Vol.120 No. 47 THE BACK MOUNTAIN'S NEWSPAPER SINCE 1889 December 6 - 12, 2009 Th "DATA 50¢ Serving the communities of the Dallas and Lake-Lehman School Districts | www.mydallaspost.com Fifteen-year-old Kaylin Russell, of Trucksville, covers her mouth with her left hand as “The Twilight Saga: New Moon" star Robert Pattinson shakes her hand Nov. 19 on the set of the “Live with Regis and Kelly" show in New York City, N.Y. Russell won a con- test on Twitter to attend the show the day "Twilight star Taylor Lautner was interviewed, although his interview aired on the show the following day. Pattinson was also interviewed and ap- peared on the show on Nov. 19. Dallas girl meets star of “Twilight” series Kaylin Russell travels to New York City to “Live with Regis & Kelly” show. By REBECCA BRIA rbria@timesleader.com Kaylin Russell was disappoint- ed when she didn’t win a con- test on Twitter to see “The Twi- light Saga: New Moon” star Robert Pattinson on “Live with Regis and Kelly.” But Russell didn’t give up. The next day, she entered a con- test 126 times via the social net- working Web site to see Taylor Lautner, another “Twilight” star, on the show. That time, she won. “I'm like a strong Christian so my favorite verse is ‘Everything is possible through Christ,; so I was thinking that the whole time, but when I didn’t win the Robert Pattinson thing I was re- ally discouraged,” Russell said. “But then the next day I decided I was going to try for Taylor Lautner and I won.” Russell, 15, of Trucksville, won two tickets to see “Live with Regis and Kelly” on Thurs- day, Nov. 19 at ABC Studios in New York City, N.Y. She learned she won about one week before the show and immediately called her friend, Alex Rego, to tell her. “When I won, I called Alex screaming and she didn’t believe me,” said Russell, who became a Twilight fan a little over a year ago when the first movie came out and is currently reading the series of four books for the third time. “It took at least three min- utes to convince her. None of my friends believed me.” Russell and her mother, Carol, left their house at 3:30 a.m. on Nov. 20 to make the trek to the show, taking a taxi to Wilkes- Barre to board a Martz bus to New York City. The mother and daughter ar- rived in New York City at 7 a.m. and made their way to ABC Stu- dios where they were allowed to stand in the VIP line. They en- tered the studio before everyone else and secured front-row seats. They were also offered breakfast but were too excited to eat any- thing. To their surprise, Russell and her mom were informed they would see a taping of not only Taylor Lautner, who plays “Ja- cob” in the movie, but also of Robert Pattinson, who plays “Edward.” After Pattinson was inter- viewed by Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa, he greeted his fans in the audience. Pattinson walk- ed over to Russell and person- ally introduced himself. “When a commercial came on, he was going around,” Rus- sell said of Pattinson. “He came up to us and then he came up to me and he shook my hand and said, ‘Hi, I'm Robert.” It was re- ally crazy.” Lautner also tried to come over and greet fans but was stopped by security; however, an employee of the show had him autograph a poster of him- self for Russell and several other fans. : Regis Philbin sat down near Russell to watch a video chat of his wife, Joy, and his sister-in- law preparing food for Thanks- See TWILIGHT, Page 11 Locals will attend tennis training center By REBECCA BRIA rbria@timesleader.com Three Dallas girls have been invited to attend the United States Tennis Association Com- petition Training Center of Northeastern Pennsylvania for the 2009-2010 season. Alyssa and Nathalie Joanlanne and Anita Ghosh are all partici- pants of the 22nd year of the CTC at Birchwood Tennis and Fitness Club in Clarks Summit. The CTC is for the top 20 ju- nior co-ed tennis players be- tween the ages of 9 and 15 with- in a specific geographical area. The program stresses the overall development of the tennis ath- lete by providing competition and development of basic knowl- edge of sports psychology, sports nutrition, sports medi- cine and sports science. It also encourages a team atmosphere with each player’s individual coach. Tim Haus and Bill Steege, both USPTA professionals, are running this year’s center and will attend the USTA CTC Na- tional Coaches Conference in California in February to receive additional training specifically for the center. “It’s a really, really big deal,” Haus said of the CTC. “It’s quite an honor for these kids to be in- volved.” Alyssa, 14, and Nathalie, 12, are both attending the CTC for the second time. The daughters of Frank and Allison Joanlanne, the girls say it was their mother, the tennis team coach at Miser- icordia University for six years, who introduced them to tennis at a young age. “She was teaching at a club in New York and I think I just went with her one day and I liked the sport so I just kept playing,” Nathalie said. The Joanlannes moved to Dal- las from West Chester, N.Y. in 2003 when Alyssa and Nathalie started taking lessons at Haus and Birchwood Tennis and Fit- ness Club. The girls have a younger sister, Nicole, 7, who al- so plays tennis. A ninth-grader at Wyoming Seminary Upper School, Alyssa recently finished her first season on the girls tennis team for her school where she played first-lev- el singles. She says the CTC gives her experience playing singles, mixed doubles and doubles against her peers. She also learns what she should eat be- fore and after a match and ways to improve her technique. “I guess it just provides more of an opportunity to compete,” she said. “It’s fun and you get lessons and we get a chance to play different people at the end CHARLOTTE BARTIZEK/ FOR THE DALLAS POST Anita Ghosh, left, Nathalie, center, and Alyssa Joanlanne, of Dallas, will participate in the United States Tennis Association Competi- tion Training Center. of the season. Also, we play against each other and it’s a good way to test out different people who play.” Alyssa has finished in first and second place in multiple tennis tournaments and is currently competing in age 16 and under tournaments instead of age 14 and under to challenge her and raise her rankings. Her goal is to move up to age 18 and under tournaments. “I like the competition and it’s an individual sport if you're play- ing singles,” she said. “I love it. It keeps me in shape and I love doing it.” In addition to playing tennis, Alyssa played soccer for five years for Back Mountain Youth Soccer and basketball for Gate of Heaven School. Like her older sister, Nathalie also plays singles tennis. The Wyoming Seminary Lower School seventh-grader practices two to three times a week dur- ing the school year and every day in the summer. She also See TENNIS, Page 11 DALLAS TOWNSHIP Resident offers tax-saving suggestion to supervisors By REBECCA BRIA rbria@timesleader.com Resident John Newman pre- sented supervisors Tuesday eve- ning with a written suggestion to lower municipal taxes in the 2010 budget. Newman said he looked at the proposed budget and saw that $900,000 in surplus money will be carried over from 2009. He requested the supervisors lower the tax rate from .52 mills t0.197 mills as aresult. Amillisa $1 tax for every $1,000 in as 0981512007090, sessed property value. Newman said the township would have a $796,100 surplus af- ter his proposed tax reduction. “Please consider a millage re- duction for the taxpayers,” New- man said. “You certainly have enough money to do it.” Supervisor Chairman Phil Wal- ter said the supervisors would take the request into advisement. Clarke Bittner, also a resident, agreed the supervisors should ac- cept and consider Newman's pro- posal, adding that he will respect any decision the supervisors come to regarding the matter. “It seems to me that you guys are handling the money that comes into this township very well...,” Bittner said. “In a real major snowstorm, how much of that surplus gets eaten up?”Kun- kle Fire Se ¥ | 4 Chief Jack Dodson said he was in favor of having a surplus because of the uncertainty of Mother Na- ture. Dodson said damages in flooding in 2005 and 2006 cost millions of dollars. The 2010 budget is scheduled to be adopted during the Dec. 15 supervisors meeting. Taxes A resolution was approved to propose the 2010 real estate tax at .52 mills, the real estate trans- fer tax at one percent of the value of the real estate transferred, the per capita tax at $5, the earned in- come tax at one percent, and the local services tax at $52. The tax rates will not officially be ap- proved until the 2010 budget is passed. Project payment Approval was granted for su- pervisor Glenn Howell to deliver certification to Luzerne County that work on the paving project on the Old Tunkhannock High- way was conducted in accord- ance with the contract. Howell will also request payment in the amount of $96,958.22 from the Luzerne County Board of Com- missioners for the project, which will be funded by the Office of Community Development. Escrow account United Water Pennsylvania will be allowed to issue $5,000 to be placed in an escrow account to cover permit issuance fees, in- cluding general fees and inspec- tion fees. The account will be used for all projects and repairs by the company in the township. - BE EI A story about funds raised from past Harveys Lake Homecoming events in the Sept. 6, 2009 edition of The Dallas Post may have led readers to believe that Sandra Serhan questioned where the funds are. Serhan says she on- ly wants to know how the mo- nies will be used. She would like to see the funds used for something to benefit the residents of Har- veys Lake Borough. “l feel that our Harveys Lake community is beautiful enough, but the safety and peace knowing when you go to bed during the dangerous storm times of the year that you know that you will be alerted by emergency warn- ing systems strategically lo- cated around the lake,” Ser- han said. “I want to benefit Harveys Lake’s safety.” There was no Harveys Lake Homecoming last summer REET RE EE Serhan clarifies statements for the first time in five years. The homecoming was revived in 2005 as a way for residents to so- cialize and share memories of the lake and proceeds from the weekend-long event held every August by Harveys Lake Bor- ough benefited the Harveys Lake Beautification Project. Susan Sutton, secretary for Harveys Lake Borough, previ- ously said the money from the homecoming is in a separate borough bank account. Sutton said the account contains $4,862.67, money made from all of the homecoming festivals held so far. PNC Bank documents for the “Harveys Lake Homecoming Weekend” show the following amounts in the account: Decem- ber 2005 - $3,295.91; December 2006 - $4,671.55; December 2007 - $6,760.35; and December 2008 - $4,862.67. - Rebecca Bria
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