Dallas, PA Wednesday, June 21, 2000 4 The Dallas Post EDITORIALS Start planning now to maintain paramedics Many people in the Back Mountain are justifiably concerned that Wyoming Valley Health Care System (WVHCS) may dis- continue its support of paramedic services. They know — by instinct or personal experience — that the medical care fur- nished by paramedics can make the difference between life and death for victims of accident or illness. This sentiment is in no way meant to denigrate the important role played by volunteer ambulance personnel, who give constantly of their time and skills to serve anyone in need. Paramedics, though, operate at a higher level and are able to provide functions to critically ill or injured people beyond the “basic life support” of emergency medical technicians (EMTs). Local EMTs save several lives every year; paramedics save several more. The Medic units and staff are under the same fiscal micro- scope that is pointed at other departments within the health system. Losing millions each year, WVHCS is weighing the costs and benefits of each one before deciding which to pare away and which to maintain. As the recent turnaround in its cardiac unit and food service units show, WVHCS is not unresponsive to public concerns, so the petitions that are filling with names around town may have some effect. If the protests are to no avail, other options must be looked at so this vital service can continue. Many communities are - served by for-profit paramedic units, with the cost coming from municipal treasuries. In other cases, volunteer ambulance companies have added paramedics, although that would not seem to offer that same breadth of coverage we're accustomed to. One need not be a rocket scientist to understand that Back Mountain communities cannot each support a paramedic - service, and cooperation will be required should it become necessary to take over this vital function. There's no time like the present for officials and volunteers to lay the groundwork for a replacement. Publisher's notebook Ron BEV¥4I Skyrocketing prices, purported shortages — can long lines at the gas station be far behind? To anyone over 30, this is, as Yogi Berra once said, “deja vu all over again.” Those of us who carried driving licenses in 1972 are familiar with high prices and shortages, real or contrived. If you are one of us, you remember long lines, eight gallon limits and prices of more than $1 a gallon, probably equivalent to $3 or more now. I was luckier than most people — I worked at a service station, and after hours we would shut down all the lights but leave the pumps on so we could fill our tanks under cover of darkness. We needed to be stealthy because the police were authorized to arrest anyone putting more than eight gallons in at a time. But we knew most of the cops anyway, so ending up in the hoosegow wasn’t a real worry. Then came the second “oil shock,” in 1979. We lived in Lakeville, Connecticut at that time, in an apartment behind the drug store on Main Street. Since the store was directly in front of our apartment, we could see the street only from side windows. I woke up one morning, looked out the window on one side, and remarked about the line of cars. “Must be an accident,” I thought. So I went to the window on the other side, and saw the line's source, a gas station! “Here we go again,” I muttered. A few months later, when prices were still high due to dubious tight supplies, we drove down the East Coast to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. On the way, we crossed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel, and saw dozens of tankers lined up in the bay. Made us wonder about the “shortage.” Things could be worse. The 70s also saw price runups and shortages in coffee. That's when 1 1b. coffee tins shrank to 13 oz., and blends incorporating chicory became the only brand less expensive per ounce than gold. The most memorable phantom shortage, though, was toilet paper. Now there's a precious commodity. How many of you recall hoarding rolls after once finding the shelves at your local store empty? This one turned out to be a documented hoax, but not before millions of rolls were stored in closets. I wonder, if we started a rumor about a news shortage, would more people buy the paper? It might be worth a try. Ode to Georgia O'Keefe. Photo by Charlotte Bartizek. The economic Viewpoin Howard Grossman The question of the location of new economic development is an important factor in the fiscal health of communities. This is especially true in the so-called bedroom communities of North- eastern Pennsylvania such as the Back Mountain, the Abingtons, Mountaintop area and others. There is a major industrial park sponsored and promoted by the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Business and Industry within one of these areas, Mountaintop; oth- erwise the suburban areas of the region have been home to resi- dential development but have not attracted much economic devel- opment, except along the major highways in the form of strip com- merce. The results have been a great dependence upon the prop- erty tax from homes or apart- ments to provide most of the funds necessary to support municipali- ties, school districts, and coun- ties in these communities. Itis a particularly relevant problem when local governments, as they ® Gc @ G €8 ©O @ co Shared services become more important «© are today, are challenged with continuing growth and the need to expand services being de- manded by citizens. Most citizens recognize that most of the taxes generated by property goes to support local school districts. The push to cre- ate more inter-municipal services and to make it easier for commu- nities to meet financial responsi- bilities becomes more clear when looked at from this perspective. Some attempts have been made in the past in the Back Mountain and in other parts of suburban Northeastern Pennsylvania to encourage the joint delivery of services, such as police and oth- ers. For example, the Back Moun- tain Citizens’ Council, when it existed, sponsored a survey of municipal governments in the Back Mountain looking toward the possibility of a regional police force. This was never imple- mented. Two municipalities in the Clarks Summitarea, Clarks Green Borough and Clarks Summit Bor- ough, did some preliminary ex- amination of the possibility and feasibility of merging, but this never happened. Short of mergers and consoli- dations, there are many other. opportunities for joint or inter- municipal service delivery which could be explored in the Back Mountain and other suburban areas in this region. Nowhere is it more important to explore new ideas and initia- tives for service delivery than in these locations, where growth continues and where it is ex- tremely difficult to know, which municipality a traveler may be located in. Technical support and assis- tance are available to communi- ties considering joint delivery of services. Among these are the Pennsylvania Economy League, the Economic Development Coun- cil of Northeastern Pennsylvania (EDCNP), the Pennsylvania De- partment of Community and Eco- nomic Development Scranton Regional Office, higher educa- tional institutions serving these areas, and other sources. Several steps can be taken by a number of municipalities in the suburban areas of the region to begin an evaluation process. Among them are the following: * Designate a committee of the local governing body to be specifi- cally responsible for examining new opportunities for the delivery of services. : * Create a partnership with citi- zens and/or local institutions will- ing to have representation on a committee or task force designed to study this issue. * Contact appropriate techni- cal assistance or support organi- zations to determine their inter- est in participating in some type of evaluation. * Examine what has been ac- complished elsewhere in the state or, where applicable, out of state to begin to assess examples of inter-municipal service delivery. e Set a schedule and target date by which an evaluation can be completed. * Organize a public informa- tion program to periodically in- form the general public, all ap- propriate officials, and any other pertinent group which might be interested in the study, evalua- tion, and its results. * Set a time schedule to obtain the necessary support for this process, and its results, and the implementation of recommenda- tions. Inter-municipal service deliv- ery is not suitable for all regions. Some evaluation, however, would seem logical for most municipali- ties to undertake in order to de- termine what the best course of action would be for that munici- pality to meet its obligations and responsibilities in this, the 21st century, for the benefit of the citi- zens of today and the generations of tomorrow. Howard Grossman is Executive Director of the Economic Develop- ment Council of Northeastern Penn- sylvania. He lives in Dallas. ONLY YESTERDAY w Do you agree? Disagree? Editorials are the opinion of the management of The Dallas Post. We welcome your opinion on contemporary issues in the form of letter to the editor. If you don't write, the community may never hear a contrasting point of view. 4 Send letters to: The Dallas Post, P.O. Box 366, Dallas, PA 18612. Please include your name, address and a daytime phone number so that we may verify authenticity. We do not publish anonymous letters, but will consider withholding the name in exceptional circumstances. We reserve the right to edit for length and grammar. The Dallas Post Published Weekly By Bartsen Media, Inc. P.O. Box 366, Dallas PA 18612 570-675-5211 Charlotte E. Bartizek ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER OFFICE MANAGER Ronald A. Bartizek PUBLISHER Ken Brocious ADVERTISING ACCT. EXEC Bill Goodman REPORTER Joanna Cease OFFICE/TYPIST/CLASSIFIEDS Ruth Proietto PRODUCTION MANAGER | 2) PRINTED WITH SOVINK| IZ Ee Zz Member ~~ ' ~~ PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION 70 Years Ago - June 20, 1930 SOLOMON'S RESTAURANT BURNS TO THE GROUND Solomon's Restaurant, for- merly the Lake Breeze boarding house in Harveys Lake burned to the ground. The building was unoccupied at the time. Volun- teer firemen organized a bucket brigade which fought the fire un- til the pumping engine of the Lake fire department arrived at the scene. In spite of the large amounts of water pumped from the lake to extinguish the blaze, the building could not be saved. Traffic around the Lake was tied up for over an hour by the line of hose that was stretched across the highway. 60 Years Ago - June 21, 1940 MOTORISTS NOT OBEYING STOP SIGNS Concerned by complaints that motorists in the borough were ignoring stop signs, particularly on Machell Avenue and Hunts- ville Street, Chief of Police Walter Covert was instructed to watch for violators. Several people had had narrow escapes when motor- ists had driven through the stop signs. Sportsmen from the area who made frequent trips to Canada to hunt ducks were dismayed by the announcement that they would not be permitted to carry firearms across the border, while the war was on. No passports were re- quired to enter Canada to hunt, but passports were necessary for Canadian's entering this coun- try. 50 Years Ago - June 23, 1950 DAIRY BARN CELEBRATED FIRST ANNIVERSARY Forty Fort Ice Cream Company celebrated the first anniversary of the opening of its Dairy Barn by giving away one pint of Freezer Fresh ice cream with every half gallon purchase of any of its 16. flavors. Since opening, the Dairy Barn has served as many as 5,000 customers in one day. A capacity crowd danced at the Kunkle Community Hall to the music of the Fire House Five for the Jackson Township Volunteer Firemen's Dance. Over $60 in prizes was given away at the sec- ond annual dance. 40 Years Ago - June 23, 1960 McCRORY DEPARTMENT STORE OPENS IN DALLAS The McCrory Department Store was set to open in the Back Moun- tain shopping center in August. Thomas Hobbs, store manager, planned to open the store with approximately 40-50 local em- ployees. The store was expected to operate on a two-shift basis and be open every weeknight un- til 9 p.m. A strawberry festival, spon- sored by the Trucksville W.S.C.S. was held on the lawn of Mr. and Mrs. John Wardell. Barbecued baked beans, potato salad, hot dogs, ice cream, homemade cake and strawberry shortcake was served. 30 Years Ago - June 23, 1970 POST OFFICE RECEIVED FIRST JEEP As part of the governments move to mechanize the nations post offices, Dallas Post Office received a new Jeep dispatcher. Eddie McDade who had been walk- ing 12 miles a day with an ever- increasing load of mail, was se- lected to drive the new vehicle. An $8,656.60 contract for the purchase of band and majorette uniforms and accessories was awarded by the Dallas School Board at its June Meeting. The motion to purchase uniforms had been denied at a previous meet- ing, but was included in the school district's budget for 1970-1971. 20 Years Ago - June 19, 1980 COLLEGE FOR KIDS BEGINS College For Kids-Kids On Cam- pus, Inc., was offering an enrich- ment program at Penn State- Wilkes-Barre that allowed chil- dren to spend the day on campus during the summer. Students had a choice of taking civil engi- neering or ethnic singing, followed by Discover The Outdoors, where the children cooked their own lunch over a campfire. You could get: Kraft Italian dressing, 16 oz. bottle, 99¢; Smucker's Peach Preserve, 12 oz. jar, 79¢; Lipton Ice Tea Mix, 64 oz. jar, 84.59; Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, 10 pk., 89¢; Ellio's Pizza, 9 slices, $2.29; Welch's grape jelly, 3 1b. jar, 99¢; Charmin toilet tis- sue, 6 pack, $1.69; Log Cabin Buttered syrup, 24 oz. bottle, $1.29. Q: Where do you find the most Back Mountain news, week after week? A: Only in The Dallas Post, the Back Mountain's newspaper since 1889. = | Cy OP SR a7 5)
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers