G66 ‘LL Aey ‘Aepgupom vd ‘sejjeq segodeu sejlegayl 2 - NL = GER ———. ts L { J (wo lo » Wide OUNTAIN pack M The Back Mountain's Vol. 106 No. 21 Dallas, Pennsylvania Newspaper Since 1889 e Dallas Post Li =Nele]\V/ [VIS NRE =tSHe] =i i = | =H BVA MANCINA SRS 21 AN ESTel s [oe] BE pl IS i = 1 [0 KS 50¢ May 24 thru May 30, 1995 Budget fails on first try ‘By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff LEHMAN - They thought they couldn't. They thought they couldn't. And they didn’t. After a two-hour special meeting wrangling over the tentative 1995-96 budget, Lake- Lehman school board members didn't adopt the spending plan and re- cessed until May 25, when they will con- sider it again. The stalemate occurred when four board members supported adopting the budget, which can be modified before final approval, and four opposed adoption. The absence of QE a AY RS RR Lake-Lehman Budget Meeting Thurs., May 25, 7:30 p.m. Lehman-Jackson School library See BUDGET, pg 8 The family, goose A pair of Canada geese has established a home near a pond alongside Upper Demunds Road in Dallas Township. The family has grown by four in POST PHOTO/CHARLOTTE BARTIZEK recent weeks, with a quartet of goslings joining mom and dad. The friendly clan was browsing on the fresh grass last weekend. PG&W's land sale may be felt here By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff BACK MOUNTAIN - The proposed sale of watershed land now owned by Pennsylvania Enterprises, Inc. may affect how some Back Mountain acre- age is used. Two reservoirs and two filtration: plants in the Back Mountain are in- cluded in the 7,000 acres of water- shed land which Pennsylvania Enter- prises, Inc., owner of the Pennsylva- nia Gas and Water Company (PG&W), plans to sell to Pennsylvania Ameri- can Water, a large publicly-owned water company headquartered in Hershey. The Ceasetown (Chenery) Reser- voir at Pikes Creek and its new filtra- tion plant are in Lehman Township, while the Huntsville Reservoir is split See LAND, pg 8 Dallas school board sought parity with latest raises By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff 9 BACK MOUNTAIN - Large raises given to Dallas school administrators simply bring them up to the bottom rung of salaries for comparable positions, says the president of the Dallas School Board. According to state aid ratios, . which determine how rich or poor a school district is, Dallas is the richestdistrict in Luzerne County, Recycling cans into fire truck By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff * SHAVERTOWN - Discarded aluminum cans will one day mean a new fire engine for the Shaver- town Volunteer Fire Company, which has taken recycling to heart. ! Company members are collect- ing aluminum cans to help raise money to buy a new state-of-the- ® art aerial ladder/pumper truck, the first of its type in the Back Mountain. According to fire chief Gary Beisel, the truck will have a 75- foot. ladder with a built-in hose and water nozzle which firefight- ers will be able to operate from the ground. “It's the only piece of equip- ~~, ment the Back Mountain doesn’t (4 have,” Beisel said. “It's a safe, fast way to get water to taller buildings and roofs, which will help us fight * fires in buildings up to six stories high. We have atleast halfa dozen churches with tall steeples in our coverage area which could benefit from it.” The fire company wants to continue to provide its high qual- ity of fire protection for the contin- & ued growth anticipated in the Back Mountain. Insalaco’s is expected to expand, while George Isaacs is planning to build a business center on Route 309, he said. Similar trucks from Kingston and Edwardsville have been called to the Back Mountain before — the December fire at the Back Moun- tain Shopping Center and the Labor Day, 1992, fire which de- stroyed Daring's Market in Dallas Township. while Lake-Lehman is third from the bottom. (The lower a district's aid ratio, the richer it is.) Ironically, Dallas administra- tors are the lowest paid in Luzerne County, said to board president Dr. Richard Coslett. “Their sala- ries were so low that they were below the salary ranges of most other districts in the county,” he said. “We gave them raises this year to bring them up to the bot- tom.” “We gave them raises this year to bring them up to the bottom.” Dr. Richard Coslett Dallas School Board president Describing Dallas administra- tors as “the finest in our area,” Coslett said the board recently approved a three-year adminis- trators’ contract, which provides for raises keyed to the cost of living, between 2.5 and 4.5 per- cent, and merit incentives for the next two years. Lake-Lehman administrators’ salaries will increase by a flat 3.75 percent this year, said busi- POST PHOTO/CHARLOTTE BARTIZEK ONCE A HOBBY, NOW A LIVING - Dennis Oliver's gourmet food business grew out of the former architect's hobby. Ironically, his specialty was designing restaurants. He is shown above with Michelle Baur, head chef at the Dallas establishment. Oliver's hobby is now his work By JACK HILSHER Post Correspondent There is a lucky man in the Back Mountain who makes his living by working at his hobby and his name is Dennis Oliver. His business is D.H. Oliver Foods Company, located in the Dallas Corners Building at the foot of Machell Avenue, where it meets Memorial Highway. There are seven other tenants of various pursuits - among them is Dom- ino’s Pizza - all comfortably settled in a fairly new building which features lots of glass and always looks cheerful and inviting. Oliver, 50, is trim, balding and sports a small mustache of the See FIRE TRUCK, Pg 2 type which used to be known as a o oF - “cookie duster.” A former archi- tect, he had offices in Philadel- phia and California. Among his clients were McDonald's - he designed a completely new inte- rior for their Keyser Avenue loca- tion in Scranton - and the City of New York, for whom he designed a restaurant in the World Trade Center. Restaurants are his spe- cialty. Architect Oliver found himself, as he recalls, spending much too much time in airports and motels. Not a life at all, and I said one day it had to change.” So the transi- tion to put his hobby of gourmet cooking to work led to his present setting in Dallas, although “jump” is probably a better word than “transition.” Locating a place to live here was a bit unusual. Divorced, with a grown son Edward (and a grand- son Wesley, four) living in Seattle, Oliver nevertheless wanted a large house with “elbow room and some land.” His family was from Sweet Valley and had a cottage at North Lake, so he knew the area. By coincidence when he was looking, Sweet Valley's Church of Christ congregation had outgrown their church quarters. The architect in Oliver said, “that would be fun to convert into a home,” and so he did. See OLIVER, pg 2 ness manager Ray Bowersox. But most are already higher than for comparable positions in the Dal- las district. Unlike the teachers, who are represented as a bargaining unit by one of two statewide teachers’ organizations, the Pennsylvania Association of Elementary and Secondary School Principals (PAESSP) works with all school principals and assistant princi- pals to help negotiate salary and benefit packages with local school boards. Superintendents, assistant superintendents, business man- agers and certain other personnel (buildings and grounds supervi- sors, food services directors, etc.) must negotiate salaries and bene- fits with the board on their own. “The board usually gives us approximately what the princi- See SALARIES, pg 8 Paid ambulance wants entry to Jackson Twp. By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff JACKSON TOWNSHIP- A paid ambulance service has announced its intention to expand coverage into Jackson Township, but municipal officials and volunteer ambulance personnel know little about the plan. Donahue Ambulance Service recently announced plans to en- large its coverage area to include any municipality within a 20 minute drive of its base in South Wilkes-Barre. Jackson Township was on its list of new municipalities. “What you're telling me is the first I've heard about it,” said Jackson Township ambulance chiefJohn “Jay” Wilkes, Jr. “We're the recognized emergency serv- ices provider for the township. If anyone else wants to come in here, they must get approval from the supervisors first.” None of the township's three supervisors — Walter Glogowski, Carl Aston and Andrew Kasko — knew anything either. They rely on the township's volunteer ambulance company, they said. Donahue presently serves the State Correctional Institution at Dallas (SCID), located in Jackson Township, an 18 minute drive See AMBULANCE, pg 16 HB Yuck! westmoreland School students recently learned the ins and outs of a frog. Page 3. HB Game of the year Dallas nipped Lehman 4-2 in 12 innings in last week's softball action. Page 9. 16 Pages 2 Sections Calendar..................i.. 16 Classified............... 14-15 Crossword.................. 13 EQONAIS...........cn vines 4 Obituaries................... 11 School... iin. 12 Sports... 9,10, 11 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
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