Vol.121 No. 25 THE BACK MOUNTAIN'S NEWSPAPER SINCE 1889 July 18 - 24, 2010 ~The DALLAS POST. Serving the communities of the Dallas and Lake-Lehman School Districts | www.mydallaspost.com EnCana Oil & Gas prepares road for truck traffic By EILEEN GODIN Dallas Post Correspondent Thoughts of the rumbling of heavy gas trucks through Lake Township, a municipality with an abundance of dirt roads, resulted in a pilot program to repair a road before drilling begins — all on the gas company’s dime. EnCana Oil & Gas U.S.A. Inc. of Denver, CO, partnered with Linde Corporation of Wilkes- Barre, B & J Paving of Sweet Val- ley, the Luzerne Conservation District of Shavertown and the Lake Township road crew, for a 2 1/2-day road rebuilding project on Zosh Road, part of the ingress route leading to a site located on Paul and Amy Salansky’s proper- ty. The road work began last Monday. About 120 feet of Zosh Road, from the corner of Sholtis Road, was rebuilt from the base up, said Shawn Rybka, dirt and gravel road coordinator with the Lu- zerne Conservation District. Rybka believes this is the first time in the state a gas company has taken a proactive stand and tried to make a road more condu- cive to bearing the weight of nu- merous heavy water and equip- Rybka believes this is the first time in the state a gas company has taken a proactive stand and tried to make a road more con- ducive to bearing the weight of numerous heavy water and equip- ment trucks. face aggregate, or DSA, was ap- plied. Wendy Wiedenbeck, commu- nity relations advisor for EnCana Oil & Gas U.S.A. Inc., said EnCa- na funded the $20,000 project and views the pilot program as an opportunity to learn. “We hope to take this informa- tion and apply it in the future,” Wiedenbeck said. Mark Herndon, construction ment trucks. The project involved digging down 30 inches of Zosh Road and placing a geo grid, a plastic type material to help evenly disperse the weight of the trucks over a wider area. Rybka said a stone base was laid with a geo textile layering to aid in drainage. To cut down on dust and create a hard- driving surface, a layer of crushed stone called driving sur- coordinator with EnCana Oil & Gas U.S.A. Inc., said the project has good potential to save money for the township and the gas com- pany. The idea occurred to Rybka af- ter he saw the damage caused to roads by gas trucks in the North- ern Tier. Thinking a proactive step could save money long term, he approached Salansky who put him in touch with EnCana Oil & Gas U.S.A. Inc. Zosh Road is part of the incom- ing route for the trucks loaded with water and equipment. At the last township meeting, a route was specified for the heavy trucks to limit congestion on two lane country roads. The one way in and one way out route is currently established as: East on Route 118, left on Leh- man Outlet Road, left on Hoover Road, right on Sholtis Road and left on Zosh Road. Exiting the site, trucks will travel Ide Road, right on Meeker Road, left on Meeker Outlet Road, left on Slocum Road and right on Route 118. Construction of the Salansky site drill pad will not begin for a few weeks and drilling is set to begin in August, Wiedenbeck said. THAT’S ONE EXPENSIVE PIE CHARLOTTE BARTIZEK/ FOR THE DALLAS POST Volunteers Joe Killeen, Bev Neiman and professional auctioneer Steve Traver will get $40 for this homemade pie at the Back Mountain Memorial Library Auction on Sunday, the event's last day. The four-day event, the 64th of its kind, raises 40 percent of the library's operating budget for the year. For more auction photos, please turn to page 5. PennDOT By EILEEN GODIN Dallas Post Correspondent Drivers traveling on Route 309 in Kingston Township will notice a change in traffic pat- terns this fall. The Pennsylvania Depart- ment of Transportation (Penn- DOT) has plans to repair a bridge on Route 309, extending over Toby’s Creek near the old Rave’s store, said Karen Dussin- ger, press officer for PennDOT. The bridge was originally built in 1941 and widened in 1963 and, according to Dussin- ger, has not had any repairs since. Concrete T-beams will be re- paired, cracked and deteriorat- ed concrete will be repaired, one wing wall will be replaced and scour protection will be added to the bridge, Dussinger said. Scour protection is in- stalled to help prevent erosion of the supporting soil around the supports and wing walls. A wing wall is a type of retaining wall. “Most of the work will be un- der the bridges,” Dussinger said. The plan is to work on the northbound lanes this fall and then the southbound lanes next repairing Route 309 bridge “A detour will not be used. Two lanes of through traffic will be maintained at all times in both directions.” Karen Dussinger PennDOT press officer summer. Dussinger said a con- tractor will determine traffic controls, adding there are ac- tually two bridges, a few hundred feet apart. “A detour will not be used,” she said. “Two lanes of through traffic will be maintained at all times in both directions.” Preliminary work on the pro- ject started last week when PennDOT closed the far left southbound lane for test bor- ing. Dussinger explained test boring is a process that requires a soil engineer to drill for the purpose of extracting a core sample of soil and rock to see the consistency of the layers. By test boring, the structural engineer will use the informa- tion to decide how to best sup- port the embankment during the deep excavation process or replacing the bridge's wing wall Farm therapy at The Lands: Relaxed chickens p By CHARLOTTE BARTIZEK Dallas Post Correspondent Some are brown, some are buff-colored and some are white. Eggs, of course. But young children will be de- lighted to know that some of the eggs at The Lands at Hillside Farms are green — just like the ones in the Dr. Seuss classic “Green Eggs and Ham.” All are laid by the hundreds of free-range chickens on the farm- land, explains executive director Chet Mozloom. Not only do the eggs come in different colors, they are all dif- ferent sizes. Some are too big to go into the egg cartons and some have double yolks. The smaller ggs are laid by very young chick- “ens, the bigger ones by older birds, says Mozloom. Chickens lead a charmed life at The Lands at Hillside Farms. ¢!M0981512007 90g A dozen free-range chicken eggs cost $2.50 at The Lands at Hillside Farms. All the chickens at The Lands are allowed to live out their nat- ural lives, roaming the grounds. They are helped along by a mo- bile chicken coop easily moved to a new and greener pasture, al- ways assuring the chickens have fresh grass to eat. The flocking characteristic seems to prevent birds from wan- dering off and becoming road kill on busy Hillside Road which splits the property. Surprisingly, there have been no fatalities as chickens cross the road. The big- ger dangers for the birds are coyotes, fox and owls that hunt at night, Mozloom says. Mozloom admits spending time herding chickens into their coops at night. It sounds like a chore, he says, but is rather easy because the chickens have limit- roduce funky eggs ed night vision and prefer to be together anyway. Mozloom has grown so fond of the birds, whose ancestry is from Asia, that he now considers chickens to be his specialty on the farm. Suzanne Kelly, the farm’s direc- tor of advancement, notes that children with autism and people with post-traumatic stress disor- der often come to the farm to in- teract with the animals. The car- ing atmosphere at the farm has provided a safe haven for animals and people alike, she thinks. The birds are friendly, follow- ing people, cows and the other animals. They eat all the bugs and flies and lay the eggs almost anywhere. “It’s sort of like a continuous, natural Easter Egg Hunt around here,” laughs Mozloon. An area plumber stopping by the dairy bar for an ice cream was very surprised, upon returning to his truck, to find a freshly-laid egg on his passenger seat - prob- ably a present from some happy, relaxed chicken. The free-range chicken eggs are available for sale at the dairy bar for $2.25 a dozen. There are usually a few green eggs in the dozen. CHARLOTTE BARTIZEK PHOTOS/ FOR THE DALLAS POST Suzanne Kelly, director of advancement atThe Lands at Hillside Farms, admires some of the new free-range hens the farm has acquired.
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