Qo 115 No.1 Pp £1 age | L March 14 to March 20, 2004 50¢ SERVING THE COMMUNITIES OF THE DALLAS & LAKE-LEHMAN SCHOOL DISTRICTS Gas station coming down $300,000. Neither the buyer, nor the Sunoco d spokesperson was willing to comment on the [§ [ (J Sale details remain to be worked out as removal begins By ERIN YOUNGMAN Post Staff actual contract amount. there are contingencies.” J. — Workers began dismantling the closed Sunoco gas station located at the five-points intersection last week. Rudy Tiburzio, Divestment Administrative Manager for Sunoco, Inc. said the property is currently under contract to be sold and a company has been hired to make routine preparations to the site. The original asking price for the station at the intersection of state Route 415, Lake, about Church and Main streets was derground storage tanks. ground,” said Tiburzio. Tiburzio said the deal has not been final- ized. “He has signed a contract to buy it, but The buyer still has to go over reports about the health of soil in the area of the un- Those reports won't be prepared until the tanks are taken out sometime after March 15, he said. Last week the Pundock Service Station & Petroleum Equipment Specialist Company was on site removing lifts from the garage. “Anytime we sell a property, we do these things, for environmental reasons. You don’t leave lifts in the bays and tanks in the L Se FOR THE POST/CHARLOTTE BARTIZEK The sign for the closed Sunoco gas station at the center of Dallas rested in the back of a truck this week. The sta- tion is being dismantled in preparation for sale, which will make room for a roundabout or other improved traf- fic pattern at the busy intersection. Now it will cost to hook up to Harveys Lake sewers By ERIN YOUNGMAN Post Staff HARVEYS LAKE — Hooking into the Harveys Lake sewer system will not be free any longer. The General Municipal Authority of Harveys Lake voted unanimously Wednesday to charge a fee for new sewer hook-ups in the borough. The $1,706 fee will cover the ex- pense currently incurred by the au- thority to inspect new connections. The other portion of the fee “buys” the property owner into the system, said Doug Smith, an engineer with Borton-Lawson Engineering, which is retained by the authority. According to Smith, most municipalities already que such a fee. “What we're basically doing is ringing the borough up to modern- day standards,” he said. Borton-Lawson engineers arrived at the fee amount by using a formula provided by the state. “The connection fee is very justi- fied,” said authority board member Bill Mann about the decision. Mann said in the 1980s the authori- ty charged a connection fee of about $830, but that was discontinued See SEWERS, pg 2 INSIDE THE Post O’Reilly boys keep title hopes alive. Page 7 12 Pages, 1 Section Calendar..................... 12 ChUICH,.......ox sven cin idiavinais 11 Crossword............ioic..ox: 8 EQROMALS...... oii a a 4 Ohituaries....................e. 5 SCHOOL... ihe ei errs 10 SPOS. ees ivin ener 7-9 How To Reach Us News: 675-5211 thepost@leader.net 15 N. Main St. Wilkes-Barre PA 18711 Advertising: 970-7102 Subscriptions and Delivery: 829-5000 a re FOR THE POST/CHARLOTTE BARTIZEK Sally Stager smooches with one of the Sicilian donkeys she-and her husband, Joe, keep at their Jackson Township home. Used to protect sheep from predators, they also make great pets. ‘Guard donkeys win couple's hearts By CHARLOTTE BARTIZEK Post Correspondent JACKSON TWP. — You just nev- er know what kind of ideas will come home when you go to the Bloomsburg Fair. How about start- ing a small herd of miniature Sicilian donkeys, like Joe and Sally Stager of Jackson Township did, maybe 13 to 20 animals? “We started with two large, long- horned Scottish Highland cattle. You know the large fuzzy ones. But the grandchildren were only 3 or 4 and I realized there could be an accident,” says Joe Stager. After a trip to a Bloomsburg Fair petting zoo, Stager, the caring grand- father, did some research on where to buy the sweet-dispositioned don- “They keep the pasture down and keep the coyotes away.” Joe Stager Jackson Township keys his grandchildren had enjoyed. Stager now breeds the animals, which are gentle and docile with their human family. His daily chores take a few hours. He waters, feeds, and admits to heating a stall when it gets real cold for a baby. Just like other animal pets, the donkeys have become like part of the family to the couple. In addition to being good compan- ions to people, these donkeys can be saviors for other domestic animals. When threatened, they reveal much of the aggression of their wild ances- tors. If a group of donkeys is at- tacked, they will form a circle and fight the predator with their hooves. “They're kind of like a large alert watchdog donkey,” says Stager. “They keep the pasture down and keep the coyotes away,” added Stager. They can be used to protect sheep and goats from wild dogs and coyotes and are often used in reha- bilitation work with mentally retard- ed or disabled children. Did he say coyotes? That's right. “My neighbor has killed three of them. I can hear them howling at night. They're all around the (Huntsville Dam),” cautions Stager. Galicki wins Principal sweepstakes By ERIN YOUNGMAN Post Staff DALLAS TWP. — Add one more line to the resume of Dallas High School Principal Frank Galicki. It was announced last week that the 22-year Dallas administrator was named the state’s 2004 Principal of the Year by the Pennsylvania Associ- ation of Secondary School Principals (PASSP). School Board member Frank Nati- tus raved about the long-time princi- pal. “Frank is absolutely super,” he said. “All three of my children had him. When I told them they all said the same thing, ‘It’s really well-de- served.” They thought the world of him.” Galicki came to the district in 1982. He is a two-time PASSP presi- dent who also received the Joseph Mamana Meritorious Service Award in 2003 and the Dedicated Service Award for Drug & Alcohol Programs in 1993. Letters of recommendation writ- tep by parents, teachers, and the su- POST PHOTO/ERIN YOUNGMAN Dallas High School Principal Frank Galicki, has been named Princi- pal of the Year. He posed here with a group of students in the cafete- ria. Seated from left: Allison Snyder, Whitney Bolton, Caitlin McGuire, Lauren Collini, Kristen Evans. All are juniors. perintendent outline a principal who has boundless energy for fostering open communication and innovative programs. In her letter, parent Susan Levin- son said one of Galicki’s important Das accomplishments was bringing in- tensive scheduling to Dallas. “After watching the frustration of students who were unable to take many different courses, Frank re- ©S e GALICKI, pg 3 KT budget gets boost By RONALD BARTIZEK Post Staff KINGSTON TWP. — There may be no free lunch, but the township will be getting a free police cruiser thanks to the efforts of State Rep. Phyllis Mundy. “I think we have some good news for a change,” said Supervisor Jeffrey Box as he announced at the Mar. 10 meeting of supervisors that Mundy offered a $25,000 Department of Community and Economic Development grant that can be used to replace a cruiser that has See BUDGET, pg 2 Lifeguard staffing called into question By ERIN YOUNGMAN Post Staff DALLAS TWP. — There were plenty of swimmers, but not enough lifeguards, at a recent public session at the middle school pool, according to a speaker at the Mar. 8 meeting of the school board. “I believe there were probably about 40 children there and one lifeguard,” said Todd Buckley. “I would recommend you increase the number of lifeguards to a second. If something were to happen, you really would have a disaster on your hands.” After the meeting, Superintendent Gilbert Griffiths said that if the lifeguard- to-swimmer ratio was as Buckley de- scribed, another lifeguard should have been called in to assist. Normally, said Griffiths, there could be anywhere from one to three lifeguards working during any one of the districts three public swim times. He said lifeguards have specific proto- col to follow when large numbers of swimmers show up. “The pool manager, Matt Stretanski, is the person who is responsible for making sure he sees the trends of numbers. If there’s an overflow like that, it’s sup- posed to work that the lifeguard will call Mr. Stretanski and have another one sent over,” Griffiths said. In other matters, the board and mem- bers of the administration congratulated several groups of students — and an ad- ministrator — for jobs well done. The Dallas Junior High girls basketball See DALLAS, pg 2 Scouts hunt up food for pantry By SANDY PEOPLES Post Correspondent TRUCKSVILLE — They came in all sizes last week to feed the hungry clients of the Back Mountain Food Pantry. The sacks of food being brought in were all pretty much the same size, but the chil- dren carrying them were the heart-warm- ing part of the events of a recent Satur- day morning. Dozens of Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts converged on the food pantry with excitement and energy. They had been up since early morning combing their neighborhoods for bags of food left on doorsteps. Along with close to 10,000 other scouts in Northeastern Pennsylva- nia, they had left door hangers the week before announcing the Scouting for Food Program, and they were eager to gather the bags, count the items of food and de- liver them to the pantry. Their efforts paid off in a big way. Scouts from Trucksville, Dallas, Lehman and Sweet Valley collected more than 6,900 pounds of food. “Their food drive is one of the major collections conducted during the year,” said Louise Hazeltine, food pantry board member. “They have brought in about one quar- ter of the food we need to distribute this EE
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