Vol. 121 No. 23
THE BACK MOUNTAIN'S NEWSPAPER SINCE 1889
August 5 - 11, 2012
OS].
WILKES-BARRE, PA.
www.mydallaspost.com
AN EDITION OF THE TIMES LEADER
Local volunteers vital to success of annual triathlon
WILKES-BARRE TRIATHLON
The 31st annual Wilkes-Barre Triathlon starts at 7:30 a.m.
today and takes place exclusively in the Back Mountaon.
By SARAH HITE
shite@mydallaspost.com
It may be called the Wilkes-
Barre Triathlon, but the race that
starts at 7:30 a.m. today takes
place exclusively in the Back
Mountain, and the race director
said the swimming, biking and
running event could not be pos-
sible without the support of the
As population numbers and ve-
hicular traffic increase in the
Back Mountain, safety has be-
come an important issue for race
organizers.
Race Director Joanne Gensel,
of Dallas, said the triathlon is
named so that athletes from
across the country could associ-
ate the event with a recognizable
region in northeastern Pennsyl-
vania.
Start time: 7:30 a.m.
Start location: Harveys Lake Beach Club
Swim distance: 1.5 kilometer loop, starts and ends at Harveys Lake
Beach Club
Bike distance: 40 kilometer course that winds through Harveys Lake,
Noxen, Kunkle, Dallas Township, Dallas and Jackson Township and ends
at Penn State Wilkes-Barre campus in Lehman Township
Run distance: 1 kilometer loop, starts and ends at the Penn State
Wilkes-Barre campus
End location: Penn State Wilkes-Barre campus in Lehman Township
More information: Contact Joanne Gensel, race director, at 270-5515 or
visit www.wilkesbarretriathlon.com.
ago, there really wasn’t that many
much traffic in the Back
Cyclists ride along Lakeside
Drive at Harveys Lake during a
previous Wilkes-Barre Triath-
lon. BILL TARUTIS FILE PHOTO/ FOR THE DALLAS POST
Hillside Road will
be reopened soon
surrounding community. “When this started 31 years See TRIATHLON, Page 10
Work continues on the natural gas pipeline project along Carverton Road in Kingston Township.
Gas drilling is an ongoing issue
Several natural gas projects continue in BMT
By SARAH HITE
shite@mydallaspost.com
Work continues on several nat-
ural gas projects in the Back
Mountain. Here is a brief update
on those projects.
Wyoming Pipeline Project
The Wyoming Pipeline Project
is nearing completion, said Mark
Casaday, executive vice presi-
dent and chief operating officer
of Penn Virginia Resources Part-
ners midstream operations.
The project includes a 30-mile
pipeline that runs from Susque-
hanna County to a tap-in site lo-
cated off Hildebrandt Road. It
will bring natural gas from wells
in Susquehanna County to the
Transco interstate pipeline in
Dallas Township, which will
then take the gas to market.
Casaday hopes the pipeline
will be fully functioning at the
end of August or the beginning of
September.
The company is also working
on a compressor station, located
6'M09815120079%g
in Susquehanna County, and a
dehydration facility, located in
Monroe Township on the Lu-
zerne-Wyoming County border,
in association with the pipeline.
Casaday said after the pipeline
becomes operational, cleanup
crews will be on the Hildebrandt
Road site until fall.
Transco Interstate
Pipeline Replacement
The Williams-owned Transco
line is receiving a bit of a facelift
this summer. Two parts of the
line, which runs from New York
to Texas, are being replaced asre-
quired by the federal Depart-
ment of Transportation, said
Chris Stockton, a Transco spo-
kesperson.
A 2,100-foot section of the
pipeline located in Kingston
Township and West Wyoming
Borough between Carverton
Road and Shoemaker Avenue
was recently replaced, and crews
will begin switching out a 2,044-
foot section near Hildebrandt
Road on Monday.
Stockton said the pipelines are
being replaced due to increases
in population — federal require-
ments require thicker pipe walls
when a certain number of houses
are located in the vicinity of the
pipeline.
The classes range from class 1
to class 4 and Stockton said the
Transco line near Dallas and
BILL TARUTIS/ FOR THE DALLAS POST
“The compressor station being proposed by UGI
Energy Services in West Wyoming Borough is “no-
where near being built.”
Lillian Harris
UGI spokesperson
Kingston townships is being
switched from a class 2 to a class
3 pipe. He said the pipe has thick-
er walls but remains 24 inches
wide and made of carbon steel.
Stockton said the replacement
is determined by an annual
house count conducted by Wil-
liams — if the number of houses
meets a certain guideline, the
pipe must be replaced.
Work on the Hildebrandt Road
section of the pipeline should be
completed by the end of August.
Perry Meter Site
Installation of flow control
components at Williams Field
Services’ site in Dallas Township
is complete; however, site grad-
ing and remaining electrical
work will continue into fall 2012.
West Wyoming
Compressor Station
The compressor station being
proposed by UGI Energy Servic-
es in West Wyoming Borough is
“nowhere near being built,” said
UGI spokesperson Lillian Harris.
“We haven't put a shovel in the
ground yet,” said Harris.
She said the line traveling to
the proposed compressor station
involves extending a pipeline
UGI built that begins in Mehoo-
pany that would allow gas to trav-
el from the Tennessee Gas Pipe-
line in Susquehanna County.
The line would come through
the proposed compressor station
and then travel to a distribution
system in Wilkes-Barre.
“It’s in a very remote location,
ona piece of property in the Tran-
sco system,” said Harris. “This
will help in the warm summer
months when there is lower us-
age the gas can be compressed
there.”
Harris said the project time-
line doesn’t plan for construction
until spring 2013. The company
is scheduled to go before the Lu-
zerne County Zoning Hearing
Board at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug.
7 in the second floor jury room of
the Luzerne County Cour-
thouse.
For more information about
UGI’s proposed project, visit
www.auburnline.com.
By SARAH HITE
shite@mydallaspost.com
After four months of con-
struction, Hillside Road in Jack-
son Township is almost ready to
reopen to the public, but offi-
cials warn nearby residents that
the bridge replacement project
does not mean the area is no
longer prone to flooding.
Luzerne County Chief Engi-
neer Joseph Gibbons said crews
working on the project are cur-
rently waiting for the concrete
to strengthen before the culvert,
which allows water to flow un-
derneath a road, can be finished.
The project has been in the
works since 2006 after heavy
rains in June of that year
washed out and destroyed the
waterway.
Township supervisor John
Wilkes Jr. said officials have vig-
ilantly watched the area near
the Farmers’ Inn every time it
rains since 2006 when that cul-
vert and another underneath
Chase Road were destroyed.
Despite the increased water
capacity, Gibbons warns resi-
dents that a new culvert and
larger drainage pipe will not
prevent flooding from occurring
along the road.
“We never want to use the
term, ‘prevent flooding,” said
Gibbons. “There is a larger wa-
ter opening and it should alle-
viate flooding from smaller
events. In the one-year storm,
which is the largest storm that
would occur in a given year, the
culvert could adequately pass
that.
“If we get another record
event that’s something similar
to what happened in September
(2011), our goal is to try to
make sure the bridge will sur-
vive that event, and that the
road can be quickly reopened to
the public.”
Wilkes said emergency and
road crews were always on
scene near the Hillside Bridge
“We never want to use
the term, ‘prevent flood-
ing."
Joseph Gibbons
Luzerne.County engineer
in every forecasted heavy rain,
and he hopes the completion of
the project will alleviate some of
that urgency.
“If you were to get a water
capacity like that in September,
you've got huge issues to begin
with,” said Wilkes. “Hopefully,
we will avoid a lot of the flood-
ing we did have in smaller
events because we didn’t have
the capacity.”
The project had a few snags
in the process of getting real-
ized, from the township needing
to relocate sewer lines to qual-
ifying for federal disaster fund-
ing.
The project’s costs are being
reimbursed to the county and
Wilkes said the township will be
reimbursed for half the cost of
relocating the sewer lines.
Gibbons said the project also
included redesigning the facade
of the culvert in keeping with
the historical richness of the ar-
ea, but the goal of the project is
to update centuries’ old road-
ways and drainage systems.
“These roads have been in ex-
istence for at least 100 to 200
years and they've never really
seen a substantial amount of
professional design until recent
history,” said Gibbons. “The de-
sign needs to meet the service
of these roads, and as public de-
mand for use increases, there’s
another step in upgrading those
roads to handle today’s traffic.”
Wilkes said the project has
been an inconvenience to those
traveling from State Route 309
through the township — a detour
is posted cutting from Hillside
to Chase and then Huntsville
roads — but it will be well worth
See HILLSIDE, Page 10
BILL TARUTIS/ FOR THE DALLAS POST
The new Hillside Road Bridge in Jackson Township is nearing
completion.