Dallas, Pennsylvania February 27 to March 5, 2003 Vol. 114 No. 9 SPORTS Dallas swimmers second record number to districts. Pg 9. | ScHooL Leah Budin is National Merit Scholarship finalist. Pg 12. 50 Cents Rosetti Art Show opening recep- tion Sunday. Pg 5. Signs of summer? Don't get your hopes up. These pink flamingos didn’t land in Dallas last week to signal a spring thaw. They (all 50 of them) landed around Hilbert’s Equipment along Memorial Highway as a birthday prank for Larry Hilbert. Larry's wife, Debbie, said there's a family tradition to put little flamingos on birthday cakes, but this special birthday deserved a bigger presentation. POST PHOTO/CHARLOTTE BARTIZEK Wetlands force developer to scale back plan ® ‘Big box’ store stays, smaller ones reduced By ERIN YOUNGMAN Post Staff DALLAS — The developer of a possible “big box” store in Dallas Township — long rumored to be a Wal-Mart — is scaling down the size of his development. The Work hard for ENCON By ERIN YOUNGMAN Post Staff DALLAS — Energy Converters (ENCON) will close March 28, and despite the help of area cies and its own internal ef- \ , more than 90 of its ap- proximately 100 employees have yet to find work. A rapid response team from the Department of Labor, the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Business and Industry and ENCON’s own human resources specialist have been working to help get the employees job-ready and into new employment. Layoffs at the company were originally scheduled to start in February, but were delayed until the last day of production due to a sudden burst of client orders. reduction may mean he could move ahead without Dallas Bor- ough'’s approval of a plan to ease traffic congestion caused by the development. J. Naparlo, the developer of the former Yalick property, said a larger than expected amount of wetlands on the property has forced him to reduce the num- ber of outparcels included in the planned 48-acre development. The smaller plan, he said, could 0 come by employees Jane Ashton, Director of Work Force Development for the Chamber, said employees will have to look outside the Back Mountain to find similar em- ployment. The majority of the positions at ENCON are in man- ufacturing, while others include management, janitorial and maintenance. “There's not a whole lot of manufacturing in the Back Mountain as far as for what EN- CON is looking to place,” said Ashton. So far, fewer than 10 employ- ees have found employment and none have been in manufactur- ing. “Three, four maybe five have already taken positions. They've See ENCON, pg 8 Public meeting to discuss widening of Huntsville Rd. The Luzerne County Road and Bridge Department will hold a public meeting to discuss the widening and resurfacing of Huntsville Road from its intersection with Hillside Road at the Huntsville reservoir to its intersection with Main Street in Dallas. e meeting will be held in the auditorium of the Lake-Lehman School. An informal inspection of the preliminary plans will gin on February 27 at approximately 6 p.m., followed by a brief presentation of the project with a question and answer period at 6:30 p.m. obviate the need for Dallas Bor- ough to approve his proposal to turn Lake Street one-way — clearing the way for Naparlo to move forward. Progress on the development has been hung up in a permit process in which Naparlo needs Dallas Borough's approval on a Lake Street one-way proposal. The plan would mitigate the traf- fic issues expected to arise from the development. Naparlo has found members of council, the public and College Misericordia unreceptive to the plan. Naparlo said reducing the size of the development is directly due to the increased amount of wetlands. “I'm not scaling back on purpose. You can't put a 100-yard football field on an 80- yard place,” he said. The original preliminary plan See DEVELOPMENT, pg 8 Public turns out to support Mayor, police department By ERIN YOUNGMAN Post Staff HARVEYS LAKE — More than 50 residents showed up at Tues- day’s meeting of borough coun- cil, most to support their mayor and police department, recently tarnished by the discovery that several officers were not certified to work in the borough. Mayor Richard Boice, re- sponding to accusations made by board member Ruth Eaton, told the standing-room-only crowd that he is not a liar and blamed the recent police depart- ment mistakes on “human error, not malice.” “According to yesterday's Citi- zens’ Voice, councilman Eaton said I've done nothing but lied to council and the public since all these problems emerged,” said Boice. “I never lied to council and I never lied to the public,” he said. Boice said Eaton, accused him throughout the process, of lying about his knowledge of various officers’ certification status. Boice responded by saying that he was not the only one that didn’t know the certification sta- tus of the officers. “I didn't know any more at that time than anyone else. I didn’t know about it and neither did anyone else here — but I'm the liar,” said Boice wryly. “As a councilperson Ms. Eaton is just as accountable as any of us are, including the chief of po- lice, including myself,” Boice said. Eaton responded to Boice’s statements. She said the board was unhappy with her for hav- See HARVEYS LAKE, pg 8 School ‘realignment’ plan to be discussed next week By ERIN YOUNGMAN Post Staff DALLAS — The elementary task force will recommend to ‘re- align’ the Dallas elementary schools at the next board of school directors meeting sched- uled for March 3, at 7 p.m. Ac- cording to one task force mem- ber, realignment could come as early as next year. “I can see it (realignment) hap- pening; I don’t necessarily like it, but I can understand their reasoning,” said Jane Ketchner, task force member. “They talked about September as a possibili- “Anyone that has any ques- tions at all about realignment, they really need to go to that i, ; POST PHOTO/CHARLOTTE BARTIZEK Bill Kupstas, Legion Commander, stood with essay winners Pete VanLoon, Lorraine Lovecchio and Nicole Walsh. Students write about America after 9/11 By CHARLOTTE BARTIZEK Post Correspondent The Dallas American Legion Daddow-Isaacs Post 672 award- ed prizes Saturday to students from Dallas and Lake-Lehman high schools. “Commander William Kupstas presented the awards. A first place $200 savings ‘Text of winning essays on page 6 bond prize was awarded to Peter Van Loon, of Dallas. His essay, based on the theme “Freedom after 911,” focused on the re- sponsive and responsible char- acter of the American people fol- lowing the 9/11 tragedy. “As a people we're responsive, because we realized from 9/11; that, to use a quote from the Korean War, ‘Freedom is not free.” The country was awakened by 9/11 to show the best character of the American people,” said Van Loon, who has been accepted to the Air Force Academy in Col- orado. See AFTER 9/11, pg 8 meeting. It will all be laid out,” added Ketchner. Board members will make the final decision on the matter. It is unknown at this point when the board will vote. A letter that recently went home to district elementary students said prior to a board decision, presenta- tions will be made to parents and teachers in each building. Those presentations have not yet been scheduled. Dr. Gil Griffiths, Dallas School District Superintendent, said he doesn’t feel a vote will take place at the March 3 meeting. : A Power Point presentation will outline the benefits and five different layouts for the possible See SCHOOLS, pg 8 16 Pages, 2 Sections Calendar Classified Crossword Editorials Obituaries . CALL 675-5211 FOR HOME DELIVERY, NEWS OR ADVERTISING E-mail: dallaspost@leader.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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