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SUNDAY DISPATCH, SUNDAY, JANUARY 15, 2012

G R E AT E R P I T T S T O N B U S I N E S S S C E N E

He’s the boss of steam loss Local man runs unique steam specialty business

By Jack Smiles

Associate Editor

Nothing gets Kevin Kennedy steamed like losing steam.

Kennedy – the sole proprietor of D & R Murphy Steam Specialties with an office in West Pittston – has been helping large and small businesses and government agencies detect and stop steam leaks in the heating and hot water systems of their large buildings for 25 years.

From Alaska to New York City to North Carolina, he has crawled around tunnels and mechanical rooms in prisons, colleges, nursing homes, manufacturing plants, office complexes and other large buildings doing what are known in the industry as “steam trap audits.”

Kennedy works either directly for the entities owning the buildings or, as in the case of government buildings, for the largest energy companies in the world known as ESCOs. Using what he describes as an ultrasonic stethoscope Kennedy – who is also a representative of the device manufacturer – listens

Kevin Kennedy is all geared up for a trek through a steam tunnel.

to steam traps to determine if they are operating properly.

When a faulty steam trap is detected, it’s tagged or painted.

Kennedy then prepares a report

showing the tag number, trap location, type of failure, and cost analysis.

The cost analysis is critical as it not only estimates the cost of

the repair it also estimates what the clients can expect to save.

Kennedy said he audited a prison with 646 steam traps. So much steam was being lost that after the traps were cleaned and repaired the prison cut its $178,000 monthly heating bill in half.

In another case he helped a 300-room hotel which was using steam only for hot water cut its bill in half.

He said the systems in many of the buildings he audits are 50 or more years old and were never tested before. He often finds they are losing 25 to 50 percent of their energy.

Kennedy said in New York the waste is double for customers of central heating suppliers. There are 2,000 plus customers that buy steam from suppliers at prices that are extremely high because of the suppliers’ steam loss. In turn, many of these customers are wasting another 25 to 50 percent.

A lot of D & R’s business focuses on older buildings where he often finds massive steam leaks which waste energy and money.

Yet, he says, correcting steam loss is a little appreciated source of energy conservation which, he said, can reduce coal, oil and gas use. “Because you can’t see it like solar panels or wind turbines, what I’ve been doing falls on deaf ears.”

Some of the deaf ears he alludes to are on the heads of legislators.

“There are regulations for light bulbs, water conservation, but nothing for steam,” he says.

“There’s a real need for regulations and for people to take a look at steam systems. If businesses can get tax incentives and grants for solar and wind, why can’t they get them for steam system improvements.”

Kennedy grew up in South Wilkes-Barre and Dallas. He lives in Harding. He was working as a pipe fitter at the Hotel Sterling when he was introduced to people in the steam trap business. That led him to a partnership in D & R Murphy Steam Specialties.

Find out more at http://steamtraptesting.com or 570-6555939.

PAGE 4

Solano to receive Leadership W-B Award Leadership Wilkes-Barre announced that Patrick J. Solano is the recipient of the 2012 Community Leadership Award.

Solano, though not always visible in the public’s eye, has led an exemplary life of leadership and service, according to a press release announcing the award.

During World War II, Solano completed 23 combat missions with the Eighth U.S. Air Force Heavy Bombardment Group.

For his service, he was awarded the Group Presidential Citation, the Air Force Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters, and the European Combat Theatre Medal with two Bronze Stars.

In his professional career, he

has held numerous prestigious positions, including Senior Counselor to Governor Tom Ridge and Governor Mark Schweiker, as well as Senior Advisor to the Pennsylvania State Senate Majority Leader Dominick Pilleggi.

Solano has also served as friend and advisor to numerous public officials and community leaders, and is always willing to share his knowledge and leadership expertise with others.

In addition to his military awards, Solano also has been the recipient of numerous other honors, including the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Commerce’s Lifetime Achieve-

ment Award, the Pennsylvania Environmental Council’s Thomas P. Shelbourne Environmental Leadership Award, a Doctor of Humane Letters from Misericordia University, and the United States Army Corps of Engineers Commander’s Award.

Solano resides in Pittston Township with his wife Marie.

They are the parents of six daughters and have 11 grandchildren.

Solano will be presented the 2012 Community Leadership Award during the Annual Leadership Wilkes-Barre MidWinter Cocktail Party which will be held on Feb. 3, at the Westmoreland Club.

Reservations are $40 per person and may be made by contacting the Leadership Wilkes-Barre office at (570) 823-2101 ext 135.

Visit www.LeadershipWIlkes-Barre.org for more information.

Boasting an alumni base of over 2,000 servant leaders, Leadership Wilkes-Barre was founded in 1981 as a community leadership development organization.

A non-profit organization, LWB is dedicated to developing informed and committed leaders from all segments of the community who will serve, strengthen, and improve Northeastern Pennsylvania.

Patrick J. Solano

SUNDAY DISPATCH, SUNDAY, MARCH 4, 2012 PAGE 6

The incredible shrinking barber Pittston’s Phil Gianfarcaro says gastric bypass surgery ‘saved my life’

By Jack Smiles jsmiles@psdispatch.com

P

hil Gianfarcaro weighed 155 pounds when he graduated from Pittston Area High School in 1970. Twenty years later, he was double that. A year ago, he packed 368 pounds on his 56-inch-waist, 5-foot-7 frame.

With obesity came health problems – diabetes, sleep apnea and high blood pressure. A trek up a flight of stairs took his breath away.

These days, Gianfarcaro, 60, walks the three-quarters mile from his home in the Oregon Section of Pittston to his Main Street barbershop without even breathing hard.

He doesn’t need insulin, he doesn’t need an apnea mask to sleep and his blood pressure is down.

And so is his weight.

Gianfarcaro has lost 140 pounds. He’s down to 229. His waist size is 40. His goal is to get down to a 38-inch waist and 190 pounds and keep it off. He’s almost certain to reach those goals.

His secret is no secret: he had laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery last June at Geisinger Danville performed by Dr. Anthony Petrick.

Before the surgery, his doctors, Guy Fasciana and Joe Stella, were always after him to lose weight and he did, and did, and did.

“I lost weight about eight times,” Gianfarcaro said as he took a break from cutting hair at his business, Phil’s Clip Joint at 106 S. Main St., Pittston, which he opened a few years ago after retiring from a 36-year career with the Turnpike Commission.

“I tried all kinds of diets,” he said. “Lose 80, gain 100. Lose 50, gain 60.”

When bypass surgery was first suggested, Gianfarcaro was afraid.

But then he learned before he would be considered a candidate for the surgery he had to lose 10 percent of his weight and take six months of classes designed to ease his fears and prepare him

Phil Gianfarcaro weighed 368 pounds when he fit in these 56-inch-waist jeans. He's down to 229 and his waist size is 40.

PHOTO BY TONY CALLAIO

for his next life. The classes included sessions with a psychiatrist. “They want to know if you’re committed, if you really want to do it,” he said From the classes, Gianfarcaro learned he had a food addiction.

“Really, for me it’s an addiction, like drugs or alcohol. Without the surgery, I couldn’t have done it.”

The surgery reduced his stomach from the size of a football, which is normal, to the size of an egg.

Before surgery, he could easily eat six slices of pizza. Now, one slice fills him.

Breakfast is cereal, an egg and a piece of toast – and he can barely finish it, he said.

“A sandwich fills me,” he added. “A sandwich used to be a joke.”

Gianfarcaro has only two diet restrictions: sugar and alcohol.

The latter was not a problem as he drank only occasionally presurgery. But pastry, candy, ice cream and the like were a weakness for him. Now, he eats only small amounts of sugar-free snacks.

Otherwise, he eats the same things he used to eat, except in vastly smaller quantities.

The weight came off so quickly after surgery to the tune of 20 pounds a month, his appearance changed dramatically and even friends didn’t recognize him.

John Demich stopped at the Clip Joint while Gianfarcaro was talking about his surgery and recalled the first time he saw his friend after his recovery. “He was walking down the street and I thought, Holy God, is that Phil?”

Gianfarcaro said his wife, Vivian, was “his rock” for his mind and body, leading into and coming out of surgery.

His children, Carmen, Phil Ashley, were also pillars of support.

Now, Gianfarcaro provides support to other obese patients considering gastric bypass. Dr. Stella asks those patients to call Gianfarcaro.

“I tell them the surgery saved my life,” he said.

Sleepless in Pittston saves 11 14-year-old awakens family, neighbors during fire

SUNDAY DISPATCH, SUNDAY, JULY 1, 2012

MAIN STREET FIRES

By JACK SMILES

jsmiles@psdispatch.com Sharon Walko died in this house fire early Thursday morning in Pittston.

CLARK VAN ORDEN/THE TIMES LEADER

Thursday fire claims life of City woman

By EDWARD LEWIS elewis@timesleader.com

Michelle Wescott points out her parents' bedroom where her parents slept during a fire on June 20.

Michelle woke them up to get out.

JACK SMILES/THE SUNDAY DISPATCH

Mike Wescott and John Abent, Elgin’s boyfriend, kicked in the door to Edwards’ apartment.

“We yelled for him, but the heat and smoke was too much to enter,” O’Boyle said.

Edwards was found by firefighters on a bed in the rear of his apartment, but results of the autopsy determined he had not died from fire or smoke. The exact cause of death will be determined pending the return of toxicology tests, according to the Luzerne County Coroner’s Office.

Fire officials said the blaze is not suspicious. State police fire marshals are investigating.

Elgin and Wescott and their children found a place to stay in Hughestown. O’Boyle and Wescott and their children stayed at America’s Best Hotel on Route 315 paid for by the American Red Cross and Commission on Economic Opportunity. But that ended Friday. Now they are living in a camper on a family member’s property.

Both families almost lost al-

most everything, though they did salvage a few important documents and one basket of clothes.

Their furniture and computer containing family photos were destroyed.

“Family, friends and people we don’t even know gave us clothes and food,” Michelle Wescott said, “but our real need now is a place to live.”

O’Boyle feels lucky they are alive to look for a place.

“If it wasn’t for Michelle, we wouldn’t be here,” she said.

PITTSTON – A North Main Street woman was killed in an overnight house fire early Thursday morning.

Sharon Walko, 61, of 757 N. Main St. died from carbon monoxide poisoning. Her death was ruled an accident, said Luzerne County Acting Coroner Bill Lisman. No autopsy is scheduled.

She was found by firefighters in the kitchen.

It is the second fatal fire in Pittston in the last eight days.

Pittston Fire Chief Jim Rooney said multiple fire departments in the Greater Pittston Area responded to the second-alarm blaze, called in at 2:15 a.m. Thursday.

There was heavy smoke and fire as firefighters entered the house to find Walko on the kitchen floor, Rooney said.

A state police deputy fire marshal is investigating the blaze that is not considered suspiciousm he said.

No firefighters were injured in the fire.

PAGE 5

It’s a good thing 14-year-old Michelle Wescott couldn’t sleep.

While the upfront news of the fire at 194 S. Main St. in Pittston on June 20 was about the man found dead in a first-floor apartment, the back story was about the 11 lives Wescott saved.

Wescott’s mother, Kim O’Boyle, said her daughter was awake in the second-floor apartment while the rest of the family Kim and her fiancée, Mike Wescott, and their sons, Jordan O’Boyle and Mike Wescott Jr., both 11, and the boys’ friend – slept. Sleeping in the apartment above them was a similar family, three children and a couple, the mother, Danielle Elgin, a relative of the Wescotts, whom the children call Aunt Dani.

“I couldn’t sleep,” Michelle said. “I was pacing around. I sat down to watch a little bit of TV and I smelled matches.”

She ran into her parents’ bedroom.

Kim O’Boyle picks up the story. “She came into our room screaming ‘something’s burning in the bathroom. It smells like matches.’ We got up and ran to the bathroom. Mike went in and I couldn’t see him in the smoke.”

O’Boyle called 911 at 12:52 a.m. and then screamed for Wescott.

He came out. The fire was not in their bathroom, but in the apartment below. O’Boyle yelled ‘let’s get the kids and get out’ and then yelled for someone to get Elgin.

“I didn’t know it,” O’Boyle said, “but Michelle was way ahead of me; she was already on her way upstairs.”

Once everyone, including dogs and a cat, got out, the attention turned to the first floor apartment where Bernard Edwards, a 55year-old paraplegic, lived alone.