L Dallas, Pennsylvania The Back Mountain's Newspaper Since 1889 April 3 to April 9, 2003 a i ah NY 7 A. 4 ) Vol. 114 No. 14 DALLAS POS 50 Cents SERVING THE COMMUNITIES OF THE DALLAS & LAKE-LEHMAN SCHOOL DISTRICTS SPORTS Black Knights spike Dallas Mountaineers. Pg 9. SCHOOL Dallas FBLA team going to states. Pg 3. CALENDAR ‘Godspell’ at College Mis- ericordia. Pg 16. L-L district changing gludent trips J Traditional senior trip to Washington is still undecided By ERIN YOUNGMAN Post Staff LEHMAN TWP. — The Lake-Lehman School District recently added itself to the list of districts not willing to send students to areas under high terror alert designations. The district is seek- ing out alternative destinations for four trips. Bob Roberts, district Superintendent, said when he brought up the subject of possibly cancelling the trips at March's school board meeting, the board “looked at me like I had three heads.” Since then, Dallas School District, Wilkes-Barre Area and Wyoming Area have made similar decisions to cancel AS. bberts said after talking with school principals and class advisors, he has decided that trips to Philadelphia, New York and Baltimore will be changed. “We're looking at how we can still provide an educational experience for kids while staying away from major metropolitan areas,” said Roberts. He said the decision will affect all of the district's schools with the exception of the middle school. “I think Dr. Griffiths (Superintendent of Dallas School District) put it so well the other day,” said Roberts. “It just doesn’t make sense to send them into the city where there's protests and ar- mored vehicles.” Among the trips being changed is an Ath grade to trip to visit the Statue of [J and Rockefeller Center in New York. Roberts said it is looking like it will be “tough” to identify alternative sites, and he does not want to send students See TRIPS, pg 8 Bringing history alive Craig Thomas portrayed famed attorney Clarence Darrow in his individual performance at the Regional History Day com- petition, held March 29 on the campus of Penn State Wilkes-Barre. He won first place and a trip to the state level competi- tion in May. List of local winners, more photos on page 8. POST PHOTO/CHARLOTTE BARTIZEK Merchants give warm reception to ‘downtown’ revitalization By ERIN YOUNGMAN Post Staff DALLAS — Downtown revitalization in Dallas Borough is coming closer to reality as business owners sign up to participate. Business owners from the area met last week to learn more about revital- ization plans for the downtown district. The visioning committee’s downtown task force hosted the meeting, which included a virtual presentation of possi- ble changes. More than 20 people, in- cluding some borough officials, attend- ed. Nancy Eckert, chairperson of the yntown task force, said her group Effort underway to 3 focus on Toby’s Creek | | By ERIN YOUNGMAN Post Staff “Some of it was really good. We're excited about the ES flowers and the benches.” Maryanne Ochman Ochman Coins and Jewelry felt it was time to involve business own- ers. “The downtown merchants are all part of what this thing is about. The committee felt that we were trying to do something nice for the downtown and we wanted their input and coopera- tion,” said Eckert. After the presentation, nine out of the 10 business owners present indicated they would begin forming a downtown Dallas merchants association to help in securing revitalization funds. They plan to meet next month to start the process. Some of the changes discussed at the meeting and seen in the presentation included the addition of flower boxes to buildings on Main Street and other downtown areas, the placement of pow- er lines underground and the addition of decorative lamp posts. Many of the changes the task force and the borough are interested in mak- ing to the downtown would require money from outside funding sources. Joe Moskovitz, Dallas Borough Man- ager, said Bill Fontana, executive direc- tor of the Pennsylvania Downtown Cen- ter, suggested last summer that busi- nesses start a merchants’ association to aid in acquiring the necessary fund- ing. Moskovitz said when reviewing re- quests for monies, funding agencies will look to see if there is a unified effort — See DOWNTOWN, pg 7 DALLAS — Does anyone even know Toby's Creek runs through Dallas Borough's down- town? People forming a watershed association for the creek want to make it an integral part of the downtown. Applying through the borough, the master plan task force of the visioning committee re- cently applied for a $5,000 Growing Greener grant to help set up the association. The associ- ation, much like others in the region, will over- see the health and quality of the creek as well as provide a vehicle to obtain funding for aesthetic enhancements. The creek begins in Dallas Township, then de- scends through parts of Dallas Borough and Kingston Township before it exits the Back Mountain and dumps into the Susquehanna &® through Edwardsville. Piece of wall falls into creek By ERIN YOUNGMAN Post Staff SHAVERTOWN — Severe weather is being blamed for the collapse a week ago of a section of wall along Toby's’ Creek behind Snowden Funer- al Home. Repair plans for the wall may include eliminating the 40-year-old structure altogeth- er. Days of swollen water levels in the creek, due to snowmelt and rain, caused the wall to break away from its founda- tion, said Tony Barbose, pro- ject manager for American As- phalt, the company hired to In the borough, the creek runs along Memorial See TOBY’S CREEK, pg 3 PHOTO BY JAMES YOUNGMAN A portion of the wall that supports the parking lot at the Snowden Funeral Home in Shavertown has collapsed into Toby's Creek. make repairs. The wall fell into the creek, taking part of the . See WALL, pg 3 Lots of choices in elections By ERIN YOUNGMAN Post Staff BACK MOUNTAIN — With more than twice the number of candidates than there are seats available in several Back Mountain com- munities, this year’s primary elections have shaped up to be the most competitive in years. Some. communities could see entirely new majorities. Harveys Lake Borough and Kingston and Franklin townships lead the way in contested elections. Four vacancies at Harveys Lake means a majority of the seven seat council is up for grabs. There are a to- tal of nine candidates, five of which are Republican. Republicans on the ballot are Maryellen Prescott, Francis Kopko, George Andrews and Sandra Serhan. Democrats running are Bernie Ozovek, Diane Dwyer, Daniel Blaine, Clarence Hogan and Robert Prescott. Three supervisor seats are open in Kingston Township in a community that has a total of five seats on the board. Jeffrey Box, former township manager is among the list of eight can- didates vying for the positions. Beside Box, the other Republicans are Christopher Yankovich, David Jenkins, Neil Allen, John Versari, Ger- ald Fritzges and Sean McAndrew. Christopher Concert is running as a Democrat. Allen, Versari and Yankovich were appointed to the board a year ago fol- lowing the deaths of long-time supervi- sors William Tippett and Herbert Hill, and the resignation of Randall Glidden, who moved from the township. There is one seat open in Franklin Township where three Republicans are trying to capture the republican nomi- nation, Edward Kraynak, Martin Mur- ray and Robert Zeb Redmond. Democ- rat Robert Wineman is also running. Dallas Borough has an unusually high number of seats open, one of them See ELECTION, pg 7 16 Pages, 2 Sections Calendar Classified Crossword Contested races in both school districts, many towns 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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