PEOPLE S E C T I O N
SUNDAY DISPATCH
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SUNDAY, MARCH 10, 2013 PAGE 1B
PEEKING INTO THE PAST “WHEN WE StARtED this, we asked people to give back to the community by, of all things, picking up trash. I really give everybody credit. they get little recognition for doing a dirty job. It’s lot of work but it’s gratifying.” Rich Hansen
Tony Callaio phoTos/for The sunday dispaTCh
Collecting litter on Route 315 heading toward Walmart are, from left, Pina and Rich Hansen, Erica LePore, Sue Gregory.
THE HIGHwAymEN
Dupont Lions Club members clean up Route 315 By JACK SMILES / jsmiles@psdispatch.com
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hat kind of people consider it their good fortune to be able to pick up trash along a busy highway on a cold morning for no pay? answer: People who love their community like the members of the Dupont Lions Club love Dupont. A Dupont Lions committee spent 2 1/2 hours cleaning the shoulders of Route 315 in the borough on March 2 under PennDOT’s Adopt a Highway program. Rich Hansen, the committee’s chairman, said when he joined the Lions a little over a year ago, he wanted to find a way to give back to the community. “I was trying to think of a project,” Hansen said. “Mark Kowalczyk, one of our borough councilmen, suggested a cleanup. Mark and Bart Bryk kind of coached me along. I took chairmanship of it and contacted Meghan Eckert, the PennDOT Adopt a Highway coordinator. We got lucky. The portion of 315 in Dupont was open.” Through Eckert, the Lions agreed to clean the one-mile stretch of 315 in Dupont four times a year for two years. In return, PennDOT put up signs in both directions, noting the Lions had adopted the highway. PennDOT also provides orange safety vests, gloves, trash bags and “Litter Crew Ahead” signs during the cleanups. The portion of Route 315 the Dupont Lions adopted is the stretch that runs through the borough. It’s a mile long from the Petro to Pilot truck stops. The Lions divide into two crews, one working in each direction. They leave the filled bags on the side of the road and
Erica LaPore collects litter, ironically, next to a ‘Do Not Litter’ sign on Routew 315. PennDOT crews pick them up. The pick up on March 2 was the third by the Lions since the adoption went through last April. It had been scheduled in February, but was rescheduled three times by snow and cold. Because the Dupont stretch hadn’t been adopted for over a year before the Lions took it, the first pick up last April was a doozy. The Lions spent four hours on that first cleanup and filled 36 bags. They went down an embankment near Suscon Road and hauled out tires, rims, busted furniture and rusted box springs. “That stuff had been there for decades,” Hansen said. All tolled, the first haul was about 1,200
pounds. Dupont Mayor Dan Lello pitched in and it was his bad luck to find a dead dog in a bag. The Lions once found a bag of dog feces. The bag had broken and the amount of doggie do was so large, it had to be shoveled. Hansen said the only way the dog waste could have wound up where it was found was to have been thrown from a vehicle. He wondered, “What’s somebody doing with that stuff in their car?” Though the cleanup crew still occasionally finds larger items, most of the big stuff was picked up during the first cleanup. Subsequent pickups concentrated on common litter such as plastic bottles, fast food wrappers, bags and containers and plastic shopping bags. “I must have found 30 or 40 Walmart bags,” Hansen said. Shopping bags might be expected litter. Tobacco juice, not so much, but it’s there. “I picked up about dozen bottles filled with tobacco spit last Saturday.” Hansen theorizes a lot of the litter is left by people exiting Route 81 to stop at McDonald’s, Wendy’s or the truck stops. “I believe a lot of it is left by travelers who have no stake in the town,” he said. While Hansen allows that accidents can happen, such as plastic bags getting blown out a vehicle window, he believes most of the litter is purposefully tossed out of vehicles. “Sure, some escapes, but people are making a decision to litter. You get the impression people are using 315 as a garbage dump.” Hansen believes the Lions’ effort is making an impact. Club members filled 36 bags in their first pick up last April, while the October pickup was down to 15 bags. “We are kind of getting a handle on it. A lot of large items are gone. After a cleanup when my wife and I drive on Route 315, we’ll see that one piece of litter that sticks See CLEAN, Page 3B
With Judy Minsavage
Memories of 1956 come flooding back Question: In 1956, what drove West Pittston and Exeter residents to threaten to sell their homes? 1956 – 57 YEARS AGO Once again, Greater Pittston communities were dealing with the rising waters of the Susquehanna. West Pittston experienced flooding as the water broke through threatening homes. The normal river channel was barely visible as the water poured into the “flatlands” of Exeter Borough. According to the website www.erh.noaa. gov, the Susquehanna River crested on March 9 at 28.17 feet, 6.17 feet over flood stage. Avoca Police Chief Robert George had a prospective gang war on his hands. Following a tip that teens from neighboring communities were planning to “raid” a popular local Bar-B-Q hangout in Avoca, police arrived and broke up the gathering of several hundred teens. George put out a warning that there are stringent rules for Avoca teeners and all other youths who visit the town. A Leap Year party was held at the Castle Manor in Exeter during which prizes for the best costumes were awarded. The winners were Bucky Cavello as “Marryin’ Sam,” Jerry Manganiello as “Lil’ Abner,” Louise Cavello as “Daisy Mae”,”Evelyn Reese as “Mammy Yokum” and Tuck Nardone and Ernie Searfoss as acting sheriffs. A leap year consists of 366 days, as opposed to a common year, which has 365 days. During leap years, a leap day is added as an extra day on Feb. 29. Leap years are needed to keep the Gregorian calendar in alignment with the earth’s revolutions around the sun. It takes the earth approximately 365.242199 days – or 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds to circle once around the sun. The next leap year is in 2016. 1966 – 47 YEARS AGO Every St. Patrick’s day at exactly noon, Harold Collins, of Cornelia Street in Pittston, would walk down his front steps, re-enacting the day in 1945 he returned home from World War II via a hospital ship and walked down a gangplank to touch his home soil. “Spike,” as he was known to his friends, would start the celebration each year with that special walk and a visit to church followed by a day filled with festivities. In 1966, the day was even more special as Collins, president of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick of Greater Pittston, hosted the organization’s annual dinner at the Mayfair Supper Club. Pfc Joseph J. Gentile was cited for outstanding performance of duty while serving as a medic of Company A 3rd Battalion, 32nd Infantry in Korea. While on maneuvers, Gentile evacuated a seriously injured infantryman. The man had fallen from a cliff and it was up to Gentile to get him to an aid station located miles from their position. A large crowd was in attendance as the winners of the St. John’s High School Science Fair were named. Winner of the Grand Award was junior Judith Gull for her project Menace to Man: Cancer Analysis by Electrophoresis. First prize in chemistry was given to Barbara Hensley for Varying ph Environment. Second prize was given to Joseph Cunningham in Physics Division for his Hull Design and Wave Propagation. Third place in Biology Division was Mary Ann Ruda for Probability of Earth Life on Mars. Gold medal winners in Mathematics Division were Dorothy Alt and Barbara Ritz for Bases at a Glance and Bases Evaluated. First-place gold medal was presented to junior Ronald Waxmonsky for his Extraterrestrial Horticulture and Animal Husbandry. First place in Physics was junior Carl Wrazien for his Spectroscope and Its Uses. First place freshman prize went to John Gardner in General Science See PEEKING, Page 3B