ae” CE GE GS SS Ae Sy Sed le The Back Mountain " The Dallas POS Dallas, Pennsylvania 35¢ Wednesday, April 7, 1993 Coloring contest for children up to age 13 will appear this week. Entry deadline is April 13. r “Six winners will receive a “prize valued at $25 and a Dallas Post t-shirt. Page "D @] e. 28 | PH 59 -Crossword puzzle appears on page 14. Fashion show will aid Women's Club schol- arship fund. Page 2. Churches have ~ scheduled special services for Holy Week. Page 8. Lesson from the “master. Students at Westmoreland Elemen- tary were treated to a free concert by members of the Northeastern Pennsyl- vania Philharmonic Orchestra. Page 3. | SPORTS Baseball teams have heavy hitters and fireballers. It could be a winning season for Dallas and Lehman. Page 13. Softball may be tougher, with both schools not as deep as in years past. Page 13. 18 Pages 2 Sections &F Calendar.............. 18 Classified........ 15-17 Crossword............ 14 Editorials. .............. 4 Obituaries............. 15 Property transfers...2 School. .............. 11 pi Noy \HRGYLR PAR! FOR HOME DELIVERY, + NEWS OR ADVERTISING | Teachers get 11.5% over two years By RONALD BARTIZEK Post Editor A year after settling a conten- tious contract dispute, the Dallas School District and its teachers have quietly agreed to an addi- tional two-year contract. Under its terms, the district's teachers will share a total salary increase of $340,000 in each of the next two years. “The process worked a lot bet- ter,” said superintendent of schools Gerald Wycallis. “There was a lot of give and take on both sides.” Wycallis credited Jim Richardson, who led the district's negotiating team, with achieving a fair settlement. He said that even after the increases, Dallas teachers would be paid about the average in Luzerne County. Memories of the rancorous negotiations a year ago may have helped speed the settlement. “It wasn't worth tearing the commu- nity apart again,” said William Wagner, president of the teach- ers’ union. Wagner pointed out that the teachers had been in negotiations for three Januarys in a row, and that many teachers had been hurt by the roughness of the last two. “The offer was right for both sides,” Wagner said. While the agreement will raise the average salary to about $45,000 in the 1993-94 school year and over $47,000 the next year, individual raises among the district's teachers will vary widely. When the last salary schedule was established in 1992, increases varied from a low of 3.8 percent for teachers at the top of the scale to nearly 12 percent for those in the middle. The vast majority of the district's teachers are at the top of the pay scale. Beginning teachers at Dallas now receive an annual salary of $18,273; those at the top of the pay scale are paid $47,105. The actual salaries will be set by the Dallas Area Education Association, the teachers’ union. When they have devised a new scale, it must be submitted to the High water By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff and snowmelt. in Shavertown. The outflow from the Huntsville Reservoir created an impressive waterfall on Huntsville Creek just below the dam. Ron Johnson, High water Although not directly threatened by high water in the Susquehanna River, which kept many Wyoming Valley residents on edge last week, the Back Mountain faced a few flooding problems as streams overflowed with water from last week's heavy rainfall Police kept a wary eye on the area’s numerous creeks, some of which inundated driveways, backed up under low-lying bridges or threatened to slop over onto roadways. The worst enemy wasn't the water; it was rumors, according to Kingston Township Police Chief James Balavage, whose men kept a close watch on known potential problem spots along Toby's Creek “The media had spread a rumor that residents living near Toby's left, and Doug Edwards looked over the scene last Friday. At the reservoir, water flowed over the entire length of the dam. Flooding bypasses Back Mountain Creek in Shavertown should prepare to evacuate because the creek was in danger of flooding, at the same time that my men had been watching its level drop for the past hour,” he said. Balavage said that although Toby's Creek has a history of being a trouble spot, its main problem area by the newly rebuilt bridge behind Merchants Bank didn't overflow at all. “This was a good test of the new bridge. It was fine,” he said. In Dallas Borough, Reservoir Road was closed at the intersection with Huntsville Road, where a stream flowing into the reservoir covered a bridge. Trout Run in the Fern Brook section of Dallas Township pre- sented only a few problems, flooding out a private dirt road leading to two homes and flowing across Lower Demunds Road by Hillside Manufacturing for a few hours Friday, according to police chief Carl Miers. POST PHOTO/RON BARTIZEK See FLOOD, pg 12 Students’ posters featured on state anti-drug calendar By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff Two Dallas students recently learned that their entries last year in a drug and alcohol awareness poster contest sponsored by the Drug and Alcohol Administration of the Pennsylvania Liquor Con- trol Board were among six posters featured on a calendar distrib- uted statewide. Anna Lloyd's entry from Dallas Elementary School encouraged people to “Get high on life,” show- ing pictures of many healthy al- ternatives to drug and alcohol abuse. John Shaskas, Jr., known to his friends as Butch, glued two people's figures, partially torn in half, to a poster warning that “Alcohol tears people apart,” for his prize-winning entry from Westmoreland School. In addition to being featured on | the calendar, both students also won savings bonds. The posters were a project for the students’ drug and alcohol awareness classes; one from each school was selected to be sent to state competition “I was very surprised when I found out that I had won,” Butch said. This was his first attempt at entering a poster contest. Assixth-grader at Dallas Middle School, Butch enjoys go-carts, bikes and riding his pony Snick- ers. Anna, a fifth-grader at Dallas Elementary School, already had part of her poster worked out in her head when she came home from school to finish it. “I brainstormed it with my Mom for awhile before I finished it,” she said. “This was my first contest. I never expected to go this far.” She loves to draw, mostly pic- POSTPHOTO/GRACER DOVE POSTER CONTEST WINNERS - John “Butch” Skaskas and Anna Lloyd won savings bonds and had their drug and alcohol awareness posters featured on a calendar as part of a drug and alcohol awareness poster contest. tures of horses, plays soccer, jogs and is learning English equita- tion with her pony, Duchess, from Kathy Shaskas at Winterview. The posters are part of a dis- play which has been traveling to various state functions and teach- ing seminars throughout the year. board to verify that it is within the total increase of $340,000. Originally, the latest negotia- tions were to set salary levels only for the 1993-94 school year. Wycallis said the teachers asked that the 1994-95 year be included. but the board at first balked at the proposal. “There was a lot of dis- cussion,” about the extension, Wycallis said. But when the teach- ers agreed to terms for two years, the majority of the board agreed. See TEACHERS, pg 12 Highway upgrade meeting April 13 By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff Back Mountain residents will have an opportunity to offer sug- gestions on proposed highway improvements at a public meet- ing Tuesday, April 13, at 7 p.m. at the Dallas Middle School. : Conducted by officials from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (Penn-DOT), the meeting will focus on planned traffic lights and major improve- ments at eight area intersections, according to community relations coordinator Faith Ann Liuzzo. Originally unveiled at the No- vember 13, 1992, meeting of the Traffic Management Association, the proposed $2.5 million project will be funded by state and federal money. “To date, there haven't been any changes in the plans since we first presented them in Novem- ber,” Ms. Liuzzo said. - The plans call for: e Traffic lights: at the inter- sections of Route 309 and Hillside Road, Trucksville; Franklin Street, Shavertown; Main Road, Dallas, at Offset Paperback; the Center Hill/Upper Demunds/Hilde- brandt Road intersection near the Country Club Shopping Center, Dallas Township; the intersection. of Route 415 and Center Hill Road; Dallas Borough, at Pickett's’ Charge; and routes 118 and 415, Dallas Township. Also, traffic. lights at Carverton Road and Dallas Corners will be upgraded. Other proposed improvements to these intersections are: e Hillside Road: Construction of a jughandle near the former Harter’'s Dairy for northbound traffic turning left onto Hillside Road; addition of right turn lanes on Hillside Road and the south- bound lanes of Route 309. See HIGHWAY, pg 12 Land trust IS official Fourteen interested area resi- dents met Thursday, April 1, to officially form the Back Mountain Regional Land Trust, approving a . slate of interim officers and a mission statement. Interim officers, elected until the beginning of the organization's fiscal year on July 1, are: presi- dent, Charles Wasserott, IV; vice- president, Will Conyngham; sec- retary, Rob Lewis and treasurer, Tom Winter, PhD. “The Back Mountain Regional Land Trust is an offshoot of the Back Mountain Citizens’ Council, whose members are interested in promoting and improving life in the Back Mountain,” Wasserott said. : “The Citizens’ Council has worked for more than a year to See LAND TRUST, pg 3 { | i N ji 1 | { 1 | | | ! | ] | | | | | | # |
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers