4 The Post EDITORIAL Sunday, March 20, 2005 | OUR OPINION Don't sacrifice beauty and history in flood fix Take a good look at this photo. If the recommendations in a study of flood protection measures for Toby’s Creek and its tributaries are followed to the letter, this may be the last you see of it. And that would be a shame. This elegant stone-arch bridge funnels Snake Creek, a harmless brook, into Toby! s Creek in in Truckowine, just behind : =x the Uni-Mart conven- ience store. It is a remnant — one of the few and probably the finest — of the age of rail in the Back Mountain. Once, tracks of the Wilkes-Barre and Northern Railroad, which became the Wilkes-Barre, Dallas and Harvess Lake Railway trolley line, ran over this bridge, taking passengers to the amusements at Fernbrook Park or the waterfront at Harveys Lake. Gannett Fleming Inc., the engineering firm that conducted the study, either does not know the unique history behind this bridge, or in its myopic viewpoint doesn’t ascribe any - worth to it. But we do. We know rare and beautiful craftsman- ship like this is irreplaceable, both in its artistry and the story it tells of a time gone by, before highways packed with speed- ing cars became the only means of transportation to and from the Wyoming Valley. Adding even more to its value, the arch is visible from the Back Mountain Trail, which follows the opposite bank of Toby’s Creek before crossing over the Harris Hill Road bridge on its way to Dallas. It would be very easy to construct a pic- nic area along the trail, with views down into the stream bed and across to the arch. The family that owns the property and Pizza Perfect, the only building that could possibly be damaged by flooding at that point, doesn’t want to remove the bridge. They say high water has never damaged their restaurant, although it has eroded the stream bank. Their experience makes one wonder at the estimated annual damage of $5,869 the study projects if the bridge is not removed. More than anything, this study reveals the impact of devel- opment on our communities. Snake Creek is swelled in large part by runoff that starts in the Midway Manor subdivision and is augmented every inch of its journey to the bridge by water flowing off streets, driveways and roofs along the way. Some of those developments were built long before present- day zoning rules — aimed at reducing and controlling runoff — were adopted. But it is now clear that these regulations are inadequate for the task. In its recommendations, Gannett Fleming stresses the need for municipalities to protect the natural features that mitigate flooding in Toby’s Creek and other streams, with measures like restoring and protecting the integrity of stream banks and clearing debris and invasive plants. We would add a charge to radically strengthen storm water controls in new construction with the goal of truly minimizing the effect of development on the surroundings we hold so dear. The study findings and recommendations will be presented at a public meeting Wednesday, starting at 7 p.m. at the Kingston Township Municipal Building. Anyone with an inter- est in Toby’s Creek and its effects on the Back Mountain will want to attend. MOMENTS IN TIME The History Channel e On March 26, 1920, “This Side of Paradise” is published, launching 23-year-old F. Scott Fitzgerald to fame and fortune. Fitzgerald was named for his ancestor Francis Scott Key, author of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” e On March 24, 1934, the debut of radio program “Major Bowes’ Original Amateur Hour” launches a national craze among amateur performers hoping to hit the big time. Some 10,000 people a week applied for the show, which pitted the performers against each other. * On March 27, 1964, the strongest earthquake in U.S. history, measuring 8.4 on the Richter scale, slams southern Alaska. Fifteen people were killed or fatally injured as a direct result of the three- minute quake, while the ensuing tsunami killed another 110 peo- ple along the Pacific coast. e On March 22, 1974, the Equal Rights Amendment is passed by the U.S. Senate and sent to the states for ratification. Although more than 30 states would ratify the amendment, it ultimately failed to achieve ratification by a requisite 38, or three-fourths, of the states. As a result, sexual equality, with the notable exception of the right to vote, is not protected by the U.S. Constitution. ® On March 21, 1980, President Jimmy Carter tells American athletes that, in response to the December 1979 Soviet incursion into Afghanistan, the United States will boycott the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. It marked the first and only time that the United States has boycotted the Olympics. e On March 23, 1994, Luis Donaldo Colosio, Mexico's ruling party’s presidential candidate, is shot to death during a campaign rally in the northern border town of Tijuana. (c) 2005 King Features Synd., Inc. Tie POST TIMESeLEADER Community Newspaper Group. 15 N. MAIN ST., WILKES-BARRE PA 18711 » 570-675-5211 thepost@leader.net Patrick McHugh Ronald Bartizek PUBLISHER EDITOR Erika Calvert ADVERTISING Pat O'Donnell PREPRESS MANAGER No sense getting our ears frosted, eh dear? Photo by Charlotte Bartizek. LETTERS Fresh Air Fund asks for hosts and volunteers With the arrival of spring, thoughts of summer do not linger far behind. The days grow longer, nature comes alive around us, and summer plans begin to take shape. Summer provides an opportunity for us to share the sights and sounds of our community with others less fortunate. Since 1877, The Fresh Air Fund, an independent, not-for- profit agency, has provided free summer vacations to more than 1.7 million New York City chil- dren from low-income neigh- borhoods. Through The Fund’s Friendly Town Program, young New Yorkers, ages six to 18, experience the joy of summer during visits of two weeks or more with volunteer host fami- lies. Fresh Air hosts live in sub- urban and small town commu- nities throughout 13 Northeastern states and Ontario, Canada. The Fund is looking for more volunteer families to provide an inner-city child with a two- week respite from the hot streets and crowded concrete playgrounds. Please consider how you can make a difference in the life of a child this sum- mer by opening your heart and your home. Help us continue The Fund’s 128year-old tradi- tion of serving children. | For more information on how you can become a host, please call Denise Moskaluk at 674-3727, or The Fresh Air Fund at (800) 367-0003. You can also visit The Fund's Web site at www.freshair.org. be Lea-Ann Hardwick Public relations coordinator, GUEST COLUMN For youth baseball players ... How many pitches is too much? DANIEL D. FELDMANN, MD Orthopaedic Surgeon Geisinger Health System Spring is right around the corner, and it won't be long until youth baseball players start to get ready for the upcoming season. Throwing a baseball puts stress on the players’ shoulder and arm, and causes a number of injuries. Many of these injuries are the result of simply throwing too many pitches. Many others, though, occur because young players are try- ing to be the next Roger Clemens or Curt Schilling — and are throwing different types of pitches that place addi- tional strain on a growing per- son’s shoulder and arm. Effect of Pitch Type, Pitch Count, and Pitching Mechanics on Risk of Elbow and Shoulder Pain in Youth Baseball Pitchers — data published by Lyman S. Fleisig, GS; and Andrews JR Osinski, ED, in The American Journal of Sports Medicine — provides some guidelines to help young pitchers stay healthy. For example, recommended ages for youth baseball players to learn and throw the follow- ing pitches are as follows: Fastball, 8 years old; change-up, 10 years old; curve ball, 14; knuckle ball, 15; slider, 16; fork ball, 16; splitter, 16; and screw- ball, 17 years old. Allowing young pitchers to throw these pitches ahead of schedule — while their growth plates are not yet fully-developed — can result in injury that can have long-lasting effects. The recommended maxi- mum number of pitches per game and per week are: 8- to 10- year-olds, 50 per game/75 per week; 11- to 12-year-olds, 75 per game/100 per week; and 13- to 14-year-olds, 75 per game/125 per week. The maximum num- ber of recommended pitches per game for a 15-16 year-olds is 90, and for a 17-18-year-old is 105. “We are probably too careful in limiting pitches for a See PITCHES, Page 5 70 Years Ago March 22, 1935 BAKERY TO OPEN IN SULLIVAN’S BUILDING Shindler Baking company of Scranton has signed a five to ten year lease with John Sullivan for the = store room for- merly occu- pied by the Meridian Restaurant ONLY ; YESTERDAY 2nd will open a mod- ern bakery there about April 1. An alliance between borough councilmen and business men to regulate parking, eliminate traffic hazards, beautify the Dallas streets, and conduct an aggressive Clean-Up Week pro- gram was effected this week. One of this section’s most highly esteemed women, Mrs. Wesley T. Daddow, aged 65, wife of the Dallas Borough street commissioner, died at 8:15 on Tuesday morning in Nesbitt Memorial Hospital, of complications. 60 Years Ago March 23, 1945 LOUIS ACHUFF IS A PRISONER Sgt. Louis Achuff of Fernbrook, radio gunner on a Flying Fortress missing on a bombing mission over Germany since February 9, was this week reported by the War Department to be a prisoner of war in Germany. Pvt. Lawrence Gavek, 19, a member of an engineering regi- ment,. died in France as the result of injuries he received in a motor accident. He was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Ignatius Gavek of Plattsburgh, Dallas. Missing in action since December 17 when he took part in the Battle of the Bulge with the 28th Division, Alfred J. Brown, son of Shavertown, has been unofficially reported as a prisoner of the German govern- ment. 50 Years Ago Mar. 25, 1955 THREE LANES ARE APPROVED FOR ROUTE 309 Projected widening of Route 309 from the vicinity of the Y near Casper’s Restaurant, to approximately the Wyoming County line south of Beaumont, has been approved by the Highway Department. Route 115 will also be widened this summer. Albert Armitage, 44, Harveys Lake, will spend six to eight weeks in a cast while recovering from two fractured vertebrae and chest injuries. A 1,000-pound dairy cooler fell on him Thursday morning while unloading it at the old Herman Garinger store. Wiping out the threat of Polio may be well under way, - with 9,000,000 small children, first and second graders, eligi- ble for vaccination throughout the country as soon as the fed- eral government licenses the use of the new Salk vaccine. Schools of the area are already sending slips of inquiry to par- ents, asking “Will you permit your child to have the Polio vaccine?” 40 Years Ago Mar. 18, 1965 DEAD BIRD MYSTERY AT HARVEYS LAKE The Dallas Post has received report of starlings dropping dead in large numbers at Warden Place, Harvey's Lake, during the winter, with a request to find out why. Neither the Pennsylvania Game Commission nor the Back Mountain Mountain Bird Club had information about the mat- ter, but it was suggested that they might have been poisoned. William Biggs, 19, of 14 North Lehigh Street, Shavertown, overturned the car he was driving on South Lehigh Street, Sunday morning around 2:30, suffering only a skinned shin, after the .car ran off the road. The car, owned by Crystal Sult, was demolished. Vandals smashed windows and let air out of tires of several trucks owned by Dale Parry, asphalt contractor in Fernbrook, some time over the weekend. 30 Years Ago Mar. 20, 1975 MILLER IN OHIO JAIL; EXTRADITION REQUIRED Larry Richard Miller, 35, the Chase Correctional Institution excapee, is in Putnam County Jail, Ottawa, Ohio, this week. The convict was apprehended by Ottawa Police last Thursday evening as he passed through Putnam County and is being held there on charges of pos- sessing stolen property. 40 firemen from Jackson Township, Shavertown, and Trucksville Fire Companies used six pieces of equipment in fighting a fire which destroyed Andy Sebolka’s barn off Chase Road last Tuesday. The Luzerne-Dallas Memorial Highway was posted last week with 40 mph signs by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. The change in the speed limit from 50 mph to 40 mph is effected to help reduce the number of accidents 20 Years Ago Mar. 20, 1985 ~ DALLAS FOOD DIRECTOR QUITS Mary Reistetter Ehret, Food Service Manager of the D. School District, resigned I week, just a few days after the P.P.S.P.A. negotiations commit: tee sent her a telegram inform- ing her of their decision to implement a selective strike in the district. At the regular meeting of the Lake-Lehman School Board last Tuesday, few questions were raised about the recent settle: ment of the teachers contract. The negotiations, which were- handled by the district’s solici- tor, Atty. Peter Savage, for the board and Walter Glogowski, for the Lake-Lehman Education Association, were started in January and settled during the first week of March. Francis Hoover, 61 Husky Hill Road in Trucksville has been creating mazes since he was eight years old. He makes the mazes for birthday gifts, special friends and just for ‘® S Son of Mr. and Mrs. Franci Hoover, Francis is a sixth grade student at Dallas Intermediate. 1 =
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers