4 The Dallas Post Dallas, PA Wednesday, December 18, 1996 Moo Nhe = EDITORIALS Agency should clean up its own performance - Responding to the failure of states to adequately enforce anti-pollution statutes, the federal government is investigating the conduct of state environmental agencies. Pennsylvania is néar the top of the list, since it became known that the Department of Environmental Protection reported only six large air pollution violations in 1995. A subsequent audit by federal authorities of the state data revealed 64 violations. One need only look as far as Clarks Summit for evidence of the department's failure to carry out its responsibilities, where a foundry was repeatedly found to exceed allowable levels in its exhaust stacks, but was seldom penalized. - The New York Times reported that our Environmental Pro- tection Secretary, James M. Seif, responded sharply to the accusation that the state is lax, saying the federal agency had adopted a “bean-counting approach” and accusing the federal EPA of mounting a vendetta against states. When a state agency fails so badly at its task, stepping in to straighten out the mess is hardly a vendetta, it looks more like basic mainte- nance from this perspective. This is not, by the way, about new, tighter pollution standards, it's about enforcing the levels that existed two years ago. It is ironic that this agency, which pursued the cleanup of relatively harmless mercury at Dallas High School with such zeal, should look the other way when major industries pollute the air and water. Or perhaps it’s all too understandable that powerful corporations get kid-glove treatment while parents and students are inconvenienced. ~ We deserve better than this. The state DEP is charged with protecting the health of citizens, not the reputation of polluters, and if Mr. Seif can’t accept that premise, perhaps he should look for another line of work. We're looking forward to walking the rails “Rails to Trails;” it’s a catchy phrase. More than that, it's a theme that melds old and new, past and present, and leads to a’ healthy, enjoyable future. The Anthracite Scenic Trails Association hopes by June 1, 1997 to formally open a mile of former railway bed between Luzerne and Trucksville, con- verted to a recreational trail. The effort, spearheaded by Judy Rimple of Dallas, is the first step toward creating a 47-mile trail that reaches as far as Dushore, open to hiking, cross country skiing, biking and jogging. There are complications, but, spurred by the success of similar projects in other states, ASTA members are determined to overcome them. Shortsightedness and greed created one of the stumbling blocks when the railroad right of way was sliced into small pieces and sold off to owners of adjacent properties. Fortunately, all but one of them has granted easements for the trail, and a detour onto land owned by the state will bypass the holdout. Now the largest obstacle is money — about $50,000 which is needed to complete the design and construction of the trail. ‘Pennsylvania’ s state government isn’t noted for its generos- ity toward projects like this, but there is a matching grant available, if local contributors can raise enough locally to qualify for it. We hope they do, and urge our readers to give what they can toward a project that will offer new recreational opportunities to people of all ages. 4 : Publisher's notebook | * I think most of us, when we read George Orwell's chilling novel 1984, assumed that the controlling, invasive Big Brother he described was a central government authority run amok. But it's beginning to look more like government and big business are conspiring to form something akin to Orwell's dire prediction. Businesses naturally aim to dominate competitors and manipulate consumers. Vance Packard, who recently died, made a career of warning Americans of the danger of excess consumption, and in books such as The Persuaders, he decried seductive advertising used to convince people to buy needless items instead of saving or spending their hard-earned salaries in more productive ways. It’s no accident that former competi- tors ally in attempts to dominate their markets, and nowhere is that more true than in large media companies. Watching CNN the other night, I was startled to see the second-leading headline be the launch of CNN/SI, which is a new venture of some sort for the network and Sports Illustrated magazine, which are both now cogs in the big wheel of Time Warner Communications. . Even beyond obvious cross promotion, the corporatization of news leads to distortions in coverage. The resignation of Michael Ovitz from Disney last week was reported prominently in the media, even though his departure has not the slightest impact on most people's lives. One has to wonder what was left off the front pages to make room for what should have been a big story only} in the company newsletter and perhaps The Wall Rofl oft a dal The Dallas Post Published Weekly By Bartsen Media, Inc. P.O. Box 366, Dallas PA 18612 717-675-5211 Charlotte E. Bartizek ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Ronald A. Bartizek PUBLISHER Kylie Shafferkoetter REPORTER Ry Dennise Casterline +} © ADVERTISING ACCT. EXEC Olga Kostrobala CLASSIFIED/TYPESETTING Paul Rismiller PRODUCTION MANAGER Jill Gruver OFFICE MANAGER rd PRINTED WITH NRL PENNSYLVANIA SOY INK NATIONAL NEWSPAPER NEWSPAPER L 1) ASSOCIATION Footprints in the snow, Frances Slocum State Park. Photo by Ron Bartizek. A Case for conservation Alene N. Case Very few things characterize the Christmas holiday season as much as the urge to share our resources with those who have less. The end of the tax year is also an impetus for many of us. All sorts of chari- ties try to get our attention and our dollars in a wide variety of ways - they call us on the phone, they send us unsolicited greeting cards, they publish solicitations in the local papers, and they fill our mailboxes and television screens with appeals. But, many of us have become confused by all this and wish that there were a less intrusive and more controlled way to give to projects that are of particular importance to us. Enter the Virtual Foundation, the brainchild of Randy Kritkausky, President and Execu- tive Director of ECOLOGIA. With thelegal counsel of the Ford Foun- dation and a start-up grant given by the Charles Stewart Mott Foun- dation, ECOLOGIA has launched a totally new form of international philanthropy. Now, simply by log- ging onto a website (http:// www .virtualfoundation.org/) on the Internet, anyone can choose to support the efforts of an envi- —— Guest column 4 The Dallas Borough has no right to ban skateboards! They have been no threat, and they are good source of transportation. The Borough doesn’t ban bikes, which mark roads, sidewalks and shrubs. They don’t.ban in- line skates, which do the same. And By NANCY KOZEMCHAK The Back Mountain Memorial Library has concluded the 5th annual fresh citrus fruit sale. The fruit sale is one of the projects the library “Friends of the Library” members sponsors each year. Jo Ann Hall served as chairman for the 1996 sale. Orders were taken for 420 boxes of fruit; 240 oranges and 180 grapefruit. As of last Wednesday, all orders have been The virtual foundation: An innovation in charitable giving ronmental group working in Cen- tral and Eastern Europe, the Baltics, or the countries of the Former Soviet Union. The Virtual Foundation was designed to help groups acquire the funds necessary to complete small projects. Many times large foun- dations or governmental aid agen- cies are not interested in funding small projects. Smaller founda- tions can only fund a small frac- tion of the worthy proposals that are submitted to them. How do you tell a group in Lithuania that they have a great idea for a bird sanctuary but that there is no money available to help them? To address this problem, several of these smaller funding agencies have banded together under ECOLOGIA’s leadership to seek money through the Virtual Foun- dation. These organizations, such as the Sacred Earth Network or the Environmental Partnership for Central Europe, review and select proposals, generally in the $250 to $3000 (US) range, that deserve funding. These proposals are again reviewed and approved by the ECOLOGIA board of directors before they are posted on the Internet. The organization that posts the proposal agrees to man- age the donated funds and to su- pervise the project. A manage- ment fee of 10% of the project cost is added to be split between ECOLOGIA and the funding agency to cover posting and ad- ministration costs. There is no other overhead. So, what happens when you log on to the Virtual Foundation? The first page you see is a very user- friendly layout of choices with a side-bar welcoming you to this concept and ending with this state- ment: “While other foundations have financial endowments, the Virtual Foundation’s endowment consists of farsighted individuals and organizations, and their good- will and generosity.” From there, you (as such a farsighted indi- vidual) can easily move back and forth through such choices as About the Foundation, Director’s Message, Search for Projects, Do- nate, etc. You can even get a list of donors, review a feature project, or sign the guestbook. In the future, there will be a section of reports of completed projects. One of the beauties of this “foun- dation” is that you can contribute exactly the amount of money you have available to contribute. If your elementary school class has been studying wetlands and you notice that the featured project is a bog restoration, your students can empty their piggy banks and donate $61.15 to add to the $50 already given to this project. Per- haps then a more wealthy indi- vidual will see the interest of oth- ers and will cover the remaining $988.85. Your class can keep up with the progress of this work and will be able to share in the feeling of accomplishment when the final report is posted. In fact, one of the stated goals of the Virtual Fetin- dation is “to encourage donors and grant recipients to develop long term partnerships.” This kind of interaction with overseas activ- ists is a good way to involve young people in all sorts of environmen- tal education. ~~ Perhaps you do not want to have your name dis- played on the Donor page. Please do not let that discourage you - “Anonymous” has already contrib- uted at least once. Or, perhaps you would like to donate in honor or in memory of someone. That also has precedents. That is the wonderful thing about the Virtual Foundation - each person or group can choose a project that is. most interesting to them and can do- nate in a wide variety of ways. And, best of all, no one will call. If you want more information, you simply log on to http:// www.virtualfoundation.org/. or phone the website manager, Lydia Thompson, at (717) 434-9588. Now we can really share our abundance with others in a com- mon effort to conserve and protect the many resources of the Earth, Happy Holidays! a Why did borough ban skateboards? why don't they ban cars, which are polluting the air right now? A skateboard is just another means of transportation . . . and I'm not the only one who thinks so. Anthony Yenason says, “I don’t like it. It stinks because they don’t give us anywhere to skate. They should give us a place.” Adam Reggie, who also claims to have been searched by police in the Borough for just being a “skater” says, “It’s stupid because most of us don't have a place to skate. Our driveways are dirt or gravel. Rollerbladers or bikers don’t get harassed . . . why do we?” The Dallas Borough has said that the police were from Dallas Township, but then what were they doing in the Borough? Kevin Callahan states, “I don’t have a board, but I pretty much think it's stupid because I think it is point- less to ban something that hasn't hurt anyone.” Justin Ash also says, “I think we should have a place to skate. They told us we can skate on our driveways, but most driveways are small and some not paved. What is the fun of skating on a flat surface? That limits the tricks greatly. The places people normally skate have curbs and steps, and I don’t know many people with that on their drive- way. Sol think it’s stupid for them to not let us skate around in the ~ Borough.” Lee Griffin believes, “I think it was pointless. The people who skated will skate anyway. We did nothing wrong. It's stupid.” The Borough can’t say that they are afraid of drugs or crime. All the skaters above, including my- self, are “Straight Edge,” which means no drugs, alcohol, etc. Also, all the skaters listed above have perfect police records. I think the Borough should worry about criminals, drugs, and other prob- lems. ..and not worry about-a few skateboards. ; Joe Fritz is in eighth grade at Dallas Middle School. Fruit sale expected to raise $2,000 picked up and all money turned in. The library will net approxi- mately $2,000 for the fruit sale, which makes it another great fund raiser. The ‘Friends’ are a tremen- dous asset for this library and we are grateful. The decorated Christmas Tree in the center of Dallas is a wonder to behold. I call it our mini “Rockefeller Center” Christmas tree. The Dallas Lions Club deco- rated the tree on the Dallas Post Office lawn. They had the help of a ‘cherry picker’ for the decora- tions, which is evident because they are placed neatly on the tree. That tree started very small and is now a great size and it has plenty of lights. Our thanks to the Lions Club and the post office for a lovely Christmas entrance to Dal- las. Newbooks at the library: “This Year It Will Be Different” by Maeve Binchy is a Christmas Treasury; that brings us the magic and spirit of Christmas in 15 stories filled with wit, charm, and sheer storytelling genius. Instead of homilies, she offers truth and nourishment for the holidays. “Irish Lace” by Andrew M. Greeley is an exciting mystery and a touching Irish-American love story involving a Civil War contro- versy, a sophisticated gang of art thieves, corrupt politicians, and international terrorists. Nuala has moved to make a new life for her- self in Chicago as an accountant: “Airframe” by Michael Crichton. is nonstop reading; the extraordi- nary mixture of super suspense and authentic information on a: subject of compelling intefest.. Three passengers are dead. ‘Fifty six are injured. The interior ¢abin’ virtually destroyed. But the pilot manages to land the plane. . “Charity” by Len Deighton is dated January 1988. The Mos cow-Paris express train rattles’ through the Russian night carry! ing Bernard Samson and his griev-: ously sick companion, Jim] Prettyman, home. But for Samson,’ this is just the beginning of an-: other long and dangerous jour-: ney.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers