7] nem Vol. 120 No. 25 THE BACK MOUNTAIN'S NEWSPAPER SINCE 1889 June 21 - 27, 2009 The Dart As POST Serving the communities of the Dallas and Lake-Lehman School Districts | www.mydallaspost.com Family saves photos, mementos from house fire Fund has been set up at Citizens Bank to aid Dixon family. By REBECCA BRIA rbria@timesleader.com Five-year-old Jessica Dixon was devastated that her teddy bear was destroyed when her Dallas home burned down. The toy, called Teddy Bear, was given to Jessica when she was born by her grandmother, Nancy Krasniak, 62. A redhead, Jessica loves the bear because it has the same color hair as she does. Teddy Bear is now back with Jessica, thanks to the kindness of Michelle Strickland, a friend of 34-year-old Cathy Dixon. Strick- land had the stuffed animal dry cleaned to remove smoke dam- age. Strickland met Dixon in 2007 when her daughter, Sydney, was in kindergarten with Dixon’s ol- der daughter, Samantha. The girls also cheered together for the Dallas Junior Mounts youth foot- ball team. The Dixon family home at 59 Gypsy Lane in Dallas Township caught fire the morning of Tues- day, June 2. Cathy Dixon, her daughters, Jessica, and 6-year-old Hunter, as well as her mother, Nancy, were all home at the time. Lewis Krasniak, 65, Sonny Dix- on, 38, and Samantha Dixon, 8, were not home. Nancy alerted Cathy to the fire and took the children out of the house. When Cathy ran out of the house, she witnessed flames about 8feet high coming from the couch. Rusty, the family’s Sheltie, was tied up outside. Cathy put him in her car and moved the car away from the house. Within minutes, Cathy could hear windows popping inside the house. Before long, the one-story house was a total loss. That was especially devastat- ing to Sonny and Cathy, both for- merly of Luzerne, who built the home 10 years ago. Sonny is a roofer and Cathy is a stay-at- home mom. . “The two of us actually built it together nail by nail,” Cathy said. “It took us a year. We would come up after work at night and on the weekends. That part of it was hard to swallow.” Almost everything in the house was destroyed in the fire except for a few family photos and the contents of three boxes. The boxes contained gifts from each child’s first birthday party. Cathy asked friends and family to bring something to the parties that they would want her chil- dren to open in 18 years. “That’s the stuff that matters,” Cathy said. “Anything else, who cares?” The family stayed in a hotel for a week until moving into a tem- porary home directly across the street from the damaged home on Gypsy Lane. The Dixons are renting the home from their neighbor, George Frazer, who took the house off the real estate market until the family can re- build. The fire-damaged home was insured and the family plans to rebuild as soon as possible. Cathy says her family is deal- ing with the fire well, admitting it is easier now that they are in a house. She believes the children are handling the situation well because they are back in their neighborhood. “Now that we're in the house across the street, I think it’s nice because theyre familiar with their surroundings and they could still go in the yard and play on their swing set,” she said of her children. Cathy is amazed at the gene- rosity her family has received from the community, talking about how they have been helped by many people in the Back Mountain, especially Dallas Ele- mentary School, where her two older children attend school. The school donated money and gift cards to the Dixons. Dallas High School students and faculty from the school’s nursery school program also do- nated books and toys to the Dix- on children. Jessica just gradu- ated from the program and her siblings previously attended the nursery school. “I've always said where we live, I always thought the school was fantastic,” Cathy said. “But now it makes it that much more won- derful. You know you're in a com- munity where you know if you need help with something, there are so many people to help you.” Financial and emotional sup- port also came from various oth- er people and organizations in the form of money, clothes, toys and even cooked meals. A benefit fund for the family has been set up at Citizens Bank. “Our family is grateful for all of the support we've received throughout the community,” Cathy said. “We're definitely go- ing to pay it forward.” oa FRED ADAMS/ FOR THE DALLAS POST Members of the Dixon family are coping with the loss of their house due to a recent fire. From left, first row, are Sammy, 8; and Jessica, 5. Second row, Hunter, 6; Rusty, the family Collie; Cathy and Sonny. Third row, are Nancy and Lewis Krasniak, Cathy Dixon's parents. CELEBRATING CHARLOTTE BARTIZEK/ FOR THE DALLAS POST Bob Coslett, of Dallas, like fathers across the country, is cel- ebrating Father's Day today, June 21. Coslett is shown here with his sons, Ethan and Mason, enjoying ice-cream at Treat Pizza and Ice-Cream on the Dallas Highway. Father's Day is a day honoring fathers, celebrated on the third Sunday of June in the United States and on various other days in many places around the world. It complements Mother's Day, the celebra- tion honoring mothers. FATHER’S DAY LL grad’s curi By REBECCA BRIA rbria@timesleader.com Eric Bella remembers being curious about the culm banks he saw as a child while on hikes with his dad, Paul. Bella’s inquisitive nature to- ward coal mining is what led him to become an enthusiast on the subject by the time he was a teen- ager. The 18-year-old from Shaver- town graduated on June 12 from Lake-Lehman Junior/Senior High School. Bella spent much of his high school years studying about mines and volunteering for preservation groups. He was awarded the 2009 Lake-Lehman High School Citizenship Award and the 2009 Lake Silkworth Li- ons Club Service Award for his efforts in coal mining. “I find it absolutely amazing that probably nine out of 10 peo- ple in this valley worked in a mine and now it’s gone,” Bella said. Bella’s enthusiasm for coal To view additional photos of Lake-Lehman School District's 2009 com- mencement ceremonies, please turn to page 6. mines heightened after his grandmother, Phyllis Bella, told him that her father, Edmund Kruszewski, mined coal on his belly and later drove a mine train in the area. His father also gave him a mining helmet and light that he found as a child when he played in old mines. Bella started by studying the Huber Breaker and then joined the Anthracite Living History Group. At age 15, he became co- director of the group, which gives presentations, complete with local artifacts. Last summer, Bella was the youngest speaker at the Aban- doned Mine Reclamation Confer- ence in State College. He spoke on the work the Anthracite Liv- ing History Group is doing to cre- ate a park at the Avondale Mine fire site off Route 11 in Plymouth. The 1869 disaster killed 110 peo- ple. For his senior completion pro- ject, Bella worked toward mak- ing the park at the Avondale Mine site a reality. He put in 100 hours of community service, cut- ting down poison ivy at the site and helped apply for funding. Bella says the group has received $9,000 in grant money from the state and $500 from the Eastern Pennsylvania Coalition for Aban- doned Mine Reclamation for the project. Bella is a member of the East- ern Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation, the Huber Breaker Preservation Society and the Luzerne County Historical Society. He also be- longs to the Underground Min- ers Group which restores aban- doned mining equipment. The See CAREER, Page 14 osity leads to possible career CHARLOTTE BARTIZEK/ FOR THE DALLAS POST Eric Bella is happy to be a Lake-Lehman graduate. By REBECCA BRIA rbria@timesleader.com Dallas School District officials broke ground Tuesday evening for the new district high school. 981512007989 oo 0 Administrators, school board members, school design com- mittee members and students spoke about the new school and held shovels in the cool weather and limited sunshine as they dug into the ground. Superintendent Frank Galicki told the crowd he became assist- ant principal of Dallas High School in 1982 and had to deal with a number of problems with the building over the years, in- cluding blown up generators, a leaky roof and explosions in the a band room. “It’s a beautiful building,” Gal- icki said. “It's time for a change.” The cost of the new high school project is expected to be about $42.75 million. The school is being constructed be- hind the current high school and is being built to accommo- date 1,200 students with core ar- eas that can accommodate 1,400 students since growth is expect- ed to continue in the Back The school will be built in the area of the current practice foot- ball field and will be parallel to Mountaineer Stadium. A blue storage facility behind the cur- rent high school will be demol- ished and the existing high school will also be destroyed once the new school opens. The new high school is sched- uled to open in time for the be- ginning of the 2011-12 school year. Dallas School Board Presi- dent Karen Kyle, a certified pub- lic accountant, said that, when she was elected to the board four years ago, she told the dis- trict it could not afford a new school and would have to reno- vate the old one. Kyle briefly spoke of the jour- ney to making the new school a reality and fought back tears as she acknowledged the many stu- dents, some who have died, who walked the halls of the current high school. Rick LeBlanc, a project man- ager from Crabtree Rohrbaugh : oe» Ground broken for new Dallas High School; construction will start Wednesday & Associates, the architect for the construction project, said construction is expected to be- gin on Wednesday. LeBlanc says road work will begin at the front of the site this summer as well as the construction of a new maintenance building at the far side of Mountaineer Stadium. “Im standing in the lobby of the new high school,” LeBlanc said with laughter as he stood on grass. “Come back in a cou- See GROUND, Page 9 % phi
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