Vol;"109 No. 50 The Back Mountain's 33 The Dallas Post SERVING THE COMMUNITIES OF THE DALLAS & LAKE-LEHMAN SCHOOL DISTRICTS Dallas, Pennsylvania | j December 16 thru December 22, 1998 Former Yalick farmland sold, likely to be developed commercially By RONALD BARTIZEK Post Staff DALLAS TWP. - The former Yalick farm, which occupies land at the inter- section of routes 415 and 118, has been sold toa businessman from Williamsburg, Virginia, who has strong local ties. J. Naparlo, who grew up in Plymouth, paid $1.5 million for about 48 acres of property, much of it zoned commercial. ~ Now he has to figure out what to do with it. “To be honest, right now I haven't the slightest idea what I'm going to do with it,” he said last week. He does expect it will be a venture that would require chang- ing the agricultural-zoned area of the property to commercial. Naparlo described the purchase as a “family venture,” with his wife, Catherine, who grew up in Clarks Summit and at- tended College Misericordia. He began looking for property in northeastern Penn- sylvania after seeing how difficult it was for a niece to find an apartment. His initial plan was to buy land on which to ~~ J.Naparlo Land purchaser build affordable townhouses, and a friend told him about the Yalick farm. But Naparlo doesn’t think that would be the right use for the property. ~ The road to Dallas started at the first® Burger King restaurant at Kingston Cor- ners. Naparlo began working there in 1967 as an hourly employee. He worked at nearly every Burger King in the area, including the one in Shavertown, eventu- ally becoming a supervisor with respon- sibility for two stores. At that point he wanted to open a franchise of his own, but lacked the financial resources to do so. In 1980, he formed a partnership with Gene Chismer of Dallas as his financial backer. “He put up the money, and I put up the work,” Naparlo said. When Chismer, who had owned a busi- ness called Kleen-Air Systems, died in 1994, the partners had 29 Burger Kings in Virginia and two other restaurants. All were sold at that time, and Naparlo has since opened three Burger Kings on his own. : “We had a fantastic partnership,” Naparlo said. “We were in business to- See LAND SOLD, pg 7 Schools take notice of state test scores Dallas, Lake-Lehman scores fell on most statewide assessment tests By KYLIE SHAFFERKOETTER Post Staff BACK MOUNTAIN - As the Pennsylvania State System of Assessment test becomes an increasingly crucial tool for determin- ing how public schools are performing, local school officials cannot help but be concerned with their school’s scores. .But, they also believe the scores are not necessarily a fair gauge of what is being learned in their schools. Both Lake-Lehman and Dallas school districts recently released the results of the 1997-1998 PSSA. In both districts, most scores are down from last year (except for Lake-Lehman'’s grade school score, which are higher), although, the PSSA does not consider 50 points in either direction statistically significant. Even so, Michael Speziale, assistant superintendent of Dallas, said the district definitely takes notice. “We use the test as a barometer to compare ourselves with ourselves,” said Speziale. He said when scores are significantly higher or lower than the year before, the district tries to determine how and why. If lower, its goal is to develop curriculum that will aid students in that specific area. If higher, the district tries to determine why and replicate it. : “We don’t react to scores,” said Speziale. “We try to be pro-active in terms of strengthening our curriculum prior to the test. For the most part I feel we have quality curriculum, but we are not complacent.” John Oliver, principal at Lake-Lehman High School, said he is never satisfied with the scores unless they are superb. Many school officials do not think the same-school comparison band, used by the PSSA to compare schools with similar sogio- economic populations, is completely fair. According to the PSSA, two main factors affect students’ learning, the quality of curricu- lum and their socio-economic background. The number of free lunches a school serves is the main source of state’s information in establishing comparisons. Bob Roberis, principal of the Lake Lehman middle lord ol g Students in Mrs. Boyer's class at Dallas Middle ‘School got creative with mg [Tiers ye aon Drperi wiih of VI Devas ad es Cd ie crackers and frosting last week, making gingerbread houses . . and more. BO A Se ee Jour ype. oo. From left, with their creation, Jessica Duddy, Lee Ann Scott, Krista POST PHOTO/CHARLOTTE BARTIZEK Bw See TESTS, pg 7 Owners, shoppers pleased with new market sons, Matthew and Christopher. The new Shavertown location is signifi- cantly larger, and has 10 times the variety of Larksville. Seventy em- ployees work at Shavertown, versus 10 in Larksville. Thomas’ caters to the desires of the Back Mountain. Specialty meats, such as lamb and veal, are more popular here, in addition to take-home prepared foods, rotisserie See MARKET, pg 3 Back Mountain. He's a Dallas High School graduate who grew up on Perrin Street, just blocks from the new store. “All of my friends, neighbors, and people I haven't seen in years came by,” says Evans with a smile. He and his partners, Tom Baseski and Pam Evans (his wife), run two Thomas’ markets. Beseski manages the store in Larksville, while Evans By MEIRA ZUCKER Post Correspondent SHAVERTOWN - “I don't think people in the Back Mountain want to drive to the valley for their groceries,” says Chris Evans, ' manager and co-owner of Thomas’ Family Market in Shavertown. Based on the reaction to the store's grand opening, he’s probably right. runs the store in Shavertown. Pam After all, Chris Evans knows the Evans works raising the Evans's two The women of the Huntsville United | Methodist Church put on the annual free Christmas dinner for parishoners and friends last weekend. The event was organized by Norma Wright, Sandy Cooper and asm Shirley Nicely. Music was provided by Richard Negrin “and Teddy Young. in photo, Alice Colatosti, left, and Norma Wright tasted the punch. _ More photos, pg 5. £8 Carpenter, Laura Stark and Allen Gonczol. More photos on page 15. Phil Storz, Shavertown, had Thomas' Market employee Cheryl Holeman. is deli order filled by Silver bells, gold, and glass become habit for collector By KYLIE SHAFFERKOETTER Post Staff DALLAS - It all started for Doris Kitchen with a thoughtful, yet unassuming glass bell from her friend Betty. It was Mrs. Kitchen'’s 25th wedding anniversary with her husband, David, and the white, delicate bell had 25 printed on it in silver. Next came a Christmas bell from her daughter, an Easter bell, and bells for her birthday. Every- one was buying her bells. Big cow bells, tiny bell pendants, bells in the shape of farmers, birds, 19th century women, snowmen and even some with perfume inside. “It never dawned on me that I would be collecting these,” said Mrs. Kitchen, sitting in her living room, where her full collection of 830 bells is proudly displayed on glass shelves in lighted wooden cabinets. Collecting is not entirely that new to Mrs. Kitchen who admits to having 330 sets of unique and antique salt and pepper shakers. That collecting habit began with a simple penny machine at the old Fernbrook Park where Offset Pa- perback, Inc. now sprawls. Mrs. Kitchen got a salt shaker out of the machine and her then boy- friend spent a few cents getting the matching pepper shaker for her. After she married her husband, who worked as a core driller, her collection grew even more. When he would travel on the road from job to job, he would return bear- ing gifts in the form of unique shakers. The collection was packed away soon after their youngest child, See BELLS, pg 7 18 Pages, 2 Sections Calendalr............coosvx 18 Classified............. 16-17 Crossword... ............. 18 EQOrIBIS. ancien: ii onves 4 Obituanes......civieis 16 School... 12-15 SPOS... chmmise sii: 9-10 The Dallas Post LABEL- Please enclose this label with any address changes, CALL 675-5211 FOR HOME DELIVERY, NEWS OR ADVERTISING E-mail: dalpost@aol.com and mail to The Dallas Post, P.O. Box 366, Dallas PA 18612-0366 MAILINC
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