| Sunday, July 24, 2011 THE DALLAS POST PAGE 3 HARVEYS LAKE BOROUGH Preliminary residential plan for condos is approved By EILEEN GODIN @ Post Correspondent 1 Harveys Lake Borough Council gave its approval on a preliminary residential plan and four waivers for the Villas at Waterwood, a pro- posed development of 117 condo- minium units to be located on 33 acres of the former Hanson's Amusement Park. Developers Ken Williams, Mat- thew Deprimo and Attorney Ange- lo Terrana have been working with the borough engineer and the Planning Commission to whittle away 61 conditions council mem- bers implemented last November, said council president Francis Kop- ko. Terrana said, of the 61 condi- tions, the developers have a list of 12 they have been working on. “Some of them (of the 12) have been satisfied, but we left them on the list,” he said. “So even though it shows 12, in reality there are six or seven. We did not have time to prepare the paperwork to back them up.” Terrana requested four waivers Developers Ken Williams, Matthew Deprimo and Attorney Angelo Terrana have been working with the borough engineer and the Planning Commission to whittle away 61 conditions council mem- bers implemented last November, said council president Francis Kopko. from the council on aspects like us- ing a more decorative but function- al fencing around the proposed re- tention basin. According to the borough zon- ing laws, an 8 ft. chain-linked fence is required. Terrana requested, since the retention basin is near the front of the property, that coun- cil allow the developers to use a wooden fencing which would blend into the landscaping but still prevent children and small ani- mals from entering the area. A retention basin is an area where excess storm water would be stored until it can be absorbed into the ground. The second waiver involves an access roadway which was devel- oped from the end of Grandview Avenue through the property and exiting onto Lakeside Drive. Terra- na said the road is not an easement but an “interior roadway” con- structed by a resident from Grand- view Avenue. “Grandview Avenue dead ends about 20 feet above our site,” he said. The third waiver was to bypass a required Army Corp. study on the wetlands area. Terrana told the council it could take six months to a year to get someone to do that study and explained the wetland area is a small area in the back of the site which empties into a near- by creek. Williams added there are no planstobuild anything in that area. The fourth waiver was to dis- miss contour lines measuring from the center of the road to the curb. See CONDOS, Page 10 LAKE-LEHMAN SCHOOL DISTRICT Classroom named after Farrell By SARAH HITE shite@mydallaspost.com The Lake-Lehman School Board dedicated an elementary classroom at a meeting Monday in memory of a school board member who died earlier this year. Superintendent James McGov- ern read a declaration, naming Lehman-Jackson Elementary rool autism classroom the Far- rell Learning Center in memory of the late board member, John Peter Farrell, who died in a car ac- cident in April. Lorraine Farrell, who replaced her husband on the board after his passing, said he would be “honored and humbled” by the dedication. “He put his heart and soul into education,” she said. Board President Mark Kornos- ki said Farrell, whose son is autis- tic, was a “big supporter of special education,” and the board felt his dedication deserved recognition. The late board member will al- so have a scholarship offered in his memory from the Lake-Leh- man Foundation next year. The board hired Michael Non- “He put his heart and soul into education.” # w ~~ Lorraine Farrell Speaking about her late husband nenburg, of Scranton, as the new secondary industrial technology teacher with a salary of $41,841. Nonnenburg taught at the dis- trict as a long-term substitute last year after the retirement of Da- niel Williams. This is the Scran- ton High School and Millerville University graduate’s first profes- sional teaching assignment. The board also appointed the following employees for the 2011- 12 school year: Valerie Williams as district substitute caller with a stipend of $3,500; John McDo- nald as in-school suspension monitor at a rate of $13.55 per hour, 71/2 hours per day, 181 days per year; Jeffrey Shook as school and community resource officer at a rate of $15.15 per hour; and Molly Company as part-time teacher associate at a rate of $10.30 per hour, five hours per day, 181 days per year. The board approved the fur- lough of Christine Sakoski, ele- mentary library aide, effective June 13 due to elimination of the position. The position was cut due to the curtailment of certain programs on both the secondary and elementary levels during the district budgeting process. Johnna Evans, of the Lake Leh- man Foundation, told the board the July 15 golf tournament fun- draiser was successful and said plans are underway for the Battle of the Bands to be held on July 30. She said she would report the earnings of the golf tournament at the next school board meeting. Evans reported the foundation was able to send three high school and three elementary school stu- dents to various summer camps at Misericordia University due to a partnership formed with the school. Evans said a similar part- See FARRELL, Page 10 DALLAS TOWNSHIP ZONING Board hears from explosives expert By SARAH HITE shite@mydallaspost.com A fire and explosives risk analy- expert who testified at a Dal- as Township zoning hearing Wednesday told the board and public if a natural gas leak oc- curred at a proposed metering station to be built by Chief Gath- ering LLC, there would be “no ef- fect” on the neighboring Dallas School District or church. Ali Reza, vice president and principal engineer of Exponent Engineering and Scientific Con- sulting based in Menlo Park, Cal- if., was retained by Chief several months ago and instructed to GET AN UPDATE Check www.mydallaspost.com for information on Thursday's continued zoning hearing on Chief Gathering LLC's application for special excep- tions to construct a natural gas metering station near the Dallas schools. provide information about the risk of failure of its proposed me- tering station and the potential effects on the four Dallas schools and the Fellowship Free Evangel- ical Church on Hildebrandt Road. He said his company has a $60,000 contract with Chief to perform the task. Reza said the school building closest to the metering facility would be the middle school at 1,461 feet, and the church is 923 feet away from the structure. If the largest possible gas leak were to occur, Reza said the extent of the “flammable cloud” — an area where the gas concentration was appropriate for ignition — would extend to 330 feet in one calcula- tion and 567 feet in another, ren- dering the school and church un- harmed. Explaining that natural gas is See EXPERT, Page 10 Members of the 201 Dallas Harvest Festival Steering Committee are, from left, seated, Dallas Borough Manager Tracey Carr, Owen Faut, secretary; Rich Fufaro, chairman; Gina Major, enter- tainment; Jack Mihaleck, Karen Fiorello, Good Gourd Contest. Standing, Carol Wall, history; Don- na Davies, Rae Marsland, Bill Peiffer, Robert Opel, grounds; Carol Carroll, Flower Display Contest; Nancy Silvi, Darcy Brodmerkel, volunteers; Eric Novroski, Tyler Steve, Tom Gilroy and Liz Martin, marketing and Kiss the Pig Contest. Harvest Festival set for Sept. 18 Plans are underway for the Ninth Annual Dallas Harvest Festival, scheduled for 1 to 6 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 18 on and around Main Street, Dal- las, between the Route 415 in- tersection and Huntsville Road. The event will showcase the Back Mountain region’s rich agricultural heritage with an expansive community celebra- tion and farmer’s market. A va- riety of entertainment, crafts, fun for kids and an array of food vendors will add to the street fair atmosphere. In preparation of the fall fes- tivities, a series of interactive community contests will soon be underway: the ninth annual “Kiss the Pig” Contest, featur- ing Back Mountain ice cream emporiums; BOOM (Best of Open Mic), showcasing local talent; Main Street (and be- yond) businesses will ready themselves for the annual Flower Display Contest and the Good Gourd Contest will return, but with a new twist. Watch for future announce- ments and invitations to join in the fun. The steering committee is always looking for new volun- teers. Bring your talent and community spirit to a meeting at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, July 29 at the Dallas Borough Building, 25 Main St. For further information, call the festival hotline at 675-1950 or visit www.dallasharvestfes- tival.com. DALLAS TOWNSHIP Solicitor, gas By SARAH HITE shite@mydallaspost.com } The Dallas Township solic- itor announced Tuesday he was unable to reach an agreement with Williams Field Services, LLC on zoning and land devel- opment issues related to the company’s proposed pipeline construction within the town- ship. Negotiations have been ongo- ing since June. Solicitor Tho- mas Brennan said the township was trying to work out an company are agreement with Williams re- quirements for zoning and land development, in conjunction with the company’s 33 2 mile Springville Gathering Line, which would tap into the Tran- sco interstate pipeline located off Hildebrandt Road near the Dallas School District campus. The two parties also tried to reach an agreement for the company’s proposed metering station, which originally would have been located on a property about 1,800 feet from the four Dallas schools. At past meet- ings, Brennan said negotiations at standstill would have moved more con- troversial parts of the metering site, including two 3,000-gallon underground tanks of the flam- mable odorant mercaptan, to another site further away from the township. Williams received prelimina- ry approval from the Wyoming County Planning Commission last month for construction of a metering facility on about 5 acres of land off Schoolhouse Road in Northmoreland Town- ship. Officials said the site See STANDSTILL, Page 10 HARPIN" ON THINGS She Hang on a minute, honey! I'm on my way fo save the day for you My phone rang the other day, well actually, one of the custom ringtones which has been down- loaded (or is it uploaded?) to the Blueberry thing I now carry an- nounced a call from the Mrs. And, saluting first, I pressed the button to be con- nected. The Mrs., out of breath and sputtering parts of sen- tences faster could deciph- er, was say- ing something about birds, shov- els and being upset. Understand that the ringtone has been a great source of conver- sation and laughter when I'm standing in line with a bunch of guys at the food store who were all called to pick up something for Heffernan dinner. For those of us who re- member the television show “Lost in Space,” jog your memory and replay in your head the voice that came out of the robot that al- ways was with Will Robinson. There is a siren going off in the background and the voice is say- ing, “WARNING! WARNING! IT'S THE WIFE. IT'S THE WIFE!” First comes a look of be- wilderment as everyone around me looks for the source of the si- ren then immediate laughter, ex- cept from the woman in the next aisle who's giving me the look, and guys reaching for their phones asking if I can send it to them. I got it from Joey Y. who got it from Mike P. and I can’t count the number of times it has been forwarded. “Slowly dear,” I say into the phone. “Remember, I can’t under- stand you when you talk that fast plus I am vertically challenged.” Silence for a second or two and then laughter comes from the phone. “What does being short have to do with your hearing?” she asks. “Absolutely nothing, but I knew you would pick up on it and then downshift to third gear so I could catch up on the 87 words you said in seven seconds,” I re- spond, asking the reason for the phone call. “I looked into the flower pot on the porch to check on the wren’s nest before watering and six of the babies jumped out and are running around the porch,” she said. “Will the mother bird, which is dive bombing my head, pick them up and put them back? I tried to get them with a shovel but they are too quick.” Quickly racking my brain about how much weight a bird can lift, all I can think about is the scene in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” where the French cas- tle guards are arguing about an African Swallow carrying a coco- nut. I suggest gloves so as to limit the skin to feather contact and a hat to keep the mother bird out of the Mrs.” hair and to not bump the hanging flower pot which con- tains a sparrow’s nest with babies. That would be all she needed, a dozen little fluff balls running around the porch from two differ- ent species. And what if she put them back into the wrong nest? A wren being raised by a sparrow? You'd get a small bird with a Na- poleon complex. Ten minutes later, the alarm went off again and it was an- nounced that the Mrs. had res- cued five of the six babies and on- ly suffered a small amount of poop on her gloves. I said I would try to locate the last one when I got home and remembered a show from Marlin Perkin’s “Wild Kingdom.” Hopefully, I wouldn’t need the burlap sack that Jim used to capture everything from oN Anacondas to warthogs while Marlin sat in the comfort of his Land Rover. We have two bird nests on the porch. A robin’s nest is in the small pine tree next to the house. We have GG (Gordy Groundhog) and his family under the big pine tree. I was not allowed to relocate him even though the mound of dirt is in the back yard and now has five feet of long grass sur- rounding it. His cousins live in the hedgerow but visit daily and really enjoy the clover which sprouted instead of grass. There is B&BB, (Barney and Beverly Bunny) and their tribe which started out as only four but continues to grow. We have sever- al unnamed red and gray squir- rels, abear which only visits when the bird feeders are out and who turned two half-inch steel feeder poles into pretzels and a red- tailed hawk which sits on top of the power pole, eyeing the bunny brood. The newest addition is a great horned owl which the Mrs. spot- ted 50 feet from the back porch on the limb of a dead tree. I don’t know if it was checking out the groundhogs, rabbits or our cat which was sitting by the screen door watching the show but the crows were letting everyone know the owl was near. It’s nice to see the birds of prey making a comeback and even nic- er tobe able to sit and watch them in their natural environment. I better cut the fields so they can find the mice and moles and give the others a fighting chance of making it through the summer. Harp Heffernan was the associ- ate publisher, outdoor editor and chief photographer of the Sunday Independent, a newspaper that was mn his family for 87 years in Wilkes-Barre. You can e-mail him at news@mydallaspost.com.
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