"The Dallas Post 3 SIS SVAN CRE I =No10\V \VISHIIREI SSH] Si Bo | <0 5 VAN WARSI Wal =H =p LV ANNES 0] ou [© [EE BI SF | 1 [6 KS) $ vol. 105 No. 19 Dallas, Pennsylvania - ww] eo a TICES Wednesday, May 1, 1994 Bold burglars worry police By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff Back Mountain police and the Pennsylvania State Police are investigating a string of burgla- ries which have occurrred in a two-mile radius of one another during the past several weeks. “Having so many burglaries in one month startled us,” said Dal- las Township police chief Carl Miers. “Usually we get about one a month, not four or five.” In some cases, the perpetra- tors have used the same methods to enter different homes, police said. Miers said that he had waited two weeks to warn residents be- cause it took that long for the victims of the first burglaries to give him inventories of the stolen goods. “There was a two-week period between the first set of burglaries and the last,” he said. “We had been hoping to get a break in the first cases before the last ones happened. Having an intruder brazen enough to enter the homes while the people were home con- cerned us.” Miers said that a reporter tipped off by a friend had cornered him for a May 2 television interview on the six o'clock news. Burglars hit one business and four homes in Dallas and King- ston townships and attempted to enter a fifth home in Dallas Town- ship between April 14 and 30, police said. e April 14: Someone broke into Rack ‘Em Up Billiards on Main Street in Fern Brook during the Area men winging it By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff Shortly after 6 a.m. May 7, three guys and a lot of clothes piled into a four-passenger Cessna and took off from Wyoming Valley : Airport in Forty Fort for St. Pe- _tersburg, Florida, to compete in the Great Southern Air Race. Originally scheduled to leave for Florida May 8, Back Mountain pilots Gerald Cooper and Charles { Gordon and Cooper's son, Den- ! nis, were forced by impending : severe weather to move their origi- thal schedule up by 24 hours. The Great Southern Air Race’s course will take them over Florida and the Bahamas, where they'll finish by flying into the heart of the Bermuda Triangle on Friday the 13th. “The Bermuda Triangle? That's justan old wives’ tale,” they joked. Forum on HB Gate of Heaven hit HB Orchard View neighbors worried Page 8 early morning hours and removed approximately $400 in quarters from the game machines. e April 14: Someone took a glass jug of coins valued at about $175 and $15 from a wallet on the kitchen counter of a home on Lake Street in Dallas. Police didn’t find any signs of forced entry. e April 15: Someone forced open the rear door of a home on Fran- Klin Street in Shavertown some- time after midnight and took sev- eral credit cards and $1,300 in cash and coins. Police believe that a small screwdriver was used to open the door. e April 28: Someone broke through a rear porch screen win- dow and opened the unlocked sliding glass door of a home in the Orchard View Terrace subdivision sometime between 11:30 p.m. and 9a.m., removing cash and jewelry with a total value of $6,377. e April 28: A resident of a sec- ond home at Orchard View was awakened by a person in the bedroom around 2:30 a.m. and alerted her husband. As he got out his gun and ammo, the in- truder fled with jewelry and cash with a total value of $30,192. The intruder evidently got into See BURGLARS, pg 8 ey Ht POST PHOTO/GRACE R. DOVE SPRING CLEANING — Westripteland fifth-graders Marie Lord and Amy Wengen clear part of a small section of land for the monarch butterfly By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff ation. them. grade classes. reserve, which has been maintained for the past three years by Mrs. Priscilla Aldrow’s classes. Butterflies are welcome at 4 Westmoreland For several years, Westmoreland Elementary School students in Mrs. Priscilla Aldrow’s fifth grade enjoyed collecting caterpillars and monarch butterfly cocoons to study in their science class. As the cocoons hatched, the students learned about the butterflies’ life stages, habitat and favorite foods by observing the delicate creatures in terrariums. Three years ago the butterflies stopped coming. “Like the birds do, monarch butterflies migrate to their birthplace,” Mrs. Aldrow said. “By keeping the brush and milkweed in front of the school cut back, the township and the school district had inadvertantly destroyed the butterflies’ habitat.” She and her students decided to remedy the situ- A telephone call to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation gave them the mixture of wildflowers planted along state highways and a place where the school’s Parent-Teacher Organization was able to buy The students then created a special butterfly pre- serve, planting several pounds of the precious seeds in a patch of grass behind the old stone wall in front of the school on Lehigh Street. Milkweed, several varieties of daisies, bachelor's buttons, black-eyed Susans, purple cornflowers, cha- momile and “some things that we call weeds but the : monarchs call good food” have flourished there for the past three years, maintained by Mrs. Aldrow's fifth- Encouraged by the appearance of several butterflies and cocoons last year, the students began raking the site and clearing away dead plants and leaves May 6, preparing the site for their fragile friends. sri Donning bright orange vests, the students worked in pairs, sharing work gloves and tools and remembering their teacher's instructions: EE a ee See BUTTERFLIES, pg 8 POST PHOTO/GRACE R. DOVE SLIPPING THE SURLY BONDS OF EARTH - Back Mountain residents Gerald Cooper and Charles See WINGING IT, pg2 Gordon left the Wyoming Valley Airport May 7 for Florida to compete in the Great Southern Air Race. reforming local taxes May 11 David Atkinson, primary au- thor of a State Senate proposal for local tax reform, will be the fea- tured speaker at a community forum on the issue Wednesday, May 11. Atkinson, who is executive assistant to Senate Majority Leader Robert Jubelirer, will be joined on a panel by State Repre- sentatives Phyllis Mundy and George Hasay; Lisa Baker repre- senting Senator Charles Lemmond; Dallas Superintendent of Schools Gerald Wycallis; Wal- ter Glogowski of the Pennsylvania State Education Association and a Jackson Twp. supervisor; and Luzerne County Commissioner Jim Phillips. Charles Watters, executive director of the Central Division of the Pennsylvania Econ- . omy League, be moderator. Ft Zo]2{0] Ko \ § Kolol.1E TAX REFORM Wed., May 11, 7 p.m. Fortinsky Auditorium Penn State Wilkes-Barre After short presentations, members of the audience will have an opportunity to address ques- tions to the panel members. A brief refreshment period will fol- low the conclusion of the meeting. The forum will be held in the Fortinsky Auditorium in the Center for Technology on the Penn State campus in Lehman, start- ing at 7 p.m. It is sponsored by the Back Mountain Citizens’ Council, The Dallas Post and Penn State Wilkes-Barre. Fortinsky Auditoriun Student {Commons {Bookstore ii Dallas may start swim team in fall By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff Dallas students may be in the swim next year. The Dallas school board is considering starting a formal swimming program on a trial basis for the 1994-95 school year. Board president Ellen Nagy had reported at the May 9 work ses- sion that according to figures given to her by athletic director Robert Cicon, a swim team would cost the district between $10,400 and $17,500, depending on the coaches’ salaries and the cost of renting the Misericordia swim- ming pool. “This is the only sport that we don't have,” said high school prin- cipal Frank Galicki, who noted that Dallas students may be at- tracted to Bishop Hoban High School because it has a swim team and Dallas doesn't. At the board meeting Shaver- town resident Mike Daney, an NCAA swimming official, volun- teered to help the district further investigate setting up a swimming program. Kingston Township resident Mary Baker added that a swi team would have a year todevelo; its skills, since it would only b allowed to swim in exhibition and not in competition for the first year under NCAA rules. fat “To develop a competitive edge and depth, you only need 12 boys and 12 girls to start,” she said “The team could practice at Mis- ericordia between 5 and 7 a.m and be ready to get on the bus by 7:30 a.m. Since the college is on a school bus route, itwouldn't inter- fere with transportation.” The school could save money See SWIM TEAM, pg & Red Cross blood drive Wed., May 18, 10 a.m-4 p.m., Dallas United Methodist Church. Call 823-7161 for appts. HM Dallas Reporter Report from school district runs as a separate pull-out in B section. 18 Pages 2 Sections Calendar............. 13 Classified........ 14-15 Crossword... 13 Edilorials.........5..... 4 Obituaries........k... 14 School..........x. 11-12 SpPOrS.............i. 9-10 CALL 675-5211 FOR HOME DELIVERY, NEWS OR ADVERTISING Aa SI Ast Please enclose this label with any address changes, as Post, P.O. Box 366, Dallas PA 18612-0366 The Dallas Post MAILING LABEL- and mail to The Dall
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