Dallas, Pennsylvania The Back Mountain's Newspaper Since 1889 ‘September 5 to September 10, 2002 United We Stand Vol. 113. No. 36 SPORTS Black Knights first game on new field a disappointment. Pg 9. Fall sports Preview Section inside Read about all the Dallas and Lake-L.ehman teams. 50 Cents COMMUNITY Local artist demonstrates at last summer reading meet. Pg 5. By ERIN YOUNGMAN Post Staff You may have noticed some Dallas School District buses have a new addition this year. Thanks to the Dallas School Bus Safety Pro- ject and local donors, strobe lights are the latest safety feature installed on them. Nine of the district's 24 buses are current- ly outfitted with the lights, which are set on the top rear of the buses and are intended to po prevent rear-end accidents. Installation of Pihe lights began over the summer in order of newest buses to old. Some lights are waiting to be mounted and 14 more have been or- dered. So far public reaction to the lights has been mixed. “Some say it's the most ludi- crous thing they've ever seen; others say anything to make the buses safer,” said Dr. Gilbert Griffiths, Dallas School District Su- perintendent. The project to get strobe lights on the bus- es has been in the works for over a decade. Since 1992, the lights have been part of an amendment sponsored by Senator Charles D. Lemmond Jr. to Title 75 (the vehicle code), full of ‘added safety precautions for Strobe lights increase school bus safety school buses, which has never been passed in its entirety. Because the lights have not been mandated in school bus law, the buses can have the lights, but grant money is not available to help in the endeavor. “I tried all over to get a grant, and the school district can’t pay for something like this until it's a law,” said Tom Dombroski, who wrote the amendment to the school bus law and who has been spearheading the pro- ject to get the lights on the buses. Griffiths, Jeff Emanuel, who owns and See STROBE LIGHTS, pg 8 re + F4 SCHOOL BUS Teachers, «board to talk again Monday .- Board lays out its "side of negotiations 80 far, says teachers not informed of offer By ELIZABETH ANDERSON Post Correspondent ® LEHMAN TWP. — Come Mon- ~ day, maybe it'll be all right. Frustrations and tensions in the Lake-Lehman School Dis- trict are mounting as contract offers are struck down and con- cerns over possible teachers’ strike rise. Negotiations are ten- tatively set to continue Monday, September 9. The Lake-Lehman School Board released a statement @ Tuesday evening concerning re- cent teachers’ contract negotia- tions in an attempt to “set the See LAKE-LEHMAN, pg 3 ~ Bus snags *plague opening day By ELIZABETH ANDERSON Post Correspondent LEHMAN TWP. — New bus idrivers, changing school start times, the opening of Ross Ele- D mentary School and separate buses for elementary and high school students caused major transportation problems on the first day of school in the Lake- Lehman School District. The situation created considerable problems for some students and parents and the fiasco was repeated after school. @ District resident Patricia Her- rick said her sixth grader was never picked up by the bus - a problem experienced by quite a See BUS SNAGS, pg 3 A local firm restored the wooden por- tions of this reproduction @ Liberty Bell that stands in front of the Treasury | building in Washington. President Bush will ring | + = the bell during) | ~~ memoration | ceremony. op i POST PHOTO/ELIZABETH ANDERSON “This is our first time here on the trail. We made it pretty far down, even though we decided that Dairy Queen ice cream sounds better than finishing the trail,” said Michael Rahl. From left: Michael Rahl of Luzerne; Cady Brandt, eighth grade at GAR; Michael LaMas, eleventh grade at Nanticoke High; Ethan Hoolick, second grade at St.Nicks in Wilkes-Barre; Cady’s brother, Tony Brandt, sixth grade at Heights, Wilkes-Barre. BMT Trail continues to grow, link by link By ELIZABETH ANDERSON Post Correspondent No need to drive for hours. Commune with Nature's beauty and get away from it all, while staying right in your Back Mountain neighborhood. Hike or bike the Back Moun- tain Trail. The Anthracite Scenic Trails Association (ASTA) is ready to begin work on two new extensions of the Back Mountain Trail with the first running from Carverton Road to Harris Hill Road in Trucksville. The second extension will go from Harris Hill Road to the New Mart convenience store on Route 309. The completed portion of the trail is 2.2 miles long and runs north from Luzerne Borough to Carverton Road. When it is com- plete, the entire Back Mountain Trail will be 14 miles long and extend to Harveys Lake. History permeates the Back Mountain “The right-of-way is very difficult for a rails-to-trails : | conversion.” Judy Rimple Executive Director Anthracite Scenic Trails Association Trail, flowing with Toby's Creek from the Luzerne entrance along the abandoned rail- road bed. Not far from the Luzerne Borough kiosk is an old stone wall, approximately five feet tall, built about 1880 when the rail bed was put in. Further down the trail, 200- year-old railroad ties lie waiting to be used on the project. “Anyone who is my age or older — in their 60s and 70s particularly — has walked the trestle on Carverton Road,” said Judy Rim- 11,2001. PO Heh LE A local firm is helping Americans honor the lives lost on September A project to restore a reproduc- tion of the Liberty Bell in the Na- tion’s Capital has come to fruition thanks in large part to an architec- | tural firm here in Dallas. Architec- SW W@W | tural Timberworks donated its ex- a SEX pertise, time and labor to help re- wr uy store the bell, for a ceremony at- tended by the president scheduled List of 9/11 servic to take place on September 11. Timberworks was jointly awarded the contract along with Conserva- tion Solutions of Maryland to re- store the bell that for many Ameri- cans is a symbol of the enduring American spirit. The bell that sits outside of the Treasury Depart- ment is a replica of the original Lib- erty Bell, cast in 1752 for Indepen- dence Hall in Philadelphia. _Timberworks owner Mitch Row- ple, ASTA executive director. “They have walked the tracks. They rode the train to Harveys Lake. There are so many stories to this little railroad bed.” Rimple said the as- sociation hopes to post signs relating some of the rich history as the project gets into heavy construction. The Rails-To-Trails movement, happening across the United States, preserves aban- doned railway corridors for paths for pedes- trians, bicycles, baby strollers and even wheelchairs. In the winter, cross-country skiing is a popular mode of transportation. Soon, the leaves will be putting on their spectacular color show. The Back Mountain Trail follows the Lehigh Valley Railroad bed, abandoned in the mid-1960s and bought by Thomas Gar- rity, a realtor. “He proceeded to sell it off in parts, so we See TRAIL, pg 4 Local firm restores symbol of freedom By ERIN YOUNGMAN Post Staff land said the replica is one of 54 that were created in the 1950s and sent to every state in the Union as part of a bond drive spearheaded by the Treasury Department. The bell has stood in front of the Trea- sury building, adjacent to the exec- utive drive of the White House, ex- posed to the elements for 50 years. “The bell was in need of some- thing to keep it from falling down”, said Rowland. For Rowland, the project was an See LIBERTY BELL, pg 3 Some Dallas school buses are now equipped with strobe lights that will pierce fog and are visible even in bright sunlight. The safety feature is paid for by dona- tions, since there is no state mandate for the devices. POST PHOTO/ ERIN YOUNGMAN Virus not found in local birds Ad Results due this week on dead crow found in Lehman By ERIN YOUNGMAN Post Staff None of the birds’ from the Back Mountain that were sent in to Harrisburg in the last two weeks tested positive for the West Nile Virus. . A caged Chicken in Forty Fort was the latest bird in the region to test positive. That result was announced August 30. “We get all of our test results on Friday and no positives showed up for the Back Moun-r tain,” said Donna Heffron of the Luzerne County Environmental Special Projects Office. Test re- sults from a crow found August 26 in Lehman are still outstand- ing and expected to be in by September 6. It takes seven to 10 days to receive the results from Harrisburg. In addition to the ongoing bird testing, Heffron said that mos- quito traps, which are continu- ously checked for the virus, are See VIRUS, pg 8 16 Pages, 2 Sections Calendar................oow. 16 Classified..............x.s 13-15 Crossword..................... 10 EQHOraIS iui ev inden iveians 6 Obituaries. ............isssveiuies 2 TH 00 8 Ra A ee 11 SPOS. ...ocovnneninseriinahoss 9-10 CALL 675-5211 FOR HOME DELIVERY, ~~ NEWS OR ADVERTISING E-mail: dallaspost@Ileader.net Please enclose this label with any address changes, and mail to The Dallas Post P.O. Box 366, Dallas, PA 18612-0366
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