| 2 hy -Dallas Rotary “inducts its two newest Vol. 104 No. 22 Inside Story Environmental ed for youngsters will be held at Frances Slocum Park. Page 7. Lehman school board candidates Allen Moss and Irene Brislin will square off again in the fall. Page 8. LCCC graduates many students from this area. Page 12. Memorial Day photos page 3. Dallas High honors night photo coverage continues. Page 13. members. Page 7. Six alumnae will be honored at College Miseri- cordia reunion. Page 10. Crossword puzzle appears on page 11. Harveys Lake Women's Club installs officers. Page 10. Fly-in fun at Skyhaven Airport this - weekend. Page 16. Dallas girls' SOCCET gains spot in Eastern PA Champion- ships. Page 9. i Rangers, Astros at top of Little League standings alter 6 weeks of plan. Page 9. Fish without a license this weekend. Page 9. Soccer tryouts for Back Mountain travel team will be held June 6 and 13. Page 9. 16 Pages 2 Sections Calendar.............. 16 Classified........ 14-15 Crossword............ 11 Edilorials.............. 4 Obituaries. .......... 14 Property transfers..2 School.a.......... 12-13 ‘CALL 675-5211 FOR HOME DELIVERY, NEWS OR ADVERTISING By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff The normally quiet, close-knit, tree-lined neighborhood of Harris and Washington Streets in the Roushey Plot section of Dallas Township has been recently plagued by a string of fires which ~ police term suspicious. According to township police chief Carl Miers, their only com- mon denominator is that all have occurred within 500 feet of one another. e November 28: a car fire. ¢ December: two more car fires within 24 hours. * March 28: a fire guts a vacant -home and damages a nearby ga- rage. * May 22: a fire guts the second floor of another vacant home. Neither vacant home had elec- tricity or gas hooked up, Miers The Back Mountain The Dallas Post SI =eViINch Ez =ele]V | VISIN I= Hel cus =p N EW. XSF RW. (ERE V/-\NEloiz elo Mp i=l (Ok ’ S ll Dallas, Pennsylvania HB Map of fire locations, page 8 said. Dawn Berlew, whose mother, Mary Wandel, lives right in the middle of the fires on Washington Street, pointed out the scene of each blaze. She has memorized the details of each one. “The March house fire almost took this one as well,” she said. “The fire was humongous - il destroyed the vacant house next door and damaged the garage. A tree and clothesline in our yard were also burned. The firemen saved our house. It was so hot that steam was rising from the roof.” See FIRES, pg 8 POST PHOTO/GRACE R. DOVE UNDER INVESTIGATION - The second floor of this home at 92 Harris Street in the Roushey Plot section of Kingston Township was gutted by a fire Saturday, May 22, which police are investigating as the last of a string of suspicious fires in the area. POST PHOTO/GRACE R. DOVE THE SECOND TIME AROUND - Shavertown resident Tina Sidonio recently won the Pennsylvania State Martial Arts Cham- pionship for the second year in a row. Shavertown girl eyes '96 Olympics By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff For fun, 16-year-old Tina Sidonio throws around 22-year- old men twice her weight five times a week and breaks two- inch thick boards with her bare hands. The first-level black belt karate student recently won the Pennsylvania State Martial Arts Championship for the second year in a rew and has earned a gold medal in a pre-Olympic tournament as preparation for the 1996 Olympics. “My classmates are surprised that little 100-lb me can do this, but they're very happy for me,” Tina joked. Modest about her many ac- complishments, Tina, a sopho- more at Lake-Lehman High School, was inducted Monday, May 24, into the National Honor Society, has been nominated for Junior Leadership Wilkes- Barre and was one of two stu- dents in her school to be se- lected for a three-day Rotary exchange program at College Misericordia. She is a straight-A student and plans to join the staff of Knight Life, the school newspa- per, next year. Tina has been studying ka- rate since she was 12 years old; her current teachers are Mas- ter Vince Sperduto, a fourth- degree black belt and Master C.A. Manganiello, a third de- gree black belt. Before her first lesson four years ago, her teacher made her read the school’s code of conduct out loud three times. ‘To honor and obey one’s par- ents and family, torespect one’s elders and teachers and to - maintain good school grades are only part of the code of developing body, mind and spirit which she has chosen to live. “It's a lifelong commitment,” ~ Tina said. Although Tae Kwon Do, fo- cusing primarily on body move- ments, kicks and punches, is Tina's first love, she is also proficient in Hap Ki Do, a very dangerous defensive technique involving the use of weapons: the sword, bowstaff and non- chucks (two short sticks joined by a short cord.) She attends karate class five times a week for 1-1/2 to two hours and works out at home. Although she had to learn to break a two-inch thick block of wood with her bare hands for her last black belt test, she concentrates mostly on fight- ing moves and Kkatas. A kata is a series of graceful, highly synchronized balletlike body movements which make up a form. “When I broke the block, all that I felt was a little sting, nothing more,” she said. The only young woman in her karate class, Tina said that she has had to mature fast. “It’s very disciplined,” she said. “I've learned to focus my attention and concentrate on my goals.” “Our karate class is very close,” she continued. “It's like having a lot of extra brothers; there's always someone to talk to if I need to.” Competition for titles is very intense, Tina said. “It's all one- on-one. There's no one there to cover for you if you make a mis- take. The honor of your entire | | a , = pl & Wednesday, June 2, 1993 | 1 eighbors edgy after string of fires school is on your shoulders.” | The pre-Olympic competition was especially challenging for Tina, who had worked hard to prepare for it, and ended up battling a stomach ailment as well as her opponents. “I just went into it knowing that I would do my best and that was all that mattered,” she said. The daughter of Gabriel and Margaret Sidonio of Shaver- town, Tina has one brother, Gabe, 15. Fascinated with math and biology, she plans to study medicine, possibly specializing in surgery. “Iam very proud of Tina's ac- complishments,” Margaret Sidonio said. “She works hard at everything and never gives up.” Tina plans to continue the long road towards preparation for the 1996 Olympics in At- lanta, Georgia, by doing what she does best: giving her be- loved karate a 1,000 percent effort. First Communion Anna Bruns, center, received a bit of help and advice from her friends Caitlin Ward, left, and Karissa Donahue while preparing for her first holy communion at Gate of Heaven Church. Photo of all the communicants on page 7. Water runoff rules may hike home costs By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff New state-mandated regula- tions aimed at helping to prevent flooding by controlling stormwa- ter runoff may make future devel- opment in the Back Mountain more costly. According to Dallas Township engineer Tom Doughton, the stormwater ordinance, which of- ficials from five area municipali- ties have been studying as part of a pilot project in Luzerne County, could eventually cost developers and people building new homes in the Back Mountain an additional $4,000 to $6,000 per lot. The pilot project, called the Toby's Creek Watershed Citizens’ Advisory Council, sponsored by the Luzerne County Planning Commission, recently completed a two-year study in applying the Stormwater Management Act #167 to Toby's Creek, which drains 30 square miles of the Back Mountain and an additional six square miles in Wyoming Valley before it - flows into ‘the Susquehanna River in Ed- wardsville. The state Department of Envi- ranmental Resources (DER) ex- HB Rules in a nutshell, page 8. pects to approve the runoff man- agement plans of the 11 munici- palities (Kingston, Dallas, Lehman and Jackson townships, Dallas Pringle, Courtdale, Edwardsville, Kingston and Larksville) along the creek by July, according to David Jastenski of the department's Bureau of Borough, Luzerne, Land and Water Conservation. Alter DER's approval, the 11 have six months to adopt stormwater runoff ordinances. DER will fund 75 percent of the costs of imple- menting the ordinances for each municipalities will municipality. The state has the right to with- hold General Fund money, which includes the Liquid Fuels Tax used by area municipalities for road maintenance, from communities the Act, which don't comply with Stormwater Management Jastenski said. “The Back Mountain and Toby's Creek were chosen to be the first communities in Luzerne County See RUNOFF, pg 2 eo
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