——— so—— }, } | j i | } | | 4 The Post EDITORIAL Sunday, October 10, 2004 OUR OPINION We can't afford to keep this precious resource in hiding llowing the path of Toby’s Creek is a solitary exercise. Foe than a lone hitchhiker along Route 309, I did not meet one other person while trekking the length of the creek from its source off Country Club Road in Dallas Township to its exit from the Back Mountain at the border between Kingston Township and Luzerne. This is the best illustration of why we chose to call the creek a hidden resource — perhaps the most valuable but overlooked one in our region — for a series of reports that begins in this issue. And that’s a shame, because despite its proximity to highways, stores and shopping centers, this modest stream passes through striking scenery that is more likely to be lost for all time sim- ply because it is mostly inacces- sible to either the eye or hiking boot. To appreciate Toby’s Creek, you must get down next to it, even in it. From that perspective, at several points in Dallas, Shavertown and Trucksville the din and stench of speeding traf- fic cannot blot out a sense of naturalness that radiates from the burbling water as it flows over massive slabs of shale and sandstone, continuing a never- ending journey to the Susquehanna River, Chesapeake Bay and eventually the Atlantic Ocean. The creek and its tributaries have played important roles in the life of the Back Mountain for thousands of years. More recently, their water powered a number of mills that provided sustenance and income to early white settlers. Only a few remnants of stone foundations remain from that era, and those too must be preserved so that future generations can have a tactile connection to their past. Despite being shoved this way and that, filled with sedi- ment washed in by storms, fouled by trash and treated shabbi- ly in other ways, Toby’s Creek exhibits remarkable resilience. Its water is quite clean and the stream bed itself is relatively free of garbage, at least in those places man has kept his dis- tance. But we can do better by this natural asset, and in the process help ourselves both materially and spiritually. Last spring’s cleanup in Dallas Borough was a good start. In April, dozens of volunteers spent a day removing discarded tires, trash and overgrown brush from what was undoubtedly the most-abused section of the stream: The'cleanup provided another reason to get up close and personal with Toby’s Creek, because participants had no idea how much junk that was in it until they clambered down the banks. So, we are making some progress, albeit in baby steps. You can get an idea of what a protected Toby’s Creek has to offer by walking the newest stretch of the Back Mountain Trail, between Franklin Street in Shavertown and Lower Demunds Road in Dallas Township. As it does for so much of its length, the trail here runs parallel to the creek for about a half mile. This easy walk along a level path through a stand of fir trees is made more enjoyable by the views and sounds of the water flowing gently by. Sadly, there are very few places where the creek is this easy to approach. There are many other attractive, even awe-inspir- ing spots, but you can’t get to them without a lot of effort and some risk to life and limb. If that doesn’t change, it is hard to see how Toby’s Creek can receive the respect and care that is needed to preserve this God-given resource. Toby's Creek Our hidden resource Ron Bartizek Editor's Note: This opinion is signed because it is based on my personal observations while walking the entire span of Toby's Creek in the Back Mountain. Unfortunately, this isn’t an easy task, particularly where the creek, as it does over so much of its length, runs hard by a highway. Letters are welcome Letters to the editor are welcome and will be published, subject to the following guidelines: e Letters should not exceed 500 words. * Letters must be signed and include the writer's home town and a daytime telephone number for verification. * Names will be withheld only if there exists a clear and verifi- able threat to the writer. * The Post retains the right to accept or reject any letter, and to edit letters for grammar and spelling, as well as to eliminate any libel, slander or objectionable wording. Letters can be sent many ways: By e-mail to: thepost@leader.net By mail to: The Post, 15 N. Main St., Wilkes-Barre PA 18711. By using the drop box located in the Uni-Mart convenience store on Route 309 in Dallas, across from the Dallas Shopping Center. Tie POST TIMES*LEADER Community Newspaper Group 15 N. MAIN ST., WILKES-BARRE PA 18711 * 570-675-5211 thepost@leader.net Ronald Bartizek Patrick McHugh EDITOR PUBLISHER Justin Wisnosk ADVERTISIN Pat O'Donnell PREPRESS MANAGER Nature's calligraphy. Photo by Charlotte Bartizek. LIBRARY NEWS Classes on Internet use begin Oct. 13 The use of the Internet is the topic of the three computer classes planned for these Wednesdays: Oct. 13, 20, and 27. Call the library at 675-1182 to sign up. LN N J The need for volun- teers is being publicized widely by the commit- tee organizing the CAROL Haunted Library, now KING just a few weeks away. Just call the library and let them know in what way you'd like to serve to make this ambitious event come off smoothly. oo 0 “The Warden,” by Anthony Trollope, was enjoyed by almost everyone attending the meeting of the Book Discussion Group. The discussion, as usual, was wide-ranging. There were a lot of comparisons between the moral attitudes and the practices of the mid-19th century (the book was first pub- | day. Cited were the instances of graft on the part of philanthropic agencies, and the damaging effect of character assassination by the media. These were balanced. as they are today, by the actions of truly good and honest people such as the warden and his daughter. A good read. (A man named Alphonse Karr wrote in 1849, “The more things change, the more they are the same” — “Tout ca change, tout c’est la meme chose.”) ooo Margaret Susko of the library staff inter- viewed Mr. E. V. Chadwick when he assem- bled the display of his stamp collection for the month of October. She writes, “Mr. Chadwick is a philatelist who has been col- lecting and exhibiting stamps for 70 years. He began this hobby at 10 years old when a neighbor showed him his collection and he became ‘hooked’ on the foreign stamps. He tells of how the world was then, in the late 1930s, when our view of the globe was very different. [Trading] stamps from faraway ‘him as a young boy. Over the years he has bought most of his collection from the post office, dealers at stamp shows, over the Internet and by trading with people at stamp clubs. He likes the old engraved stamps best for their workmanship and beauty, especially those from France. “Mr. Chadwick has exhibited his collec- tion from Rhode Island to Arizona. He said it takes a lot of work involving study and research to exhibit. You are not just show- ing stamps, Mr. Chadwick states, you are teaching about them. There are judging committees which rank the exhibits at these stamp shows. The highest-rank exhibit receives a gold star, which Chadwick has earned several times. He belongs to the Northeast PA Society. If any- one has any interest in becoming a philate- list or in attending their meetings to learn about stamps, their website is on display at the library. Visitors and new members are welcome. Mr. Chadwick and members of this group also appraise stamps for people, lished in 1855) and those of the present: countries was huge and very exciting to often at no charge.” i. ee nor Years Ago ; Oet. 12,1934 INDOOR QUOIT LEAGUE ORGANIZES An indoor quoit organization growing out of the interest cre- ated in the local quoit league this summer will be organized this evening at a meeting at which sev- er al promi- nent local borough quoit pitchers wil 1 speak. Tentative approval has been given by the local school board for the use of the basement of the high school building provided certain requirements are lived up to. These conditions have been accepted by the heads of this organization and formal approval of the board is looked for at the next meeting. ONLY YESTERDAY A school band has been. organized in Dallas Township schools and steps were taken this week in Dallas Borough High School toward the organi- zation of a similar group. Edward Brower, widely known band leader and head of the Brower Conservatory of Music in Collingswood, N.J., co-oper- ated with Maurice Girton, supervising principal at Dallas Township in organizing the band there: Several hundred citizens of the Back Mountain region attended a meeting Monday evening at Meridian Club, Dallas, under the auspices of the Back Mountain Democratic - Club. Delegates from all the townships affiliated with the ‘Back Mountain Democratic Club were present. Dr. Leo Mundy of the Luzerne County Democratic Committee, William Thomas of the Citizens’ Progressive League, ‘Reverend Trescott of West Nanticoke and William C. Griffiths of Dallas Township "were the speakers. 60 Years Ago Oct. 13, 1944 BREAKS ARM AND HIP IN FALL FROM TREE Tom Boettner, 67, a retired state policeman, who with his wife, has a summer home on Barnum Road, Harveys Lake, was seriously injured last Monday afternoon when a limb of a tree gave way while he was picking apples and he fell 20 feet to the ground. He has a bro- ken hip and fractured left arm. First Lieutenant Irving C. Davis, 24, son of Postmaster and Mrs. Irving C. Davis Sr., of Shavertown, has been missing in action since Sept. 15, accord- ing to a War Department telegram received Tuesday by his wife, the former May Dell VanCampen of Dallas. Lt. Davis was company commander with the 109th Infantry, now fighting with the 28th Division in the Aachen sector along the Siegfried Line in Germany. Henry Peterson, chairman of the annual Halloween Parade in Dallas, says that plans are already underway for the big event. Committee members have been named and probably will meet this coming week. 30 Years Ago Oct. 8, 1954 THREE WILL GET DEMOLAY HONOR DeMolay Legion of Honor degree will be conferred upon Rev. Howard Goeringer, George W. Knarr and Atty. Theodore A. Evans on Saturday night, Oct. 16. The degree is the highest honor conferred by the Grand Council Order of DeMolay and will be presented at the George M. Dallas Masonic Hall in con- nection with the degrees to be conferred upon a Back Mountain Class by Susquehanna Chapter Order of DeMolay. Pennsylvania State Liquor Control Board will open its 612th store in the borough building Saturday morning at 10. Warren Reed, Dallas, and Francis --Gabel, Wilkes-Barre, have been appointed manager and assistant manager. Both men have been with the Liquor Control System for the past 14 years. The store will be No. 4003. It will be open daily from 10 a.m. until 9 p.m. Edward Haskell, who recent- ly returned from Europe, where he gave several lectures this summer, parked his bicycle near Boyd White's Store last week while he went to Wilkes- Barre by bus. He was unaware that his mongrel collie, Wendy, had followed him from his home on Huntsvile Road or that she stood guard beside the bicycle all afternoon and all night until he returned for it the following day. 40 Years Ago Oct. 8, 1964 PROWLER AT FOWLERS’ ON HUNTSVILLE ROAD The prowler made only one official visit since last Thursday, although other peo- ple have claimed they saw him. A tall, thin man in a white coat and possibly having white hair, showed up on the back porch of John Fowler Jr., Huntsville Road, on Sunday night between 9:30 and 10 p.m. His arrival was announced by the Fowlers’ big German Shepherd, tied in the back, which tried to get at the man but could not, according to acting police chief Alexander MacCulloch. The man scratched on the door and dis- appeared. Loading apples on a truck for a Scranton consignment, John Tepsius, said to be in his fifties, of Scranton, dropped dead of a heart attack at Edgar Engleman’s orchard in Noxen. The body was removed to Nulton Funeral Home, Beaumont, later transferred to Scranton. Dr. Henry M. Laing Fire Co., Dallas, extinguished a brush fire near the old railroad bed behind Pen-Fern Oil Co., Fernbrook, around 4 p.m. Tuesday and returned again that night at pa 15 when the fire flared up again. 30 Years Ago Oct. 10, 1974 MILIAUSKAS ANNOUNCES MUSIC PROGRAM _ John Miliauskas, director of the Lake-Lehman Cadet and High School bands, has announced that the music pro- gram for future band members is now in progress. This pro- gram, with Miliauskas as direc- tor and teacher, is open to any- one interested in learning to play an instrument with the intention of becoming a future band member. Secretary John C. Pittenger visited the Dallas School District Oct. 3. Mr. Pittenger arrived in time to have lunch with school officials in the Dallas Senior High School cafe- teria, and then meet with a group of students leaders to gain their opinions regarding education at Dallas. Mr. Pittenger reviewed the high school curriculum with E Hughes, assistant principa® and expressed his pleasure with the array of interesting offer- ings. Harveys Lake Borough Council, in a four to three vote, approved the nomination of William P. Gunster, Shawanese section, to the Harveys Lake Sewer Authority at last Thursday’s meeting at the D.C. Roberts Fire Hall. Mr. Gunster operates a real estate office in Luzerne Borough. 20 Years Ago | - Oct. 10, 1984 DALLAS WOMAN WINS $5,000 IN LOTTERY Having been forced to quit work last month due to illness, Kathy Seitz, of Dallas, ‘was thrilled to win $5,000 in’ the Pennsylvania State Lottery’s 36th annual instant game grand prize drawing last week. Shes reported that most ‘of th¥® See YESTERDAY, pg 5 |
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers