; L Dallas, Pennsylvania The Back Mountain's Newspaper Since 1889 September 12 to September 18, 2002 United We Stand Vol. 113. No. 37 DALLAS POST 50 Cents SERVING THE COMMUNITIES OF THE DALLAS & LAKE-LEHMAN SCHOOL DISTRICTS SPORTS Mountaineers rumble over Nanticoke. Pg 9. PHOTO ALBUM 40th Luzerne County Fair draws big crowds. Pg 4. COMMUNITY Kingston Twp. High School Class of ‘42 reunites. Pg 5. Teachers set to okay contract A Board endorses By ELIZABETH ANDERSON Post Correspondent LEHMAN TWP. — It's all over but the paperwork, according to exuberant members of the Lake-Lehman teachers’ pegotiating team. WY After nearly two years of negotia- tions, the Lake-Lehman School Board voted 5-4 Tuesday night to accept the recommendations of the May 28, 2002 state fact-finder's report and ratify A collective bargaining agreement be- tween the district and the Lake- Lehman Education Association. The teachers’ union will meet Thurs- day to make their vote official, at which time the attorneys will draw up the le- zal contract and the deal will be sealed. e “We were a little punch drunk by the time it finally happened,” said a happy and relieved Dan Williams, president of the Lake-Lehman Education Associa- tion. The teachers have voted twice to accept the fact finder’s report, while the board previously voted against it. Salary and health care were the two biggest obstacles in the negotiations. ®. five-year contract, running from eptember 1, 2001 through September 1, 2006, will give the teachers a 3.4 percent per year salary increase. Calling the new high school athletic facilities the “Coliseum of Lake- Lehman,” board member Lois Kopcha explained her position in voting for the agreement and where she felt money in the district should be spent. “It certain- ly shows where our priorities lie. It is in sports,” Kopcha said to much audience applause. “Sports spotlight only certain giidren It certainly is not for all the kids. And that's why I have no com- punction at all in giving the teachers this raise.” In addition to Kopcha, board mem- bers Angelo DeCesaris, Michelle A cloud of dust Lauren Lipski gave the ball a mighty whack in the field hockey game between Lake-Lehman and Dallas POST PHOTO/JIM PHILLIPS o9/11+1 Attacks spurred local changes in security, schools By ERIN YOUNGMAN Post Staff ~ Talk to members of the community about how things have changed since 9/11/01 and it readily becomes apparent how much those events have woven their way into the daily lives of people in the Back Mountain. “The most enduring effect is in terms of security,” said Bob Roberts, Superintendent of Lake Lehman School District about changes that have taken place on his campus. “When people used to walk around the school we'd figure they were parents. Now when someone's walking around the school, people are looking at you like who are you?” Kingston Township Chief of Police James Balavage echoed similar sentiments about changes in security. “After 9/11 we set up a bulletin board full of information from the federal government and state police telling us to be more vigilant,” he said. He said officers were told to look a little closer at their sur- roundings, especially when calls involved people of Arabic de- scent. Balavage said that a compact disc his department re- | See 9/11 CHANGES, pg 8 Near ground zero, memories linger By ERIN YOUNGMAN Post Staff For most of us, the images of 9/11/01 eventually faded. As the media attention turned to other stories, people removed from New York, Shanksville, and Washington D.C. were granted some mental distance, some time off here and there from those events. But not a day that passes that Dave Townsend does not live with September 11. “It took a while for me to get better. I have to walk by it to get to work so I'm reminded of it every day,” said the 1995 graduate of Dallas High School. Townsend was at work on the floor of the floor of the Amer- ican Stock Exchange when he heard and felt the impact of the first tower being hit, He saw the second plane strike while standing on the street with co-workers. Monday. The Black Knights took home a 4-0 shutout victory, putting Lehman at 2-0 in the race to win the Back Mountain Cup, a new award that starts this year. See sports pages for more photos and story. See GROUND ZERO, pg 8 See CONTRACT, pg 8 Dallas board not happy, but relieved that project back on track : 16 Pages, 2 Sections By ERIN YOUNGMAN amounts to Reynolds Construction Man- pool and auditorium seating, we're re- the district rented pool space at College Calendar. i... 16 Post Staff agement for the months of May, July and lieved,” said Dallas Superintendent Gil Misericordia. Griffiths said the cost of the Classified 13-15 : August, stating they believed the project Griffiths. : rental, lifeguards and transportation to C d EEE a 10 DALLAS TWP. — After withholding was back on schedule. : The late pool completion date was the and from the pool will be billed to the JOSSWOr yriopka ar payment last month on the Dallas Middle The board also authorized approxi- most difficult for the district to work contractors. Editorials............cccccoevnv. 6 School construction project, the Dallas mately $42,000 to be paid to Foreman around. Originally scheduled to be com- Since August's board meeting, the ex- Obituaries. ...............::.4x.. 2 | School Board authorized payment to the Burkavage Architects, whose payment pleted by June 26, the district had al- pected completion date has changed from SChool........... vie iiinis 12 project's construction management com- had been withheld for June, July and Au- ready hired life guards, planned curricu- September 26 to October 4. Project Man- SPOHS. i. cbivvaiing asi 9-11 pany, Monday. & Board members voted to pay a total of gust. “At this point, with exception to the lum, and hired instructors. To avoid chil- dren getting behind in their curriculum, See DALLAS, pg 3 CALL 675-5211 pproximately $67,000 in invoice FOR HOME DELIVERY, NEWS OR ADVERTISING Crow found in Lehman E-mail: dallaspost@leader.net couldn’t be tested for virus The crow found at a home on Golf Course Road in Lehman Township was a rmined unfit for testing. Workers from the Luzerne County En- vironmental Special Projects office picked up the bird on August 26. The carcass arrived at the Health Depart- ment lab in Harrisburg on Aug. 27. The lab report filed the same day stated the bird's “tissue wasn't suitable for testing.” Ron Rugletic, Luzerne County’s West Nile Virus Coordinator said Tuesday that the Health Department's results proba- bly means the bird was dead too long. @ Testing for the virus can be done on a ird that has been stored on ice and is less than 48 hours old. : Test results from Harrisburg are usu- ally filed within 7-10 days of collection. However, according to Rugletic, results have been slow to come back due to the high number of birds that have gone in for testing in the last month. Anyone finding a dead bird, particular- @ a crow, may report it by calling 331- I) 7052 Mon.-Fri. from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., or 826-3066 any other time. % A Hh SR Joe Moskovitz, Dallas Borough Manager, pointed to the intersec- tion that is a center of concern as the borough attempts to develop a “Village” shopping district. With him were Bill Fontana, Executive Borough on mission to create ‘downtown village’ A It will help if neighboring communities support concept By ERIN YOUNGMAN Post Staff: POST PHOTO/ERIN YOUNGMAN Director of Downtown Pennsylvania, and Angela Callie, from the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s Rural Development office. DALLAS BOROUGH- Is Dallas Borough the heart of the Back Mountain? As the borough attempts ‘to create a “Downtown Village,” it would be easier if it could get other Back Mountain municipalities to say so. “Most long-term residents understand that we are the commercial, economic and educational center of the Back Mountain,” said Borough Manager Joe Moskovitz. To help qualify for state revitalization programs and grants for its downtown revitalization goals, the Dallas Downtown Village project would benefit from other munici- palities formally recognizing it as, a primary economic and commercial center of the region. There are 2,557 residents in Dallas but approximately 30,000 within the 10 munici- palities that make up the Back Mountain. According to Moskovitz, he, the Dallas Borough Council, and the majority of the people involved in the “Our Dallas: "See VILLAGE, pg 3 Lo) WY, 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