SERVING THE BACK MOUNTAIN F OR MORE THAN A CENTURY * The Dallas Post » @ Vol. 104 No. 9 Dallas, PA Wednesday, March 3, 1993 | 35 Cents enn. Inside Story Playoff previews for Dallas and Lake- Lehman boys, Lehman girls. Sports page. Dance wii aid library. Page 6. Jackson cops will get a new cruiser. Page 3. 2 @ Honor Rolls for Dallas, Lehman schools. Page 8-9. Elders Emeritus non ored by Huntsville Church. Page 7. Dave Clancy helped Lehman to confer- ence title. Sports page. Indoor track comes into its own at Dallas. Sports page. INDEX. = © 16 Pages 1 Section Calendar........oe. 10 Classified........ 14-15 Editorials............... 4 Obituaries............ 14 Property transfers.2 School... 8-9 CALL 675-5211 FOR HOME DELIVERY, ~ NEWS OR ADVERTISING Three area families come to grips By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff During the past twoyears, three Back Mountain families have experienced every parent's night- mare: a child diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. Gary Shaw, 9, of Sweet Valley, Wendy Reese, 4, of Dallas and Eddie Turchin, 19, of Jackson Township have all recently faced potentially lethal ailments, each with a different result. Gary Shaw, diagnosed with the adult form of leukemia (AML) in 1988, will celebrate the second anniversary March 16 of a life- saving autologous bone-marrow transplant, in which his own bone marrow was harvested, cleansed of all cancer cells and replaced into his body. This procedure was necessary because no relatives had bone marrow that was com- patable with Gary's, according to his aunt, Mrs. Angel Barber. In 1988, Gary had undergone a grueling round of chemotherapy treatments to combat the disease at Children's Hospital in Philadel- phia, according to his grand- mother, Mrs. Sandy Shaw. But he wasn't out of the woods vet - the leukemia returned with a vengeance inJanuary, 1991. More rounds of chemotherapy, radia- tion and the bone-marrow trans- plant finally defeated the disease. “Gary's grandfather, Evan See ILLNESS, pg 3 WENDY REESE TOPSOIL VEGETATION 7 DRAINAGE HIGH DENSITY POLYETHYLENE (HDPE) LINER CLAY SAND RADIOACTIVE WASTE STORAGE SYSTEM - oy CONCRETE _. OVERPACKS ~ i oii PEA CR SAR Lay SE MONITORING GALLERY TLR 7 Dneans HORE CLAY COMPACTED BACKFILL This cross-section of a typical low-level radioactive waste disposal unit, which would cover 50 acres in the center of a 500-acre plot of land, was prepared by Chem-Nuclear Systems, Inc. Sierra Club doesn't like the plan By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff The plan to locate a low-level radioactive waste disposal facility in Pennsylvania has drawn mostly negative reaction from area citi- zen and environmental groups. The Sierra Club, a nationally- based organization with a local chapter devoted to protecting the quality of the environment and public health, has questions about such a facility, according to lob- byist Jeff Schmidt. Schmidt has represented the Sierra Club on the Pennsylvania Radioactive Waste Advisory committee for the past nine years. He believes that Chem-Nuclear Systems, Inc., the company that 4 seats open on Dallas and Lake-Lehman school boards The May 18 municipal primary election could be interesting for residents of Lake-Lehman and Dallas school districts, where four school directors in each district are up for reelection to four-year terms of office. The seats to be filled in Lake- Lehman are: Region I, held by Mildred Dobash, Region II, held by Kenneth Williams and Region III, held by Joseph “Red” Jones and school board president Dr. Martin McMahon. Region I includes Lake Town- ship, Harveys Lake and Noxen, while Region II is Ross Township and the central and southwest districts of Lehman Township. Region Ill includes Jackson Town- ship and the northeast district of Lehman Township. Jones said that both he and Dr. McMahon have circulated nomi- nation petitions and are planning to run for reelection. In Dallas School District, the four open positions, elected at- large rather than by district, are held by school board president John 'P. : Cleary, James 1. Richardson, Thomas G. Landon and Thomas H. Stitzer. will design and operate the facil- ity, has misled the public on cer- tain issues, starting with the site selection process. He said that Chem-Nuclear personnel showed him detailed maps of each community and its unsuitable areas after having told him several weeks earlier that the company didn’t have the maps because they were too expensive to produce. Spokespersons for Chem-Nu- clear Systems said at public infor- mation meetings February 23 that 46 percent of the state — including portions of the Back Mountain which contain state parks, valu- able agricultural areas and state game lands - had already been ruled out as unsuitable for sucha Judge and jury facility. The Sierra Club would like Chem-Nuclear to give each county the detailed maps of their area showing what areas are unsuit- able and which areas are still under consideration. “We recognize the need to pro- tect the public and the environ- ment by isolating the radioactive waste,” he said. “But we have never designed or built a facility meant to do this for at least 500 years. It's an experiment that the nuclear industry is performing on the state.” Schmidt claimed that, contrary to the statistics released to the public, some of the waste con- See SIERRA CLUB, pg 16 GARY SHAW Built to last with illness EDDIE TURCHIN 500 acres would store material for 500 years By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff Nearly half of Pennsylvania has been disqualified as a site for disposal of low-level nuclear waste, but much of the remaining land is in northeastern Pennsyl- vania, including the Back Moun- tain. At a public information meet- ing Tuesday, February 23, repre- sentatives of the Pennyslvanie Department of Environmental Resources (DER) and Chem-Nu- clear Systems, which will design and operate the facility once a site has been selected, shared infor- mation on the site selection proc- ess, the proposed facility and why Pennsylvania was chosen for a disposal site. For many years the United States had only two low-level radioactive waste disposal facili- ties, one in South Carolina and the other in Washington State. Pennsylvania shipped its waste to the site in Barnwell, South Caro- lina, which is 29 years old and scheduled to close by June 30, 1994. In 1985, Pennsylvania, Mary- land, Delaware and West Virginia joined to form a low-level waste disposal agreement, the Appala- chian Compact. Because Penn- sylvania produces 76 percent of the volume of the compact's low- level radioactive ‘waste, it was designated as the host state for a disposal site. Chem-Nuclear Systems, owned by Waste Management Systems, Inc., has been surveying the en- tire state to find an area suitable POST PHOTO/CHARLOTTE BARTIZEK Judges met last week to select works for the Suzanne Maria Rossetti Memorial Juried Art Show. The show, which features artwork by students at Dallas, Lake-Lehman, Tunkhannock and Northwest Area schools, is sponosored by Joe and Sue Hand. Display will be at the MacDonald Art Gallery at College Misericordia. An opening reception will be held Sunday, March 7 and the art will be on display until March 28. Judges, from left, were Diane Czajkowski, Terri Libenson and Howard Strom. HB What is low-level radioactive waste? HB Much of Back Mountain already disqualified. Page 16 for a 500-acre disposal site since late 1991. It hopes to have se- lected three potential sites for final approval by DER by mid-1994. So far, 46 percent of the state has been ruled out for various reasons: areas within the 100- year floodplain of rivers or in coastal floodplains, areas with limestone formations, active earthquake faults or coal mines, wetlands, public water supplies, prime agricultural areas, parks, wildlife areas and state game lands. In the Back Mountain, disquali- fied areas include wetlands, State Game Lands 206 and 57, areas around Ceasetown Dam and Huntsville Reservoir, Jackson Township's 2,000 plus acre Agri- cultural Security Area and three parks: Moon Lake, operated by Luzernce County, and Frances Slocum and Ricketts’ Glen state parks. Because the site must be fairly level, hilly or mountainous areas with a slope of more than 15 per- cent have also been disqualified. Other areas haven't been ruled out yet, although a final phase of See BUILT TO LAST, pg 16 Tele-Media plans new 12-channel basic service By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff Changes are again in the air for subscribers of Tele-Media, which supplies cable television to area, municipalities. : As of April 1, Tele-Media plans. to offer a new 12-channel basic package, called “Lifeline Basic,” for $13 a month, according to a letter dated February 8, 1993, and sent to officials in three municipalities in Tele-Media's service area. “Lifeline Basic" will include local channels WYOU, WNEP, WBRE, WVIA, WOLF and the Catholic television channel, plus New York City channels WPIX and WOR, WTBS from Atlanta, the sports channel, C-SPAN, local Channel 9 and QVC, a televised shoppers’ channel, the letter said. Customers also may continue to purchase the current 37-chan- nel basic package for $20, which has increased in cost by at least nine percent a year since 1983, when it cost $13.50. The latest See TELE-MEDIA, pg 2
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