i i | Sunday, November 22, 2009 THE DALLAS POST PAGE 3 LAKE-LEHMAN SCHOOL DISTRICT Wellness center planned but who will pay for it? By REBECCA BRIA rbria@timesleader.com cost between $7,000 and $8,000 but added it is undetermined & A wellness center will soon be constructed at Lake-Lehman Ju- nior/Senior High School. The Lake-Lehman School Board on Nov. 16 approved a 3,200-square-foot wellness center to be built in an old wrestling room and changing room near the junior high school gym. According to Superintendent James McGovern, the center will feature free weights and cardio- vascular equipment that will be used by athletes and general stu- dents. Plans for the center have been discussed for two years. McGovern said the project will who will pay for the center. The superintendent hopes much of the construction will be completed during the holiday break in December. Essay contest winners Four district students who placed in the Wyoming Valley Veterans Parade Essay Contest were honored for their accom- plishment. Retired U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Susan Allen, chairperson of the contest, said this is the third year for the contest but the first year Lake-Lehman participated. This year’s essay theme was “How a veteran past or present Superintendent James McGovern said the project will cost between $7,000 and $8,000 but added it is undetermined who will pay for the center. ments for Nov. 16, 2009 in the amount of $259,819.01 for the Ross Elementary construction project. has inspired me.” The contest was open to all students in grades four through 12 who attend school in the Wyoming Valley. Kodey Hummel, of the junior/ senior high school, and Rebecca Osiecki, of Lake-Noxen Elemen- tary School, were both finalists. Brandon Kelley, of the junior/ senior high school, placed sec- ond in grades nine through 12 and. Evan Butcofski, of Lake- Noxen Elementary School, placed first in grades four through five. The students received a certif- icate from both the district and the Wyoming Valley Veterans Pa- rade Committee. The committee also awarded first-place winners $250, second- place winners $100 and third- place winners $50. The winners and finalists marched in the Wyoming Valley Veterans Pa- rade. Ross project The board approved disburse- Retirement The retirement of custodian David West, effective Oct. 24, 2009, was approved. The board tabled a vote to hire a new full- time custodian. Athletic coach hires Thomas Chipego, of Dallas, and Anthony Cibello, of Wilkes- Barre, were appointed seventh and eighth-grade boys basketball coaches for the 2009-2010 school year. Their salary is in accord- ance with the Collective Bargain- ing Agreement. Lesley Corey was hired as the dive and assistant swim coach for the 2009-2010 school year and Alda Maturi was named the assistant swim coach. Both will be paid $1,383 each. Corey Brin was selected as the head boys volleyball coach for the 2009-10 school year and Ke- vin David was named the assist- ant boys volleyball coach. Substitutes The following individuals were added as substitute teach- ers: Jennifer Hunter, Dallas, mu- sic; Jeffrey Krynick, Wilkes- Barre, English grades seven to 12; Jill Scott, Sweet Valley, En- See WELLNESS, Page 14 DATCAS BOROUGH Increase In taxes Is By REBECCA BRIA rbria@timesleader.com Residents can expect to see an increase in their municipal taxes next year, according to borough manager Tracey Mi- _chael Carr. & The proposed 2010 operat- ing budget was approved Nov. 18 by council and calls for an in- crease in taxes, although Carr says she has not yet configured the millage rate. A mill is a $1 tax for every $1,000 in assessed property value. According to Carr, the bor- ough’s 2009 millage rate is 1.07. Carr says the increase is due to the need for increased reve- nue to match expenditures and that the certified tax base will also be lower next year due to reassessment appeals which lowered some property values. The 2010 budget is for just under $1.1 million, compared to over $1.4 million in 2009. Carr says there were more pro- jects budgeted for this year than for 2010. Sh A Storm water bie project Don Holdredge, of Norton Avenue, asked council for an update on a stormwater drain- age piping replacement that is supposed to take place in his neighborhood. Holdredge said in October that his property and the prop- erty of several of his neighbors have been continually dam- aged by storm water runoff since 2006. Norton Avenue, Spring Street and Lehman Avenue are set to receive $100,000 in feder- al funds through a 2009 Lu- zerne County Office of Com- munity Development grant for the piping replacement. Carr said that a required en- vironmental study was con- ducted and the project was ad- vertised. She said the Luzerne County Office of Community Development told her the doc- uments will be sent to the fed- eral government for approval. No parking zone An ordinance was passed to establish a no parking zone on a section of Lake Street. Council President Pat Peiffer says the zone will be along Misericordia University property from “the blue house” to the president’s house. The zone was mandated by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation in order to al- low for safe site distance from the former Commonwealth . Telephone Company building which was purchased by the university. Resignation The resignation of part-time road worker Clayton Yeust, ef- fective Nov. 21, was accepted. The borough manager was also authorized to seek applications for the position. expected Traffic bulbs Approval was granted for the borough to participate in an in- ter-municipal cooperative pro- ject with NEPA-Alliance to im- plement signal conversion pro- gram. The program is designed to assist municipalities in ener- gy and cost savings by placing LED bulbs in traffic signals. The borough is seeking a Penn- sylvania Energy Conversation Works! Grant for the project. Payments Payment to Papillon & Moyer Excavating and Paving was approved in the amount of $65,735.45 for the Orchard Street Bridge demolition pro- ject and the storm sewer im- provement project. Payment was also autho- rized to Hondru Ford in Man- heim in the amount of $28,728.35 for a 2010 Ford Crown Victoria Police Cruiser and equipment purchased un- der the PA CoStars 13 state con- tract. An additional $3,565 was approved to LRB Enterprises, Inc. for exterior graphics for the cruiser. Partnership funding A membership contribution was approved toward start-up funding for the Back Mountain Community Partnership in an amount to be determined by the partnership’s board not to exceed $1,300. eo i he oftrftringdg new pradiolly raaben je to Share wn F ! trl The Shavertown United Methodist Church is sponsoring a Community Thanisgiving Dinner for the entire community. Helping to plan the event are, from left, kneeling, Royal Sutton and Nancy Silvi. Standing, Sandy Michalisin, Nick Michalisin, Nancy Dingman, Carol Folk, Sherrie Waslick, Russ Hoover and Dee Dee Hoover. SUMC plans Thanksgiving dinner The Shavertown United Methodist Church is sponsoring a Community Thanksgiving Dinner for the entire communi- ty. A full Thanksgiving dinner will be served and offered free to anyone who does not want to be alone or simply does not want to cook on Thanksgiving Day. Reservations, indicating the number of people attending, should be made by Monday, Nov. 23, by calling the church office at 675-3616. The dinner will be served, family style, at noon in the So- cial Room at the Shavertown United Methodist Church, 163 N. Pioneer Ave, Shavertown. There is no charge for the dinner; however, a donation may be given. LL A The public is invited to view the 34th Annual Student Art Exhibit during Thanksgiving Week at Sue Hand's Imagery, 35 Main St., Dallas. Artists who will display their works are Merre Martin, seated. From left, standing, Maisie Oldeack, Carolyn Kerkowski, Lauren Shission and Kristen Boyle. gotudents will display art work in Ort exhibit at Sue Hand's studio The public is invited to view the 34th Annual Student Art Exhibit during Thanksgiving Week at Sue Hand’s Imagery, 35 Main St., Dallas. Artworks on display include impressionistic and realistic works in all fine art drawing and painting media. Render- design compositions will also be exhibited. Students range in age from 5 to 85 years old. Award-winning artist and teacher Sue Hand will be pre- sent during the exhibit to wel- come visitors and answer questions about the artwork. She invites visitors to watch while she draws and palatso on Sh RC BR SE ; 675-5004 her current projects. Studio hours for the exhibit] are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday and Wednesday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The stu- dio will be closed Thanksgiv- ing Day. For more information, call DALLAS TOWNSHIP Municipal taxes are not expected to rise; budget will be adopted Dec. I5 “Either you guys don't care and | don’t believe that's the case or you're hiding something and | don’t believe that's the case or you don't know By REBECCA BRIA rbria@timesleader.com Municipal taxes in the town- ship will not increase in 2010, ac- cording to the preliminary $2.4 million budget presented Nov. 17. Supervisor Glenn Howell gave a brief presentation on the pre- liminary 2010 spending plan and said there will be no increase in the .52 municipal millage rate. A mill is $1 in tax for every $1,000 in assessed property val- ue. Total estimated expenditures for 2010 are $2,410,700, up from $2,284,000 in 2009. Howell attributed the increase to rising costs for a variety of items. He said the state’s liquid fuel funds allocation to the township for 2010 has been lowered to $213,939. The funds can be used for ex- penses such as road department workers’ salaries and road main- tenance. The preliminary budget will be on display for 20 days at the town- ship municipal building. The tentative adoption of the budget will take place during the next supervisors meeting sched- uled for 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 15. Information request The supervisors gave John Newman, of Wedgewood Way, a Pennsyl ia Ri hito now Act unty what you're doing.” John Newman Wedgewood Way resident information request form after he repeatedly asked for a financial report at previous meetings. The supervisors previously told Newman he could view fi- nancial documents at the munici- pal building during business hours. “Either you guys don’t care and I don’t believe that’s the case or youre hiding something and I don’t believe that’s the case or you don’t know what you're do- ing,” Newman said. Mitigation plan A resolution was passed to adopt a Bi-County Hazard Mitiga- tion Plan for the counties of Lu- zerne and Lackawanna for the purpose of obtaining disaster as- sistance if ever needed. According to the supervisors, each municipality in the two counties must adopt the plan in order to be eligible to receive fu- ture state or federal disaster as- sistance funding. 91 address ordinance A separate resolution was adopted to acknowledge the ddressing ordi- EEE Sh sh EE RE Ten RE lL nance and agreement to cooper- ate with the addressing project for the purpose of public safety and Luzerne County 911. The Luzerne County Board of Commissioners adopted a coun- tywide addressing policy on July 17 along with an addressing pol- icy and guidelines for providing standards for the naming of streets; for the fabrication, erec- tion and maintenance of street name signs; and for establishing a street address numbering sys- tem for the county. The township is one of several municipalities undergoing changes for the countywide ad- dressing system contracted by GeoComm, a communications engineering and geographic in- formation system mapping firm specializing in enhanced 911 sys- tems for public safety entities. The system will eliminate rural route addresses and replace them with street names and numbers. Fred Rosencrans, of Luzerne County 911, said in June that he estimates about 30 percent of the township is still using rural route addresses and will likely be af- fected by the change.
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