Sunday, August 12, 2012 THE DALLAS POST PAGE 3 By SARAH HITE shite@mydallaspost.com The Dallas School Board dis- cussed whether it would change its advertising policy during a meeting Monday. Chad Lojewski, a member of the Dallas Educational Founda- tion, told the board about the group's first fundraising project, which is to replace the school sign on State Route 309 with a digital sign. The project, estimated to cost about $40,000, will include space for school announce- ments as well as advertising from local businesses. Lojewski said the advertising would be necessary to create a source of % SCHOOL DISTRICT oard members discuss advertising policy change revenue, which will allow the foundation to fund future en- deavors. The foundation is a separate, nonprofit arm of the district which raises funds for scholar- ships, improved facilities as well as extracurricular or athletic teams’ needs. Lojewski said the current sign does not allow multiple mess- ages to be displayed and re- quires manual labor to change the message. The computer- ized, digital sign could be changed via a laptop or other computing device and could dis- play 12 messages in a minute. Lojewski said he and founda- tion board members spoke with the property owners of the land where the current sign is locat- The project, which is estimated to cost about $40,000, will in- clude space for school announcements as well as advertising from local businesses. Lojewski said the advertising would be necessary to create a source of revenue, which will allow the foundation to fund future endeavors. ed at the intersection of Hilde- brandt Road and State Route 309 and they will not allow a sign with advertising to be placed on their property. The district currently does not allow advertising on cam- pus. Board member Karen Kyle thought there may be issues with other groups wanting to advertise elsewhere on campus that could point to the sign as an example. Board vice president Bruce Goeringer disagreed with the notion of advertising local busi- nesses on campus and said the sign should be solely for school announcements. Board president Catherine Wega felt the board should be able to disapprove or discour- age advertisers of businesses that would be inappropriate for school students to be exposed to, but wondered if the district could legally do so. Lojewski also said there would be costs to maintain the sign, but they would be signif- icantly lower than the initial in- stallation fee. The idea is to place the sign near the entrance to Dallas Ele- mentary and the high school across from the new softball field where a sign has been placed to track the fundraising progress of the foundation. Superintendent Frank Galicki said that area is equipped to handle the electrical wiring re- quired for the sign. “This way it would be on Dal- las school property, and we would never have fears or doubts about whether it would be sold,” said Galicki. Goeringer felt the State Route 309 location would be the pref- erable spot, and wanted Lojew- ski to consider a sign without advertising in order to keep it . there. Lojewski said there would be no revenue stream coming into the foundation if there is no ad- vertising on the sign, making it difficult for future projects to be funded. Goeringer said he felt the electronic sign would be “splashy” and a distraction to drivers. Galicki said the board will think about the idea before dis- See POLICY, Page 10 DALLAS TOWNSHIP Should township kick in to DARE? By SARAH HITE shite@mydallaspost.com Supervisors continued discus- sion about whether to contribute toward the Kingston Township- run D. ARE. (Drug Abuse Re- tance Education) program at a @ Tuesday. ingston Township is asking Dallas Township to donate $2,500 towards the program. The program cost is divided between Kingston, Dallas and Franklin townships, Dallas Borough and the Dallas School District. Supervisor Liz Martin said last year was the first year Kingston Township asked for funding from other municipalities and - the school district. She said prior to that the program was funded through grants that are no longer available. : Last month, Police Chief Rob- Jolley said he didn’t agree é the township’s required con- ution because the Dallas Township Police Department does not require other munici- palities to contribute to the K-9 unit program that benefits other communities. He said the K-9 unit, which in- “We had a dog die, and | didn't go to Kingston Township looking for money. Now Kingston Township (is) here look- ing for money.” Robert Jolley Dallas Township Police Chief cludes training and maintenance of a police dog used to detect drugs and other illicit substances on a person, cost tens of thou- sands of dollars and is taken to the school and other depart- ments regularly. Jolley said it’s a similar situa- tion, but the Dallas Township de- partment isn’t asking for money to fund its K-9 unit. “Kingston Township selected apples, I selected oranges,” said Jolley. “...We had a dog die, and I didn’t go to Kingston Township looking for money. Now King- ston Township (is) here looking for money. Maybe the first place the township of Kingston should have looked is in their budget. See DARE, Page 10 JACKSON TOWNSHIP Supers vote to sell off excess compost By SARAH HITE shite@mydallaspost.com The board of supervisors voted Monday to allow the township solicitor to draft an agreement that would allow for the sale of excess compost. Solicitor Jeffrey Malak said the supervisors would need to draft an agreement and have the action approved by the state Depart- ment of Environmental Protec- tion before moving forward with the sale. Resident Mary Dockeray had many questions about the ven- ture and opposed the measure be- cause she felt it would take busi- ness away from local farmers. Supervisor Al Fox said the compost will still be free for resi- dents. The program began two years ago when the township joined the West Side Compost Commission, which enabled the township to purchase a grinder through a state grant. e said compost is made and ilable for residents to pick up onday through Saturday from dawn until dusk. Fox said Docke- ray could express her feelings, but the supervisors have chosen this measure to benefit residents, and she is free not to participate. He said the funds from the commercial purchases would off- set the costs of running the grind- er. The board also approved an in- crease in municipal quarterly contributions from 5 to 7 percent to the Pennsylvania Municipal Retirement System. Upon questioning from Docke- ray, Malak said the statewide re- tirement system suggested the increase due to poorly-perform- ing investments. Fox believes it was the first time a raise in contri- butions was suggested in 10 years. Supervisors also approved an update to the police policy duty manual as prepared by the police chief. Supervisor John Wilkes Jr. said the update was suggested by the township’s insurance carrier, which performs an audit annual- ly. Fox said the manual includes “everything you could think of” that defines police procedures and how to perform them. He said many of the policies are statewide. The next Jackson Township Board of Supervisors meeting will be held at 6 p.m. on Sept. 3in the municipal building. Levaiseoy Tt IT Adams, Kyle Zern, Bradley Adams, Matthew Reynolds, Brian Butler, David Schnable, Zackary Dixon. Second row, Assistant Scout Master Bill Reynolds, Josh Frankevich, David Oley, Eric Davies, Hunter Hughes, Jake Arnold, John Blatt, Assistant Scout Master Richard Oley, Brian Drouse, Assistant Scout Master Todd Adams and Assistant Scout Master Bill Arnold. Boys Scouts enjoy high adventure hike Thirty six members of Boy Scout Troop 281, Dallas, un- dertook a high adventure hike in late June. Eighteen members of the troop completed the rugged wilderness footpath of the 59.2 mile Loyalsock Trail. They hiked for seven days and six nights, earning them the title “Thru Hiker.” This trail is considered to be one of the most difficult trails to Thru Hike in the United States. The boys who finished the hike will be eligible to earn the 50-mile-award after com- pleting 10 hours of service on a trail. KINGSTON TOWNSHIP Without delivery of earned income tax dollars, twp. will be in financial straits By SARAH HITE shite@mydallaspost.com Kingston Township will be in financial trouble if earned in- come tax dollars aren’t delivered to the township general fund soon, supervisors said at a meet- ing Wednesday. Chairman James Reino Jr. said the township is more than $600,000 short of this year’s bud- get due to the late-coming dol- lars. After this month’s bills are paid, only $143,000 remains in the general fund. “This affects us most because our township depends mostly on EIT (earned income tax) collec- tions as a main source of in- come,” said Reino. The board voted to seek pro- posals for a tax anticipation note, which is akin to a loan from a fi- nancial lending institution that would cover the budget shortfall. The supervisors would only take out such a loan if the town- ship was in dire financial straits, and it would need to pay back that dollar amount of the loan plus interest, which would fall on the backs of taxpayers. Reino said if this does happen, the board plans to ask Don Wil- kinson/CENTAX to cover the in- terest costs due to its inability to provide the income tax in the first place. “This is outrageous that they’re not complying with the requirements,” said Supervisor Jeffrey Box of the company. In other news, the board... ¢ Appointed the following two residents to township boards: Thomas Festa, of Shavertown, to the planning commission; and Kim Helson, of Shavertown, to the recreation board. There are still several vacan- cies on the township recreation board. Residents can send a let- ter of interest to the municipal building at 180 E. Center St., Shavertown, PA 18708 or by e- mailing info@kingstontown- ship.com. e Approved the next three payments for the East Center Street Bridge replacement pro- ject in the amount of $46,548.38. Those cost of the project is being split, with the state Department of Transportation paying 80 per- cent and Kingston Township paying 20 percent. Kingston Township’s portion of that pay- ment is $9,309.67. ¢ Approved the installation of five fire hydrants on Perrin Ave- nue, West Mount Airy Road and Roushey Street as part of the pro- “This is outrageous that they're not complying with the requirements.” Jeffrey Box KT supervisor posed water main replacement project by United Water Pennsyl- vania. The annual cost to main- tain these hydrants is about $950. ¢ Approved the creation of an un-paid volunteer position of as- sistant emergency management coordinator to perform the du- ties of emergency management coordinator in his or her ab- sence. ® Approved the submission of a local needs questionnaire for fiscal year 2013 Luzerne County Community Development Pro- gram for funding of a pipe project in the vicinity of Railroad, Divi- sion and North Lehigh streets. e Approved the installation of two “Watch Children” signs on Bunker Hill Road at a cost of ap- proximately $312 as per the re- quest of resident Denise Con- nors. ® The next Kingston Town- ship Board of Supervisors meet- ing will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 12 in the municipal build- ing. Agency's name change is celebrated County MH/MR now known as Mental Health and Developmental Services. The Luzerne County Coun- cil and Wyoming County Com- missioners officially pro- claimed the name change of the Luzerne-Wyoming Coun- ties Mental Health/Mental Retardation Program to Lu- zerne-Wyoming Counties Mental Health and Develop- mental Services at a ceremony held July 25 at the Luzerne County Courthouse. Well over 200 families, self- advocates, human service staff and state and county officials came together to witness the unveiling of the new name. The new term “Develop- mental Services” represents a shift in how individuals with special needs are referred. Following 2010’s federal leg- islation mandating the remov- al of the term “Mental Retarda- tion” from all federal statutes, Pennsylvania's Governor Cor- bett signed HB 458, removing the words “Mental Retarda- tion” from the MH/MR Act of 1966. These historic legislative ac- tions are now being carried forward on a local level through the bi-county join- der’s new name. Moving away from the nega- tive connotations associated with the outdated language will significantly foster the re- spect and dignity individuals with special needs truly de- serve.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers