Vol. 103 No. 3 2 ALLAS / AR OST Dallas, PA Wednesday, November 18, 1992 35 Cents \ By BILL HARPER Post Staff With over $100,000 in overdue accounts, the Dallas Area Munici- pal Authority (DAMA) and member towns don’t all agree on how to collect the money. About 800 of the 6,400 households that are serviced by DAMA's gar- bage and recycling program are delinquent in payment to the au- thority, owing a total of $103,979. Tom Bagley, DAMA's executive di- rector, says it's up to member municipalities to collect the money, but Kingston Township manager Jeffrey Box disagrees. Bagley said that under a service agreement between the authority and it's members, DAMA can bill the municipalities in order to make up any shortfall. But Box said the agreement calls for DAMA to bring the money in. “The service agreement between DAMA and the municipalities gives the responsibility for collecting on all delinquent accounts to the authority,” Box said. Attorney Theodore Krohn, who serves as solicitor for Dallas Bor- ough, said Tuesday that under the service agreement, DAMA can call on the municipalities to collect on delinquent accounts. Each mu- nicipality can then require individ- ual homeowners to pay the money which is owed. Dallas Township solicitor Frank Townend said that a 10 percent de- linquency rate was acceptable and expected. Bagley says the current overdue amount is lower than the 15 per- cent delinquency earlier this year. “In July, we reported 1,700 cus- tomers were delinquent, that fig- ure is now down to around 800,” Bagley said. “We originally figured that five percent of our bills would be delin- quent, and nationally, there is a five to eight percent delinquency rate,” Bagley said. Box said that DAMA has no spe- cific pool of money to help pay for delinquent accounts. Lacking such a reserve, the authority has taken some steps to collect the money which is owed to it. DAMA collects garbage and recy- | clable materials in Dallas Borough, Dallas Township, and Kingston 1 Township. The authority alsoisre- | sponsible for sewer service in those | towns as well as Lehman and | Jackson townships. Some of the non-payers are among | those who have protested the DAMA | program from it's start in 1991, claiming that the authority lacks | the right to tell people who will pick | | See DAMA, pg 3 Trash fees come up $100,000 short Pizze Perfect Restaurant Lights, more in road plan By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff Kingston Twp. Municipal Bldg. Trucksville XR | Pharmacy i | A} {] | "gp" Service Station Trucksville Volunteer Fire Co. Motorists using routes 309 and 415 in the Back Mountain can expect to see major improvements and traffic lights at eight intersections, if plans unveiled at Scouts sail rake George. Page 6. [ 3 Citizens' the Transportation Management o Association meeting Thursday, | Council Sponsors November 12, are approved. | Even more impressive, the proposed $2.5 million project will be funded totally by state and federal grants. Construction could begin as early as the end of 1993, according to Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) officials. Plans call for installation of traffic lights on Route 309 at Hillside Road, Carverton Road, Franklin Street, Main Road at Offset Paperback and the Center Hill/ Upper Demunds/Hildebrandt home beautification award. Page 5. { 5cHOOL or Lt | CARVERTON ROAD INTERSECTION BORTON-LAUJSON ENGINEERING : HERE'S THE PLAN - Big changes are planned for several Back See HIGHWAY, pg 14 Mountain intersections. Above, an engineer's drawing of the Carver- ton Road/Route 309 intersection shows additional lanes and lights.Several other spots will receive similar treatment. A9H0UOYH SEE 94 L C661 |} J8QUIBAON ABPSOUPSM Vd SEIEd € Sherlock Holmes comes to Dallas High stage. Page 8. SPORTS Black Knights win quarterfinal soccer match. Sports page. Dallas ioses field ®ocicy playoff in over- time. Sports page. Early deadlines fr next issue. All news and advertising copy should be in by 3:00 p.m. Friday, November 20. Our office will be closed at 2:00 p.m. Wednesday, November 25 and all day Thursday and Friday, November 26-27. 14 Pages 1 Section Calendar................ 8 Classified........ 12-13 Editorials................ 4 Obituaries............ 11 Police report.......... 2 Property transfers..2 School............o0ve... 7 (oF VB IY ETHVA BR . FOR HOME DELIVERY, NEWS OR ADVERTISING _ Area man finds his Irish roots By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff Many people are interested in their family's origins; a few have the good fortune to actually track down their ancestors. Dallas resident Dr. Sidney J. Curran, a retired orthopedic sur- geon, has not only traced his fam- ily 200 years back to Ireland, but also has found what he believes to be credible historic accounts of the events which prompted one branch of the family to immigrate. He recently located a chronicle of the Potato Famine, Paddy's La- ment, by Thomas Gallagher, which he believes to be one of the most authentic accounts of the disas- ter. “It's written by an Irishman, not an Englishman,” he said. “The English tended to gloss over the scope of the famine, which killed at least two million Irish peasants.” Dr. Curran began tracing his family tree several years ago, a task complicated by the poorly kept church records in Ireland and the destruction of most census rec- ords in a fire in Dublin in 1922. He found that the Curran branch of the family originated in County Clare, where their records date back to the 1790's, while the Ti- erney branch of the family immi- grated from Ballyluby in County Tipperary in 1851 to escape the ravages of the Potato Famine. “The English had been discrimi- nating against the Irish peasantry since the time of Elizabeth I, deny- ing them decent farmland to raise their own food and treating them worse than dogs,” he said. “Although they produced sheep, cattle, chickens, pigs and different grains on their landlords’ farms, they weren't allowed to eat them.” Under English law, these crops were shipped directly to England, leaving the Irish only potatoes to eat. See IRISH, pg 14 By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff and a photographic astronomy professor meteors.” With the installation of a new telescope at the Penn State Lehman campus, area residents can now slip the bonds of Earth to see other planets in our solar system and many wonders of space — all without leaving the Back Mountain. The telescope was introduced to the public in a “First Light” ceremony Wednesday, November 11, which featured tours of the Friedman Observatory space tour narrated by Walter compensating for the rainy night which prevented opening the dome to use the new telescope. “People have some strange telescopes,” Bennett said. “They can't see through clouds. We don't use them to look at the jet planes coming into and out of the airport at Avoca, or A PEEK AT THE UNIVERSE - Astronomy professor Walter Bennett shows Paul Luksa how to look through Penn State’s new telescope. (Post Photo/Grace R. Dove) Penn State telescope adds range But that doesn't mean the new instrument can't accomplish wondrous things. “Our new telescope is so sensitive that it can read a Baby Ben alarm clock two miles away,” Bennet said. As slides of the planets flashed onto the screen, children in the audience gasped and whispered the names of those that they recognized. commentary interesting facts: Jupiter's cloud bands look like surrealistic paint swirls when seen close-up. Its Great Red Spot is actually a mega-hurricane at least 200 Bennett's Bennett, years old. ideas about Saturn and Jupiter, with their many small moons, resemble mini-solar systems. Uranus looks like a pale green pearl, while distant Pluto is only a pinpoint in the sky. included many See TELESCOPE, pg 3 Teachers help Sook. food bank By BILL HARPER Post Staff Organizations are lending a hand to the area's needy this 3 holiday season by supporting local charities with food and fundraising | drives. The Back Mountain Food Bank in Trucksville recently received assistance from a food drive sponsored by local teachers. “The Dallas Education Association does three community |! service projects ayear, one of them being the food drive which we have completed for the Back Mountain Food Bank,” association president William Wagner said. “People need to be aware of the food bank es because there are needy families in the Back Mountain.” Food bank co-coordinator Kathy i! Barlow said that the charity is oh RE AE based at the Trucksville United Methodist Church and serves an area from Trucksville to Sweet Valley. “We require a community effort in order to keep the food bank's shelves stocked,” Barlow said. Barlow said that the food bank. welcomes both individual and. corporate donations. The food bank can be contacted by calling. the Trucksville United Methodisé Church at 696-3897. Project coordinator Joan Makowski said that although drives in the past did involve students, the teachers did all of the collecting on this drive. She believes that this has a positive affect on all students in the district. “Teachers need to be role models for their students, and I believe that we can help to motivate them to do community service,” | Makowski said. : Makowski said that people who need assistance from the foodbank | must be referred by a business, school district or pastor. Barlow said that the food bank requires this so that an accounting can be ~ See FOOD, pg 14
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