} ! Vol. 106 No. 6 The Back Mountain's 3 x) ; Dallas, PA SYS BAVA NCTE Bo SR OI@11V/ | \V/ ISIN IB ESRC] i I on | SB VAN BVANST CA VAN of =E I 1 AY RSTO o [O10] I BI ISH | 21 [03 BS Feb. 8 thru Feb. 14, 1995 Prisoners add $23,000 to Jackson coffers > ® By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff Figures may never lie, but they can be very inaccurate. + ‘The inmates of the State Correctional Institution at Dallas (SCID) may not be considered Jackson Township residents, but their presence at the facility has unwittingly helped the township's budget. ‘According to the 1990 census, the township has 5,336 residents, including SCID's 2,765 inmates, who don't pay taxes or contribute in any way to the township, but are considered by the Pennsylvania State Data Center and the U.S. Census Bureau to be residents. The state uses these figures to compute the amount of money for road work (the Liquid Fuels Tax) and a special subsidy from the State Police Fines and Government funds based on census give a bonus to the town feasibility study to con- solidate area police forces, which could affect the consultant's recommendations for the number of officers Penalties Account which each municipality receives each year. Last year Jackson Township received $4714.78 from the police fines and pen- alties account and $78,435.20 in Liquid Fuels money, which breaks down to $1,456.72 for each mile of township- owned roads and $8.37 for every resi- dent- including the inmates. That would mean the 2,765 inmates add $23,143.05 to the town's road account coffers. “I don’t understand how they figure that,” said Gerald Kerprich, director for the Pennsylvania Department of Trans- portation’s Bureau of Municipal Serv- ices. “I'm not sure what the census uses for residency requirements.” The census figures for the township were alsorecently used in a state-funded needed. The 1990 census fig- ures first caused headaches for town- ship officials in late 1993, when the Department of Environmental Resources attempted to force the township to im- mediately begin recycling after noting the township's population exceeded 5,000 residents. At that time Pennsylvania State Data Center director Mike Behney said the fig- ure painted a statistically and demogra- phically correct picture of the township. “It doesn’t matter if they all live in one building,” he had said. “We don't care if they're all in one place standing on each other's heads - it still works out cor- rectly.” As long as a person lives in a munici- pality for more than six months of the year, whether or not they pay taxes, they're considered residents for demogra- phinc purposes. Ironically, the Census Bureau recently contacted Jackson Township asked them to appoint a municipal census liason person, to produce more accurate fig- ures in the next census. Plowing up a storm "We can’t simply wait until the storm stops. People work all three shifts and need to get out.” Snow plow operator Art Owen - By GRACE R. DOVE .- Post Staff ing up his snow plow. was. keep an eye on conditions. While most Back Mountain .~ residents were still snuggled in their warm beds early Saturday + morning, Franklin Township road . foreman Art Owen was out warm- He hadn't slept much Friday night — he'd kept waking up and looking out his window to see how bad the February 4 snowstorm “I know I have to get going before the roads get too bad,” he said. “We can't simply wait until the storm stops. People work all ‘three shifts and need to get out.” Because the township doesn't have police to notify the road crew when the roads are getting slip- pery, it's Owen's responsibility to It's a slow job clearing the laid out,” he said. “It looks kind of like a crazyquilt.” An equipment operator for 30 years, Owen knows nearly every foot of the township's roads, which he has had plenty of time to learn while working on them during the dry weather. His son, Art, Jr., also an equip- ment operator, is the other half of the township plow crew. In a normal storm it takes both men about two hours just to open all the roads, without finishing the intersections or widening the plowed areas. “If we start around 5 a.m., we can have the roads passable by 7 for the school busses and morn- ing commuters,” he said. As he deftly guided the town- ship's Ford through Saturday's swirling snow, Owen shared some secrets and observations. “This stuff will give us trouble if township's 13 miles of roads, he said. Although it doesn't look like a lot, those 13 miles are part of a checkerboard of secondary roads, some maintained by Luzerne County, some by the state and the rest by the township. “It's funny how everything is it blows and starts to drift,” he said. “I'd rather see eight inches of snow without wind than four inches with a geod wind. We have many open areas which will drift shut again. At least we probably A c| EAR VIEW - Franklin Township road foreman Art Owen takes a quick break to clear accumulated snow and ice from his See PLOWING, pg 16 POST PHOTO/GRACE R. DOVE plow truck’s windshield during Saturday’s storm. Owen and other area road crews spent their weekend clearing the roads. . « Models racers hit the track in Sweet Valley By. JACK HILSHER Post Correspondent ' Hey, all you race fans! How'd ya like to drive one for real? You can, you know...at Sweet Valley, of all places. And you won't have to worry about crack-ups; if one occurs you won't even be in the car! We're talking model car racing of course, but the thrills are all there, same as the real McCoy. No, not radio control, Sweet Val- ley tracks are all indoors and feature neat little replicas called “slot cars.” Slots have a little fin which rides in a slot in the track and use two brass brushes to pick up a current of 12-volts which ns, tiny high-performance elec- ltric motors. Slots are faster than radio controlled cars (some have been clocked at 70 MPH!) are more fiercely competitive and nowhere near as expensive. They came to Sweet Valley's Main Road, about 4 miles on the left from its inter- section with Rt. 118, last Novem- ber. Yet already owner Doc Wolff needs to expand his “RACE-AR- AMA". It just isn't big enough; some race days, drivers and spec- tators are shoulder-to-shoulder. Alarger RACE-ARAMA is slated to open by April 1 and will have a new longer track, in addition to his present two, a new drag strip and lots more spectator room. The added space is a must be- cause Wolff is holding talks with two national organizations - Key- stone and Parma - which are inter- Slot car craze has up and down history, page 16 ested in staging their events at the Sweet Valley facility. This means, among other things, invitational tournaments which will bring in out-of-town racers. Buddy Dan Williams, a Lake- Lehman graphic arts teacher, is helping Doc build the new track, and framing is already in place. Doc Wolff, a native of Muhlen- berg and an ex-army tank com- mander, says, “If you're wonder- ing, my given name is Louie, but my Mom and Dad have called me ‘Doc’ every since I was born 42 years ago. I guess it stuck.” Wolff is also a master carpenter, but he says, “I got tired of working for someone else and I decided to try something I have loved since I was 14 - model car racing - only this time for more than fun.” Eight-lane commercial tracks can cost up to $50,000 so Wolff's trade made it a snap to build his own. At his facility you can bring your own car and take over a slot at one of the tracks for a modest $1.50 per fifteen-minute segment of time. Or, you canrentacarand electric controller at twice that. Sweet Valleyites and surround- ing communities have welcomed the new addition as something sorely needed. “There was noth- ing like this around anywhere, nothing for kids to do but watch POST PHOTO/MACK HILSHER TEST RUN - John Pimm, left, and son Jeff tried out the track at Coc's Race-A-Rama in Sweet Valley recently. The slot car empo- rium is so popular it is about to expand. TV or play video games,: says John Pimm of Harveys Lake, fa- ther of three boys. Pimm at first brought son Jeff, 9, just to see what was what. Jeffbubbled over, “It's great!” And his Dad said “I'll be back - only next time with the other two boys." Dan Ryan, an ex-Marine and now owner of Dallas Cleaners, is equally enthusiastic. He's been back with sons Chuck, 9, and Peter, 8, more than once, and he says, “This is a better bargain than the movies, and much more fun. Not like those video-game arcades either...they take your money faster than Vegas.” Another regular, Gerald Hoover, a modular home designer from Hunlock Creek, sheds some in- sight into why Doc's adult cus- tomers all seem to be in the same age bracket: 40-something. Hoover reflects, “Like me, most of these guys were hooked in their early teens on model racing when it was the hot sport. And some of them drove full-size cars later on. Then they grew up - wised up - and quit. It was that or be killed. So now they recapture all the old thrills with slots. Of course a few still race both. They're the stupid ones.” One ex-racer who wasn't stu- pid is Sweet Valley's Rick Post, owner of R&K Landscaping. He See RACERS, pg 16 5 more towns named Dallas If you have been following this series of articles you already know about the five Dallases. Well, are you ready for this — there are five more. Yes, for a total of 10 cities, towns, boroughs, townships or villages with the name of Dallas in the United States. Dallas, Alabama is 20 miles from Birmingham in the North Central part of the state. Dallas is at the edge of the Red Mountains and 15 miles from Lewis Smith Lake, one of the larger lakes in Alabama. That Dallas compatis, somewhat with ours, near Red Rock Mountain and near Harveys Lake. As with all the last three newly- discovered Dallases, the popula- tion is under 600 and they are listed only in the Comprehensive World Atlas. Dallas, Iowa is 25 miles S.E. of Des Moines, just south of Lake See DALLAS, page 5 ] 4-year starters Tim Sayre, John Wood and Mike Stuart are finishing 4 years on the region's premier squard. Page 9 Talent to spare ‘Gate of Heaven students strut their stuff. Page 3. 16 Pages 2 Sections Calendar.................. 13 Classified............. 14-15 Crossword.............. 13 Editorials... 4 Obituaries............. 2,14 School... 11-12 SPONS....... hii 9-10 CALL 675-5211 FOR HOME DELIVERY, IHEWS OR ADVERTISINC 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
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