Sunday, September 6, 2009 THE DALLAS POST PAGE 3 PENNDOT CONSIDERING RECONFIGURATION Dangerous Dallas Twp. intersection claims life of Noxen woman By REBECCA BRIA rbria@timesleader.com & A motor vehicle crash in Dal- las Township has claimed the life of a Noxen woman. According to Dallas Township Police, a two-vehicle crash oc- curred at approximately 1:15 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 28, at the intersection of Route 309 and Hildebrandt Road. It was determined that Char- les E. Weaver, 81, of Noxen, was operating a late model Ford Tau- rus and attempted to make a left turn from Route 309 onto Hilde- brandt Road. His wife, Carolyn M. Weaver, also of Noxen, was sitting in the right front seat passenger seat in the Ford Tau- rus. John E. Onufer, of Schwenks- ville, was operating a 2009 Dodge Ram 2500 and traveling north on Route 309. Both the north and south trav- el lanes had the green light at the time of the crash. Several witnesses stated the driver of the Ford Taurus turned left di- rectly into the path of the driver of the Dodge Ram. Carolyn Weaver was trans- ported by Kunkle Fire and Am- bulance to Geisinger Wyoming Valley Trauma Center in Plains Township after she sustained se- vere traumatic injury from the impact. She died at the hospital. Charles Weaver was trans- ported by Dallas Fire and Ambu- lance to Geisinger Wyoming Val- ley Medical Center in Plains Township where he was in sta- ble condition following the acci- dent. The driver of the Dodge Ram was not injured and the truck was driven from the scene. Dallas Borough Police and Kingston Township Police as- sisted at the crash. Dallas Town- ship Police Officer Mark Lipare- la is continuing the investiga- tion. The Pennsylvania Depart- ment of Transportation present- ed traffic reconfiguration op- tions for the downtown Dallas five-leg intersection and Route 309, Upper Demunds Road and Hildebrandt Road intersections at a public meeting last Novem- ber at Dallas Middle School. The intersection projects are currently in the preliminary en- gineering stage and the consult- ant is working on the design. Design options for the Route 309, Upper Demunds Road and Hildebrandt Road include the following: a cul-de-sac of Hilde- brandt Road that would create a new intersection with Upper De- munds Road further up the road; the relocation of Upper Demunds Road so that it inter- sects with Hildebrandt Road lat- er on; changing Upper Demunds Road so it cuts between M&T Bank and the Country Club Shopping Center and meets Route 309, adding a traffic light and eliminating an intersection with Hildebrandt Road; and re- designing Upper Demunds Road so it runs behind Country Club Shopping Center and meets Route 309 at which there would be a traffic light and eliminates an intersection with Hilde- brandt Road. In May, the Dallas Township supervisors passed a resolution for a left-turn signal from Route 309 onto Hildebrandt Road as part of the new Dallas High School construction project. CHARLOTTE BARTIZEK/FOR THE DALLAS POST Emergency workers remove one of two occupants from a car involved in a two-vehicle crash on Fri- day, Aug. 28 at the intersection of Route 309 and Hildebrandt Road in Dallas Township. The crash claimed the life of Carolyn M. Weaver, 78, of Noxen. ~ New traffic pattern in effect for school construction By REBECCA BRIA rbria@timesleader.com A new traffic pattern on the cam- pus of Dallas School District went into effect at the start of the school year due to the high school con- struction project. The pattern consists of a one- way loop that goes from the middle school, around the high school and back out to Conyngham Avenue. Traffic may enter the loop via Co- nyngham Avenue or Pear Tree Lane. “It’s not just during school time; it’s all the time,” said Dallas School District Superintendent Frank Gal- icki. “We've taken. many precau- tions. We've got a lot of signage up.” There are two traffic lanes in front of the middle school. The right lane alongside the curb area is the bus drop off and pick up area. The left lane is for thru traffic and cars coming into the campus. Par- ent drop off occurs at the parking lot on the left side of the school off Pear Tree Lane. Galicki says there will eventually be a turnabout off Pear Tree Lane and a uniform bus platform in be- tween the middle school and the ew high school to cut down on raffic. At the high school, parents can drop off their children in the right lane alongside the school while the left lane is for thru traffic. Buses drop off and pick up students di- rectly in front of the school. Vehicles may exit the loop by im- "It's not just during school time; it's all the time. We've taken many precautions. We've got a lot of signage up." Frank Galicki Dallas School District superintendent mediately turning left before the faculty parking lot or by passing the bus lane and Mountaineer Stadium back onto Conyngham Avenue or by going partially back through the loop and exiting through Pear Tree Lane. NH Hh In addition, there.is no parking allowed behind the high school Cars and persons are also prohibit- ed from entering the construction site access road to the left of Moun- taineer Stadium. The traffic pattern will be in ef- fect for the duration of the new high school construction project. Galicki advises parents, students and facul- ty to practice patience and safety while traveling the district campus and to leave earlier in the morning. “I think the students have been extremely patient,” Galicki said. “We don’t let the student drivers off campus until the buses are gone. | would hope the parents allow their children to go on the bus...it would be much easier with the traffic pat- tern if more parents allowed their students to ride on the bus.” School buses were a little slow the first few days of school while ev- eryone adjusted to the new pattern, Galicki says. Originally, the ele- mentary school children got home at about 5 p.m. Now they are drop- ped off between 4:15 and 4:20 p.m. All buses must call into the district transportation at the end of the day to verify that they are unloaded and empty of children. The school district maintenance staff assisted with the traffic flow during the first week of school to train people to follow the new pat- terns. The Dallas Township Police were also on campus several days as well. According to Galicki, a new ac- cess road to the middle school and high school area will be created as part of the high school construction project. The road will start along the bottom of the hill at the base of Dallas Elementary School and loop to the left up the hill near Emma- nuel Bus Lines. Construction on the new access road is set to begin the summer of 2010. Galicki says the future access road is intended to be used by cars only while Conyngham Avenue will be reserved for buses and Wy- callis Elementary School and ad- ministration traffic. trict complex. Traffic entering the Dallas School District complex from the Hildebrandt Road /Conyng- ham Avenue entrance is fun- neled past Dallas Middle School, causing many drivers to use the Pear Tree Lane en- trance instead. CHARLOTTE BARTIZEK PHOTOS/ FOR THE DALLAS POST A new road has been paved opposite Westminster Drive to handle traffic exiting the Dallas School Dis- DALLAS TOWNSHIP Police department advancing in technology age with e-notifications By REBECCA BRIA rbria@timesleader.com Residents and the general public will soon be able to sign up for e-notifications from the township police department. Chief of Police Robert Jolley announced Tuesday night at the board of supervisors meeting that in about two weeks, people will be able to receive road clo- sures, crime alerts and accident information by e-mail and text essage. WW Users will have to create a free account on a Web site called Nix- le and submit their e-mail ad- dress and/or cell phone number. Township police officials will then enter information and it will be sent to the users. Nixle is a free Web site and is available to the township police department at no cost. A link to Nixle will soon be added to the police department’s Web site. Jolley says that transmitting information electronically will instantly notify people to avoid certain intersections in town- ship. It will also provide Amber ROAD Continued from Page 2 and the Luzerne County Sol- id Waste Management De- partment. The events will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sat- urday, Oct. 3, at the Butler Township Road Department Drums and on Saturday, | Oct. 10, at the Hanover Area Ju- nior Senior High School in Ha- nover Township. Tires from automobiles, mo- torcycles, pickup trucks and SUVs must be removed from the rims, free of liquids and heavy mud. The tires cannot be cut. More information is avail- able by calling 331-7049. The next supervisors meet- ing will be at 7 p.m. on Thurs- day, Oct. 1, in the municipal building. Alerts and missing senior alerts as well as crime incident infor- mation. Jolley also said the township will be the first municipality in the county to participate in McLaughlin crime mapping. Jol- ley said McLaughlin, of which the township is a member, is an organized crime reporting net- work funded by the U.S. Depart- ment of Justice. Rice Drive paving project Township engineer Tom Doughton is waiting for contrac- tor documents from Pikes Creek, which were due this past Thursday, for the Rice Drive paving project to begin. Doughton says the project should start next we and will last for about two weeks. Rice Drive will be closed from the Pulverman driveway to Lower Demunds Road during the pro- ject. Doughton also said that bids for the paving of Old Tunkhan- nock Highway at the next super- visors meeting. Illegal burning Supervisor Frank Wagner said about seven residents who live near Lower and Upper Demunds roads are burning illegally. Wagner says most of these resi- dents are burning garbage, but two are burning construction materials. Wagner alleges he told the residents that burning is illegal in the township. Township solicitor Thomas Brennan asked the township sec- retary to prepare letters to send to the residents, informing in- form them they are violating the township burning ordinance. Nuisance property Marilyn Gregorski, of West- minster Drive, asked the super- visors for an update on an al- leged nuisance property near her home. Gregorski has been at- tending many of the supervisors meetings in an attempt to have the property cleaned. Last month, solicitor Thomas Brennan said activity occurred to clean the property and that the side and front grass was cut. 5 Gregorski said the grass in the back violates a township high- grass ordinance and produced photos to prove her point. Township zoning officer Leo- nard Kozick agreed last month to send a certified letter to the property owner, informing her she has five days to cut the grass. At Tuesday’s meeting, township officials confirmed the property owner never signed for the certi- fied letter. Brennan asked Kozick to hand-deliver a copy of the letter to the property owner on Wednesday morning and to also knock on the door and inform the resident that she has five days to cut the grass before legal action will be taken by the town- ship. DAMA update Tom Doughton, the town- ship’s representative to the Dal- las Area Municipal Authority (DAMA), said the authority is having significant delinquent collections problems. According to Doughton, some residents are delinquent by more than LE $700,000 while some businesses owe thousands of dollars. “Some of them are signifi- cant,” Doughton said. “It’s the largest (delinquency) we’ve had since the beginning of DAMA.” Minimal municipal obligation The supervisors presented a 2010 financial requirement and minimal municipal obligation, necessary to keep the pension funds, as required by law. The police pension plan will cost nothing as no money needs to go into it. The non-uniformed pen- sion plan will cost $78,214. Homecoming parade Approval was granted for the township to request permission from the Pennsylvania Depart- ment of Transportation for Mi- sericordia University to hold a homecoming parade at approxi- mately 9 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 3. The parade will assemble at the Back Mountain Little League fields on Church Street and proceed down Center Hill Road onto Lake Street to the uni- versity’s entrance.
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