4 The Dallas Post Dallas, PA Wednesday, December 17, 1997 [EDITORIALS The real 'hometown' touch is good for Back Mountain A few weeks before Core Yiates Bank, headquartered in Philadelphia, announced it would merge with First Union Corp., out of some place a few states over, the bank ran big ads touting that it was “still” our hometown bank. The Times Leader, whose profits are sent to Miami, touts that it has “good news from home.” Countless other chain businesses, from glorified hard- ware stores to supermarkets, promote their “hometown” touch and values, while shipping excess cash out of the area. And now, everl inquiries to the Back Mountain's largest water company, United Water Pennsylvania, will be routed to Harrisburg, as the ogal office has closed. ‘To some extent, this is the price of progress in an economic system that rewards sheer size in business enterprises — a variation of the old “rich get richer” theme. While there is no denying that selection and price may sometimes move in consumers’ favor, they aren’t the only important considerations when deciding where to shop for products and services. Local businesses have devoted years to learning about the communi- ties they serve, and have supported causes from Little League to food banks to churches with little fanfare, unlike the Wal-Marts of the nation that seek publicity for every self-serving act of charity, at least until they've knocked off enough competitors to no longer need to care about their public image. «As you wrap up your holiday shopping and prepare to begin anew year, think hard about the benefits a strong local business community offers to the wider society. It goes beyond the friendly service you'll get from the person behind the counter - the one who might own the store and live across town. Think about where the donations would come from to support your child's sports team, or what it would be like if you had to drive - 10 miles to get a pair of sweatpants or a drill bite. Think about what makes a community more than just a place to sleep and a good housing investment. Those big businesses obviously do, or they wouldn't try so hard to convince us they've got the “home- town” touch. The Back Mountain is a good place to live, work and play. It can get even better if all of us recognize that we need to support our infrastructure of shops and offices with as much as zeal as Wwe show rooting for the home team and as much care as we lavish on our front yards. Poe] Publisher's notebook A + More good news for us moderate drinkers of alcohol. A study published in The New England Journal of Medicine reports that middle- -age to older people who imbibe a little each day have a 20 percent lower death rate than non-drinkers. I hope that mieans a fifth (pun intended) of us won 't die at all, but that could be a midinterpretation. Anyway, this study followed nearly a half million people for nine years, matching their'habits with death rates and the causes of their demise. It found the greatest benefits of a glass of wine, bottle of beer or a cocktail accrued to men and women who had risk factors for heart disease, because of the anti-clotting and good cholesterol-boosting qualities of alcohol. «Researchers found out more than this, especially when they dounted both the benefits and drawbacks of factors such as smoking, diet and drinking. For example, smokers were much léss likely to develop Parkinson's disease than non-smokers. But before you buy a carton of cancer sticks, keep in mind that a‘tiny percentage of the population gets Parkinson's, but hun- dreds of thousands die from smoking-related illness each year. Drinking has its shortcomings too, especially when taken to excess, best demonstrated by the estimated 100,000 deaths a year linked to alcohol abuse. 24 didn’t need this good report to continue a habit of enjoying aglass or two of wine at dinner, or a martini now and then. There are Ibtsiof reasons people take pleasure from a drink or two, and have done so for time immemorial, among them relaxation and “social lubricant” value. We wine fans have other reasons to drain a glass; the challenge of finding the best inexpensive (Cheap wouldn't taste as good) bottle. That task has become more difficult lately, with California vineyards suffering from a blight, but there are usually alternatives. I've found some great values from Spain in the shop in Clarks Summit, but don’t tnderstand why I have to drive 25 miles to get them. The Back Mountain state store rarely gets new labels, in contrast to the Clarks Summit “specialty” store that has cases of several Spanish and French wines at under $10 a bottle — some of them way under. I guess the LCB doesn’t think it's worth the effort to provide more choices to us bumpkins. : Do you agree? Disagree? : Editorials are the opinion of the management of The Dallas Post, and are written by the editor unless otherwise indicated. We welcome your opinion on contemporary issues in the form of letters to the editor. If you don't write, the community may never hear a contrasting point of view. Send or bring letters to: The Dallas Post, 607 Main Rd., Dallas PA 18612. Please include your name, address and a daytime phone number so that we may verify authenticity. We donot publish anonymousletters, but will consider withholding thei name in exceptional circumstances. We reserve the right to edit for length and grammar. - Ld © 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 Jessica Appolo : Kylie Shafferkoetter ADVERTISING ACCT. EXEC REPORTER Olga Kostrobala CLASSIFIED/TYPESETTING Jill Gruver OFFICE MANAGER AL BR Or REN a BI rd 'IPRINTED WITH NIN PENNSYLVANIA SOYINK| ASSOCIATION CAPER NEWSPAPER Katie and Carl's Beanie Babies, getting together for a party. Photo by Charlotte Bartizek. A Case for consgayation Alene N. Case Earlier this fall, we joined the local Audubon Society on an out- ing to Hawk Mountain to watch part of the southward migration of birds of prey. What a view! And, we saw our first two per- egrine falcons! Hawk Mountain is uniquely positioned along the Kittatinny Ridge which provides hawks, osprey, eagles, and other birds of prey with buoying air currents to speed their journey south. In a typical year 20,000 of these birds may soar overhead between August and November . To whom do we owe gratitude for this wealth of birding experi- ence so close to us (itis just south of Tamaqua and north of Read- ing)? You may think of Rachel Carson who was instrumental in pointing out the dangers of DDT and other pesticides. In fact, since the ban on DDT in the early 1970s ten of the sixteen kinds of birds routinely counted at Hawk Moun- tain have increased in numbers. But, Rachel Carson did not set aside this special sanctuary and she was not the first important female conservationist. . The lady who founded the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in 1934 was Rosalie Edge. After we returned from our birding expedition, became more and more curious about the per- son who had purchased this mountain. And, it became more and more obvious that informa- Rosalie Edge: An unsung heroine ° tion was not easy to come by: First, 1 tried the encyclopedia. There was no entry on Rosalie Edge. I found Hawk Mountain in the “refuges and sanctuaries” sec- tion of the “Bird” entry, but noth- ing about its founder. Then I looked on the Internet. The Hawk Mountain homepage was very in- formative about the birds and their migrations and about the geo- graphic features of the land, but again there was very little about the founder. Then, I went to the university library and consulted a variety of reference materials. Nothing. Finally, a young librar- ian helped me search for books in other libraries around the coun- try and I hit pay dirt, as the saying goes. Most of the information in the rest of this article comes from al1995 masters thesis by Laura K. Sumner of Oklahoma State Uni- versity. Rosalie-Edge was, in Sumner’s words, “one of the major preser- vation activists during the 1930s.” She was born in New York in 1877, the youngest of eight chil- dren in a well-to-do family. Her father, John Barrow, was a first ~ cousin of Charles Dickens and a friend of Prince Albert. She was never quite content with high so- ciety, but her education and cul- tured up-bringing proved useful in the many battles she fought on behalf of the causes she champi- oned. The suffrage movement of the early 1900s also prepared her for future confrontations with men in positions of power. Bird watching became one of Edge’s favorite pastimes when her two children were growing up. She used to telephone her son, Peter, at school and tell him which birds to look for on his way home through Central Park. His teach- ers tired of these interruptions and refused to relay the mes- sages. Not to be dissuaded, Mrs. Edge sent Peter telegrams instead! Now, that’s a cool mother! In 1929, Edge became aware that there were problems within the organization of the Audubon Society of which she had been a member for fifteen years. She decided to attend the annual meet- ing of the board of directors and ask them some probing questions. Not only did she attend, but she satdown in the middle of the front row and proceeded to grill the executive director and the other board members. The meeting was adjourned early in order to shut her up with the excuse that she . had “ruined” the meeting. Infact, her impertinence was just the beginning of a long fight to clean up the Audubon Society which had sold out to industrial con- tributors and had become dys- functional with regard to advo- cacy and conservation issues. They were even hiding the fact that they were profiting from the trapping and selling of furs on a refuge in Louisiana. Rosalie Edge, along with a few like-minded men, formed the Emergency Conservation Commit- tee (ECC) which published and distributed approximately 70 pamphlets on controversial top- ics throughout the 1930s. They also published a highly acclaimed series of educational materials on waterfowl and birds of prey for use in classrooms around the country. In 1934, 1655 acres at Hawk Mountain came up for sale for the sum of $4000. Edge had seen photographs of the carnage wrought upon the mountain as local farmers took aim each year - my in a misguided attempt to rid the! world of “vermin.” Thousands of* birds never made it past the sum-. mit. She could not stand by and, let this situation continue. ¥ The Audubon Society was drag- ging its feet, as usual, and she. was afraid that the opportunity to; procure the mountain and pro-' tect the birds would be lost. With. her friends in the ECC, she putup $500 to lease Hawk Mountain | with an option to buy. That very * same year she hired Dr. Maurice Broun to be the first curator of the sanctuary. He began the annual’ bird counts which have contin- ued to the present with the excep-~ tion of three years during W.W.II." He and his wife also’had the awe- some responsibility of turning away hundreds of armed men who * wanted to continue their autumn tradition of killing as many birds as possible. The protection of Hawk Moun- tain may be Rosalie Edge’s claim to fame, but it is by no means her only triumph. She was instru- mental in the reform of waterfowl. protection laws, in the creation of the Olympic National Park in Washington state, in the fight to _ save the sugar pine forests of: Yosemite in California, and in the expansion of Teton National Par to include lands owned by John! D. Rockefeller. And, she made it possible for other female voices to: be heard in debates over resource.’ and pollution issues. an Yes, we all owe a great debt to! the lady from New York. Let us: continue her fight to protect spe- cies and habitat. Her motto could: be our own: “The time to protect a: species is while it is still commorf:] The way to prevent the extinction: of a species is never let it become: rare.’ ONLY YESTERDAY 60 Years Ago - Dec. 24, 1937 DALLAS TO SELECT NEW POSTMASTER An open competitive exam to select a permanent postmaster for Dallas will be held in Wilkes- Barre probably next month, ac- cording to announcement made by U.S. Civil Service Commission at Washington, D.C. this week. Joseph Polacky is acting post- master at Dallas having succeeded G.T. Kirkendall, whoresigned sev- eral weeks ago. Polacky was ap- pointed by the Postmaster Gen- eral to serve while steps are being taken to make a permanent ap- pointment. Final obstacles in the way of the long-awaited Luzerene by- pass disappeared this week as county and state officials confer- ring at Harrisburg gave the Back Mountain section the finest Christmas present it could ask definite assurance that the high- way will be constructed next spring. Unless unforeseen prob- lems arise this section’s 12 year crusade to eliminate the trouble- some Luzerne “bottle-neck” will end about April 1 when construc- tion begins. 50 Years Ago - Dec. 26, 1947 FIRE DESTROYED BOHN HOME AT LAKE Fire of undetermined origin Wednesday evening destroyed the Sorber Mt. summer home of Tho- mas, Bohn, Wilkes-Barre. Be- cause of the isolated location of the property near the old Rock School House, Daniel C. Roberts Fire Co. was not notified until the flames, made great headway. House was a complete loss with damage estimated at $4,500. Cold weather of the past few ‘days has coated the Alderson end of Harveys Lake with thin scum of ice. There is, however, no skating at the Lake except at the Sunset end beyond the bridge. You could get - Turkeys over 20 1bs., 51¢ 1b.; oranges, doz. 23¢; raisin bread, loaf, 15¢; 1 1b. fruit cake, light or dark, 69¢; imported chestnuts 25¢ lb.; grapefruit, 5¢ ea. 40 Years Ago - Dec. 27, 1957 INSTITUTE WORKERS GET HOLIDAY OFF Most of the 400 men employed at the new State Institute for Men- tal Delinquents in Jackson Twp., will enjoy a vacation until Tues- day after New Years. Work has continued throughout the fall but - has been hampered somewhat by bad weather and the deer hunting season when many took off a couple of days. Thirty buildings are now in some phase of constructon with two, the ware- ‘house and garage rapdily ap- proaching completion. Seven very large Christmas baskets were delivered to needy families in the Lehman-Jackson- Ross School District, after assem- bly Friday afternoon. Two grades shared each needy family and stu- dents contributed, food, clothing and toys. Several community or- ganizations contributed also. ‘Each family was provided with a chicken and a sack of potatoes. 30 Years Ago - Dec. 28, 1967 KINGSTON TOWNSHIP POSTMASTER RETIRES The office at the Draft Board in the Kingston Post Office won't look the same after New Year's. Jo- seph MacVeigh after 27 years as chairman of Draft Board 92 will not occupy his desk. MacVeigh could paper a good sized room with certificates of merit and vari- ous acknowledgements he re- ceived from top brass over the years of voluntary duty with no thought of re-embursement or pay. He holds a certificate of appreciation for 25 years of ser- vice to the nation signed by Gov. William Scranton and President Lyndon Johnson dated 1967, Congressional Medal of Honor 25 years. % given 20 years ago plus mary more. John G. Henninger Jr., a loyal’ and active member of Dallas; Kiwans Club was honored by that] organization at a special program? Wednesday evening when he wag: awarded a bronze plaque for faith ful service. Henninger who res: cently observed his 80th birthdag: has been a member of the club far; i he "a a bh 20 Years Ago - Dec. 21, 1977 ho LATE PAYMENTS SOAR IN = - KINGSTONTOWNSHIP ~~ Kingston Township Supervi=! sors presented a tentative budget: 2 for 1978 at their Wednesday night» meeting. They also expressed concern at the large amount of delinquent sewer payments owed: DAMA by township residents. The: township is resporisible for these! delinquencies which amount tel $35,293.72. This is quite a dra maticrise from last year’s $9, 000;« Y Huntsville Dam is among 34 dams in Maryland and 712 in" Pennsylvania in the U.S. Army: Corps of Engineers inventory having a high hazard penta and will be among those in the: safety inspection by the Baltimore District Corps of Engineers. The: inspection effort gained momen; tum recently following the cols lapse of a dam near Toccoa, Qa: causing numerous casualties and; considerable property damage. A -
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers