L Dallas, Pennsylvania The Back Mountain's Newspaper Since 1889 October 11 to October 17, 2001 i , THE DALLAS POST _ SERVING THE COMMUNITIES OF THE DALLAS & LAKE-LEHMAN SCHOOL DISTRICTS SPORTS Mountaineers, Black Knights both win. Pg 11. SCHOOL Dallas students hear from Gandhi’s grandson. Pg 13. COMMUNITY Dallas, Lake-L.ehman homecom- ing courts unveiled. Pg 3. BR. Borough home robbed for drug money, police say | | J Four men broke into home, stole checks, then cashed them By HEATHER B. JONES Post Staff DALLAS BOROUGH - Two men robbed a Dallas home recently to sup- Schools o prcparc for violence, emergencies ® [1 ‘Safe Schools Program’ trains teachers, staff how to respond if necessary By HEATHER B. JONES Post Staff o DALLAS - Teachers in the Dallas . School District spent Columbus Day learning how to disarm guns and the proper procedure to follow during a vio- lent crisis. The training was part of the school districts Safe Schools Program. The Safe Schools Program has three components. The first is a 185 page in- depth manual of procedures and steps for dealing with a crisis. There is also a smaller version used as a desk refer- ence by school staff. The third compo- nent of the program is teacher training @ like the one teachers attended during the in-service sessions on Monday. Frank Galicki, Dallas High School principal; Jim McGovern, Dallas High School assistant principal; and Chief Robert Jolley, Dallas Township Police, have coordinated efforts to make the Safe’ Schools Program a reality. The group presented the concepts in the manual to school board members at the @ October 8 meeting. “The whole goal of the manual is to become knowledgeable enough so these See SCHOOLS, pg 10 - Mother angry Jat bus driver’s response By HEATHER B. JONES Post Staff DALLAS - As Sandy Harris waited at the bus stop for her daughter to arrive & home from school on Oct. 4, she was shocked by what transpired only a few yards from where she was standing. Before bus number 25 from Dallas Elementary School made its last stop for the day, a fifth grade student punched the bus driver. The student then ran out the emergency door in the back of the bus. : The out-of-control student, said Dr. Gilbert Griffiths, Dallas School District superintendent, hit the bus driver in ry the nose when the driver tried to keep the student on the bus. The boy ran out the back to get away. The student intended to go home and get something to hit the bus driver with, said Grif- fiths. The primary concern of the bus dri- ver then was to protect himself and the one remaining student on the bus, Brittany Harris, a first grader. The bus driver drove about 20 yards to the cor- Iw rect stop to drop off Brittany Harris. Jim McGovern, assistant principal of See MOTHER, pg 10 port a drug habit, according to police. On the evening of August 27, James Drury, Dallas Borough police officer, in- vestigated a burglary at a home on West Center Hill Road in Dallas. The suspects forced open a kitchen window at Barbara and Blake Saba’s house. Once the intruders gained entrance to the house through the window they rummaged through dresser drawers and a jewelry box. The Sabas reported the burglars took checkbooks and an automatic teller machine card. Latest break-inison Pinecrest. Page 10 Police seized a mini crowbar which the intruders left behind and processed the crowbar for finger prints. When Barbara Saba contacted Fleet Bank to close her accounts, the bank notified her that it had cashed two checks, each for $300, earlier in the day, according to the police report. Saba and Dave Reinhimer, Dallas Bor- Dog day at St. Therese’s Msgr. Peter Crynes, pastor, St. Therese’s Church, Shavertown, blessed 6-month-old Cuddles in Marlene Tarreto’s arms at the annual Blessing of the Animals on October 4. Tarreto’s 5-year-old granddaughter, Claudia Hannon thought a little bit of blessing would be good for her friend. More photos on page 4. Cool auction _ A POST PHOTO/JIM PHILLIPS The Back Mountain Memorial Library held a “Fall Wrap-Up Auction” and craft fair Sunday, as volunteers and bidders had to ward off cold winds. Steve Traver, right, egged on bidders, assisted by Karen Boback and Jim Snyder. i ough police officer, went to the bank and verified the signature on the checks did not belong to her. On August 27, Jonathan Ambrose, 30 Butler Street, Wyoming, cashed one of the stolen checks for $650 in Wilkes- Barre. This check also had a forged sig- nature. Ambrose also tried to cash two more checks from the Sabas’ account the fol- lowing day. Two bank tellers turned him away. Police took Ambrose into custody on POST PHOTO/HEATHER B. JONES Gate of Heaven eyes property for new church Father Jack Lambert, pastor of Gate of Heaven parish, shared information about the progress of plans to build a new church with the parishioners at a parish town meeting held in mid-Sep- tember. He followed up the meeting with a letter sent to all members of the parish last week. The plans are progressing with the intent to purchase property located be- hind the former Hess gas station on the Memorial Highway. The land is cur- rently owned by Sacred Heart Church and the agreed price of purchase is $115,000. Fr. Lambert declined comment at this time due to the fact that the pur- chase has not yet been finalized and plans are incomplete. His letter did note that the entrance and exit to the new church would not be from the Memorial Highway. Rather, traffic would flow in and out of Trout Brook Road and Lower Demunds Road. The planners are currently in the process of interviewing architects for the design of the new church. Father Lambert noted in his letter that he hopes to have more information and some preliminary drawings ready by November 18, 2001 when members of Gate of Heaven will celebrate its 50th anniversary. September 4, and he confessed to steel- ing the Sabas’ checks. He told police he and three friends needed money to buy drugs. One friend suggested robbing a house in Dallas. Ambrose and his friends drove around for about 45 minutes before de- ciding to rob the Sabas’ house. Am- brose told police he forced open the kitchen window and crawled through. He then opened the door and let Darrell See BURGLARY, pg 10 Kids love new playground at Dallas El | By HEATHER B. JONES Post Staff DALLAS - The wait is over. The new Dallas Elementary School Playground officially opened for use at a ribbon cut- ting ceremony on September 18. The playground has new equipment and a newly added obstacle course. The school district decided to replace the playground equipment be- cause of rising f maintenance cost to the old wooden structure and in- | creased injuries, [§ said ,Dr. Gilbert Griffiths, Dallas | School District su- | perintendent. The district spent $63,000 on the main playground equipment and the Dallas Ele- mentary PTO raised am addi- tional $20,000 for the new obstacle course. “This is not only good for the Dallas Elementary School and the Dallas School District,” Griffiths said, “but See PLAYGROUND, pg 10 POST PHOTO/ HEATHER B. JONES Ethan Szczecinski, 2, of Shavertown will spend many years to come at the new play- PF ground. 18 Pages, 2 Sections ’. Calendar Classified Crossword CALL 675-5211 FOR HOME DELIVERY, NEWS OR ADVERTISING E-mail: dalpost@ epix.net Please enclose this label with any address changes, and mail to The Dallas Post P.O. Box 366, Dallas, PA 18612-0366
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers