8 The Dallas Post Dallas, PA Thursday, November 29, 2001 Townend (continued from page 1) He is also known for his role as the director of Luzerne Coun- ty Civil Defense during the 1972 flood sparked by tropical storm Agnes and his involvement in many community organizations. “My father was a tremendous, ethically principled person,” said daughter Cynthia Donaldson of Lamoine, Maine. “He was very committed to his friends and family.” A lawyer by trade, Townend worked in his law office in Wilkes-Barre’s Public Square up until his death, friends said. “He went to work every day,” said Lt. Col. Pat Riley, comman- der of the 92nd Aerial Port Squadron, an Air Force Reserve unit based in Wyoming. “There was a right way to do things, and Frank always did that. He was moral and decent. He was a living link to the past.” Townend was involved in many major news events linked to the Wyoming Valley during his life. On June 23, 1972, he ordered residents to leave their homes at 6 a.m., about four hours before officials predicted the Susque- hanna River would rise beyond the dike system, which then stood at 35 feet. In 1996, he said that contro- versial decision was one of the most agonizing of his life. “With the concurrence of the rest of the staff,” he said in a 1998 Times. Leader interview, “it was the hardest decision I ever had to make.” Donaldson on Sunday said people would sometimes ap- proach her father and tell them they remembered his voice from his work during the flood. “He loved it when people came up to him, not because they re- membered him, but because he felt like he provided a service to people during that time,” she said. Townend joined the Pennsyl- vania National Guard's 109th Field Artillery Regiment in 1938 after graduating from Princeton University and Harvard Law School. He was promoted to ma- jor during his four years of ser- vice in the European Theater during World War II. He was awarded the Bronze Star and five battle stars during the war. He also served in the Korean War, held various command .po- sitions and rose to the rank of major general before retiring from the Guard. “He was a mentor and a role model to any military person in this area,” Riley said. “People re- ally looked up to him. He was the grandfather to us all.” Early on the morning of Sept. 11, 1950, Townend was the commander aboard a train car- rying 700 troops from the 109th that had been mobilized for the Korean War. The troop train was carrying soldiers from Wilkes-Barre to Camp Atterbury, Ind., when it stopped to allow workers to re- pair a broken air hose. Another train, the Spirit of St. Louis, ran through two warning signals be- fore it attempted to stop. It was too late, and the trains collided, killing 33 soldiers from the Wyoming Valley. Townend tried to wake soldiers sleeping in the rear cars. It was his “greatest disap- pointment,” Townend said at a September ceremony marking the tragedy. Donaldson said her father never got over the loss. “He held those men in his heart for the rest of his life,” she said. . Townend’s involvement with the Wyoming Valley's Veterans Day Parade stemmed back to the 1940s, Riley said. Some years ago, Townend pro- duced a document from 1946 that showed he was the chief of staff for the annual affair, Riley said. During a recent planning ses- sion, Riley said, the talk was about the parade’s spotty atten- dance every year. According to Riley, Townend stood up and said: “It doesn’t matter if there are 10,000 people or no one shows up. We are still going to march to honor the vet- erans.” “It wasn’t a commercial ven- ture to him,” Riley said. Townend was also the long- time solicitor for Dallas Town- ship, said Phil Walter, a town- ship supervisor. “Frank was a very community- orientated individual,” Walter said. “In the 36 years I have been on the board, he missed very few meetings. He worked right up until the end. He never wanted to give it up. “Somebody would tell him they were retiring and he would say ‘Why are you going to re- tire?” He was very talented and a good man. He was the type of guy who didn’t mind working.” Townend was active in many community organizations during his life, including the Wyoming Valley United Way, Nesbitt Memorial Hospital, the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Com- merce, the Westmoreland Club, the Kiwanis Club, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Ameri- can Legion, among others, ac- cording to Times Leader archives. He also ran for judge of the Luzerne County Court of Com- mon Pleas in 1978, but lost. At. a recent Veterans Day Pa- rade breakfast, when . asked what personal sacrifices he made for his country, Townend said: “I don’t look at it that way.” In addition to Donaldson and her husband, Gordon, Townend is survived by his wife, Lenchen Coughlin; a son, Stephen, a doc- tor; Stephen's wife Suzie; and six grandchildren: Morgaen Donaldson, Cary Donaldson, Nell Donaldson, Stark Townend, Bén Donaldson, and Dunham Townend. Townend is also sur- vived by one brother, Henry. He was preceded in death by a son, David. Editor's Note: This article origi- nally appeared in the Nov. 26 is- sue of The Times Leader. Send The Dallas Post to a friend. It makes a great gift. Call 675-5211 for information. Choo Choo Train & Hobby 24 New Street, Hudson, Large Selection of + K-Line « Lionel « LGB * Ho-Scale * N Guage Open Every Day Till Christmas 824-3471 Our E-mail has changed! You can now send your news, letters, sports, etc. to daliaspost @Ileader.net Temporary ' School Entrance | Visitor parking g Work has begun at Lake-Lehman High School, but one contractor has. asked to withdraw its bid and another is asking for changes in its performance bond. L-L school (continued from page 1) said. “It seems to me we are putting ourselves out for a lot of risk on a $11 million project that could probably be held up because we can’t get the work done right.” The bid withdrawal by Con- struction Unlimited resulted in the re-awarding of the bid to La- gana Plumbing of Hazleton and will cost the school district an additional $65,333. If the next lowest bidder must be chosen for the electrical contract it will cost the district another $23,000." : “But how many thousands of dollars is it going to cost us if these people can’t do the work?” Boytin asked. “If you have trouble getting bonding, you have trouble,” board member Charles Balavage said. “I voted no on the original vote and I think you're going to have problems.” Although he said he had a personal dilemma as. he works for the next lowest bidder for the electrical contract, Balavage pointed out that the next two bidders are “fine contractors too and they won't have any prob- lem getting bonding.” Trumbower cautioned the board that many games are played in the construction busi- ness and there are many ex- perts who want to sue and file actions for lost costs. “We have to be careful we don’t take ac- tion that will cause this project to go to the courts by a bidder who thinks he’s being treated unfairly,” he said. “There are people in the construction in- dustry that are professionals at filing for profitability that never did exist and they are winning, especially when it comes to pub- lic work.” Board members decided to do more research on the issue and place the issue on the Dec. 4 board meeting agenda. Angelo DeCesaris, president of the board, asked Trumbower and Savage to be prepared to move to the next step in the process if the board voted to deny Main Home = the Original BELLA BASKET 114-116 S. Main St., Pittston Stop In To See Our Wide Variety of Imported Specialties Italian ® Pasta ® Fruit and Sweet Tooth Baskets or Create Your Own! Gift Certificates Make a Great Gift! Delivery Available Call: 654-4616 or 654-4617 a RN Va Ngkal WP al As ne is Te first time I've ever Experinoed this.” "Douglas Trumbower Trumbover and Associates ‘ ve | been doing this Electric's request. Trumbower said the next step would be to either accept the next lowest bid or rebid the contract. Later in the meeting, board members seemed taken aback when John Bodner of Bodner Sales and Service of Berwick spoke up during visitors’ com- ments, saying his company had submitted a bid that would save the district about $7,000 on faster and better copier ma- chines than the recommended bid proposalgon the «agenda. Bodner, who «came to the meet- ing to find out the results of his sealed bid on the copier ma- chine systems contract, said he has had a good working rela- tionship with the school district for almost 20 years and was very surprised by the higher cost of a proposal that was on the verge of acceptance. After some muddled discussion and shuffling of papers, DeCesaris moved to table action on the proposal from Golden Business Machines, Inc. of Kingston until the Dec. 4 meeting so the mat- ter could be looked into further. Moderno Rossi, second vice president of the school board, informed the audience that any- one could call the school and be put on the bid list for any item or service to the school district. “We look forward to that,” he said. “We can perhaps get a bet- ter price that way, the more athif | Back MounTAIN TT ; Route 1I8, bids people put in.” In other business; ¢ The solicitor reported a dou- bling of cost would occur as a result of additional required bonds if the board approved the appointment of deputy tax col- - lectors. The board moved to ad- dress the request by two tax col- lectors to appoint deputy tax collectors at the Dec. 4 meeting. e Savage also said audits of the tax collectors can be done by an independent auditor, as is currently the case, or by the municipalities of the district on the condition all are involved and qualified. e The solicitor will send a let- ter notifying tax collectors that extra fees being charged for cer- tain reports should cease, as the board has not approved them. e Bob Roberts, superintendent of Lake-Lehman School District, reported outstanding accom- plishments ‘by the district's sports teams, including the ju- nior high school football team, which took their league champi- onship and which their division at the Wyoming Valley Confer- ence Junior High Football Championships, and the junior high field hockey team, who won their league and District 2 championships. * Roberts congratulated the Middle Level Educational Build- ing Builder's Club on raising $2,000 for the United Way and providing 14 local families with Thanksgiving dinners. e The board will meet for a re- organization meeting on Tues., Dec. 4, at 6 p.m. in the music room of the Lehman-Jackson Elementary School. A special meeting for general purposes will be held immediately follow- ing and the next regular com- mittee of the whole meeting will follow the special meeting. 2 Back Mountain Memorial Library new books The Back Mountain Memorial Library, 96 Huntsville Road, Dallas, announces the addition of the following books to their collection. FICTION “Suspicion of Vengeance” by Barbara Parker “Mercy” by Julie Garwood “A Heart of Stone” by Renate Dorrestein “The Talisman” by Stephen King & Peter Straub “Grand Avenue” by Joy Fielding “The Mitford Snowmen” by Jan Karon “Half a Life” by V.S. Naipaul “Portrait in Sepia” by Isabel Al- lende NON-FICTION “The Accidental President” by David A. Kaplan “The final Days” by Barbara Ol- son “Wittgenstein's Poker” by David Edmonds & John Eidinow “The Naked Chef” by Jamie Oliver “Sicilian Home Cooking” by Wanda & Giovanna Tornabene “Chef on a Shoestring” edited by Andrew Friedman Twin Towers: the life of New York City’s World Trade Center” by Angus K. Gillespie “Your Life is Worth Living: the Christian philosophy of life” by Fulton J. Sheen. Presented by Charles Shafer BIOGRAPHY “Seldom Disappointed: a mem- oir” by Tony Hillerman “Call Me Crazy” by Anne Heche “Thirteen Senses” by Victor Vil- lasenor LARGE PRINT NON-FICTION “Christmas in Plains: memories” by Jimmy Carter REFERENCE “McGraw-Hill Yearbook of Sci- ence and Technology” “Thomas Regional Buying Guide 2002” “World Chamber of Commerce Directory” “The American Prison System” edited by Peter G. Herman “Campus-Free College Degrees” by Marcie Kisner Thorson BOOKS ON CASSETTE “Coldheart Canyon” by Clive Barker Industrial “Protect and Defend” by Richard North Patterson “Dr. Death” by Jonathan Keller- man Christian bookstore accepting slightly used Bibles Gifts From Above Christian Bookstores will accept slightly used Bibles to distrubute to any individual, group or ministry that is feeling victimized, fright- ened or confused by recent events. They will be distributed without charge. Bibles may be dropped off at the store, 419 Memorial Hwy., Dallas. Tell our advertisers you saw them in The Dallas Post. They'll appreciate it, and so will we. PEO Re S n heme BN DALLAS - (In the Former Little Lumber Building) \ Yon Tues. Wed. 10a.m.- -6p.m.; : Thurs. Fri. “10am. -8p.m.; Sat. 10a.m. -6p.m.; CLOSED sm. J JU
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