Your Award-Winning News Source for the Upper Delaware River Valley Region Since 1975
Vol. 41 No. 52
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DECEMBER 24 - 30, 2015
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www.riverreporter.com
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$1.50
TRR photo by Fritz Mayer
Veterans fill the county hearing room to support a raise for John Crotty, director of the Sullivan County Veterans Service Agency.
Wrapping up business for 2015 By FRITZ MAYER
Lighting up the season
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ONTICELLO, NY — Several local veterans’ organizations were represented at the meeting of the Sullivan County Legislature on December 17, when the lawmakers voted on a number of resolutions. One getting a lot of attention would have authorized a raise for John Crotty, the director of the Sullivan County Veterans Service Agency. John Lacy, the Sullivan County commander of the Foreign Legion, noted that when Crotty took over the office in 2010 he started at a salary of $50,000 and was now at $52,000; Crotty’s predecessor earned $64,000. Lacy and other veterans praised the work Crotty does helping veterans and obtaining services for them. One veteran, who served in Vietnam, and who now suffers from an illness caused by exposure to Agent Orange, said if it weren’t for help from Crotty’s office, he would likely not be getting the benefits he deserves. Legislators Gene Benson and Kathy LaBuda were in favor of granting the raise and addressing an imbalance before they leave office at the end of the year. On the other side of the issue, Legislator Kitty Vetter said that Crotty is a hard-working man and the county is lucky to have him. But she said the county has authorized a salary study intended to address salary discrepancies, and a raise should not be handed out before the study is completed. She also said that the outgoing board should not tie the hands of the incoming board on issues like this.
TRR photo by Amanda Reed
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EGION — The Upper Delaware River Valley is filled with lights this time of year, like this display on Boyd’s Mills Road in Milanville, PA, but the tradition of using light to celebrate Christmas dates back a few centuries. In Germany in the 18th century, candles were placed on Christmas trees inside of houses and lit, where they would be admired by the family, but usually only for a brief time.
The first known use of electric lights to brighten up a Christmas tree is attributed to Edward H. Johnson, an associate of Thomas Edison, the man credited with perfecting the incandescent light bulb. Johnson decorated his Christmas tree with 80 hand-wired bulbs at his New York City home in 1882. Buying electric lights for the tree did not catch on with the general public until the cost of the lightbulbs was reduced dramatically by the 1920s. By the middle of the 20th century, the custom of stringing lights on buildings caught on, especially in the new tract-housing developments built after World War II. Eventually the consumer habit of lighting up the night spread to structures other than buildings and spread across the lawn. According to the National Retail Federation, U.S. consumers will have spent more than $5 billion on Christmas lights and decorations by the end of the holiday season.
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