10 The Dallas Post Dallas, PA Wednesday, May 1, 1996 A Sight (continued from page 1) no trip - and some grateful thanks to specific organizations, hoping we don't miss any. He mentioned the Tunkhannock Kiwanis Club, Lake Silkworth Lions Club, Twin Cities Lions Club, East End Primitive Church in Wilkes-Barre, Harveys Lake Lions Club, Wilkes-Barre Lions Club, Wilkes-Barre Asso- ciation for the Blind, Common- wealth Telephone, Gate of Heaven School, Our Lady of Victory Church and Mehoopany Method- ist Church. According to Dr. Goodwin, the hugely successful collection went on during the holiday season, when as he says, “People usually are busy with other things on their minds. It didn’t seem to malter. It was an unusual day when we did not have four or five folks dropping off glasses.” Goodwin wishes each donor could see some of the results, particularly in the children. One girl kept looking around her, with and without her new glasses, and marveling out loud about the for- est trees and leaves in the wind: “Look! They're moving!” she ex- ‘claimed. He feels there is a long-term benefit buried here, and predicts, “These kids being able to see clearly for the first time are bound to become better educated than they would have been otherwise. They'll get better jobs. The stan- dard of living on that island might even improve, and from just such a simple change.” Recent VOSH trips were to Guatemala, where a team saw over 2,500 people and to Mexico, where three optometrists exam- ined 1,350 patients. But Goodwin's Trinidad trip broke a VOSH record...they saw over 3,100 patients in just six days! Dr. Goodwin doesn’t know where next year's trip is sched- uled, but he grins and says, “Doesn't matter. Just don't throw any of your old eyeglasses away. Drop ‘em off at the Back Moun- tain Eye Care Center instead!” Lead (continued from page 1) testing. “We got these readings right at the wellhead,” John Hilstolsky said. “Our water system was in- stalled in 1986, but the lead wasn't coming from it.” The highest level in David Hilstolsky's well was .050, which he says has decreased to what DEP calls a safe limit. His wife was expecting a baby at the time, but luckily the children’s lead tests have come back negative, he said. “They know us by heart at the Kirby Health Center,” David said. “We take our water there for tests all the time.” He has checked into filter sys- tems for his entire house, which range from $6,000 to $10,000, because lead is very easily ab- sorbed into the body through the skin. “You can get lead poisoning just by taking a bath,” he said. Neighbor Gene Monahan, who lives across the street from the brothers at Crown Hill, had the highest lead reading — a whopping .065 when his well, also 200 feet deep, was tested in mid-Febru- ary. Lead is only one of his water woes. The day his daughter was born four years ago he spent $650 on an ultraviolet system to Kill high concentrations of fecal coliform bacteria which had found their way into his well from nearby septic systems. “We buy more than 10 gallons of bottled water every week at 79¢ a gallon and get more from a friend,” Monahan said. “We also take very short showers and are very careful when bathing the children. We don't want to take any chances.” The lead levels can fluctuate from day to day, he added. The highest readings occur when the water table is low due to a lack of rainfall. When the water table is high from heavy rainfall, the lead levels decrease, he said. Oddly enough, Ed Paluski, who lives behind Monahan, has had safe lead test readings from two tests. “Ittravels pretty funny up here,” he said. Like Monahan, he also has an ultraviolet filter on his home wa- ter system to remove fecal coliform bacteria. Although the Hilstolskys won- dered if the shooting range at the old Carverton Gun Club on the Coon farm might be the culprit, Pawlush doubts it. Believing the cause to possibly be in the area's underlying rocks, he plans to discuss the situation with DEP geologists. The club, which operated for 35 years until it was disbanded in 1981, had a trap shooting range about 700 yards from David Hilstolsky's well. Hometown news « Hometown product The Dallas Post Dr. Curtis Goodwin, along with colleagues, dispensed 3,100 pairs of eyeglasses in Trinidad earlier this year. Nikon's "Retinomax' made it possible for Dr. Goodwin to perform eye exams in one step. It was the first time he had used the device. Bugs (continued from page 1) the southern part of the state, working their way north to Luzerne County as the leaves mature and more caterpillars hatch.” The trick to spraying is catch- ing both leaves and caterpillars at the right stage of development, he added. The little pests must be no larger than 1/4 inch long for the spray tokill them. The pesticide of choice is Bt, a bacteria fatal to gypsy moths, both species of tent caterpillars, the fall cankerworm and the elm spanworm but rela- tively harmless to other bugs. It's easy to spot the differences between the five types of forest pests expected this summer, Rugletic said. While the gypsy moth and both species of tent caterpillar are large and fuzzy, the gypsy moth has a row of orange dots running down its back and hairs which can give people han- dling it a nasty rash. The rela- tively innocuous Eastern tent cat- erpillar has one white stripe down its back, while the forest tent cat- erpillar sports a row of white dots on its back and green and bluish spots on its sides. The light green elm spanworm and the light brown fall cankerworm, both hairless, resemble inchworms. Fortunately for both the trees and the homeowners, the elm spanworm infestation collapsed 45 last year, according to Depart- ment of Conservation and Natu- ral Resources press secretary Gretchen Leslie. “They hit a peak in 1993 and 1994,” she said. “Since the elm spanworm follows a 10-year cycle, we should begin to see a dramatic increase in another eight years.” Basically the little pests ate themselves out of business, Leslie said. The population became so large that the caterpillars’ immune systems were weakened, making them easy prey for diseases. Natu- ral predators — other bugs and birds which have developed a taste for the native species —did the rest of the work. Rugletic’s office was flooded with “thousands of telephone calls” late last year after he offered information to landowners inter- ested in hiring a contractor to spray their properties this spring. The state will pay about $1.7 million to spray more than 85,400 acres in Pennsylvania for cater- pillars. Locally, 3,299 acres in the county, mostly west of the Susquehanna River, will be sprayed to control the gypsy moth and an additional 637 acres in and around Ricketts Glen State Park will be sprayed for the fall cankerworm, according to DCNR records. Meatballs COMPANY "Your Hometown Restaurant" Every Wednesday & Thursday Ziti & with Salad $3.99 $9.99 =. Every Sunday Homemade Lasagne & Salad $4. 99 675-7347 Near Rt. 309-415 Intersection « Open Daily 11:00 a.m. Now Hiring Dayshift Bursting with Back Movnfain news The Dallas Post a hometown paper you can feel good about | " “a MH |
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers