LS Vol. 106 No. 47 By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff 1 BACK MOUNTAIN - A family of three whose father is dying of cancer, a family of eight with an autistic child and virtually no furniture in their housing project apartment and a handicapped single mother with three children will have much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. They are three of 11 area fami- lies will who receive food for a month from the employees of a ones's nominee elected to board ~~. By ANN POEPPERLING ve Post Correspondent “LEHMAN - Joseph “Red” Jones shared a piece of advice with fel- low school board members as he resigned from the Lake-Lehman School Board Nov. 16: “Please be pro-education,” he said. Jones thanked everyone from his colleagues to teachers, as well as students and voters, for his three terms on the board which he “truly enjoyed,” as he prepares to begin his new post as Luzerne County commissioner in Janu- ary. Jones then requested the nomination of Gary Miller as his replacement. A resident of Chase Road in Jackson Township, Miller iS.a 27-year employee of Proctor & Gamble, has been active in the Lake-Lehman band and girls’ basketball and has attended s¢hool board meetings for the past 10 years, Jones said. Miller's g See JONES, pg 3 1 company based in the Back Mountain. For the past four years, em- ployees of ALLTEL Corp., formerly Systematics, have hit the bar- “gains and two-fer supermarket sales so they could share Thanks- giving with their less fortunate neighbors in Luzerne, Wyoming and Lackawanna counties. Through their annual Feed a Friend campaign (not to be con- fused with the program run by the Commission on Economic Oppor- tunity), they will provide food for a Dallas, Pennsylvania month to 11 needy area families recommended by social service agencies. The collection, which nets approximately $4,000 in canned goods, staple foods and cash They're no turkeys Dallas Elementary School second-graders Matthew Buckman and Maria Gialanella got suited up for the school's Thanksgiving in compassion abound at Thanksgiving donations each year, provides half a pickup truck load of groceries per family, according to coordina- tors William Holena and Bernie Drobish. Additional monetary donations will be used to “fill in the gaps” in the groceries and buy a ham, a turkey, personal items, milk and perishable foods for each family, Holena said. The employees really getinto it, with each one bringing in at least one bag of groceries for the collec- tion, Drobish said. / “When we first started this project in 1991, we filled our en- tire lobby with donations,” Holena said.” “It has now grown to the point that we had to move it into the cafeteria.” “The families sometimes cry when they see all the food,” Dro- bish said. “They expect only a basket and end up with enough food for a month. Last year we included several bottles of soda in a delivery to a family with several See THANKSGIVING, pg 12 POST PHOTO/CHARLOTTE BARTIZEK program last week. More photos from Dallas, Trucksville Nursery School and Little People Day Care School on pages 8-9. Nestor the hound has a winning smile : By GRACE R. DOVE | Post Staff - SHAVERTOWN - A pet photo taken on the spur of the moment has made Nestor the bassett hound famous. Named cutest petin the SPCA's recent pet photo contest, Nestor, 3: is owned by Tammy and Ed Lemelin. He's named for Nestor, the long-eared donkey in a popu- lar kids’ Christmas story. “We never tried anything like this before,” Tammy said. “The only reason I entered his photo is because one of my friends works for Rygiel Studios, who co-spon- sored the contest with the SPCA.” The sweet-faced hound with “Nothing bothers Nestor. He'll do anything.” Tammy Lemelin Cute dog's owner the soulful eyes posed perfectly for his award-winning photo, she added. “Nothing bothers Nestor,” said. “He'll do anything.” Nestor shares his home with two other bassetts, Norma and Fox. Norma is an SPCA dog with a story: when she was nine months old she was left at the shelter by two workers at the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Fair, who had brought she Yictims of alleged child Nd % By GRACE R. DOVE : Post Staff DALLAS - Five young girls were upset at not having their day in court November 16, but their families told them it was for the best. «The girls, allin their early teens, are the alleged victims of accused child molester Ernest William Chapman, 41, formerly of Dallas Township, who waived his right to a preliminary hearing before Dis- trict Justice James Tupper No- vember 16 on 68 child sex charges. Represented by publicdefender Jonathan Blum, Chapman is charged with several counts of the felony charges of rape, statu- tory ‘rape, statutory assault, making threats, aggravated inde- cent assault of a child younger than 16 years old, indecent as- sault without consent, aggravated indecent assault while making threats and using force, and the misdemeanor charges of endan- gering the welfare of children, corruption of minors, indecent assault without consent, indecent assault of a child younger than 16 years old, aggravated indecent assault of a child younger than 13 years old and indecent assault while the victim is unaware of it. At least five of his victims were prepared to testify against him at his preliminary hearing. Accom- panied by prosecuting attorney Ingrid Cronin and detective Debo- rah van Horn of the Luzerne her up from Florida. “Norma was in the first ken- nel,” Tammy said. “We couldn't resist her.” She fits in well with the family and already has Nestor wrapped around her paw. Fox, the family's latest addi- tion, is an older dog who enjoys Nestor's and Norma's company, Tammy said. They all sleep to- gether in the bedroom, making a warm, snoring heap of dog. Nestor won several gift certifi- cates from area pet supply stores, which Tammy plans to use to buy him a special blue collar and a bassett bowl, specially designed to keep beautiful long ears from dangling in dinner. NESTOR molester crowd court County District Attorney's office, their parents, friends and rela- tives, they filled Tupper’'s court- room to capacity. Later they were ushered into a waiting room behind the magis- trate’'s bench, where Van Horn told them told Chapman had waived his hearing. Their loud sobs were clearly audible at the back of the courtroom. Chapman, brought in hand- cuffs. and shackles from the Luzerne County Prison by Dallas Township police chief Carl Miers, sat in an office, then at the back of the courtroom until a police offi- cer allowed him to stand in an alcove where he was less visible. “I just want to kill him,” sobbed one of the victims. “I want to look at him,” cried another. “Just let me look at him.” Her family turned her around to face Chapman, standing in the alcove. He stared steadily back at her glare, his face showing no emotion. “Don't worry, honey, he won't leave that jail,” one of the girls’ relatives said. “You'll get to testify against him in court. And if he pleads guilty and there's no trial, See CHILD MOLESTER, pg 2 Can an elf unseat Santa Claus in the semi-millenial election for Santa? Would the other elves even consider voting for someone other than the familiar red-suited old father figure? Every 500 years, Santa has to stand for reelection, according to rules he set himself. But this year, for the first time in history, Santa has some opposition. Snark, a smart and cunning elf, has chal- 50¢ William Holena, left, and Bernie Drobish show off some of the food collected by employees of ALLTEL. Crash witness's testimony changes By GRACE R. DOVE Post Staff DALLAS - A friend of Richard Williams III, the man charged with rolling over a Harveys Lake fire’ truck in September, gave a differ- ent account of Williams's conduct’ at a hearing before District Jus- tice James Tupper than he had to the investigating officer when interviewed shortly after the acci- dent. During testimony Nov. 20, George D. Kocher contradicted statements which he had origi- nally made to the state police offi- cer who investigated the Septem- ber 2 accident. Kocher, a D. C. Roberts fire captain, originally told police Williams was drunk the night of the accident, but testified at the hearing that Williams wasn't drunk when he stopped at Kocher's house and helped Kocher and a relative work on a truck. “I can’t say he was intoxicated See TESTIMONY, pg. 10 Santa Claus challenged in 4-part Christmas story lenged for the job. And he’s saying what the ives want to hear! Will Santa lose his job to one of his elves? Could the citizens of the North Pole actually vote for someone else? Find out in the special four- part Christmas series for kids of all ages, “Snark for Santa,” start- ing Nov. 29 only in The Dallas Post. HW Triple threat The Suda siblings have made their mark on Dallas athletics. Pg 13. H A terrific toy you can make this holiday season. Plans, and a column, too. Pg 5. 20 Pages 2 Sections Calendar..................... 17 Classified............... 18-19 Crossword.................. 17 Edilorials................... 4 Obituaries... 18 School...........- =. 15-16 SPORS...cni esis: 13-14 CALL 675-5211 FOR HOME DELIVERY, NEWS OR ADVERTISING INDEX 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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