The Dallas Post . SI=EVAIN cig =Xele] VV IB N\[p[= Yo sus =H pV AN WSF AW:- UL (=NE=zV/\NEleiz (elo K DISTRICTS ) a Vol. 104 No. 32 p ‘Speeders scare New Goss Manor families © @ Dallas, PA Wednesday, August 11, 1993 By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff Residents of New Goss Manor are worried that the speeders who use streets in the development as a shortcut will kill someone some day. Grandview Ave. residents George Petrock, Henry Ward and George Bauman, and Ed Day, who lives on the corner of Grandview Ave. and Dorchester Drive, ap- proached the Dallas Township supervisors at their August 3 meeting for help with traffic con- Blizzard ‘bucks “add up &@ By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff Long after the March snow had been cleaned up, local municipal officials applying for government reimbursement for storm-related expenses faced a second blizzard: paperwork. Under state and federal emer- gency-relief programs, six area municipalities have finally re- ceived government reimburse- ment for a portion of what they spent keeping their roads open. Only Franklin Township hasn't received its reimbursement check yet, although township secretary Sandy Race expects it to come soon. Not every expense was eligible for reimbursement, which created many headaches for those who had to complete the paperwork, according to press secretary John Comey of the Pennsylvania Emer- gency Management Agency (PEMA), coordinator of the federal program. The government picked up the tab for 75 percent of basic snow clearing — keeping one lane open in each direction. Plowing down to clear mac- adam, clearing roads from curb to curb and keeping more than one lane in each direction open were- n't covered, Cromey said. “We required substantial docu- mentation to verify every expense,” he said. “It required lots of extra record-keeping.” Officials had to document eve- rything: workers’ time cards with regular and overtime rates and hours for all employees, the type and size of equipment used, where and when plows were used and the size and horsepower classifi- cation of plow trucks - no easy feat to calculate for trucks with fuel-injected motors, according to Dallas Borough manager Milt Lutsey. See BUCKS, pg 8 trol in the development, where the speed limit is 55 mph. Drivers regularly speed through the neighborhood and run stop signs, they said. “They use that road like a race- track,” Ward said. Day has seen three wrecks within two years on his corner, where they have scarred a tree and bent a steel pole. “Between 7:30 and 8 a.m. it's the worst, with the Dallas school staffand students using our roads as a shortcut,” he said. “Then it gets bad again around 3 p.m., Map of area, pg 8 when school lets out.” The men said that Dorchester Drive, Grandview Ave. and Pear Tree Lane are a convenient short cut from Route 309 at the Hess gas station to the Dallas high school, middle school and ele- mentary school, eliminating the busy Route 309-415 intersection and the traffic light at Upper Demunds Road. “They step pretty lively through there,” Petrock said. “One night last week I saw two drivers going side-by-side down Grandview Ave. They had to be doing around 70 mph.” Petrock said that his elderly next-door neighbor is afraid to cross Grandview Ave. to go to her mailbox because the cars drive through so quickly. “Cars come around the corner so fast that it throws them over to the other side of the road,” said Mary Ward. “If you're out getting your mail across the street, you could get hit before you even get Corn's a-comin' Zehner's stand in Dallas. Benjamin and Valerie Wolfe picked up some corn for summer visitors to their home in Lehman at 1 POST PHOTO/CHARLOTTE BARTIZEK State offers little help to cottage neighbors Regs say nuisance must stay 1 year By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff Residents of Cease Terrace at Lake Silkworth who have com- plained about a neighbor accu- mulating garbage in his yard for two years may have to wait an- other year before the Pennsylva- nia Department of Environmental Resources (DER) can do anything about it. That may be too late. Both Michael Rayes and his wife, Carol, have told neighbors, DER and a reporter that they plan to move in the fall. DER field investigator Chuck Rogers said that when he went to the Cease Terrace home May 21 to investigate complaints of accu- mulated garbage and human waste, Rayes' wife, Carol, told him that the family planned to “take everything” with them when they move in the fall. Michael Rayes told a reporter August 6 that when he leaves, he plans to take only “things of value” with him and leave everything else as is: numerous television cabinets, stuffed toys, empty plas- tic gallon jugs, a dead motorcycle, clothes, a baby’s crib, two lounge chairs and the Job Johnny. “If someone wants to steal them, it's okay with me,” Rayes said. Rayes, who says he is a televi- sionand VCRrepairman, laments that he can't find work, so he has several “yard sale” signs posted around his property, claiming that he sells these things “to get by." “I couldn't get it across to Mrs. Rayes that most of this stuff was junk,” Rogers said. “A good 80 percent of the things in the yard are waste, junk. It's a major eye- sore problem.” Neighbors complained to the Lehman Township supervisors in April that Rayes has been accu- mulating garbage in the yard of his home, which has no water or toilets, for the last two or three years. The odor from the garbage and human waste in the yard can be smelled in the home across the street, according toneighbor Linda Dorrance, who said that she must often keep her windows closed so that the smell doesn't get into her home. Although township solicitor Peter Savage said that the prop- erty’s owner is legally responsible for cleaning the place up, no one seems to know who that is. Michael Rayes said August 6 that he bought it at a tax sale two years ago, while Carol Rayes told Rogers May 21 that it belonged to her late father, who died without leaving a will. While the legal wrangling goes on, Rayes could move out and stick the township for the cost of the cleanup. “Many small municipalities can't afford to lay out several thousand dollars to raze this type of eyesore,” Savage said. “County money for this type of project has dried up in recent years. Even if the township does the work and places a lien against the property, its market value could be less than the amount of the lien.” Rogers said that DER is willing to work with Lehman Township in getting the stuff cleaned up, but that the problem must go on for a year after the first investigation before DER can take action. Savage said that he will recom- mend to the supervisors that they file an injunction to remove the family from the property and prevent anyone from living there until it has been cleaned up. your mailbox open. There aren’t any sidewalks here. sawa couple of kids walking to school nearly get clipped.” Mrs. Ward said that the super- visors have “done their best” to help the development's residents, but they can’t be there 24 hours a day. Because New Goss Manor doesn’t have a posted speed limit, Dallas Township Police Chief Carl Miers said that the township supervisors must pass an ordi- nance to set one. Until that hap- pens, the speed limit for the quiet residential area is 55 mph. “State law classifies residential areas as those having homes clus- tered less than 100 feet from one another for at least a half-mile stretch,” Miers said. “Since homes are much farther apart in New Goss Manor, it isn't considered a residential area.” Results of a traffic engineering study completed in October, 1992, show that the safest speed limit for the development is 25 mph. Miers said that once the speed limit ordinance is passed, his of- ficers will enforce it. Lake man raps concert By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff When Harveys Lake resident Wayne Smith saw a man asleep on top of a car after the August 1 “Def Leppard” concert at the Harveys Lake amphitheater, he figured that it was just one more insult that he must put up with. Along with the litter, cans, bottles, half-eaten food and vomit which he has had to clean up from his lawn after concerts at the Bud Light Amphitheater near his home. He has become so worried about his family’s safety that he sat on his porch with a loaded gun dur- ing the “Def Leppard” concert. Smith said that he sent his visiting grandchildren home “for their safety” after several people who parked a car on his lawn August 1 without permission called his wife vulgar names. When he called the borough police to get the car removed, they told him that they couldn't help him because the car was on pri- vate property. The state police advised Smith tohave the car towed at the owner's expense, which he did. “I put up with this nonsense and kept my mouth shut until people verbally abused my wife and relieved themselves in my front yard,” he said. “This is enough.” “Does anyone know how many underage drinkers are at that place?” he asked. “Does anyone know how many ambulance runs are made during each concert? Does anyone know how many families at the lake have been verbally insulted by drunks on concert nights?” He said that people can hear noise from the amphitheatre as far away as the junkyard in Noxen and the cemetery in Beaumont. Smith had favored amphithea- ter owner Shirley Hanson's origi- nal request to the borough for a zoning change that would have allowed her to build 166 townhouses on the site of her family’s former amusement park. When permission was denied, she contracted with concert pro- crowds moter Thom Greco, who set up the amphitheater, Tijuana Bar, the Beach Club and Chicky's Bar and Coop on the site, which also" houses a campground. : Harry Taylor had also origi- nally favored Mrs. townhouse plan. “Greco told us that he would bring in family entertainment,” he said the night of the “Def Lep- pard” concert. “If this is family entertainment, I'll eat my shirt.” Al and Megan Timko, who live on the opposite side of the lake on Carpenter Road, disagree. “I've been to a few concerts — Little Feat, Chicago and others which draw an older crowd,” Mrs. Timko said. “The crowd was very good. There weren't any drunks or people getting out of hand.” She said that she didn't see any traffic problems and didn't hear any noise from the amphitheater. Al Timko, a member of the Harveys Lake Environmental Advisory Committee (EVAC), added that the amphitheater brings world-famous acts close to home and extra income to the small businesses around the lake. Timko, who is working on the federally-funded lake study, said that the amphitheater is an im- provement over 166 townshouses. “Figuring two cars per home, twice a day you'll have an extra 332 cars traveling our roads going to and from work,” he said. “And all the extra children that the townhouses would bring would mean spending extra money for classrooms and teachers.” A resident living near the amphitheater who asked not tobe identified said that although last year's shows were “great,” this year the amphitheatre is “an annoyance.” : “The shows which Greco prom- ised to bring in aren't playing,” she said. She noted that as of Thursday morning, August 5, garbage around the amphitheatre still wasn't picked up. Trash lay along the fence of the Beach Club's vol- leyball court and KRZ bumper stickers were all over the road. See CROWDS, pg 8 Hanson's HM Christine Stritzinger earns big honor at Penn State. Page 10. HM Yearbook photos 25. Page 10. BW Winners of business ass'n drawings. Page 6. 14 Pages, 2 Sections Calendar................. 14 Classified............ 12-13 Crossword.............. 11 Editorials... .....iuu. 4 Obituaries................. 11 School... ani 10 SPOS... ico inctiniiiiinnii 9 should be taken by August EE 0 CALL 675-5211 FOR HOME DELIVERY, NEWS OR ADVERTISING The Dallas Post MAILING LABEL- Please enclose this label with any address changes, and mail to The Dallas Post, P.O. Box 366, Dallas PA 18612-0366 rt
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