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Sunday, March 20, 2011
THE DALLAS POST
PAGE 3°
HARVEYS LAKE BOROUGH
No ordinance
banning
“In this borough
By MATT HUGHES
mhughes@timesleader.com
The borough will not adopt
an ordinance banning natural
gas drilling.
After a 1- hour special hear-
ing Tuesday evening, council
voted 6-0 against an ordinance
that would have made it a
crime to extract natural gas
within the borough or to with-
draw water from sources with-
in the borough for use in gas
drilling.
The ordinance, drafted by
the Community Environmental
Legal Defense Fund of Cham-
bersburg, was first introduced
to council by borough resident
Michele Boice in November of
last year, with the fund first no-
tifying the borough it could
draft an anti-drilling ordinance
in August.
Boice and other proponents
ed popular support for
@ inne Prior to the spe-
al meeting, Boice submitted
more than 500 notarized signa-
tures to council that she said
represented the majority of bor-
ough residents who voted in
the last election.
Boice said the ordinance was
drilling
Ordinance backers touted the
ordinance as offering more
protection for the borough
than its zoning ordinance can
provide.
necessary to protect the bor-
ough’s air and water from the
environmental hazards associ-
ated with natural gas drilling
because state lawmakers
haven't adequately protected
them.
Councilwoman Diane
Dwyer, who motioned to vote
on the ordinance and twice mo-
tioned to hold Tuesday’s hear-
ing, prefaced her vote against
the ordinance by stating, “I
have to reply to a more defined
position on regulating the gas
drilling,” that the ordinance
could open the borough to a
lawsuit, and that “I do not be-
lieve we should act this quick-
ly.”
Referring to provisions of the
ordinance that would nullify
portions of the state Oil & Gas
Law, Councilman Richard Wil-
liams III also said he “(does)
See DRILLING, Page 13
DALLAS TOWNSHIP
Ordinance
coming to
By SARAH HITE
shite@mydallaspost.com
A natural gas industry ordi-
nance might be in the books for
Dallas Township in the coming
months, Solicitor Thomas
Brennan stated at a meeting
Tuesday night.
Brennan announced the in-
formation after resident and
Gas Drilling Awareness Coali-
tion member Norm Tomchak
® a letter on behalf of fellow
wsident Jeffrey Dickson Sr.
Dickson wrote a letter to the
supervisors, urging for the cre-
ation and passage of a natural
gas industry ordinance to pro-
tect the safety of citizens and
the environment. He acknowl-
edged that it would take some
time to create an effective ordi-
nance, and also asked supervi-
sors to place a moratorium on
the natural gas drilling industry
until further research on its ef-
fects can be done.
Brennan told the audience
may he
this town
UP NEXT-©
The next meeting of the Dallas
Township Board of Supervisors
will be held at 7:30 p.m. on April
5 in the municipal building.
the township does have modern
zoning, subdivision and land
development ordinances cur-
rently in place that can address
such issues, and he hopes to ob-
tain and present a model ordi-
nance to the supervisors by the
April 5 meeting. He said the or-
dinance in question is one that
has been studied, reviewed and
recommended by the Pennsyl-
vania State Association of
Township Supervisors.
Resident Liz Martin ques-
tioned the ordinance reviewed
by PSATS, stating major spon-
sors of the organization’s annual
conference are natural gas and
energy companies such as Che-
sapeake Energy, Range Re-
See COMING, Page 13
School.
Students dance
to aid sick kids
By SARAH HITE
shite@mydallaspost.com
About 300 Dallas High School
students danced, played and
stayed up all night to raise money
for children with cancer and their
families at the fifth annual Mini
THON on March 4. es
Six juniors organized the year-
Iy event as part of their’ Comple-
tion projects. All of the funds gen-
erated were donated to the Penn
State Hershey Four Diamonds
Fund, a benefit that aims to sup-
port children with cancer and
their families offset the costs of
treatment not covered by insur-
ance.
Students arrived at the gym at
7 p.m., doors were locked at 11
p.m. and attendees were chal-
lenged to stay awake until the
doors re-opened at 7 a.m. There
was a $20 admission fee, and stu-
dents who pre-paid were able to
buy T-shirts color coordinated by
grade level: Proceeds from the T-
shirts were also donated to the
Four Diamonds Fund.
The night kicked off with a
four-hour black light dance and
continued with games like bad-
minton and basketball. An in-
structor from Shapes Total Fit-
ness in Dallas led the hundreds of
students in a Zumba class.
Last year the event raised more
than $13,000 for the Four Dia-
monds Fund, and advisors said
"Personally, when you
meet a family, you look
at it differently and re-
alize how childhood can-
cer affects others.”
Sara Flaherty
| Mini THON organizer
vo ERE
0 mem
the past four years totaled more
than $65,000 for the charity.
Sara Flaherty, 17, of Dallas, en-
joyed attending the event so
much the past two years, she
wanted to be a part of it when it
came time to decide on a comple-
tion project.
“It’s just such a great cause,”
she said.
In addition to the Mini THON,
the group organized a spaghetti
dinner and a flag football game to
raise money for the fund.
“The amount of hours we put
into this is unthinkable,” said Fla-
herty.
The girls attended the THON
event at Penn State University
and a conference in Hershey for
high schools looking to host their
own Mini THONs. THON, or the
Penn State IFC/Panhellenic
Dance Marathon, is an annual
event held at Penn State Univer-
sity where students dance for an
entire weekend to raise money
for the Four Diamond Fund.
The organizers of the local
CHARLOTTE BARTIZEK PHOTOS/ FOR THE DALLAS POST
Groups perform routines through the night to keep participants awake at a Mini THON to benefit childhood cancer held at Dallas High
Matt Alles, of Dallas, was the DJ on call at a Dallas High School
Mini THON.
A Mini THON at Dallas High School raised money for children with
cancer.
For more information about Penn State University's annual THON
event, visit www.THON.org.
event — Flaherty, Sabrina Zurek,
Amelia Pietraccini, Elaina Toma-
selli, Thea Treslar and Kassondra
Michno - invited a family that
has benefited from the Four Dia-
monds Fund. Linda Deckman, of
Mountain Top, spoke to students
about her 7-year-old son Caleb,
who has been cancer-free for
three years.
“Personally, when you meet a
family, you look at it differently
and realize how childhood cancer
affects others,” said Flaherty.
HARPIN' ONTHINGS
We can learn a thing or two by watching what goes on around us
Changing things around a lit-
tle, the ‘Atta Boy of the Week’
goes to all those in attendance at
the Elk Lake Mat Men Wrestling
Tourna-
ment at Elk
Lake Mid-
dle School
March 12. A
lot of local
parents and
wrestlers
got to expe-
rience and
be a part of
something
that doesn’t
happen too
often. They
all need to be patted on the back.
A few columns ago, I ranted
about the horrible singing of the
National Anthem at the Super
Bowl and how embarrassing it
HEFFERNAN
was. Well, at this tournament, a
young lady was standing on the
wrestling mat in front of the
wrestlers with the packed bleach-
ers behind her looking up at the
flag on the wall when she started
to sing.
She made it to “...the twilight’s
last gleaming” and stopped. In
the seconds of silence that fol-
lowed, you could see her head
drop as she lowered the micro-
phone. Barely audible at first
came voices from the far end of
the gymnasium, “Whose broad
stripes and bright stars...” pick-
ing up where she had faltered.
The volume continued to rise
as the singing swept from one
end of the gym to the other until
everyone was involved.
Bolstered by the support of the
crowd, the young lady recovered
her composure and was able to
belt out the last two lines, her
voice coming on strong over the
loudspeakers. She received a
rousing round of applause while
the wrestlers received a lesson in
how people can immediately
bond to help others.
And there is no better example
being played out in the world to-
day than that by the people in Ja-
pan following the total devasta-
tion of many areas from the
earthquake and following tsuna-
mi.
To start, we all need to say a
prayer for the thousands who lost
their lives and to their families.
Today’s technology has brought
us almost instantaneous cover-
age of the calamity. I will never
forget seeing footage of a wall of
water rushing through the
streets with people running and
cars racing in the other direction.
Here in the Wyoming Valley
we have firsthand knowledge
about the damage water can in-
flict on an area after living
through and overcoming Agnes
in 72. The damage here was not
on the scale of that in Japan in
terms of reducing entire towns to
heaps of debris, yet we did suffer
serious effects from the water.
Families were displaced, busi-
nesses were closed and months
of cleanup and revitalization
stretched into years.
And what do I remember most
about the flood? I remember how
people came together to help
each other in the “Valley with a
Heart” which is exactly what we
are seeing in Japan. It’s a shame
that it has taken a calamity in one
nation to bring the countries of
the world together, yet that’s
what we're seeing.
Let’s hope that, as the situation
in Japan stabilizes and wounds
start to heal, leaders and people
of these countries realize we are
all here on this earth only once
and our differences must be over-
come so we can all enjoy that
time.
Something that I have not for-
gotten but not thought about in
many years was a class I took dur-
ing my years at Wyoming Semi-
nary. It was on Japanese and Chi-
nese History taught by Mr. Wash-
burn who had done extensive
traveling to those countries and
was attempting to impart some
of that knowledge and experi-
ence to us in the classroom. I re-
member him explaining the dif-
ferent customs and family values
of those foreign countries and
now I understand a little more
about them. Americans should
take a hard look at where our val-
ues and morals are going.
Have you seen any news foot-
age of looting or stealing, of dem-
onstrations or complaints about
where the government was, of
pushing and shoving trying to
get food and water like we have
seen in this country following
floods or hurricanes?
Here in America, The Land of
the Free, (people that is) need an
attitude adjustment and there is
no better example than the cur-
rent situation in Japan to use as
an example.
Harp Heffernan was the associ
ate publisher, outdoor editor and
chief photographer of the Sunday
Independent, a newspaper that
was m his family for 87 vears in
Wilkes-Barre. You can e-mail hvm
at news@mydallaspost.com.