i A 1 J i J a i ¥ # Sunday, March 14, 2010 THE -DALL AS POST PAGE 3 KINGSTON TOWNSHIP Agreement reached for ®fast Center Street bridge By REBECCA BRIA rbria@timesleader.com The board of supervisors ap- proved a resolution on March 10 per- taining to engineering work on the East Center Street Bridge project. The resolution provides for a supplemental engineering agree- ment and authorizes board chair- man Jim Reino to execute docu- ments with the Pennsylvania De- partment of Transportation re- garding the agreement. According to Reino, the bridge project began 10 or 11 years ago and has been dormant since. Reino said several people who own property adjacent to the bridge have been unwilling to ne- gotiate a fair sale price for land needed for the project, which has caused it to lag. The project is cur- rently set to begin in 2013, he said. Engineers who have completed work on the project are asking for additional payment from Penn- DOT due to the escalating costs since the project began more than a de ago, Reino said. Public hearings set Public hearings have been scheduled for the next supervisors meeting on April 14 regarding three separate matters. The township wants to amend the administrative code to repeal the killed in service death benefit in the police pension plan to comply with Act 51 of 2009, which removes the death benefit responsibility from mu nicipalities and gives it to the state. The township is also consider- ing altering the term of office for zoning hearing board members from three years to five years. Reino said this will put the town- ship in line with state regulations on the length of service. Finally, amendments are pro- posed for the fee schedule, which re- quires the payment of various fees See MEETING, Page 13 LAKE TOWNSHIP Gas drilling parks future maintenance concerns By EILEEN GODIN Dallas Post correspondent Gas drilling expected to begin in Lake Township this summer sparked questions and concerns from supervisors and residents. On March 10, supervisors dis- cussed precautions needed be- fore EnCana Oil and Gas Inc, a partner of WhitMar Exploration Company, sets up a drilling oper- ation off Zosh Road near the bor- der with Lehman Township. Supervisor Amy Salansky said she will try to arrange for a meet- ing with EnCana to address all concerns. Chairman Lonnie Piatt said su- pervisors are looking in to bond- ing roads for weight limits. Bond- ing roads and posting weight lim- its is expected to help the town- ship protect roads from damage caused by heavy trucks. The procedure to bond a road requires an engineer to study road materials and composition and determine how much weight those materials can sustain. ®. said about 75 percent of e township’s roads are dirt and gravel roads. Zosh Road is one of them. Piatt said the gas company has agreed to assume responsib- ility for repairing and maintain- ing Zosh Road. Resident Charles Kohl asked supervisors which routes the gas trucks would be using, express- ing concerns about the trucks possibly blocking roads and af- fecting traffic patterns. Salansky said an official route has not been submitted by EnCana, but as- sured that the trucks would not See LAKE, Page 13 Snow melts from the fields at Brace's Orchard, Orange. Has spring sprung’ Spring plants begin to bloom at Norman Darling & Sons Farms and Gree nhouses, Dallas. CHARLOTTE BARTIZEK PHOTOS/FOR THE DALLAS POST A goose spreads it's wings welcoming the warm weather on the edge of the shrinking ice pack around Harveys Lake. t's easy to forget about snow and scraping windshields when the temperatures climb into the high 40s. That's what happened last weekend when Mother Nature teased us with early signs of spring — and Back Mountain residents re- sponded by doing the kinds of shoveling K Tv LAR a) i 13 Z & a | a A Ey H bo ’ \ things we like to do in warmer weather. Beware, though, the month of March is notorious for being unpredictable. las. Above: Snow melts off the fields at Brace's Orchard. Left: Steven Darling walks through a greenhouse full of petunias starting to bloom at his family’s greenhouse in Dal- Dallas approves new Internet provider By REBECCA BRIA rbria@timesleader.com The Dallas School Board vot- ed March 8 to remove its Internet tower and use a new Internet ser- vice provider even though it is locked in a contract. Board members decided to be- gin using Frontier Communica- tions for wireless Internet de- spite 15 months remaining in a contract with Luzerne Interme- diate Unit. Bill Gartrell, the district’s tech- nology director, said the district is currently using LIU for Inter- net service. The district is also leasing a Conterra Internet tow- er from LIU. The tower needs to be moved because it is located behind the old maintenance building, which is scheduled to be torn down be- ginning March 29. The new maintenance building is com- plete and has been turned over to the district. Gartrell said it would cost the district $27,500 to move the tow- er to a location near the new maintenance building. He added the district is cur- rently paying LIU a cost of $1,891.86 per month. The district has a contract with LIU to pro- vide services through Verizon. The contract does not expire un- til June 30, 2011. The district will now pay $1,045 per month for wireless In- ternet from Frontier Communi- cations. No tower will be needed. If the district cancels the con- tract with LIU as it plans, a termi- nation fee may be applied to the monthly fee for the remaining 15 months of the contract. In addi- tion, the district could face a pos- sible cost of $21,500 to remove the existing Internet tower as planned. Superintendent Frank Galicki said the district is consulting so- licitor Benjamin Jones concern- ing the matter. Public school district employee pension reform The board passed a resolution advocating immediate action by the Pennsylvania General As- sembly to enact legislation re- garding public school district employee pension program re- form. Board vice president Russ Bi- gus said board member Richard Coslett initiated the idea for the resolution. Bigus said several other school boards in the state have passed similar resolutions. The Dallas School District and the state jointly contribute an- nually from public funds to the school employee pension pro- gram a fixed percentage rate of the eligible school employee’s salary. The district employer’s rate of contribution for the 2009-10 school year is 4.78 percent. On July 1, the rate will jump to 8.22 percent for the 2010-11 school year. According to the resolution, the school district employer’s rate of contribution is expected to increase significantly in the next four years to a projected 33.6 percent in the 2014-15 school year. Under the resolution, the pro- jected cumulative cost increase would be more than $13.7 mil- lion for the district between the 2010-11 and 2014-15 academic years. High school project payment Payment in the amount of more than $2.8 million was ap- proved to several contractors for services completed on the new high school construction project from the capital projects fund. The total cost of the project is expected to be about $42.8 mil- lion. Personnel The board accepted the resig- nation of Frank Mariano as direc- tor of special education, effective June 30. Mariano, at the meet- ing, received a standing ovation from the board and members of the audience. RS ———— Ee i a The following were hired as coaches for the 2010 spring ath- letic season: George Lazur, high school boys’ and girls’ track as- sistant coach, $2,373; and Tom Gilroy, middle school boys’ and girls’ track assistant coach, $1,989. The following people were ap- pointed as volunteer coaches: Shelby Scharff, girls’ soccer; Joe Casey, boys’ baseball; and Jill Chocallo, girls’ softball. School volunteers A resolution was passed to ap- prove a list of additional volun- teers at Wycallis Elementary School for the current school year. Coslett asked if the volunteers all have Act 34 clearances. Gal- icki said they are not required to as per district policy. Bigus said he thinks the dis- trict needs to research whether the volunteers need the clearanc- es. Galicki said the district will revisit the policy.
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