Vol. 124 No. 27
THE BACK MOUNTAIN'S NEWSPAPER SINCE 1889
September 8 - 14, 2013
he
ALLA
50¢
WILKES-BARRE, PA.
WWW.MYDALLASPOST.COM
AN EDITION OF THE TIMES LEADER
“Parking fee instituted at Dallas High School
Students say extra charges are unfair
CHARLOTTE BARTIZEK
Dallas Post Correspondernt
Dallas Senior High School students
have paid a $5 fee to park at the high
school this year and were told the fee
was to cover the increased cost of making
plastic parking tags.
Dallas Senior High School Principal
Jeff Shaffer explained that the idea for car
tags and parking lot improvements came
out of a “Safe School Audit” of the secu-
rity committee at the high school after
the Sandy Hook incident in Connecticut.
The tags for the cars cost the district
$300 to $400 and the cost to make them
has increased. Since the idea of driving to
school is a privileged option for students,
this cost was passed on to them as a $5
parking fee.
Lauren Butruce, a Dallas senior, sug-
gested, “Print up decals on a piece of
paper and we'll stick it on our window. It
would be cheaper. We don’t need to pay
for all these other things. It’s unfair. It’s
not like this is a private school. I don't feel
good about this and nobody checks the
parking lot anyway.”
Shaffer mentioned that the school dis-
trict pays for bus transportation for stu-
dents and that it students’ choice not to
ride the buses provided but rather drive
their own cars to school.
Michele Eason Geise, a parent, asks,
“Many of the teachers don’t live in the
school district, don’t pay local taxes, and
park in the lot. Why aren't they charged a
parking fee?
Shaffer answers, “The teachers who
5
first ones on the merry-go-round.
Ava Jones and her father, Todd Jones, of Shavertown, were the
Luzerne
The 51st
The $8
price includes
call 675-FAIR.
Charlotte Bartizek
For The Dallas Post
) Clockwise from top: Judging
| essays written for the fair
are, from left, Cathy Martin,
Marian DeAngelis and Debbie
Martin, of Sweet Valley. Kaylie
Skovira, of Shavertown, and
Tessa Zimmerman, of Dallas,
got to pet this 4-day-old
calf Jack at the Luzerne
County Fair. Ashley Bolt, 4,
of Shavertown, encounters
a young cow in the petting
zoo at the Luzerne County
Fair. Olivia Farrell, of Dallas,
and her sister, Kaylee, took
time for some Italian ice at
the fair.
County Fair
continues
Annual
Luzerne County Fair
has been in full swing
since Wednesday and
continues today from
11 am. to 9:30 p.m.
with entertainment by
Keystone Kids and Rick
K and the All Nighters.
admission
park-
ing, entertainment and
most amusement rides.
The fair is located on
Route 118 in Lehman.
For more information,
SARAH HITE
Dallas Post Correspondent
It has been a rollercoaster
ride of a year for the Hustey
family.
In December 2012,
Tara Hustey Pisano, of
Shavertown, discovered she
was pregnant. Three months
later, she was told she has
myelodisplastic syndrome,
formerly known as preleuke-
mia, a rare disorder affecting
the development of blood
cells within bone marrow.
The disease progressed
slowly, allowing 28-year-old
Hustey Pisano to give birth
to her son one month early
without having to endure
chemotherapy treatments
during her pregnancy.
Tara's sister, Deanna
Hustey, is celebrating her
wedding this weekend, but
in two months she'll donate
together and plan a benefit in
honor of Tara to help offset
medical costs and lost wages
from treatment. A huge
crowd gathered at the River
TO DONATE
ga To read more about Tara
stem cells to save her sister’s Hustey Pisano’s story or
& : : donate to the cause, visit
The family decided to pull htt: //ofwd.at/1275Q8s.
this disease (myelodisplastic
syndrome).”
When offered the chance
park in the parking lot have no other
option for transportation. They have to
park there,” he said. Therefore, the teach-
ers are not charged for parking.
He added that this year there were sev-
eral unexpected maintenance costs for
the parking lot - two new speed bumps,
a barricade, visitors’ area and rock to
replace the grass that had been trampled
in a median. The cost of all the renova-
tions has left the school in the red, said
Shaffer. The $5 parking fee helped with
those costs, he explained.
Haley Wilcox, of Dallas, complained,
“I wasn’t happy about paying it (the fee)
‘Rally at the River Grille’ volunteers welcome guests to a packed house for the cancer fundraiser for
Tara Hystey Pisano.
and helping to pay for these other things.”
Senior Frank Hullihen, also of Dallas,
said, “They told us the $5 was to make
the parking tickets. Some people are mad
about it. The extra cost? What happens
when all the lights in the parking lot get
burned out? Will we have to pay for that
next year?”
Shaffer hopes that next year extra
money collected from the fee will be put
into the student activity fund for field
trips.
An informal poll of 12 area high schools
found three other school districts that
charge students to pay for parking passes.
Bill Tarutis photos | For The Dallas Post
Event volunteer Jaime Colarusso, left, of Exeter/(fills out raffle tickets for Tara Greig, of Tunkhannock, and her 15-month-old son, Grayson,
at the ‘Rally at the River Grille’ fundraiser in Plains Township for Tara Hustey Pisano who is battling cancer.
Giving Tara a fightin’ chance
Fundraiser benefits Tara Hustey Pisano, fighting cancer for second time
es
Grille in Plains Township on
Aug. 22 for food, raffles and
live entertainment.
“The only cure for this is
chemotherapy and a stem
cell transplant,” said Deanna,
26, of Brooklyn, N.Y. “No one
else in my family could be a
match to donate their stem
cells and there was only a 25
percent chance that I would
be a match. I was tested and
I'm a perfect, 100 percent
match.”
Deanna said this hasn't
been Tara's first experience
with cancer. In 2011, Tara
was diagnosed with Ewing’s
sarcoma, another rare dis-
ease. She had to undergo
a complicated surgery to
remove her kidney and the
tumor which affected several
vital organs.
“She had chemother-
apy from April through
December,” said Deanna.
“She was on a cocktail of
cancer drugs and one of the
five drugs’ side effect was
to help, Deanna didn’t think
about it.
“It’s always been just the
two of us,” said Deanna.
“Our father died when we
were young, and for this
to happen to her at such a
young age - you have to think
positive thoughts.”
Taras mother, Teresa
Hustey, said Tara wasn’t sup-
posed to get pregnant after
her first battle with cancer,
but now she calls her first
grandson, Everett, “a mira-
cle.”
“If it wasn’t for him, they
would have never caught this
as early as they did,” said
Teresa, of Wilkes-Barre.
Deanna said doctors
caught the cancer after per-
forming standard blood tests
for pregnant women.
“She had anemia and
some women can have preg-
nancy-induced anemia,” she
said. “But they did all the
necessary tests and she test-
ed negative. Finally, they did
Kelly Conn
elly, of Ashley, gives a thumbs up at the Tara Hustey
Pisano cancer fundraiser at the River Grille in Plains Township.
a bone marrow biopsy and
found that she had cancer.”
Teresa said Tara refused
the idea of a benefit during
her first battle with cancer,
but relatives rallied together
to help Tara and her family.
“When they first started
bringing the baskets (to be
raffled) over to my house,
I was overwhelmed,” said
Teresa. “I got chills and start-
ed crying. And every basket
had a story - everyone said
they had a sibling or aunt
or uncle or cousin who had
cancer.”
Maria Godfrey, 29, of
Forty Fort, said her cousin
Tara is “an amazing person”
who has persevered through
difficult times before.
“Her father was killed
about 15 years ago in an acci-
dent on (Route) 118,” she
said. “(The family) has over-
come a lot, and she’s always
come out strong. Shes
always positive. She’s not sit-
ting around saying, ‘Oh poor
me.” We're just going to take
it one day at a time.”
Tara’s sister-in-law, Katie
Gerrity Pisano, of Nuangola,
became emotional when
talking about planning the
benefit in Tara’s honor.
“I was in her wedding and
we both love to organize so
this is something I definitely
wanted to do,” she said. “If
it was me, I know she would
do it for me. Her sister gets
to give her a new life, so this
was the way we could give
back.”
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