Cie y Sunday, January 9, 2011 THE DALLAS POST PAGE 3 BACK MOUNTAIN REORGANIZATIONS Municipal governments look toward new year Most Back Mountain munici- tion meetings on Monday, an. 3. Below is a recap of those meetings, with the exclusion of Dallas Borough, which is only re- quired to hold a reorganization meeting every two years. Dallas Township Supervisors maintained lead- ership positions for 2011. Phillip Walter will remain as chairman, Frank Wagner as vice chairman [| held their annual reorga- “and Glenn Howell as secretary and treasurer. All other township officials were reappointed to their respec- tive positions. The board also approved a 25 cent per hour raise for road de- partment workers and part-time police officers. A $500 per year raise was approved for Zoning Of- ficer Leonard Kozick. The board held a regular meet- ing after the reorganization meet- ing to clarify June 2008 meeting minutes. Franklin Township Supervisors were reappointed to their positions, including Ted Dymond as chairman, Michael Prokopchak as supervisor, Wil- liam Miller as supervisor and Rick Melvin as secretary and treasurer. All other township officials re- mained in their respective posi- tions. Harveys Lake Borough The following positions were reappointed: council member Francis Kopko as council presi- dent, council member Larry Ra- del as council vice president, Su- san Sutton as borough secretary, council member Rich Williams IT as EMA coordinator, Andrew Lu- zetski as zoning officer, attorney Charles McCormick as borough solicitor, John Belles as sewage enforcement officer, John Bro- kenshire as borough accountant, Prociak and Associates as bor- ough auditor and Pasonick as the borough engineers and third-par- ty UCC inspectors. Jackson Township John Wilkes Jr. will remain as chairman, despite offering a nomination to Supervisor Al Fox. The following positions were also appointed: Denise Rittinger as township secretary, public in- formation officer and assistant treasurer; Fox as vice chairman and treasurer and Richard Rose as vacancy board chairman. Supervisors also created posi- tions for the Back Mountain Re- gional Emergency Management Agency, which will partner Jack- son Township, Lehman Town- ship and Dallas Borough. The ap- pointments are as follows: Harry Vivian, of Dallas Borough, as co- ordinator; Wilkes as deputy coor- dinator; James Welby, of Lehman Township, as assistant coordina- tor. Supervisors authorized a 1.75 percent raise for non-union and non-contracted employees. The mileage rate for 2011 is set at 51 cents per mile. The supervisors will meet at 6 p.m. on the first Monday of the month at the municipal building with the exceptions of May 2, No- vember 7 and December 22 when meetings will be held at 9 a.m. for the purpose of budget voting. Kingston Township James Reino Jr. will continue to serve as chairman of the board of supervisors and Jeffrey Box was re-elected as vice chairman. Shirley Moyer was elected to re- place Frank Natitus as secretary. Natitus and John Solinsky were appointed to serve as supervi- SOrs. All other township officials were reappointed to their respec- tive positions. Lake Township Supervisors were reappointed to their positions, including Lon- nie Piatt as supervisor chairman and Supervisor Amy Salansky as vice chairman and Carlene Price as secretary, treasurer and build- ing permit liaison. All other township personnel were reappointed to their respec- tive positions. Lehman Township Supervisors remained intact, including David Sutton as chair- man and Ray Iwanowski as vice chairman. Jon Rogers was re- elected secretary at a salary of $15,500 per year and Alvin Cragle was re-elected treasurer at an an- nual salary of $16,000. The board also appointed sev- en part-time police officers at a rate of $13.60 per hour. Ross Township Supervisor Stan Davis will re- main as township chairman and emergency management coordi- nator, David Williams as town- ship vice chairman and road mas- ter and William Ferry as secreta- ry and treasurer. All other town- ship positions were maintained, as well. In addition to reappointing of- ficials, supervisors also voted to change the 2011 meeting sched- ule. The Ross Township supervi- sors will meet at 7 p.m. in the mu- nicipal building on the following dates: January 4, February 8, March 8, April 12, May 3, June 14, July 5, August 2, September 6, October 4, November 8 and De- cember 6. Any changes to the meeting times or dates will be ad- vertised. Algebra teacher finds easy transition to becoming advisor of new hiking club By SARAH HITE shite@mydallaspost.com ary Beth Zardus teaches algebra at Dallas High School, but it wasn’t a diffi- cult transition for her to be- come an advisor for the new Hiking Club at the school. “I was a runner,” she said. “I've been hiking for five years now.” The 3l-member club meets every Friday at 2:30 p.m. to discuss future hikes, learn about hiking safety and trade trekking experi- ences. The group plans to hike at least once a month. Zardus the club is trying to keep kids active while learning more about nature. “It gives kids an opportunity to get out and hike and share their love for outdoors,” she said. “It’s an opportunity to do it e often.” )Ann McAllister, a Dallas ogy teacher and another club advisor, is able to explain natural tidbits while getting some fresh air. She said too many students often play video games and are sedentary out- side of school, and the club makes venturing outdoors more of a social occasion. “I like (hiking) with all of my school friends — the kids I see every day,” said Jenna Morgan, 15, president of the club. Morgan, of Dallas, said she’s hiked in the past with family, but the club lets her share her passion for the outdoors with li- keminded friends her age. She said she got her hiking start when she attended a camp in Bear Creek, and now hopes to expand the club even more and extend her interest in ex- The 31-member Dallas Hiking Cloub meeets every Friday to discuss future hikes, learn about hik- ing safety and trade treeking experiences. The group pland to hike at least once a month. “It gives kids an opportunity to get out and hike and share their love for outdoors. It's an opportunity to do it more often.” Mary Beth Zardus Dallas Hiking Club advisor ploring the woods to others. Andrea Parmelee, 15, club secretary, said she got tips from her brother, a Boy Scout, to teach the rest of the class. “We do research (about safe- ty), and my brother has talked to me about hiking safety be- cause he’s a Boy Scout,” said Parmelee, of Dallas. : The hike routes are planned in advance. Zardus prints out a map of the selected park and members get themselves famil- iar with the area. Hunting zones are also taken into considera- tion. For example, the club planned a hike for November 21 at Frances Slocum State Park, a date that is in-between hunting seasons. Zardus expressed plans to take a bus trip for a future expe- dition though the club has no fundraising plans at this point in time. “I'd like to go to the Delaware Water Gap,” she said. “It’s a neat place to hike.” HARVEYS LAKE BOROUGH More townhouses may be coming to borough By Eileen Godin Dallas Post Correspondent The site of an old riding stable in Harveys Lake Borough may be- come the new home of 44 town- houses. Harveys Lake Zoning Hearing Board voted Tuesday night to ap- prove a special exception varia- nce, a zoning classification varia- nce and a front yard setback vari- ance for a townhouse develop- ment proposal by Homeworks Inc. of Sweet Valley. Homeworks Inc. owners Rick Amy and Brad Nilsson requested the variances on 9.83 acres of land off Old Lake Road. The prop- erty is located near Bill's Café and Amy said there was a riding sta- ble in that vicinity at one time. The approvals do not give Amy and Nilsson permission to start building but are the first step in a long process. Zoning Hearing Board Chairman Michael Garrity said the property owners have to receive the variance approvals be- fore moving onto the planning and design of the townhouses. The next step is to provide the planning commission with a de- tailed townhouse plan where is- sues of sewer lines, traffic and roads will be discussed in detail. Due to a variation in elevation, the proposal calls for 28 town- houses to face away from Old Lake Road. Sixteen townhouses will be placed about 44 feet high- ‘er on the hillside off Park Street, which currently is a dirt road, ac- cording to Tim Connolly of Con- nolly Engineering. The 28 townhouses are to be placed in what is currently zoned . as a commercial district and Gar- rity said a hardship must be de- clared to obtain a variance for this area. Amy explained that sev- eral vacant cottages still stand in the area. “It was once used as a residen- tial area,” he said. “I think it was zoned commercial years ago due to a riding stable on the proper- Connolly said the parcel would not be able to be used as commer- cial property such as a strip mall due to lack of parking and be- cause the property grade is too steep. Voicing her opposition, resi- dent Irene Brislin did not agree. She objected to the change, stat- ing the area was zoned commer- cial and should stay as so. “Just because you cannot use it as you want, you want a variance change,” she said. “So much vari- ance changing is changing the at- mosphere of the lake.” The other 16 townhouses are proposed in an S1-R district, meaning a special residential dis- trict. Under the current zoning, townhouses are allowable in the S1-R district but need a special exception approval, according to Andy Luzetski, zoning officer. Resident Santo Agati ex- pressed concern over the town- houses creating a crowding prob- lem in this area. Connolly ex- plained the 13 cottages in the area are about 10 feet apart and right on the road. The townhouses would have a bigger footprint but would be 25 feet away from the road. The two-man Zoning Hearing Board members awarded a five- foot variance for the front yard setback for all 44 townhouses. The required front yard setback was 30 feet from the right of way to the front of the structure. The variance approval allows the townhouses to be 25 feet. Agati asked the developers how sewer connections to the townhouses would be obtained since the borough has had a hold on sewer hook-up permits for years. Amy responded he planned to start with the 16 town- houses first and use the current hook-ups from the old cottages. Gloria Bilder, who lives near the site, said she has lived in this area for about 30 years. “I would rather have town- house residences there than a business,” she said. After the hearing, Amy and Nilsson said they are eager to be- gin the planning and design phase of their first townhouse project. Amy said the two have been general contractors for townhouses constructed at the Village at Greenbriar in Dallas. “We have a preliminary draw- ing,” he said. “Now, we can move onto designing.” HARPIN' ON THINGS Wasn't it just yesterday we were frantic about the coming Welcome to the ninth day of second decade of the 21st in the year of the Rabbit. Where have the last 10 years gone? It seems like just yesterday everyone was frantic about the start of the year 2000 with supposed com- puter crashes and other calami- ties about to befall the human race. People were filling their Heffernan pantries with canned goods while others were stocking up on survival gear. They were install- ing generators for power failures and other such nonsense. In 2000, the Mrs. and I were living in the Florida Keys and we had a neighbor who made it a rit- ual for several years to start blowing his bugle at the stroke of midnight and continue until about 2 am. or whenever his beer ran out. It would not have been that bad had his back patio been more than the allowed set- back of 25 feet from our bedroom window or if he could actually play something other than the mating call of a bull elk in rut. In any case, that year he was really wound up and kept coming out and bugling until almost 4 a.m. Every time we drifted off to sleep, his screen door would slam, beginning yet another bar- rage of musical madness. I had a fishing charter that morning and would have gotten up in half an hour anyway so I told the Mrs., since she was up and not too happy, that I was go- ing to the marina early. There would, however, be more noise before I left. Going to the back porch, which was 10 feet closer to the neighbor’s patio than our win- dow, I noticed that his house was dark. I ripped open our sagging aluminum door, which made a grating noise worse than finger- nails on a chalkboard as it dragged across the concrete, steadied myself in the dark and then slammed it shut as hard as I could. The porch howled in protest of metal meeting metal at such a high rate of speed. The noise was tremendous as the concussion echoed from under the alumi- num roof. And I was happy. It took approximately four minutes of rip open, smile and slam shut for his porch light to come on which was my cue to get into the truck and get on the road. We had no sleep and had to work that day so I figured I would just give him a head start on his hangover. The Mrs. and I spent a quiet evening out here in Lehman this year as the new decade began, of 2000? talking about friends we had seen or heard from the past year, new ones we have made since moving back to the area and dreams for the future. We hope everyone has a happy and healthy new year. Harp Heffernan was the asso- ciate publisher, outdoor editor and chief photographer of the Sunday Independent, a newspa- per that was wn his family for 87 vears in Wilkes-Barre. You can e- mail him a news@mydallas- post.com. Ea a a A a i TAD VT OED 2 Su RRR Re Ys a a i ul IH CARE A FRE
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