Vol.121 No. 27 THE BACK MOUNTAIN'S NEWSPAPER SINCE 1889 August 8 - 14, 2010 Serving the communities of the Dallas and Lake-Lehman School Districts | www.mydallaspost.com Invention will serve the disabled Noxen man’s kit will measure whether public facilities are in compliance with law. Noxen resident Denis Anson, M.S, O.T.R., has worn a lot of dif- ferent hats in his professional ca- reer. Each one - from construction worker to researcher and profes- sor to occupational therapist - has moved him one step closer to achieving an altruistic goal. “My goal is to change the world,” says Anson, director of research and development for the Assistive Technology Research Institute (ATRI) at Misericordia University. “And make our envi- ronment accessible to everyone through objective standards that are easily determined through a series of yes-no, pass-fail answers that just about anyone can em- ploy.” By utilizing the expertise he’s acquired during his 30 years of practice and application of assist- ive technology and occupational therapy strategies, Anson has de- vised and brought to market the Americans with Disabilities Act - Compliance Assessment Toolkit or ADA-CAT to measure whether public facilities are in compliance with the federal law. “Because the ADA guidelines and checklists are written by en- gineers, they are not always in language that non-engineers can understand,” says Anson. “And, some of the concepts are difficult to explain. By utilizing the tool- kit, it is easy to determine if a doorway or light switch or a handicap accessible ramp meets federal guidelines.” The ADA-CAT is a screening tool that allows people without advanced technical training to as- sess the architectural barriers of the built environment, according to Anson. The kit is composed of two parts - the audits and measure- ment kit. The audits define the characteristics of an accessible and usable environment and fea- ture a scoring system that pro- duces a numerical score for ac- cessibility and usability compli- ance. The measurement kit is a set of 11 instruments that have been developed to allow individ- uals to quickly determine wheth- er or not features of the environ- ment meet the standards of the ADA and audits, like a turning ra- dius for a wheelchair or height re- quirements for outlets, grab bars and shower seats. The ATRI-designed kit costs about $500 and has been devel- oped and manufactured for mar- ket by the Augmentative and Al- ternative Communication Insti- tute of Wooster, Ohio and Pitts- burgh, Pa., a non-profit organization. The cost includes one-year access to the website which is maintained by ATRI and costs $70 annually after the intro- ductory year. Proceeds from the sale of ADA-CAT are shared even- ly between ATRI and the AAC In- stitute. The concept for the ADA-CAT See DISA BLED, Page 1 Denis Anson, M.S., O.T.R., of Noxen holds the Americans with Disabilities Act — Compliance Assessment Toolkit or ADA-CAT, which features 1 instruments to measure whether public facilities are in compliance with the federal law. Megan's Law to be researched By EILEEN GODIN Dallas Post Correspondent On the heels of a new resident moving into town, Jackson Town- ship supervisors are taking a hard look at Megan's Law to see what they can do to protect township residents. On Monday night, supervisors authorized attorney Jeffery Ma- lak to research the state-enacted Megan’s Law to see what rights the municipality has to protect children and other residents. Recently, Daniel Howard Rice, a convicted sex offender, moved into a home at 91 Gates Rd., Sha- vertown. Police began to notify surrounding residents immedi- ately. Supervisor Chairman John Wilkes Jr. said, under the state- @ Megan's Law, a munici- ality cannot restrict a convicted sex offender from residing in the township through the use of zon- ing laws. The law does restrict how close to schools, parks and other recre- ational areas a sex offender can live. Malak has been asked to find out if a fire hall can be included under places of recreation due to the number of public events held there, Wilkes said. Malak plans to have his response prepared for the supervisors’ approval by Sep- tember. Wilkes said Rice has registered with the local authorities. Police Chief Jerry Leedock said officers have been knocking on doors of residents who live in “the imme- diate area.” Also, in an attempt to soothe residents’ bumpy rides, supervi- sors announced a paving project will begin in September. Field Crest Road, Holly Bush and Chase Manor will be milled down, repaired and repaved. Wilkes said Field Crest is one of the worst roads in the township. Supervisor Al Fox said it took a while to prepare financially for the half million dollar project. “By consolidating the three roads, we are saving about 2,000,” Fox said. Materials, such as gravel and blacktop, for the project have been purchased through the state-run COSTARS program, See LAW, Page 1i | | 20079 6809815 7 SAILING THE DAY AWAY CHARLOTTE BARTIZEK/ FOR THE DALLAS POST Paul Callahan, of Dallas, takes his first solo a-wind trip on Harveys Lake, thanks to his tutor Dr. John Rothschild, of Harveys Lake. For more boating photos, please turn to page ©. The Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition (GDAC) will host an informational meeting for all interested residents of Dallas 4 her communities at 7 Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition will meet on Aug. II p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 11 at the Dallas United Methodist Church, Parsonage Street (off Church Street), Dallas. The evening will inclu presentation by Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition founder Dr. Thomas Jiunta and will be followed by a question and an- swer sessio Carrying out duties In abnormal situation Lt. Col. Kenneth Williams might just tell you he was do- ing his job as a nurse anesthe- tist for the U.S. Air Force, but the circumstances were far from normal. On duty with the Joint Task Force Bravo in Soto Cano, Honduras, the Dallas native was among the first medical personnel called to respond when the 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti on Jan. 12. The Misericordia University graduate’s 23-member team of Air Force, Army and Navy per- sonnel arrived at the Admiral Killick Coast Guard Station in Haiti to find hundreds of peo- ple strewn throughout the compound waiting for medi- cal care, some there since the quake seven days earlier. “The situation was abso- lutely horrendous,” says Wil- liams. “Unfortunately, one of our three planes was diverted, so we were missing critical an- esthesia equipment as well as all our personal belongings.” With no running water and working under two tents - one set up as an operating room, the other to sleep in - the team began surgery on table tops and desks. The cases were some of the most challenging Williams had ever seen, even during war duty, including gangrenous limb amputations and death-defying scalp wounds. There were times when he needed to place his hand on the patient’s chest to make sure they were breath- ing. The chaotic setting and he- roic medical efforts attracted “The situation was abso- lutely horrendous.” Lt. Col. Kenneth Williams Speaking about earthquake in Haiti the attention of reporters from both the Associated Press and Time magazine. Williams was featured in a special report, “Medics Scramble to Save Quake Sur- vivors,” that appeared at www.Time.com on Jan. 21. With no anesthesia ma- chine, Williams was forced to use the more primitive TIVA - Total IV Anesthetic - method to administer sedation intra- venously and had to pump a blue Jackson-Reese breathing bag by hand to control the ox- ygen flow to the patient. He had learned the method in class but had never needed to use it before since modern machines offer gas anesthesia. Assisting on 11 surgeries in the first two days, Williams was happy to have clean clothes and anesthesia equip- ment arrive on the third day just in time to move the OR into a nearby building deemed safe by engineers. The team was able to complete 10 sur- geries that day, thanks to the improved conditions. He was also required to do shifts of guard duty and often slept in the OR just to make sure the equipment was safe. Williams’ team worked in conjunction with the U.S.N.S. Comfort hospital ship and See DUTIES, Page 1 Making the best of a classroom turned makeshift operating room, Lt. Col. Kenneth Williams, a Dallas native, is surrounded by wires while administering anesthesia to a 6-year-old Haitian earth- quake victim.
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