» 2); SERVING THE BACK MOUNTAIN INN (rs ~The Dallas Post FOR MORE THAN A CENTURY Vol. 104 No. 8 Dallas, PA Wednesday, February 24, 1993 j 35 Cents Inside Story are just around the «corner, Page 2, Oil recycling available here. Page 2. Empire Brass coming to Kirby. Page 9. | SPORTS Basketball showdown as Dallas meets Lake- Lehman Thursday night. Sports page. Lady Knights lose close game to Meyers. Sports page. Red Cross Blood drive Thurs., Feb. 25, 11 a.m.- 5 p.m., Dallas United Methodist Church. Call 823-7164 for appoint- ments. 14 Pages 1 Section Calendatl................ 9 Classified........ 12-13 Editorials................ 4 Obituaries............ 12 School..............o.. (of \M YEE PAR FOR HOME DELIVERY, - NEWS OR ADVERTISING By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff Generous Back Mountain resi- dents attempting to help the needy by leaving donations of used cloth- ing in blue collection bins proba- bly don't realize that they aren't helping any local charities. In- stead, they are providing revenue for a company on Long Island that sells the clothes to rag dealers and donates a small portion of the profits to a storefront mission in Queens. All clothing is shipped to New York, for the benefit of two chari- ties located in Queens and Brooklyn, operated by one con- gregation. Not one stitch of these donated clothes goes on anyone's back; all of it is sold to a commercial rag dealer. And the two out-of-state chari- ties aren't registered with the Pennsylvania Bureau of Chari- table Organizations, although the Pennsylvania Department of State says that they should be. Conspicuous stickers on each padlocked bin proclaim: “Help the needy. Clothing for the benefit of the hungry and needy,” with the name of the owner, U.S.A. Leas- ing, and two telephone numbers, one toll-free and the other on Long Island, underneath. “Congregation Nachlas Ma- haran,” on a sticker on the back of each bin, isn't listed in the tele- phone directory of any municipal- ity in the greater New York metro- politan area. “These things are being dropped by the thousands all over Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania,” said Col. Raymond Howell, com- mander of the Salvation Army's regional rehabilitation center for POST PHOTO/GRACE R. DOVE WANTS TO CHANGE PLEA - Dallas Township resident Stephen Schwartz, flanked by two prison guards, leaves the courtroom after a hearing Monday, January 22, to withdraw his plea of guilty in the shooting death of Deborah VanLeuven. Schwartz says he was forced to plead guilty By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff Claiming that public defenders Ferris Webby and Louis Bott had been ineffective in advising him to plead guilty to shooting his for- mer girlfriend to death, convicted murderer Stephen G. Schwartz appeared in court February 22 before Luzerne County Judge Hugh Mundy, requesting a new plea and a new trial. In requesting that his original plea be changed to not guilty, Schwartz alleged that Webby and Bott had threatened and coerced him into pleading guilty to a gen- eral charge of homicide in abench trial (without a jury) before Mundy in May, 1992. Mundy had found Schwartz guilty of homicide, which carries a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment without parole. He also was convicted of theft and receiving stolen property for flee- ing the murder scene in Ms. Women's Network seeks Pathfinder Award nominees The Wyoming Valley Women's Network is seeking nominees for the 1993 Pathfinder Awards which will be presented June 5 at the Ninth Annual Luzerne County Women's Conference, to be held on the Wilkes-Barre Campus of Penn State at Lehman. Established in 1985, the Pathfinder Award recogiizes women of this county who have challenged the traditional assumptions of women's roles and have blazed new (rails. Nominations may be submitted by any person or organization. The deadline is April 15. All entries ust include the name, address and information about the nominee's background, including details which would qualify the candidate for selection as a Pathfinder Award recipient. Nominations should be sent to the Wyoming Valley Women's Network, c¢/o Esther Gutin, Pathfinder Chairperson, 45 Mallery Place, Wilkes-Barre. Last year's Pathfinder Awards went to Judge Ann Lokula, the first woman elected to the bench in Luzerne County; Eleanor Miller, for her work in peace and justice issues, civil rights and women's issues; Terry McGurdy. coordinator for the National Organization for Women [or almost 15 years; and to the Luzerne County Commission for Women for its WILPOWR project aimed at placing more women in decision-making positions in county government. A special Pathfinder award for a women who does not reside in Luzerne County but who made an impact through the region was given to Mary Ann Gale, head of Proctor and Gamble in Mehoopany. Other past recipients of the award include Helen O'Connor, Phyllis Mundy, the late Ethel Price and ‘Martha Reese, all for accomplishments in the political arena; Carol Lavery, Hannah Janjigian, and Sally Jervis for leadership in community improvement; Madge Benovitz, Stephanie Wychock, Negro Women's Community League (Joyce Davis, president), Susan See PATHFINDER, pg 5 VanLeuven's car, taking her credit cards and taking the pistol used in the shooting from the home of another girlfriend, Carole Ci- makasky of Kingston. During his testimony at Mon- day's hearing, Schwartz main- tained that Bott and Webby had told him to plead guilty and follow their instructions on what to say to Mundy, threatening that they would not represent him if he See SCHWARTZ, pg 3 Little pizza makers the northeastern United States. “It's a racket: the drivers lease the bins and trucks to haul them from U.S.A. Leasing and are told to drop them off anywhere. A rag dealer pays them 10 cents per pound for all the clothing they bring back, then turns around and sells the entire lot — good, usable clothing as well as rags — for up to 25 cents a pound. The public doesn't know the differ- ence.” Howell added that Congrega- tion Nachlas Maharan is a “home synagogue” operated in somone's house in Brooklyn, with a store- Tests find lead Clothing put in blue bins is sold for rags front mission using a different name located in Queens. Mel Kushner, spokesman for U.S.A. Leasing, admitted that his’ firm isn't registered with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, although it is registered in New York. Under Pennsylvania law, any charitable organization which wishes to solicit donations in the Commonwealth and collects more that $25,000 in donations in any state must register with the Bu- See BLUE BINS, pg 14 in Dallas water By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff Tests on the water supplied by the Dallas Water Company to 40 homes in Dallas Borough and Dallas Township indicate that six homes have elevated levels of lead, according to company manager Mike Coyle. The tests, mandated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (E.P.A)), included samples from homes whose water service mains are known to contain lead and homes built between 1982 and 1986, when lead solder used to join pipes was banned by the U.S. Gasoline still in water Congress, Coyle said. The EPA's recommended maxi- mum lead level of .015 milligrams per liter was exceeded in six homes, whose lead levels ranged from .017 to .045 milligrams per liter, or more than double the limit, Coyle said. : “The owners of the homes with high lead levels have been noti- fied,” Coyle said. “We will take additional samples for testing from these homes within the next month; if we find more elevated lead levels, we'll have to begin a treatment plan.” See LEAD, pg 14 in Lehman Township By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff Eighteen months after the dis- covery of a gasoline additive in nearly a dozen wells around Lehman Center, the cleanup is expected to enter its last stage as soon as the weather breaks, ac- cording to Mark Carmon of the Wilkes-Barre office of the Penn- sylvania Department of Environ- mental Resources (DER). Tests on between 15 and 20 wells around Lehman Center during August and September, 1991 had shown abnormally high levels of the unleaded. gasoline additive MTBE. Wells at Bryant's Trailer Park on Route 118, the Maple Hill Nursing Home and the Lake- Lehman Junior High School, as well as eight or ten private resi- dences had been contaminated, Carmon said. The contamination had spread in a generally easterly direction from Lehman Sunoco, where owner George Maculloch had replaced a leaking gasoline tank in October, 1990, and was con- fined to only one aquifer (layer of water-bearing rock), Carmon said. MTBE is added to unleaded gasoline to prevent engine knock and dissolves easily in water, unlike gasoline, which floats on top of water, Carmon said. Carmon commended Mac- ulloch, who has paid for all cor- rective action so far: supplying bottled water to the school and nursing home; the drilling of two new wells, at the trailer park and the nursing home; and installa- tion of special carbon filters to remove the MTBE from the water in affected homes. “The contaminants could have been in the water a long time and it just took this long for them to show up. Ground water is a funny thing — it can move between sev- eral inches and a foot a year through the water table,” Carmon said. See WATER, pg 14 POST PHOTO/RON BARTIZEK Tiger Cub Scouts from Pack 232, Gate of Heaven tried their hand at making pizza Saturday at the Dough Company in Dallas. From left, Kevin Tanner, Phillip Engler and Carl Seitz rolled out the dough before adding sauce and toppings. The pizzas when they were finished. Scouts, their pack leaders and parents joined in enjoying the
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