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Vol. 106 No. 3
BAY BANC. LAKE-LEHMAN S10] 2 [O10] 5 BI ISH | 21 [0 BS
Dallas, Pennsylvania
| Jan. 18 thru Jan. 24, 1995
By GRACE R. DOVE
Post Staff
A community meeting January 15 may have
turned the corner for the Jonathan R. Davis Fire
Company in Idetown, which had been faced with
closing its doors and having a fire truck repossessed.
“People forgot they had a fire company until we
had our backs against the wall,” said fire company
spokesperson Shirley Wentzel.
“We didn’t know if the community needed us.
Lehman Township has two other fire companies —
Lake Silkworth and the Lehman Volunteer Fire
Company.”
Serving the Idetown, Briar Crest and Oak Hill
sections of Lehman Township, the Jonathan R.
Davis Fire Company has 18 active members and a
total membership roll of 30 people, most of whom are
young.
Isaacs has
big plans for
old car lot
By GRACE R. DOVE
Post Staff
The former Howard “Duke” Isaacs Chrysler-Ply-
mouth dealership at Route 309 and Harris Hill Road
in Trucksville will have a new look, once a maze of
paperwork is completed.
According to George Isaacs, who is developing the
property with his wife, Carol, the property will be
marketed for a campus-type center housing several
small busi-
nesses, as soon
as local zoning
and state high-
way occupancy
permits and
other develop-
ment plans are
approved.
“I've lived and
done business in
the Back Mountain all my life,” he said. “We want to
bring something of quality to the community. We
don't want another strip mall.”
The first of many required preliminary approvals
came from the Kingston Township planning com-
mission, which has enabled Isaacs to convert his
properties comprising the five-acre site into one par-
cel.
Formerly, the property was made up of 18 sepa-
rate deeds, Isaacs said.
Other plans for stormwater runoff and removal of
underground tanks must be approved by the De-
partment of Environmental Resources (DER), while
the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation must
approve driveway permits, Isaacs said.
“I still have to do many engineering, environ-
mental and traffic studies,” he said. “We've hired the
best engineering firm in the area - safety is one of our
main concerns.”
The Chrysler-Plymouth sales and service dealer-
ship was started by Isaacs’ father, Howard “Duke”
Isaacs, in 1936, with a one-car showroom on Route
309 in Trucksville.
Isaacs later acquired a nearby block garage oper-
ated by Tiny Gould, a well-known restorer of antique
cars, and converted it into a body shop, which still
sports the “Body Shop” sign and stands near the
northern property line.
“We want to bring
something of quality
to the community. We
don’t want another
strip mall.”
George Isaacs
See ISAACS, pg 12
Gardner finds adventure in South Korea
By GRACE R. DOVE
Post Staff
Red hot peppers and squid for
breakfast weren't the most diffi-
cult adjustment for Nicole Gard-
ner while working in South Korea.
Spending a month only 50 miles
from the North Korean border
during an international dispute
was harder.
The Lake-Lehman graduate
(Class of 1990) has been teaching
English at a boys’ high school in
Kwangzu, South Korea on a
Fulbright grant since July, 1994,
shortly after she graduated from
Penn State with a double major in
history and English literature.
Nicole had originally planned
to apply for a grant to go to New
Zealand, but her college advisor,
Carrie Eckhardt, PhD, suggested
South Korea, saying that speak-
ing a different language and living
in a different culture would be a
more meaningful experience.
“You can have all the money
and equipment in the world.
You need members to make a
fire company succeed.”
William Mcintosh
J.R. Davis Fire Co. chief
The fire company needs approximately $2,000 per
month for utility bills and a $404 payment on the
firetruck, Wentzel said.
“We're about two months behind,” Wentzel added.
“The bank has been very lenient and let us just pay
the interest, but they could come and repossess the
truck at any time.”
The main fundraiser is the weekly bingo games,
which last year were cancelled for six weeks due to
the weather.
“Missing the bingo really puta dent in our budget,”
Wentzel said.
The fire company’s financial problems aren't
anything new, according to fire chief William McIn-
tosh.
Formed in 1959 to service the eastern end of
Lehman Township, it lost half its members and 55
percent of its territory — Sunset, Worden Place, Old
Lake Road and Point Breeze — 10 years later when
Harveys Lake Borough was formed.
During the 1280's, general interest in volunteer
fire companies had declined. In 1985, the fire com-
pany's major fundraiser, the J. R. Davis Horse Show,
was discontinued.
“Interest seems to have picked up again, with 911
and other TV real-life action shows,” McIntosh said.
“Fire companies are good places for young people
— in addition to learning to fight fires and save lives,
Rebecca Miller made it to the bottom.
Hot fun...in the wintertime
Dallas Elementary second graders Natasha Hoyt, top left, and Amanda Perschau, top right,
enjoyed a slide at the school playground during Friday's springlike weather. Below,
POST PHOTOS/GRACE R. DOVE
NICOLE GARDNER
2, &
Ph: A AX
Fire co. heartened by community's response
they'll learn responsibility, teamwork, compassion,
respect for others and other people's property, self-
discipline and leadership skills.”
Of the company's six junior firefighters, three will
turn 18 in a few months and be allowed todo all the
work of a senior firefighter, he said. :
Younger members help man the bingo tables,
working alongside the older people to become accus-
tomed to volunteering their time and contributing to
the community. :
“You can have all the money and equipment in the,
world,” McIntosh said. “You need members to make:
a fire company succeed.” '
Members don't have to fight fires, he added. The
fire company always needs people todrive the trucks,’
direct traffic, do office and bookkeeping work, bring
refreshments to firefighters and help maintain the:
See FIRE CO. pg 12 J
Mundy calls
allegations
'ludicrous’
By GRACE R. DOVE ]
Post Staff 0]
'
§
x
[]
[|
TP Ln TR
Incumbent State Rep. Phyllis Mundy, the targetof |
two recent letters attacking her credibility, has called
the accusations against her “ludicrous” and “scurri- |
lous.” r=
The letters which surfaced last week accuse Mundy 1
of lashing out at the Catholic Church over her pro-
choice stand and allude to an alleged secret deal
between Luzerne
County's Republican
and Democratic parties
to throw the November,
1994 election.
An alleged deal be-
tween both parties was
supposed to insure that
incumbents Mundy and
Senator Charles
Lemmond ran without
official opposition, and
won the election in ex-
change for political fa-
vors, jobs and appoint-
ments.
Garnering 62 percent ;
of the vote, Mundy beat PHYLLIS MUNDY
Republican Norm Gavlick. Lemmond, a Republican,
ran unopposed.
The second letter also urges “bipartisan coopera-
tion” between legislators, supposedly necessary to
complete several “choice payoff or kickback situ-
ations,” including the Luzerne CouniyArensand
Northeast Railroad. SERIES
Both letters, written on what Mundy descibiad a8
poor copies of an outdated letterhead, have become
the subject of a Pennsylvania State Police criminl
investigation.
“This isn't just a political prank or dirty trick — it's
a crime,” Mundy said. “You don't appropriate some-
one's letterhead and forge their signature.”
Referring to an alleged deal to keep her and
Lemmond in office, Mundy said, “The accusations
are ludicrous. There was no deal. There should be no
doubt in anyone's mind that I did not write the
letters. Anyone who looks at them can easily see that
they're a fake.” :
Lemmond told The Dallas Post Tuesday morning X
See MUNDY, pg 12 |
“It sounded very adventurous
and kind of crazy, so I applied to
teach English in South Korea,
never expecting that it would be
approved,” Nicole said. “I thought
I'd be scuba diving, rock-climbing
and participating in a literary
research program - and I ended
up teaching English in Kwangzu.”
For their first month in South
Korea, Nicole and the other
Fulbright teachers were sent to
rural Chunchon, 50 miles from Calendar
the demilitarized zone between =
North and South Korea, at the Classified
same time international disagree- Crossword
‘ments over inspection of nuclear Editorials
power plants had flared up. .
“Chunchon had been one of the Obituaries
first South Korean towns to fall School......
during the Korean War,” Nicole Sports...
said. “We weren't happy being
Bl Nice wheels.
Kingston Township added a
new 4-wheel drive cruiser to
the fleet. Page 2.
HB Lehman rules in
wrestling match with rival
Dallas. The Black Knights are
unbeaten so far. Page 9
LC INDEX
12 Pages 1 Section
The Dallas Post
there at all - we felt that if any-
thing big were to happen, we'd be
in big trouble.”
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SeeGARDNER, pg 2