4 w’ Cok 4 * The Dallas Post SIS EVA INCH Eg =H \V|\V [8] I REICH] =i ll o | =3 BVA ER WARS. Wa =H ES a | V AWE ed [ole] MBI SY I Ri [0A ES ®0!. 104 No. 33 Dallas school board, teachers again at odds Board wants new ®feachers to get raise, union says no By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff After agreeing in March on contract terms through the 1994-95 school year, the Dallas school board and teachers’ union are again at loggerheads over ion This time, it's the board that wants some teachers to be paid more. The two parties hammered out a wage and salary agreement in the spring, giving teachers average raises of 11.5 percent over the next two years. Now, the Dallas Education Association has filed a griev- ance against the school board because the board won't accept how the union will distribute the extra money. : Dallas, PA Under the agreement originally accepted March 11, the board gave the teachers’ association $340,000 to be divided in pay raises among the district's teachers, bringing the average teacher's salary for the 1993-94 school year to $45,000, increasing to $47,000 the next year. Under the March agreement, the board was to approve the teachers’ salary schedule after it had been drafted. The teachers’ association said that it negotiated a salary schedule for the 122 employees who would be left after 15 teachers retired at the end of the 1992-93 school year. The school board contends that the 15 new teachers it has hired to replace the retirees are also entitled to pay raises and should be included in the new salary scale. New teachers will earn an annual salary of $18,273, which the Dallas Education Association wants to freeze for the next two years. Because the Dallas Education Association re- fused toinclude the 15 incoming teachers in the sal- ary schedule, the board has refused to approve it. In conjunction with the Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA), the Dallas Educa- tion Association then filed a grievance against the school board. “It's unfair to the new teachers,” board president Jack Cleary. “The school board wants the new teachers taken care of,” Richardson said. / “When we negotiated the salary schedule, we planned on what the $340,000 could do for our teachers,” said William Wagner, Dallas Education Association president. “Our belief at that time was that the money was to be distributed among 122 teachers. We didn’t know whether or not the board would replace the 15 retirees.” If the association had negotiated salaries for 137 positions and then not replaced the 15 retirees, the remaining 122 teachers would have received smaller raises, Wagner said. Wagner said that the school board has in effect said school Wednesday, August 18, 1993 A teachers’ salaries for two years or redistiibute the $340,000 among all 137 teachers. In replacing the 15 retirees with new teachers starting at the bottom of the pay scale, Wagner cal- culates that the district is saving an average of $22,000 per new teacher. “The district won't tell us how much more it will cost them to give pay raises to the 15 new teachers,” he said. School board solicitor Ben Jones said that since the salary scale is being grieved, it cannot be imple- mented. “The board has two options: either pay the teachers under an extension of the existing sched- . ule or don’t pay them,” he said. “Their contract is void if it is not accepted,” said : superintendent Gerald Wycallis. The board voted to extend the present teachers" & salary schedule until a new agreement is reached. Before the teachers take any action, they will meet with Wycallis and consult their PSEA replies 3 sentative, Wagner said. a : EB i A iD Al O-M RS «Boy gets wish trip to Florida By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff When Mark Yanchik goes to Disney World next week, he wants to ride on “Space Mountain” every day if he’s tall enough. The six-year-old Dallas resi- dent will leave for nearly a week at the Magic Kingdom August 21 with his parents, Denice and Chirstopher Yanchik, and his sister, Ashley, 9, courtesy of Make- a-Wish Foundation, a group which ~~ fulfills the wishes of children with terminal or life-threatening ill- nesses. Three years ago, the outlook for Mark wasn't so promising. “One day had a healthy, happy little three-year-old and the next, we were with him at Geisinger Hospital in Danville,” said his mother, Denice Yanchik. She had taken Mark to the @ doctor in February, 1991, after he had complained of pains in his joints. An examination showed that he had an enlarged spleen and lymph nodes. The doctor diagnosed him with leukemia after doing blood tests. “Throughout his chemother- apy, Mark was a real trouper. He never complained,” Mrs. Yanchik said. “He didn't even mind when ® the chemo made his hair fall out.” Mark went into remission dur- ing the first week of his chemo- therapy, which the doctors said was very unusual, Mrs. Yanchik said. Mark has been on maintenance since December, 1991, and must take several pills every day and periodically go to Danville for blood tests and intravenous chemother- apy. PD If Mark's progress continues R until October, 1994, he'll have an 80 percent chance of permanent given the teachers two options: either freeze the new POST PHOTO/GRACE R. DOVE WRECKING CREW - Bob Cingolani, Robin Hatzis and Jackie Brighthaupt, members of the Jehovah's Witness congregation in Dallas Township, remove the roof of their Kingdom Hall to prepare for the building’s demolition. Volunteers from Jehovah's Witness congregations throughout eastern Pennsyl- vania will erect a new building on the same site. Dallas congregation will build By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff In 1971, a property on Hildebrant Road donated by Harry Keefer became the site of Kingdom Hall, the worship center for 60 members of the area’s new Jehovah's Witness congregation. Twenty-two years later, the congregation has doubled, outgrowing its old building. Using a labor force totally made up of volunteers, the congrega- tion plans to erect a new Kingdom Hall in four days, working around the clock. Combining hard work with modern technology, the congregation took advantage of their district building committee's computerized “Quick-Build” program, which provides local congregations with complete details —- building plans, materials, what types of skills would be needed and a list of skilled Jehovah's Witness tradesmen willing to volunteer their services. Everything from soup to nuts. “Organization is the key factor,” said building committee member Bob Cingolani. “Everyone involved knows what they're doing and when they'll work.” Skilled tradesmen and volunteers, nearly 300 in all, have been divided into work crews, each Everything has been taken care of: demolition, ex- cavating for the new site: building, roofing, electri- cal, plumbing, interior decorating and much more. It's no small job. The materials — including 22,000 bricks for the front- will cost around $180,000, Cingolani said. The congregation completed final demolition of the old Kingdom Hall Monday, August 16, after volunteers had removed the roof and stripped the building. The glass windows and plumbing fixtures will find a new home in a building currently being erected by the Wyoming County Kiwanis at the Wyoming County fairgrounds. Kiwanis members were busily removing them Saturday morning. Kingston Township bought 130 chairs, for- merly used in the auditorium. Wherever possible, parts of the old building and its contents have been recycled, sold or given to community organiza- tions. Footers and a concrete slab have already been laid for the new 90 by 48-foot Kingdom Hall, which will house a 220-seat auditorium for meetings and several smaller rooms. All utilities are in place, waiting to be connected with its own set of instructions and timeline. See CONGREGATION, pg 12 — See WISH TRIP, pg 12 PHO O/GRACER. DOVE SHAVERTOWN TRIATHLETE — Chris Hackett of Shavertown was the first Back Mountain triathlete across the finish line at the Greater Wilkes-Barre Triathlon at the Penn State Wilkes-Barre campus Sunday, August 15, with a time of 2 hours, 14 minutes, four seconds. By DAVE KONOPKI Sports Writer They may have disagreed in strategy. And they may have dif- fered in technique. But after they crossed the fin- ish line three Back Mountain athletes, Chris Hackett and Ja- son Miller of Shavertown, along with James Harris of Dallas, agreed on one thing: the 1993 Wilkes-Barre Triathlon was gru- eling, competitive and fun. More than 700 triathletes from around the world competed in last Sunday's event, which cele- brated its 12th anniversary this year. Australia’s Greg Welch won the men's title for the third con- secutive year, posting an impres- sive time of one hour, 51 minutes and 41 seconds for the 1.5 Kkilo- meter swim, 40k bike and 10k run course. Carol Montgomery- Triathlon challenging, fun say local racers Roberts of Del Mar, California captured the women's title with a time'of 2:07.11. Hackett, 30, Miller, 23, and Harris, 37, were just a handful of Back Mountain athletes who participated in the event. Hackett was the local (Greater Wilkes- Barre area) runner-up in a time of 2:14.04, behind Plymouth’s Mike Pevear and just ahead of Shaver- town's Bill Sprau. The course for the Wilkes-Barre Triathlon has been changed a few times since the inception of the event and this was the first time Hackett had run this particular course. But he has trained exten- sively on it. “It's a tough course,” said Hackett, who has been a competi- tive triathlete since 1985 and was the top local finisher in the event See TRIATHLON, pg 8 stunts By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff It's too little, too late. Area farmers have felt the de- vestating effects of three months of dry weather, only slightly alle- viated by rainfall over the week- end and Monday. “It's adisaster,” said Fred “Ted” Dymond, Jr., whose family oper- atesan orchard and produce farm in Franklin Township. Irrigation saved the strawberry crop, which Dymond’'s is well- known for. But his raspberry crop was down by more than 75 per- cent — the berries simply burned up on the vines. The earlier crops, especially the corn and tomatoes, were most affected by the hot, dry weather, Dymond said. Dry summer Cr ops His apples will be smaller in size this year due to the lack of rain. Although Dymond’s later corn crop is still in good shape, thanks to recent rainfall, the hay has - suffered because there wasn’t enough rain to grow a second - cutting. “The rain will certainly help because our ene irrigation pend. is pumped out,” Dymond said. “The second crop of hay wasn't even worth baling. We just cut it and let it lie in the fields,” said Warren Sutton, farm manager of Hillside Farms in Kingston and + Jackson townships. Normally his men harvest around eighty 500-1b. round bales of hay to feed the younger cattle. See CROPS, pg 12 Water rates heading down 15-30 percent By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff First it went up substantially. Now it's going down. No, it isn't a rollercoaster. It's the water bill for customers of the Dallas, Shavertown, Har- veys Lake and Noxen water com- panies, owned by General Water- works. The company anounced that residential water rates, will drop between 15 and 30 percent, effec- tive Thursday, August 10, as part of a rate case order issued by the Public Utility Commission (PUC) as a result of a merger between General Waterworks and the Dauphin Consolidated Water Suppply Company of Harrisburg. The quarterly bill for an aver- age residential customer of the . Dallas, Shavertown and Noxen water companies will drop 30 prcent, from $111.41 to $78.81. for 14,000 gallons of water while” Harveys Lake customers’ bills will. decrease by 15 percent, from an average $65.49 to $55.99, accord-- ing to a press release issued by General Waterworks. The rate decrease comes on the: heels of a substantial rate in=. crease which went into effect” December 10, 1992, which had hiked water rates between six and 100 percent. . Harveys Lake customers’ aver- age quarterly rates had doubled, from $32.75 to $65.49, while Dallas customers’ water bills See WATER RATES, pg 12 HW Konopki picks college football top 10, page 8 HM It's candid camera for some Dallas school bus riders, page 3. 12 Pages, 1 Section Calendar............ 4 9 Classified............. 9-11 Crossword............... 9 Editorials. ..... ......aiia 4 Obituaries.............. 59 Property transfers......2 Sports... tna iul. 8 AS CALL 675-5211 FOR HOME DELIVERY, NEWS OR ADVERTISING -0366 Dallas PA 18612- The Dallas Post MAILING LABEL- Please enclose this label with any address changes, and mail to The Dallas Post, P.O. Box 366,
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers