PAGE 10
THE DALLAS POST
Sunday, June 17, 2012
BUDGET
Continued from Page 1
concerns.” Galicki said he and
Duffy held a meeting and called
the police soon after.
“We don’t know anything
about the investigation at this
point,” said Galicki. “We’ve been
told by the district attorney’s of-
fice that they would make con-
tact with us.”
The investigation was not oth-
erwise mentioned by the board
or the audience in the crowded
meeting room.
The board approved salaries
for the superintendent, business
manager and confidential secre-
taries through the 2012-13 school
year and for secretaries, house-
keepers, custodians and mainte-
nance staff through June 30,
2016. Administrators received a
2.1 percent raise.
A construction change order
for the new high school was also
approved. The board authorized
the change order totaling $2,074
for the addition of back draft
dampers in the art room hoods.
In other news, the board...
e Authorized the lease of a
wheelchair lift mini-bus at a cost
of $1,068.41 per month for 60
months.
¢ Approved an agreement with
Wyoming Valley Alcohol and
Drug Services Inc. for prevention
education services two days a
week for the 2012-13 school year
at the per diem rate of $100.
e Authorized Solicitor Ben
Jones II to attend the Pennsylva-
nia School Board Association
School Solicitors Symposium in
State College July 12-13 at a cost
of $650.
e Approved John Hodle as
part-time groundskeeper effec-
tive June 25.
* Accepted the resignation of
Jennifer Kelley, speech therapist,
effective the end of the 2011-12
school year.
¢ Approved the payment of a
stipend of $500 per month, total-
ing $6,000, to Tom Duffy, middle
school principal, to handle duties
formerly completed by the assist-
ant middle school principal for
the 2012-13 school year. Board
member Karen Kyle voted
against this measure.
e Hired Wendy Greenwood as
a lifeguard for the district at arate
of $10 per hour.
e Approved a resolution to
comply with the Award of the Ar-
bitrator issued April 27 based up-
on a grievance filed by the Penn-
sylvania State Education Associ-
ation by the payment of total
back pay for the school years
2010-11 and 2011-12 in the amount
of $40,008.31 to Nancy Roberts,
athletic director, in satisfaction of
all claims asserted by PSEA.
Solicitor Ben Jones III said this
issue arose from the teachers’
union, as Roberts was hired as
athletic director while serving as
a part-time wellness instructor in
the district. He said the union
grieved that the athletic director
position should be held by a full-
time employee of the district
based on past experience. He
said the arbitrator ruled in favor
of the union.
e Appointed Nancy Roberts as
a fulltime physical education
teacher in the wellness depart-
ment at the fourth step Master’s
level on the salary scale at
$41,667 beginning on July 1, 2012
and ending on June 30, 2013.
* Accepted the resignation of
Melissa Cencetti, contracted
physical therapist, effective June
15.
e Approved the new district
policy on management of ath-
letes with concussions and re-
turn to play. Galicki said all
coaches, paid and volunteer, will
need to undergo training about
concussion symptoms and how
to respond to such incidents.
e Accepted the resignation of
Paul Darling, assistant girls bas-
ketball coach.
e Appointed Abe Lewis as
head girls soccer coach for the
fall season with a stipend of
$3,033. Galicki said this is the co-
coach stipend amount and a
memorandum of understanding
will be drawn to determine the
head coach salary for girls’ soc-
cer.
e Appointed the following
winter sports coaches: Kelly
Johnson as head high school girls
basketball coach with a stipend of
$6,235; Doug Miller as head high
school boys basketball coach
with a stipend of $6,265; Matt
Barry as assistant high school
boys’ basketball coach with a sti-
pend of $3,295; Mike Richards
head high school wrestling coach
with a stipend $6,235; Bob Jesse
as assistant high school wrestling
coach with a stipend of $3,295;
Romayne Mosier as head high
school swimming coach with a
stipend of $4,090; Jen Swiderski
as assistant high school swim-
ming coach with a stipend of
$2,373; Matt Nonenburg as high
school diving coach with a sti-
pend of $2,217; Jerry Ogurkis as
assistant-in-charge for middle
school wrestling with a stipend of
$3,295; John Hutchins of assist-
ant middle school wrestling
coach with a stipend of $2,725;
Johnna Schickram as eighth-
grade girls basketball coach with
a stipend of $2,725; Karen Bove
as seventh-grade girls basketball
coach with a stipend of $664;
Jesse Francis as assistant-in-
charge of middle school boys”
basketball with a stipend of
$3,295; Tony Chiarucci as eighth-
grade boys basketball coach with
a stipend of $2,725; and James
Gattuso as seventh-grade boys
basketball coach with a stipend of
$664.
¢ Appointed Mark Farrell and
Vita DeLuca as volunteer sev-
enth-grade basketball coaches.
CHURCH BRIEFS
TUMC announces
Vacation Bible School
Vacation Bible School will be
held from June 17-21 at the
Trucksville United Methodist
Church Educational Building,
40 Knob Hill Road, Trucksville.
Dinner is provided and starts
at 5:30 p.m. each night. The
opening skit begins at 6:15 p.m.
and the program ends at 8:30
p.m. each night. This year’s
group will go on a safari with
music, mission, games, crafts,
skits, snacks and a lesson.
This year’s Mission Focus
benefits “Nothing But Nets,” a
mission that provides mosquito
nets to families to prevent the
spread of malaria.
Sweet Valley church
sets Bible School
Vacation Bible School will be
held from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Sunday, June 17 through Fri-
day, June 22 at Sweet Valley
through sixth grade.
Daily activities include Bible
lessons, crafts, snacks and
games. There will be a “Fun
Fair” on Friday.
The church is handicapped
accessible.
For information and regis-
tration, call 477-2320.
Morgan will speak
at breakfast
The scheduled speaker at the
Back Mountain Men’s Ecumen-
ical Group on Tuesday, June 19
is Wayne Morgan of the local
Youth For Christ.
The BMMEG meets for
breakfast at 8 a.m. every Tues-
day at the Irem Country Club.
Vacation Bible
School planned
Vacation Bible School, entit-
led “Babylon — Daniel's Cour-
age in Captivity,” will be held
from 5:30 to 8 p.m. June 24-28
every night.
e-mail melanie.transue@elkla-
Top register, call 836-5898 {Y
keschool.org.
LIUM Church
plans Bible School
The Lehman-Idetown United
Methodist Church, Mountain
View Drive, Lehman, will host
its annual Vacation Bible
School from 9 a.m. to noon
June 25-29.
A special service to celebrate
the week will be held at 10 a.m.
on Sunday, July 1.
For more information, con-
tact Mandy Newman at 674-
9777 or Pastor Bob Ryder at
675-5192. No pre-registration is
needed.
Maple Grove Church
plans Bible School
The Maple Grove United
Methodist Church, 5876 Main
Road, Sweet Valley, will hold
its Vacation Bible School from
6 to 8:30 p.m. June 25-29.
RSET SR
e The next Dallas School Church of Christ, 5439 Main at the Centermoreland United Registration may be done the
Board meeting will be held at 7 Road, Sweet Valley. Methodist Church, 17 Cream- first night of VBS or by calling
p.m. Monday, July 16 in the ad- The Bible School is for chil- ery Road, Centermoreland. 477-5216 to obtain a regis-
ministration building. dren between the ages of 2 A light dinner will be served tration form.
Chet Mozloom of The Lands The board also voted to take township and the lawsuit was
at Hillside Farms spoke on be- legal action against Centax-Don settled out of court.
CHICK E NS half of Chris Mathers. He said he Wilkinson Agency if the prob- * Approved two payments for
Continued from Page 1
Supervisors also felt the space
in the residential zoning district
isn’t adequate for that kind of ac-
tivity.
“I grew up in Wayne County,
and I grew up with chickens in
my backyard when I was young,
and I generally agree we lived in
harmony and there were no is-
sues there,” said Box. “..My
thoughts are simply that we
have a zoning ordinance that’s
been in effect since 1975 that re-
stricts what you want to do ...
and I believe the R-1 zoning lot
sizes are too small for anyone to
be raising chickens....”
Chris Mathers said the birds
could be regulated via a permit
application that would feature
lot specifications and other re-
quirements. She said the money
understood both sides of the ar-
gument but hoped a compro-
mise could be reached to allow
those who wanted chickens to
raise them in an appropriate
manner.
Moyer said it was a difficult
situation to debate, but felt the
health, safety and enforcement
issues could not be ignored.
“As a supervisor, you try to
make everybody in your town-
ship happy and the hardest
thing is not being able to make a
certain group happy,” Moyer
said.
The board also adopted an or-
dinance that will amend sec-
tions of the township home rule
charter pertaining to project bid
limits, contracts, actions requir-
ing an ordinance and effect
dates of ordinances.
The issue will be placed on
the ballot for the November gen-
enforcement.
from the permit applications
could be used for paying for the
eral election; as the home rule
charter requires a public vote to
be changed.”
lems persist with earned income
tax collection.
Reino said the township is
short about $265,000 due to the
problems in collection, which
may require the township to
take out a loan to supplement
the general fund.
In other news, the board ...
e Approved a settlement
agreement in regard to the case
of American Asphalt Co. v. King-
ston Township and authorized a
check to be issued in the
amount of $5,000 to American
Asphalt Co.
Township Manager Kathleen
Sebastian said years ago a con-
tractor paved Green Road but
did not perform the work ac-
cording to township specifica-
tions. She said the township
withheld payment to the con-
tractor and the contractor then
withheld payment to American
Asphalt Co. for the project mate-
rials. She said American Asphalt
sued the contractor and the
the East Center Street Bridge
project, totaling $33,505.81. Re-
ino said 80 percent of that
amount will be paid for by the
state Department of Transporta-
tion and the township will be re-
sponsible for 20 percent, or
$6,701.16.
e Opened bids for line paint-
ing in the township. Bids were
made by Alpha Space, Interstate
Road Management and Mid-At-
lantic Markings. The bids will
be awarded at a special meeti
at 7 p.m. on June 26.
e Allocated funds for the fol-
lowing projects in the township:
install storm water manage-
ment materials in Westmore-
land Hills, remove a tree on
Kimberly Drive and fix the mu-
nicipal building parking lot for
safety issues.
¢ The next Kingston Town-
ship Board of Supervisors meet-
ing will be held at 7:30 p.m. on
Wednesday, July 11 in the mu-
nicipal building’
FIELDS
Continued from Page 1
been in the Back Mountain for
years.
“Apparently, there was a soccer
organization that was given the
use of the field,” said Bowden,
who became president of the
Raiders organization this year.
“Though we put our request in
very early, I guess it wasn’t early
enough.”
The team practices at Center
Street Park in Kingston Town-
ship, a field that hosts practices
for baseball, lacrosse, soccer and
football throughout the spring,
summer and fall months.
“Center Street Park is used ve-
ry heavily,” said Kingston Town-
ship Supervisor James Reino Jr.
“There’s always a need for more
space because there are other
places where they don’t have the
space, and teams are struggling
to get practice time.”
Fields must meet stringent re-
quirements to be considered offi-
cial playing fields. Bowden said
the Center Street Park field is
about 10 feet too short to host
Raiders’ games.’
Bowden said the team received
permission to utilize a field at the
West Side Career and Technolo-
gy Center in Pringle, but the area
is too hilly and rocky for safe play.
“Our ideal option is to use
fields here (in the Back Moun-
tain),” said Bowden.
He said the team will most like-
ly share field space with another
team in the league, such as
Swoyersville.
Bowden said another option
was to rent field space from Mi-
sericordia University or Penn
State Wilkes-Barre, but the costs
for the organization and players’
parents would be too much to
bear.
“It’s not an attractive option,”
he said.
Utilizing schools
The team once used the fields
on the Dallas School District
campus,
but so much has
changed there within the last two
years, some of the high school’s
own teams can’t find a place to
play.
Nancy Roberts, district athlet-
ic director, said teams have had
to be patient during the construc-
tion process, as many lost their
home fields.
The high school officially
opened in September 2011, but
several athletic fields are still not
ready for use — many still need to
be germinated and will not be
useable until next year.
“Since the construction start-
ed, there has been a lot of frustra-
tion among teams,” said Roberts.
“The new fields haven’t been ger-
minated — we’re not even using
them.”
This includes the baseball field
and four other fields located be-
hind the high school. The Dallas
High School baseball team cur-
rently plays at the Dallas Little
League field in Kunkle.
Roberts said with the addition
of girls’ soccer in the fall, most of
the fields at the school will be in
use by school athletic teams until
the evening hours, which may al-
so hinder young teams’ usage.
“We're hoping down the road
we’ll have more community ac-
cess to these fields,” she said.
Tom Rokita, Lake-Lehman
School District athletic director,
said the high school campus has
plenty of room for expansion, but
with state budget cuts plaguing
schools, it’s difficult to find the
money to move forward with
such projects.
He said the campus has about
10 fields used by high school soc-
cer, lacrosse, football, baseball
and other sports.
Currently, the district allows
the Back Mountain Mini
Knights, the Back Mountain
Youth Soccer Association and a
local baseball team to use the
fields as well.
Rokita said the district doesn’t
charge a fee for community orga-
nizations to use the fields, but
that is something that may be
considered by the school board in
the future.
The football field, which is
made of multi-turf, is about nine
"I'm most concerned about finding a permanent
solution to this problem," he said. "We go through
the same process every January, and it takes a lot
of attention away from the board, and our goal is
to make sure every kid has a great experience."
Donald Bowden
KT Raiders president
years old, and Rokita said that’s
about the standard shelf life ‘of
such a field.
“To replace this, it would cost
about $500,000 so we're going to
use it as long as we can,” he said.
“We're on the home stretch with
this field.”
He said the district has limited
the usage of the field to football
to cut down on the wear and tear
of the space.
Next to the lacrosse field be-
hind Lehman-Jackson Elemen-
tary lies about 20 additional acres
of property where Rokita said the
district could expand upon field
space if it becomes necessary.
He said there are issues with
wetlands and leveling the areas,
but the board isn’t considering
the need for expansion anytime
soon.
Expanding teams, fields
Now that the Rock Recreation
Center in Trucksville has pur-
chased the Wyoming Valley
Swim and Tennis Club in Shaver-
town, there are more opportuni-
ties to expand the center’s youth
sports offerings.
The organization recently built
a 13,000 square foot turf multi-
purpose field on two of the tennis
courts at the swim club with the
hopes of starting its own youth .
soccer program, said Doug Mill-
er, center director.
The $30,000 field was made
possible due to state grants, Mill-
er said. The center in Trucksville
was recently approved as a clean
fill site and, over time, Miller
hopes to establish another field
behind the center.
“We started last summer and
last month we had about 100
loads (of fill) coming in,” said
Miller.
There’s no deadline to build
the field — it’s mostly dependent
on availability of finances. He
said the newly-constructed field
in Shavertown will be available
for public use, and teams can
make requests by calling the cen-
ter.
“It’s not big enough for orga-
nized sports games — it might be
useful for U-8 soccer games,” he
said. “But it can be used for a
practice field.”
Dave Sutton, executive direc-
tor of the Back Mountain Recre-
ation Complex in Lehman Town-
ship, would like to expand upon
the oft-used fields at the complex
on Outlet Road.
He said between mini-football,
soccer and lacrosse, there isn’t
much wiggle room for other
sports teams to use the six fields,
just two of which are full-sized.
“I get more requests all the
time,” said Sutton, who helped to
found the complex in the 1990s.
Nicki Rismondo, president of
the Dallas Youth Soccer Associ-
ation, said the teams comprised
of about 800 youths heavily use
the Back Mountain Recreation
fields and the fields near St.
Paul’s, but space is getting tight
and money is getting tighter.
“It’s getting very, very diffi-
cult,” said Rismondo, who has
been a soccer association board
member for the last five years.
“Fields are our biggest expense.”
Rismondo said the association
is able to wrangle in costs due to
several sponsors of the organiza-
tion, but the biggest challenge is
competing with other teams for
the field space.
“It gets a little stressful, espe-
cially when someone else gets
the rights to use the fields,” she
guid,
ments needed for play. tbe
The Lake-Lehman lacrosse field.
Looking for funding
Miller said the center is “eager-
ly” looking for grants and outside
donations to enable the center to
make more field space.
He said it’s been difficult to ac-
quire state funding for projects in
recent years.
Sutton would also like to see
the Back Mountain Recreation
Complex expand — current fields
only occupy about 20 acres of the
130-acre property.
Sutton would also like to see
unorganized space available for
children and families to use, such
as playgrounds.
“The trouble is finding financ-
es,” he said. “We’re a non-profit -
all of our money comes from do-
nations. We charge (teams) a lit-
tle bit for them to use the fields,
but we don’t get enough rent to
cover expenses.”
Sutton said the organization
has started an endowment fund
through the Luzerne Foundation
to help it get closer to that expan-
sion.
Reino said it might be difficult
to create more athletic field space
without the funds to support the
endeavor. The Center Street Park
field is aided by fees charged to
teams, so it is not a costly space
for the township to maintain, but
other fields may cost much more
because of the stringent require-
a great experience.”
“(More field space has) been +
talked about, but there’s only a &
handful of tracks long enough,” *
said Reino. “It would be a multi-
million dollar project, and at pre-
sent, short of someone donating “%
land, or finding a grant,I don’t be- &
lieve there's any way going to be i
able to add any new recreation
fields.”
Searching for answers
Though many sports teams re-
port a stabilization or slight de-
cline in participation, many team
leaders believe youths are play-
ing more sports than ever before.
“Sports have totally evolved,”
said Rismondo. “Kids don’t play
just one particular sport during a
season — kids are playing all year
round.”
Bowden believes municipal
leaders and sports organizations
BILL TARUTIS/ FOR THE DALLAS POST i]
should work together in solving
this issue. He said municipalities
and sports leaders should collab- 13
orate on the issue because both
have a vested interest in benefit-
ing the community.
‘'m most concerned about >
finding a permanent solution to
this problem,” he said. “We go \
through the same process every
January, and it takes alot of atten-
tion away from the board, and our
goal is to make sure every kid has
)