4 @® Vol. 105 No. 33 Dallas, Pennsylvania S = BAAN CHE gl =Nel®]\V|\VIS BE =SHO i Be | =H VAN WANS Og WA =H B= | VARS {el 2 [0/0 IB SY E2103 ES) Wednesday, August 17, 1994 EPA will treat Lehman water By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will use a $1.9 million Superfund grant to remove chemicals from the ground in Lehman center. By doing so, the agency hopes to also remove the chemicals from 17 wells which provide water to 30 homes in the area. EPA on-scene coordinator Rich- ard Fetzer reported the status ofa study of MTBE-contaminated ' wells clustered around Lehman Corners to the Lehman Township supervisors and affected residents August 15. Thieves get cop chief's badge Jackson Township police chief Donald Jones may be ordering a new gold badge and police identi- fication. : According to township police, burglars removed the badge and identification from Jones's Gates Road home August 12 between 9:30 and 11:50 a.m. Also missing were a pair of binoculars, $150 in cash and two gold Shriner's rings, one with the initials D.J.J., police said. Police couldn't provide an estimated value of the items taken. The burglars had entered the home by forcing open a rear door, which was discovered and re- ported around 12:15 p.m. by Jones's wife, Jennie. Chief and Mrs. Jones were away from the house at the time of the burglary, police said. Anyone with information on the burglary should contact the Jackson Township police at 675- 8500. Patrolman Ben Bigus is the investigating officer MTBE is a non-carcinogenic additive of unleaded gasoline. It has been found in the wells of homes on Firehouse Road between the Kingston Nursing Home and Rte. 118; on Outlet Road from Firehouse Road to the Lake- Lehman Middle School; along the length of Mill Street; in the first block of Market Street, and along Route 118 from Bryant's Trailer Park to Meeker Road. “MTBE dissolves in water very easily,” Fetzer said. “It can show upin large quantities in awell one month, then be nearly unde- tectible the next. The underlying rock has many fractures, allow- ing the contaminated water to move easily from one depth to another. It's a bad combination of elements to work with.” Fetzer said that he expects to have a contractor build a tempo- rary treatment station behind the Lehman Sunoco Station and be- gin removing the MTBE within the next few months. “We want to treat the source first,” Fetzer said. “We know the MTBE can be removed.” The treatment station will con- sist ofa trench dug into the ground at the point of highest comtami- nation, from which ground water will be pumped, cleaned and re- turned to the ground. “We'll be working with the Department of Environmental Resources and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service so that we don't dry up any nearby wetlands,” Fetzer said. During the cleanup, the work- ers will continue to monitor area wells, checking their progress by concentrating on several wells with known consistently high MTBE levels, Fetzer said. “If this doesn’t work, we'll have to consider some type of public water supply to replace the wells, tying into an existing reservoir or spending about $20,000 per home See LEHMAN WATER, pg 14 ‘Home owners eager for solution By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff More than a dozen Lehman Township residents had some tough questions for Environ- mental Protection Agency on- site coordinator Richard Fet- zer, who reported August 15 to the township supervisors on the status of a study of con- taminated wells around Lehman Corners. The area of contamination is concentrated around Mill and Market streets, along Route 118 from Bryant's Trailer Park to Meeker Road and on Firehouse and Outlet roads. “How will this treatment sta- tion help us?” Gil Tough asked. “Will all of the pumping lower the water level in our wells?” Fetzerreplied that the pump- See SOLUTION, pg 14 Racers entered the water at Harveys Lake to start the Wilkes- Barre Triathlon Sunday. Heavy rain and frequent lightning re off! POST PHOTO/CHARLOTTE BARTIZEK added to the challenge of the race. A list of local individual finishers appears on the sports page. WWII prisoner feels By JACK HILSHER Post Correspondent Al Brown of James Street in Shavertown isn't particularly thrilled to think back 50 years, because those memories aren't exactly happy ones. Back then Tech /Sgt. Brown was about to become a prisoner of war in Ger- many for 132 long and miserable days. It is no consolation to him that the circumstances leading up to his capture, during what became known as the “Battle of the Bulge,” were as much of a shock to his Supreme Commander as to Brown or his buddies in the 28th Divi- . sion. General Eisenhower's G-2 (Intelligence Officer) at SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force) told “Ike” that “The Germans are all but finished.” And “Monty” (British Field Marshal Bernard Montgom- ery) said, “The Germans cannot stage a major offensive operation,” and believed things were so dull he asked lke if there was any objection to him going back to England for a spell. Wrong. During that “dull” period 25 German divisions, numbering over 250,000 troops, were secretly preparing a major offensive over a front 85 miles long. They had grouped 970 tanks and 1,900 artillery. pieces. = Code-named “Christrose” it was to be the great- est attack ever mounted on the western front, and names like Bastogne, Malmedy and Hurtgen Forest were destined to become war history chapters. It would be the greatest deceptive attack every planned. *very lucky to be alive Beds of straw were laid to cover clanking noises of tank treads. Ammunition was carried into position by hand, to save gas and to keep down motor noise. Hun- dreds of planes were poised, in- cluding the radically new “jets” - a German first in aircraft never before used in combat. Facing the Germans were only 75,000 American troops, compris- ing only six divisions, three of which had never fought. The other three were exhausted from too much fighting and were resting, being refitted and awaiting re- placements. Al Brown's 28th Division was one of these. Chancellor Hitler himself had directed preparations for the Nazis’ massive effort, one which was much too large to be termed merely a “last gasp.” He said, “Antwerp will be ours in a week. The Allies will be smashed and never re- cover; they will sue for peace.” (So much for Adolf’s vision.) At midnight on December 19, 1944, the German offensive be- gan. After a thunderous one- hour barrage from every single one of their artillery pieces, and after a brief pause, ghostly white- clad figures, twelve abreast, ad- vanced slowly in deadly silence toward the American positions. Some sectors were lit up with high-powered searchlights, and smoke grenades made the advance even more omnious, all perhaps the first use of psy-warfare. Another of Hitler's pet projects, typical of German ingenuity was also about to come alive. He had directed Colonel Otto Skorzeny - called the most dangerous man in THE WAY HE WAS - Al Brown of Shavertown posed for this portrait by Albee Studios, Washington, D.C., before heading overseas during World War Il, where he was captured during the Battle of the Bulge in December, 1944. Europe; the Colonol once kidnap- ped Benito Mussolini - to hand pick and train men to dress in American army uniforms, drive American vehicles, and generally cause panic and confusion be- hind American lines. They were to change road signs, destroy phone lines, blow bridges, give false orders...anything to confuse, slow up or misdirect. There were not “thousands” of Skorzeny saboteurs as rumor had it...dozens were more like it, but they were feared as word spread. A Dallas veteran of Hurtgen For- est, Paul Fiske explains that be- cause genuine American troops all had gas masks specially is- sued, and the fake Americans See PRISONER, pg 8 Sewage sinks tractor By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff Sewage leaking into one of his fields on Chase Road could force Jackson Township resident Ben- jamin “Bud” Spencer to destroy at , least an acre of strawberry plants. ' While spraying the plants August 5, Spencer's tractor be- came stuck in a puddle of what appeared to be raw sewage leak- ing from a long pipe buried in the field. After his tractor sank into the stuff, he contacted Mark Carmon of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources (DER). DER sent a water quality in- spector to Spencer's field August 8todigtest holes and take samples after dye tests determined that a Ll ¢ « 1 1 ¢ ‘ ¢ t { L] | t 1 Ll L L] 1 t L} | 1 L L] 1 1 s nearby Jackson Township Mu- nicipal Authority pumping sta- tion wasn’t the culprit. “By the time that our inspector got there, Mr. Spencer had hired a contractor, who dug the pipe up and traced it to a nearby Chase See SEWAGE, pg 14 Magistrate rules against Harveys Lake business By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff The war of the words at Har- veys Lake is continuing with Dis- trict Magistrate James Tupper's decision that Mark Sopp, opera- tor of Creative Rooms, Inc., is violating the borough's zoning code by manufacturing in a commercial zone. The decision was rendered August 9 after a hearing August 4. Sopp has continued to operate his business despite two stop work orders issued January 24, 1994, | ¢ 0 e and April 27, 1994, by borough codes enforcement officer Paul Grimes, who determined that Sopp was manufacturing at his Route. 415 location. In his decision, Tupper cited Black's Law Dictionary’s defini-. tion of manufacturing: “The proc-: ess or operation of making wares: or any material produced by hand, by machine or by any other agency; the production of articles for use from raw or prepared materials by See BUSINESS, pg 14 MH It's almost done! Work on Route 309 in Kingston Twp. is scheduled to wind down this week. Page 3. HB Driver ed will cost more at Dallas this year . Page 3. 14 Pages 1 Section Calendar................. 11 Classified........... 12-13 Crossword.............. 11 Editorials... ..c.... eves 4 Obituaries............... 12 SChOOk......occiivineeed 8-9 ODOIIS.... 100 csuissinmsvens 10 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 Ard Ad ae Krariasiniy Ay i 5 i RT a a gral Ea a LT Hl Sl Cag CA, Li, RA REL | bs Sa Fa 7] ERC SUE aR TRE EAT Sadie
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