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The Dallas Post
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Vol. 111 No. 47
Rec board
sets timeline
J Land is nearly in
center of Back Mountain
By ELIZABETH SKRAPITS
Post staff
DALLAS - The peer counselor, Julie
McMonagle, has been hired, the study
committee has been formed, the grants
are applied for, and plans for the pro-
posed recreational complex are moving
full speed ahead.
The Back Mountain Recreation board
of directors were present on Thursday,
Nov. 16 at the Dallas Middle School audi-
torium to introduce its plans to an audi-
ence of around 30 people and to field
comments and questions. “The public
said they wanted this, so we wanted to
keep them involved,” said Dave Sutton,
Chairman of the Back Mountain Recre-
ation Board. “So far we've had nothing
but support.”
Dr. Gilbert Griffiths, who was one of
the first to recognize the need for a recre-
ation facility in the Back Mountain, said
when he started to do some digging into
the history of the project in 1997, he
found the idea had always been there. An
ad-hoc committee of approximately 19
people was formed to discuss feasibility.
“Everyone had a different idea of what
recreation in the Back Mountain could or
should be,” Dr. Griffiths said. So many
ideas and so much enthusiasm were
generated that the ad-hoc committee was
eventually transformed into the Back
Mountain Recreation Board (BMR), an
official non-profit organization, with most
of the original ad-hoc members still in-
volved.
The newly-formed Recreation Board
sent out 15,000 surveys to Back Moun-
tain residents to get a better idea as to
what the community thought about the
project. “We ran from pillar to post,” Dr.
Griffiths said. “We had drop-off boxes in
Noxen, in Dallas ...” The response was
overwhelming, with 98 to 99 percent of it
in favor. “Parents liked the idea, kids
liked the idea — we got a lot of positive
comments,” he said. Community feed-
back was encouraging enough for the
committee to begin to move forward, even
if it was “a couple of inches at a time,”
according to Dr. Griffiths.
By a near-miracle, the perfect location
became available at an opportune time.
Dr. Griffiths came across a real estate ad
which looked promising, so Dave Sutton
and fellow board member Gary Baker
See REC PARK, pg 3
The Back Mountain's
Newspaper Since 1889
Dallas, Pennsylvania
50 cents
November 22 thru November 28, 2000
Colorful little Indian
John Henry, dressed in Native American costume, was one of 28 third graders at the Wyoming Seminary Lower School who
shared a Thanksgiving feast with parents and classmates last week. More photos on page 8.
By M.B. GILLIGAN
Post Correspondent
DALLAS - Caring and shar-
ing is the theme running
through local schools this
‘month. Many schools are hold-
ing food drives and Dallas High
School is sponsoring a coat
drive.
“The Parent Teacher Student
Organization (PTSO) started this
(coat drive) four years ago,” ex-
plained guidance counselor
Robyn Jones. “Wereally expect
to have our most successful
year, yet.”
Used coats and jackets are
brought in by the students and
then the Commission on Eco-
nomic Opportunity’s People
Helping People program distrib-
utes them to needy families in
the Back Mountain.
“We've already exceeded last
year’s total of 158 coats col-
lected and we don’t finish until
November 22,” said Pam
Pambianco, the parent volun-
teer who is helping with the
drive. “We put flyers up in some
of the stores and around the
school. The students have just
been wonderful. They sorted
the coats into sizes and filled
boxes that I brought in for them.”
“We even received a call from
aresident at the Meadows Nurs-
ing Center,” said Jones. “She
donated two beautiful coats that
The schools are alive with holiday spirit
i
PHOTO CONTRIBUTED
Lindsey Jayne, right, dropped into a container some of the 67
pounds of pennies she brought for the Penny Wars program at
Dallas Elementary School. Kaitlin Kean lent a helping hand.
she can no longer use. Heather
Shultz and Stefanie Salavantis
came with me to pick them up.
These two seniors are very com-
munity service oriented and are
the student coordinators for the
program,” explained Ms. Jones.
Lake-Lehman High School stu-
dents sponsored a Feed A Friend
program. “This year we're provid-
ing food for 10 local families,”
explained Cathy Wolfe, a teacher
at the high school.
“The students brought in so
of giving
much this year that these fami-
lies will really get a nice pack-
age-much more than just
Thanksgiving dinner,” she said.
The Harvey's Lake Lions Club
made a generous cash dona-
tion that will help to buy the
turkeys and Lake-Lehman Stu-
dent Council funds will be used
to make up the difference.
Lake-Lehman Middle School
students will receive a unique
reward for their successful food
drive. “Each homeroom adopts
a family and gets a list of things
to bring into school,” explained
eighth grader, Kristen Noler.
“Then, each class that brings in
everything on their list gets to
throw a pie at their homeroom
teacher. We have 14 families
this year.”
The Dallas Middle School
Student Council is sponsoring
a food drive for the Back Moun-
tain Food Bank. “We've been
doing this for more than 10
years,” explained Student
Council moderator Norine
Amesbury. “This drive finishes
the day before Thanksgiving and
is used mostly for distribution
at Christmastime.”
The food is delivered to the
food bank by the guidance coun-
selors and the school principal,
Anthony Martinelli. The class-
room that collected the most
See GIVING, pg 8
POST PHOTO/CHARLOTTE BARTIZEK
Sheetz
submits
store plan ER
30 parking spaces
on Trucksville site
By ELIZABETH SKRAPITS
Post Staff
Woodridge
residents
oppose
cell tower
A Nextel plan called
incomplete, inappropriate
By ELIZABETH SKRAPITS
Post staff
KINGSTON TWP - A “monopole” isn’t
a fancy seaside hotel or a French version
of a board game — it’s a tower for wireless
telecommunication transmission, and
township residents who live in the
Woodridge section of Shavertown don’t
want one in their backyards.
“What this is all about is putting a
tower in the middle of a neighborhood,”
said Woodridge resident Robert Riley.
Reston, Virginia-based Nextel wants to
build a communication tower on a piece
of land leased from Daniel Voitek and
Mary Lukasavage, and is fighting prop-
erty owners for its right to do so, despite
residents’ concerns about esthetics, po-
tential health risks, and loss of property
value due to the proximity of the tower.
A year ago, Nextel applied to Kingston
Twp. for an exception to be allowed to
build its tower on the Voitek property. It
was denied by the zoning hearing board
in December, 1999, and Nextel promptly
took the township to district court. The
case was dismissed.
In April, 2000, Kingston Twp. passed
Ordinance 2000-3, which specifically
deals with communication towers, set-
ting up a list of regulations for their
construction and placement. The ordi-
nance, says Township Manager Jeffrey
Box, was passed out of necessity, due to
the increasing number of communica-
tions companies coming forward with
requests to erect towers. “Every munici-
pality should be upgrading their zoning
ordinances to deal with this new technol-
ogy,” Box said, noting wireless technol-
ogy wasn't around when PA township
zoning standards were first drawn up in
the 1960s, so the old ordinances made no
provision for it.
Nextel filed an application Oct. 18 for
a conditional use on the same site. “Con-
ditional use” means use of a property in
See CELL TOWER, pg 5
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KINGSTON TWP. - Sheetz has
submitted its preliminary land
development and minor subdivi-
sion plans to the Kingston Twp.
authorities, and they will be put
on the agenda for discussion at
the township planning meeting
on Dec. 5.
Minor subdivision plans are a
requirement of the Pennsylvania
State Planning Code, to be com-
pleted any time a piece of land is
divided for sale or lease.
According to the preliminary
plans, the proposed Sheetz will be
located at the Pendragon Center
on Memorial Highway (Rte. 309
South) between the Grange Bank
and Verizon, on a leased plot to-
taling 1.93 acres, already zoned
for commercial use. It will have
See SHEETZ, pg 3
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