” Mertz said. See POWER, pg 3 Salary dispute led to Dallas manager's final resignation By CHARLOT M. DENMON Staff Writer ro Kathryn Strosnider resigned officially as Dallas Borough man- ager after being rebuffed in her request for an increase in pay she said was justified by the growing needs of the job. : Following abudget meeting with the Council last Thursday. Strosnider, who had previously told council she would resign when they voted against paying her overtime for training new clerks, was asked by council to reconsider her deci- sion until the council had an- nounced its 1990 budget. Ms. Strosnider had prepared the budget and although she did not have all the figures from the coun- cil members, said she had a bal- anced budget for the members to evaluate. Strosnider said that in going over the new budget, council members changed it so much they were lacking funds that some of them felt necessary to provide municipal services. Among the items reduced was a $10,000 sal- ary for the borough manager, which was substantiated by Strosnider because she said the borough position has now become a full time job. “The borough has changed over the past year,” Strosnider said Monday night. “The taxes of the residents pay my salary and I felt they deserved my attention when they called about problems. The ‘position as manager requires more than sitting in the office typing letters in today's world. “There is recycling which we See DISPUTE, pg 3 Traffic light may go up over Kingston Twp. objections By SCOTT A. DAVIS" Post Staff It appears the traffic light pro- posed for the intersection of Hill- side Road and Route 309 in King- ston Township will be installed, with or without the approval of Kingston Township. That was the view of Kingston Township Manager Jeffrey Box Monday. “I assume (the lights) are going to go in there at some point,” Box said, "regardless of what the township decides.” In August, the Pennsylvania De- partment of Transportation and Luzerne County asked Kingston Township to submit a request for the lights at the intersection, but the township has repeatedly stated \ the lights are not immediately nec- essary. PennDOT, however, denied in late October they ever entered into an agreement with the county. PennDOT said they only agreed to install pipe conduit at the inter- section while doing reconstruction work on Route 309 in the area. According to PennDOT, they of- fered to install the conduit so that if the lights were installed, the new roadway would not need to be torn up. The light proposal is unprece- dented in the county; in all prior installations the cost and mainte- nance of traffic lights was the re- sponsibility of the municipality. But, for the Kingston Township light proposal the state and county ‘have offered to fund installation and maintenance of the lights. The See LIGHT, pg 2 HL awaits water test results from Harrisburg By SCOTT A. DAVIS Post Staff Harveys Lake is still awaiting results from the state Department of Environmental Resources re- garding tests run on the area's drinking water. The results have not returned from labs in Harris- burg and are expected in by next week. DER’s Bureau of Water Quality took samples of water from wells in the Warden Place section of the lake last week, and has sent the samples to Harrisburg for study. The studies are being done in hopes of locating the source of bacteria Calendar....... 16 Classified.13-15 Editorials........ 4 Obituaries......2" that have contaminated the drink- ing water of area residents upto eighty times the safe drinking limit. William Mann, a Warden Place resident, has supplied DER with a map of the area. The 36"x 30" map depicts all the homes along First, Second, Orchard, and Kitchen streets. The map also shows the depth of the homes’ wells, and is accompanied by a brief history of each home's contamination. The map, along with results from the water tests will be given to a geologist by DER. The geologist will then try to determine what the source of the contamination may be and what steps must be taken to clean up the water. 2 2 Ss Police Repo FE 2 Religious Services......8 School.........cs..... 10-11 SPOS. (ici ieiniionss 12-13 Coming up: DALLAS TOWNSHIP SUPERVISORS - Wed, Nov. 8, 8 PM, Dallas Twp. Bldg., Route 309 DALLAS SCHOOL BOARD - Mon., Church St. Nov. 13, 8 PM, Administration Bldg., JACKSON TOWNSHIP MUNICIPAL AUTHORITY -Mon., Nov. 13, 7PM, Jackson Twp. Fire Hall KINGSTON TOWNSHIP PLANNING COMMISSION - Tues., Nov. 14, 8 PM, Kingston Twp. Municipal Bldg. LAKE TOWNSHIP SUPERVISORS - Sat, Nov. 11, 9 AM, Lake Twp. Municipal Bldg., Route 29 LAKE-LEHMAN SCHOOL BOARD - Tues., Nov. 14, 8:30 PM LEHMAN TOWNSHIP SUPERVISORS - Mon., Nov. 13, 8 PM, Lehman Twp. Municipal Bldg. a ER re ASE a a a RA a 3 PE aor ER EE me = Se A Ebi Er Pre etn ¥ Ll pl 18 il it i i H 3 CE eas a a -.
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