Find a pet who needs a new home at the Griffin Pond Animal Shelter.
Dale is a senior male, Pomeranian mix. He is very lively and friendly and loves to be brushed.
Contact the Griffin Pond Animal Shelter at 586-3700 if your pet is lost or goes astray. Staff Photo by Ted Baird
Watch the latest Pets of the Week video here:
Saturday afternoon, a body was found by a Rocky Mountain National Park Climbing Ranger northwest of the summit of Mount Meeker in steep terrain according to a release issued by the Rocky Mountain National Park.
Boulder County Coroner’s office will not release positive identification until completion of an autopsy. However, it is believed that the body is that of Brian Perri, 38, of Fort Collins, Colorado.
Perri graduated from Carbondale Area Junior Senior High School in 1998 before joining the Army where he served in psychological operations, Pilny said. During his military tenure, he went through the military’s Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape training program.
Additional rangers arrived on scene Saturday night and stayed in the area overnight. An on scene investigation will take place today. Once the investigation is complete more details will be released. Until then, no further information is available.
Late Thursday July 5, 2018, park rangers were notified by Fort Collins Police that Brian Joseph Perri, 38, of Fort Collins, Colorado, had been reported as missing. Perri was last known in the Mount Meeker area of Rocky Mountain National Park. On June 30, Perri texted a friend a photograph of himself from the summit of Mount Meeker. After rangers were notified of the missing man on July 5, six days after he was expected back, they located Perri’s car in the parking lot at the Sandbeach Lake Trailhead. Perri was day hiking and was expected out on Saturday, June 30.
Extensive search efforts began the evening of Thursday, July 5, and encompassed significant sections of 22.5 square miles above tree line as well as forested areas. The majority of the search area was in rugged and remote terrain with loose rock, steep ridges, and exposed cliffs, on ridge lines and couloirs. The area was searched by helicopters, ground searchers, dog teams, and UAS reconnaissance. Assisting Rocky Mountain National Park Search and Rescue members has been Larimer County Search and Rescue members and dog teams, Rocky Mountain Rescue based in Boulder County, Fort Collins Police, Northern Colorado Helitack, Front Range Rescue Dogs, Flight For Life Air Ambulance and Colorado Search and Rescue Board members.
July 30, 1943
Casey leaves home to Bernardine Sisters
M. Pauline Casey announced that she had gifted her residence at 612 Clay Ave. in Scranton to the Bernardine Sisters of St. Francis.
Casey made the gift in memory of her parents. The home was to become the Scranton Province of the order.
The Most Rev. William J. Hafey, bishop of Scranton, granted permission for the founding of the new province, which would cover the dioceses of Scranton, Erie and Buffalo.
It was the second gift Casey presented to the Diocese of Scranton. In 1940, she gave 500 acres of land in Wyoming County to the diocese in memory of her father, Andrew Casey Sr., and her brother Andrew Casey Jr. The land became home to Camp St. Andrew.
Bomb school to start
The Chamber of Commerce Building on Mulberry Street in Scranton would be the site of bomb reconnaissance training for the area. The classes were to start Aug. 3 and would teach people about bombs and explosives, bomb disposal, the reporting of unexploded bombs and evacuation procedures.
The Lackawanna County Citizens’ Defense Corps said at least 200 people from the area were expected to attend the classes.
Women voters back night farm market
The Lackawanna County League of Women Voters announced its support for the farmers night market on a site on Providence Road in Scranton that adjoined Athletic Park.
Mrs. Charles Berne of the league said “the league believes in the integrity and dependability of local farmers. We believe that it is a patriotic duty to use local produce.”
The night market, which started in 1940, was to open on Monday, Wednesday and Friday during the season.
BRIAN FULTON, library manager, oversees The Times-Tribune’s expansive digital and paper archives and is an authority on local history. Contact Brian at
bfulton@timesshamrock.com or 570-348-9140.
President Donald Trump will arrive Thursday in Wilkes-Barre Twp. at a critical time for U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta’s Senate campaign.
The only independent polls so far have shown Barletta, the Hazleton Republican, trailing Sen. Bob Casey, the Scranton Democrat, by double digits. Barletta’s campaign lags badly in the crucial campaign money race, he shuffled its top staff recently and none of the major congressional race rating services give him much of a chance.
Barletta could use a jolt, and Trump’s fifth visit to Northeast Pennsylvania in a bit more than two years could provide one. It follows Vice President Mike Pence stumping and raising money for Barletta last Monday in Philadelphia.
“The polls have not been looking good,” said E. Fletcher McClellan, a political science professor at Elizabethtown College in Lancaster County. “He’s way underfunded compared to the war chest that Sen. Casey has and he’s tied himself very closely to Trump. As much as Trump can be loyal to anybody, Barletta was an early supporter, and I think he wants to give him a boost.”
The president’s rally is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza, ironically, a venue named partly after Bob Casey’s father, the late Gov. Robert P. Casey, who provided half the state funding to build it. Trump spoke at two raucous rallies there during the 2016 presidential campaign, but he might especially relish backing Barletta and perhaps needling Casey in a building named after the senator’s father.
“I think he clearly sees an opportunity (for a Barletta victory) in Pennsylvania so that’s why he’s coming,” said David Jackson, a spokesman for Barletta’s campaign. “I think this is a great opportunity for us to set the stage for us going into the fall.”
It is.
A sitting president campaigning for a Senate candidate of his party is hardly unusual, but it hasn’t happened much in Northeast Pennsylvania — at least not lately. President Barack Obama never campaigned locally for House or Senate candidates. Neither did President Ronald Reagan, President George H.W. Bush, or President Bill Clinton, who stumped for Joe Sestak’s 2010 Senate campaign at Scranton High School not long after he left office.
They didn’t really need to come. Northeast Pennsylvania and the state long had entrenched House members — the late Rep. Joe McDade and Rep. Paul Kanjorski, for example — and Senate members — Sen. Arlen Specter and Sen. John Heinz, both now deceased — who, election after election, faced only token opposition in uncompetitive races.
The last sitting president who campaigned in Northeast Pennsylvania for a congressional candidate was President George W. Bush, who showed up at Keystone College in October 2006, to support incumbent Republican Rep. Don Sherwood. Amid a personal scandal, Sherwood faced a tough test from Democratic political science professor Chris Carney.
Sherwood lost; Carney won.
It wasn’t a presidential visit, but Vice President Joe Biden stumped in 2010, in Dickson City for Carney, who faced a stiff test against Republican former U.S. Attorney Tom Marino.
Carney lost, Marino won.
Big guns showing up don’t always translate into victory.
Nonetheless, Barletta can use the help. The independent polls so far — one each by Franklin & Marshall College, The Morning Call/Muhlenberg College and Suffolk University — had Barletta trailing by 15 to 17 percentage points. That’s certainly a key reason the major trackers of congressional races give him little chance. The Cook Political Report and Inside Elections rate the race as “likely Democratic,” while Sabato’s Crystal Ball calls it a “safe Democratic” seat.
Last week, Barletta shook up his campaign a bit. He brought in a veteran hand who consulted on his 2010 congressional campaign, Vince Galko, as a general consultant and Rick Santorum presidential campaign staffer Matt Beynon as communications director. He also announced his former congressional office press secretary and 2016 congressional campaign manager, Jon Anzur, as campaign manager. Galko and Beynon grew up in Lackawanna County.
Trump shook up his campaign a couple of times.
“It’s not unusual,” McClellan said. “It’s not ideal, but there’s a history of successful candidates who have rebooted and gotten a new message or a new strategy.”
Trump’s visit could also signal to potential donors that he’s all in on Barletta, who really needs more money.
“Absolutely. He thinks that his support is like a magic charm,” McClellan said. “It will energize the faithful and get some money and get some urgency back into the campaign.”
Casey’s campaign had $9.88 million in cash left at the end of June to Barletta’s $1.55 million, according to their latest quarterly campaign finance report, levels virtually identical to their previous reports filed in late April.
Trump also feels loyalty toward Barletta, who has acted nothing if not loyal to the president. They grew close after Barletta became one of the first congressmen to endorse Trump. Barletta stumped for him relentlessly and advised his campaign in Pennsylvania, which Trump won, the first time a Republican won the state since the first President Bush in 1988.
Trump even interviewed Barletta for a Cabinet post — Barletta said the president offered secretary of labor. When Barletta didn’t jump, Trump moved on, but the president called him personally and encouraged his Senate bid.
Barletta has staunchly supported Trump’s policies, including defending the president’s highly controversial policy of separating parents and children seeking to enter the United States from Mexico.
“Barletta is hoping to take advantage of the enthusiasm that Trump generated during the 2016 campaign,” said Thomas J. Baldino, a political science professor at Wilkes University, who expects another Trump visit this fall. “Barletta’s big challenge will be to have the voters who came out for Trump come out for him.”
Contact the writer:
bkrawczeniuk
@timesshamrock.com;
570-348-9147;
@BorysBlogTT on Twitter.
SCRANTON — A plug last week for a Scranton fundraiser in their weekly Jewish newspaper caught Vestal, New York, couple Jeff and Ruth Shapiro’s attention.
Word of the Jewish Discovery Center’s annual Jewish Food Festival this week at Nay Aug Park in Scranton appeared near the top of the front page of The Reporter, the Jewish Federation of Greater Binghamton’s weekly paper, Jeff Shapiro said, sounding surprised.
With empty plates between them, the two sat with Ruth Shapiro’s sister and her husband, Mania and David DeLeon, who live in Susquehanna near the New York border.
The foursome traveled about an hour to share a little bit of everything — the stuffed cabbage roll, the falafel, the sweet noodle kugel. They had potato knish, a Moroccan burger and apple strudel.
“We tried it all,” Mania DeLeon said.
It’s the festival’s first year back at Nay Aug after four years under tents outside PNC Field in Moosic.
Rabbi Benny Rapoport, the Discovery Center’s director, said relocating gives them more room to spread out, a pavilion to work under and easy access to electricity.
“Nay Aug is a beautiful treasure for Scranton, and I think more people should know about it,” he said as he swapped out a full trash bag for an empty one. Meanwhile, volunteers filled orders under the pavilion for a steady stream of customers.listed 100
Nay Aug also gives them more time. The food festival runs for five days, its longest ever.
“Rabbi has a habit of stepping up at each affair,” David DeLeon said, chuckling. “He’s got to go always a little bit higher, a little bit bigger.”
He and Mania DeLeon got to know Rapoport when his mother was a patient at Allied Services but wanted to keep kosher. They discovered the Discovery Center in Waverly Twp., which sells kosher meals throughout the week. The DeLeons have come to the festival every year since.
Up in the bandstand, a punk rock cover band chugged out the last few chords of a song by Blink 182, not music you’d expect at a Jewish festival, at least not at this one. The Nay Aug summer concert series happened the same day.
“I don’t mind,” Rapoport said, grinning as he shook loose a fresh garbage bag and started on the next trash can. He saw where colliding cultures shared common ground. “It brings people together.”
Contact the writer:
joconnell@timesshamrock.com;
570-348-9131;
@jon_oc on Twitter
If you go
The Jewish Food Festival continues for lunch and dinner today through Thursday.
Times: Lunch, 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.; dinner, 4 to 7 p.m.
Where: Nay Aug Park, 500 Arthur Ave., Scranton
Details: visit jewishfoodfest.com.
MOSES TAYLOR
ALVARADO: A son, July 19, to David and Kendyl Alvarado, Peckville.
CHRISTIANO: A daughter, July 23, to Brandon and Nicole Marra Christiano, Scranton.
EMMERICH: A daughter, July 23, to Tyler and Irina Emmerich, Springville Twp.
FORNICOLA: A daughter, July 21, to Dominic Fornicola and Sharon Rocco, Archbald.
HOLL: A son, July 21, to Tara Holl, Scranton.
KITHCART: A son, July 21, to Victor Kithcart and Gianna Galella, Scranton.
LYDON: A daughter, July 20, to Wayne and Carrie Petty Lydon, Blakely.
MARRERO: A son, July 18, to Joshua Marrero and Rachael Snopek, Scranton.
NOGAN: A daughter, July 23, to Benjamin and Allison Tyson Nogan, Scott Twp.
OWENS: A daughter, July 19, to James and Deanna Snedeker Owens, Waymart.
PELLIS: A daughter, July 23, to Jeffrey and Kristin Patchell-Pellis, Roaring Brook Twp.
PERFILIO: A son, July 18, to Marco Perfilio and Briah Carling, Scranton.
PREZZIA: A son, July 22, to Paul and Megan Fraser Prezzia, Scranton.
PURCELL: A son, July 19, to Matthew and Nicole Lipinski Purcell, Dunmore.
QUINTERO-FRANCESCHI: A son, July 22, to Andrés Quintero Rodriguez and Keishla Denisse Franceschi Torres, Scranton.
RICHARDSON: A son, July 21, to Timothy and Lindsey Blede Richardson, Highland Park.
SALVATORE: A son, July 19, to Brandon and Lauren Kashuda Salvatore, Scranton.
SANDS: A daughter, July 21, to Bobbie Jo Sands, Tunkhannock.
SLUSHER: A daughter, July 23, to Robert and Sarah DeEsch Slusher, Canadensis.
THOMAS: A son, July 21, to Keith and Sara Lucarella Thomas, West Pittston.
WACHSMAN: A son, July 23, to Tzvi and Adina Herman Wachsman, Scranton.
WILSON: A daughter, July 21, to David Wilson and Courtney Larusso, Scranton.
Luzerne County
Rummage sale: St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, 100 Rock St., Hughestown, annual rummage sale, Thursday and Friday, 4-8 p.m., and Saturday, 9 a.m.-noon; Saturday is bag day, $2, household items, jewelry, holiday items, purses, shoes, lamps, books, more; menu available, wimpies, hot dogs, cupcakes, soda, water. Contact: Carolyn, 570-817-3451 or 570-654-1849.
Pike County
Office hours: State Sen. Lisa Baker, R-20, Lehman Twp., Field Representative Andrew M. Seder, available for consultation, 10 a.m.-noon, Tuesday, Aug. 14, commissioners conference room of the Pike County Administration Building, 506 Broad St., Milford, and Thursday, Aug. 16, Green Twp. Municipal Building, 198 Brink Hill Road, Greentown, 9-11 a.m. Contact: www.senatorbaker.com or 570-226-5960.
Scranton
Grant funding: Robert H. Spitz Foundation, administered by Scranton Area Community Foundation, first round of grant funding to local 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations, $323,247 in grants given to: Boys and Girls Clubs of NEPA, Catholic Social Services of the Diocese of Scranton, Dress for Success Lackawanna, Outreach Center for Community Resources, Geisinger Clinic, Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine, Goodwill Industries of NEPA, Jewish Family Services of Northeastern Pennsylvania, Lackawanna College, Marywood University, NativityMiguel School of Scranton, NeighborWorks Northeastern PA, NEPA Youth Shelter, Serving Seniors Inc., United Neighborhood Centers of Northeastern Pennsylvania, University of Scranton, Valley Youth House and Women’s Resource Center Inc. Organizations interested in receiving an invitation to submit a grant application: Cathy Fitzpatrick, cathyf@safdn.org, by Oct. 1.
Leadership Lackawanna: Area nonprofit organizations invited to submit a request for proposals for implementation as a class community service project. Contact: www.leadershiplackawanna.com, Nicole Morristell, 570-342-7711 or nMorristell@
scrantonchamber.com. Deadline for submission is Aug. 24.
Throop
Family festival: The 13th annual family festival of Blessed Sacrament Parish, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Aug. 17-19, parish grounds and hall, 215 Rebecca St. For piggie dinner, bingo or 50/50 grand prize tickets, contact Karen Doyle, 570-489-2552, or the parish offices, 570-489-1963 or 570-489-0752.
West Scranton
Pasta dinner: SS. Peter and Paul Russian Orthodox Church, 1720 Academy St., all-you-can-eat pasta dinner, Sunday, Sept. 16, noon-2 p.m., $10/person. Contact: rectory, 570-343-8128.
Wyoming County
Office hours: State Sen. Lisa Baker, R-20, Lehman Twp., Field Representative Tom Yoniski available for consultation, 1:30-3:30 p.m., Tuesday, Aug. 7, commissioners conference room of the Wyoming County Courthouse, 1 Courthouse Square, Tunkhannock. Contact: www.senatorbaker.com or 570-675-3931.
CLIPBOARD ITEMS may be sent to yesdesk@timesshamrock.com or Clipboard, c/o YES!Desk, 149 Penn Ave., Scranton, PA 18503. YES!Desk, 570-348-9121.
As a group works to save a beloved Girl Scout Camp in Susquehanna County, the regional council sold a part of it to someone with a special connection to the historic camp.
In November, the regional council Girl Scouts in the Heart of Pennsylvania, which comprises 30 counties, announced it would retire and sell off about half of the 288-acre Camp Archbald. The council also ended overnight residential camp programs, citing low enrollment. The Brooklyn Twp. camp is the second-oldest Girl Scout camp in the nation.
Recently, the regional Girl Scouts group sold a 70-acre piece of the land to Joan and Donald Esherick. Joan Esherick is a descendant of the Elys, for whom Lake Ely was named.
The land used to belong to Joan Esherick’s great-great-uncle, and she has fond memories of picking flowers and hiking along the trails as a child.
“It’s part of our heritage,” she said.
“It was always a dream for us to be able to own this land, so when they announced it was for sale, we jumped at the chance,” Joan Esherick said, adding she and her family want to preserve and protect the land. “We want to see Camp Archbald continue, and we want to continue being neighbors with the Girl Scouts.”
Meanwhile, the Supporters of Camp Archbald group held its own four-day camp this month for all girls ages 7 to 17, featuring swimming, boating, rock climbing, archery and more.
Supporters of Camp Archbald have been holding events throughout the summer to increase camp attendance and support, including an ice cream social in July a kayaking trip in August.
Earlier this year, the group launched a petition to save the camp’s programming. It garnered almost 10,000 signatures in 48 hours.
Group member Emily Loder was a camper at Camp Archbald for 11 years, then became a counselor. Her goddaughter attended Camp Archbald this summer.
“I love the camp, and it is very special to me,” she said. “We’re doing everything we can to keep the camp open.”
Contact the writer:
570-348-9100 x1335;
somalley@timesshamrock.com
DREHER TWP. — A 59-year-old man died at the scene Saturday night after an all-terrain vehicle crash.
Gary Volpe of Pocono Drive in Dreher Twp. was pronounced dead about 9:30 p.m. at the scene of the crash, near Pocono Drive and Maple Drive in the Pocono Springs residential development, Wayne County Coroner Edward Howell said Sunday.
A second victim was taken by helicopter to a hospital. Other details were not immediately available.
The coroner expects to complete an autopsy for Volpe sometime this week.
— JON O’CONNELL
SCRANTON — An organization providing care for children and young adults with disabilities wrapped up its three-day festival and fundraiser Sunday.
About 10,000 people visited the St. Joseph’s Center Summer Festival on Marywood University’s campus for the festival.
WNEP-TV’s corresponding Go Joe charity bicycle ride and telethon helped to raise $438,000. All told, roughly 1,500 people volunteered between the ride, telethon and festival.
“This is truly one of the greatest witnesses of community — people’s desire to be part of something good and meaningful,” said St. Joseph’s Center President and Chief Executive Officer Sister Maryalice Jacquinot, I.H.M.
— JON O’CONNELL
CHICAGO — At Rush University Medical Center on Chicago’s West Side, the median charge for a vaginal birth was $16,703 last year.
Three miles away, at Norwegian American Hospital, it cost about half that: $8,873.
Most patients don’t pay those charges, instead paying a sum based on rates negotiated between hospitals and health insurance companies. But even after those negotiations, stark differences often remain — disparities that can hit the wallet hard.
Though consumers have long bemoaned rising health care costs, few people shop for health care the way they might shop for a car, comparing prices. Some don’t realize a procedure can cost tens of thousands of dollars more at one hospital versus another. Others would rather rely on referrals or don’t know where to go to find information.
Now, the Trump administration wants to make it easier for patients to comparison shop for medical care, proposing a rule that would require hospitals to post their charges, before insurance, on their websites. The administration also is considering whether that posted information should reflect rates negotiated with insurers.
Some consumer advocates cheer the administration’s proposal as a step toward greater price transparency. But hospitals and many experts say such a move likely wouldn’t make much of a difference, pointing to existing online price comparison tools that often go unused by consumers.
Lack of awareness
Consumers who want to know how much a hospital procedure will cost already have a number of options.
They can call hospitals to get individual estimates, and sometimes, they can go to hospital websites. Late last year, west surburban hospital system Edward-Elmhurst Health became one of the few systems to post a pricing tool on its website to help consumers estimate out-of-pocket costs based on their insurance plans.
The Illinois Department of Public Health also lists median charges, by hospital, online in its hospital report card, but those figures show only list prices, not how much a patient will actually pay after insurance.
Insurers offer many of the most comprehensive price-comparison tools. In many cases, consumers can log onto their insurance companies’ websites to compare their individual, out-of-pocket costs for procedures at different hospitals.
But most consumers don’t.
Illinois’ largest insurer, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois, has had an online tool in place for about eight years for members to compare prices and quality — partly as measured by outside organizations — across hospitals. Yet less than 10 percent of members use the tool, said Thomas Meier, the insurer’s vice president of market solutions.
It’s not an uncommon result. Nationally, only about 20 percent of Americans have tried to compare prices before getting care, according to the results of a 2016 survey by Public Agenda, a New York City-based nonprofit.
Experts chalk up the low numbers to several factors, including a lack of consumer knowledge, interest and time.
“A lot of it is member awareness,” said Meier with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois. “I think a lot of the members don’t understand even what an (in-network) versus out-of-network provider is, let alone that 44 different providers would charge 44 different amounts for an MRI.”
No incentive
Also, for many consumers seeking health care, price isn’t top of mind, said Sunita Desai, an assistant professor in health policy at New York University. She was lead author of a study published in the journal Health Affairs last year that found only about 12 percent of a large population of employees who were offered a price transparency tool used it.
Patients in the throes of a medical emergency don’t have time to price shop. Those who do have time may trust only certain doctors. And in some cases, price shopping might not help a patient save money, Desai said. Finding a lower-cost service helps a patient only if that service costs less than his or her insurance deductible or out-of-pocket maximum.
“People aren’t necessarily using them because, in some cases, they don’t really have any incentive to do so,” said Sally Rodriguez, chief of staff at the Washington, D.C.-based Health Care Cost Institute, of cost transparency tools.
Other consumers don’t see the upside of taking the time to shop around because they typically hit their deductibles or out-of-pocket maximums each year.
Saving across
the system
Still, shopping for services can save cash across the health care system — for patients, for their employers and for insurance companies, which foot large portions of patients’ bills. Self-insured employers also pay much of their workers’ health care bills. Employers that aren’t self-insured may face higher rates from their insurers if their employees’ medical claims climb.
So perhaps it’s no surprise that many in health care are encouraging consumers to shop.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois and UnitedHealthcare work with some employers to offer incentives for employees to choose lower-cost, high-quality services. With Blue Cross, for example, workers can receive checks of $25 to $500 for choosing certain providers.
“People who use our tools save 36 percent over folks that don’t use our tools,” said Katherine Bisek, a vice president for the insurer. “Higher prices don’t necessarily equate to higher quality or better outcomes.”
Research backs up the assertion that higher prices don’t necessarily mean higher quality. Price differences often have to do with local market dynamics and negotiations between hospitals and insurers, Bisek said. Some hospitals are also more expensive than others because they have to offset the costs of treating complex patients, said Kraiss with the Illinois hospital association. Prices vary quite a bit across the Chicago area, with knee MRIs running anywhere from $142 to $4,736, vaginal childbirth from $5,417 to $28,249, and back surgery from $9,051 to $156,900, according to UnitedHealthcare.
But such pricing disparities aren’t the main reason many hospitals don’t post prices online, Kraiss said. Rather, hospitals have let insurers lead the way in offering price transparency tools because a patient’s final bill depends largely on an insurance plan, she said.
Others, however, suspect hospitals don’t make prices more accessible because they don’t want to be put at a competitive disadvantage. Increasingly, providers other than hospitals offer straightforward services, such as MRIs, at relatively low costs. Those providers don’t have to offset the costs of other services and can have lower overhead, said Rick Anderson, CEO of one such chain, Smart Choice MRI.
He said greater price transparency in health care is long overdue and he hopes it encourages consumers to shop around.
“If I’m in the emergency room having bypass surgery, I’m not asking how much, but when it comes to things that are routine … I’m going to shop because I can and I should,” he said.
President Judge Michael Barrasse sentenced the following defendants recently in Lackawanna County Court:
■ Kevin Gill, 41, 1911 Jackson St., Floor 2, Scranton, to three years of court supervision, including three months of house arrest, for delivery of a controlled substance.
■ Llewellyn Goble, 47, 600 Detty St., Scranton, to three to six months in county prison, followed by six months of court supervision and $1,050 in fines for DUI — tier one, first offense, and DUI — tier two, second offense.
■ Luis Reyes, 38, 619 W. Elm St., Scranton, to six months of court supervision, including three months of house arrest, and a $1,000 fine for DUI — tier three, first offense.
■ Angel Romero, 34, 121 S. Nicholas St., St. Clair, to 79 days of time served in county prison for possession of a small amount of marijuana.
■ Matthew Osterburg, 29, 117 First St., Wyalusing, to four days of time served to six months in county prison and a $1,000 fine for DUI — tier three, first offense.
■ Bryan Keller, 22, 417 Cherry St., Scranton, to four to eight years in state prison, followed by four years of probation, and $269.33 in restitution for conspiracy to commit aggravated assault and conspiracy to commit simple assault.
■ Kahim Davis, 44, 2335 Brighton Ave., Scranton, to 33 to 72 months in state prison followed by three years of probation for possession with intent to deliver, resisting arrest and tampering with evidence.
Judge Vito Geruolo sentenced:
■ Francisco Crespo, 56, 420 Adams Ave., Apt. 302, to two years of court supervision, including three months of house arrest, and a $500 fine for DUI — tier one, third offense.
■ Dale Hicks, 55, 419 Birch St., Apt. 2, Scranton, to six months of court supervision, including three days of house arrest, and a $1,000 fine for DUI — tier three, first offense.
■ Gary Wilgus, 36, 539 E. Market St., Scranton, to one year of probation for default of required appearance.
Judge Andy Jarbola sentenced:
■ Jerean Green, 28, 1323 Monsey Ave., Scranton, to a $300 fine for disorderly conduct.
■ Thomas Andzulis, 37, 3348 Route 2009, Hop Bottom, to two to 12 months in county prison for possession of drug paraphernalia.
Judge Margaret Bisignani Moyle sentenced:
■ Alyssa Loughney, 38, 315 Aswell Court, to 30 days of suspended probation for disorderly conduct.
■ Stephen Vaccaro, 32, 421 N. Main St., Taylor, to six months of court supervision, including three days of house arrest, and a $1,000 fine for DUI — tier three, first offense.
■ Joseph Williams, 32, homeless, to three to seven years in county prison for delivery of a controlled substance.
A park ranger in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado found the body of a man believed to be Carbondale native Brian Joseph Perri nearly a month after he was due to return from hiking.
The Boulder County coroner will make the official identification as part of the investigation, however, National Park Service spokeswoman Kyle Patterson said rangers believe the man found dead in steep terrain northwest of Mount Meeker’s summit is the 38-year-old.
Perri first was reported missing July 5, almost a week after he was expected to return.
Park rangers found his car at a trailhead and launched an extensive search that included a number of agencies, helicopters and drones. Dog teams helped to comb the wooded area surrounding the mountain and nearly 23 square miles above the treeline, Patterson said. Cliffs and loose rock along the rugged mountain landscape made searching difficult.
Rescue teams didn’t know Perri’s exact route. The 14-mile round trip from trailhead to summit would take them beyond trail access.
Such an excursion demands experience in bushwhacking, mountaineering and route-finding, as well as agility to navigate rugged, remote terrain, according to the National Parks Service.
Perri graduated from Hazleton Area Junior Senior High School in 1998. He joined the U.S. Army after high school and served in psychological operations.
He moved to Fort Collins, Colorado, about two years ago in pursuit of a graduate degree in health physics at Colorado State University.
He received intense survival training while in the military, and that had given his family hope in the earliest days of the search that he would pull through whatever misfortune had kept him in the wilderness.
Ten days after Perri’s last communication, a text message with a photo of himself at Mount Meeker’s summit, crews had yet to uncover any clues to finding him.
The Rocky Mountain National Park climbing ranger discovered the body Saturday afternoon, Patterson said. Rangers stayed on site overnight and an investigation took place on Sunday.
Contact the writer: joconnell@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9131; @jon_oc on Twitter
A task force to target blight in Lackawanna County is taking shape and expected to meet next month for the first time.
The task force’s creation follows four public meetings held this spring as part of a burgeoning Blight to Bright Program administered by the Lackawanna County Land Bank in partnership with NeighborWorks Northeastern Pennsylvania. Attendees of those meetings offered input on blight in various communities to help shape the task force’s work, which includes drafting a report to be released later this year on local blight conditions and possible remedies.
Officials overseeing the program compiled the names of between 12 and 15 volunteers who expressed interest in serving on the task force during those initial public meetings. They’re now in the process of reaching out to those people to confirm their interest, county Economic Development Director George Kelly said.
The task force is likely to be comprised of no more than 20 individuals, meaning there are still openings for residents or public officials interested in serving, Kelly said.
Once finalized, the group likely will meet for the first time in late August followed by monthly meetings in September, October and November, NeighborWorks Community Revitalization Manager Todd Pousley said. The report, which should provide an assessment of blight in Lackawanna County and include blight-fighting strategies, is expected to be released and discussed publicly during the November meeting, Kelly said.
In the meantime, NeighborWorks plans to send surveys in the coming weeks to borough, township and city officials in every Lackawanna County municipality to get more information on blight issues in those communities. One survey asks officials to estimate the number of blighted properties in their municipality and identify the most problematic ones, while another seeks information on ordinances and code enforcement policies in each municipality, Pousley said.
Officials spent about $6,300 of a $65,000 state gaming grant to launch the Blight to Bright Program earlier this year. Some of the remaining money will be used to demolish at least one high-profile blighted property, Kelly said, noting officials plan to pursue additional grants and other funding to continue supporting the program.
Anyone interested in serving on the task force should contact Kelly via email at kellyg@lackawannacounty.org.
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Drivers who travel the Central Scranton Expressway should expect the narrowed, two-lane version until at least late spring.
The contractor that removed about 250 feet of the two inbound expressway lanes to build the new Harrison Avenue Bridge has a target of June 1 to finish rebuilding the lanes, said Patrick McCabe, the state Department of Transportation’s bridge project manager.
“I guess I would say thank you to the public for enduring one more winter with it down to two lanes,” McCabe said. “I’m sure it’s an inconvenience for everyone, including our snowplow drivers, but we have endured ... winters with it like that.”
The expressway restoration work by Minichi Inc. of Dupont, which built the bridge, includes a plan to resurface the expressway from Interstate 81 to its Spruce Street endpoint and install a concrete divider between inbound and outbound lanes, McCabe said.
The expressway, normally two lanes inbound and two outbound, narrowed to a single lane each way in spring 2015, not long after the Harrison Avenue Bridge project began, PennDOT spokesman Michael Taluto said.
Minichi had to rip out part of the two inbound lanes to clear a path for heavy equipment to build the bridge.
Now, Minichi has to restore what it removed, though without the original materials. McCabe said the removed lanes sat — and much of the expressway still sits — on a pile of hardened slag, a once-molten leftover from production in the old Scranton Iron Furnaces. The restored section will consist of a precast concrete retaining wall that holds up thousands of 2-inch stones and the rebuilt concrete and asphalt of the expressway.
The wall should resemble the one that holds up the University of Scranton’s soccer field off Laurel Line Drive, McCabe said.
“There’s about 30 feet of air underneath them (the former lanes), so we need to get that retaining wall back in place,” he said.
As part of the expressway paving project, McCabe said he insisted on a 42-inch-high concrete divider to separate the inbound and outbound lanes and replace the short curb that separates them now. The McDade Expressway has a divider like that.
“Back in the day, traffic from Carbondale and the Upvalley would come into town primarily on the old Route 6, past the Eynon Drug Store, past the Viewmont Mall, North Scranton Expressway (McDade Expressway) and into town,” he said. “With the advent of Casey Highway years ago, now the preferred route seems to be the Casey Highway to I-81, the Central Scranton Expressway and in. So, the old mountable curb that was on the Central Scranton Expressway, I really didn’t have a lot of comfort with that. You’re always concerned with crossover-type accidents.”
McCabe said the restoration could face a further delay if the state Fish Commission does not give PennDOT permission to work between Oct. 1 and Jan. 1, a restriction meant to protect fish in Roaring Brook.
“I can’t rule it out that we still couldn’t do it (hit the June 1 target date) anyway, but on the other hand, I don’t know,” he said.
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WILKES-BARRE TWP. — A group of local activists plans to protest President Donald Trump during his visit to Mohegan Sun Arena on Thursday in support of U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta’s campaign for the U.S. Senate.
“He needs to see that the majority of people are not behind him,” said protest organizer Joe Biscotto, of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre chapter of the anti-Trump organization Refuse Fascism.
That is especially true since Luzerne County voters helped propel Trump to victory in the 2016 election, said Biscotto, 38, of Pittston.
Biscotto said he expects a large turnout of at least 150-200. The group will gather on the public sidewalk near Starbucks, across Highland Park Boulevard from the arena, between 5 and 5:30 p.m., he said.
According to Biscotto, the group will march to the arena, carrying signs protesting Trump and his policies. Other signs will show support for U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, the incumbent Democrat and Scranton resident whom Barletta, R-11, Hazleton, hopes to unseat.
As a sitting president, Trump should find far more people gathered to oppose him than he did during a campaign rally at the same venue in October 2016, the month before he was elected, according to Biscotto.
“People are passionate about this,” he said.
Trump’s performance alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin at this month’s summit meeting in Helsinki, Finland, has people “up in arms,” according to Biscotto.
Trump “was terrible to all our allies yet not a bad word to say about Putin,” Biscotto said. “He just doesn’t care about the damage he does to the country.”
Biscotto also criticized Trump for “stripping away environmental regulations” and his “undermining of state institutions such as the press.”
The protest, while passionate, will be peaceful, Biscotto said.
He said he has heard that some Trump supporters might show up looking for trouble, but he and his group will be “100 percent nonviolent.”
For information, see: https://www.facebook.com/events/840352489504174/.
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Special honor
WILKES-BARRE TWP.— Alicia Lynn Savinelli was a shy girl who found her love for singing while listening to her CD player alone in her room.
Now, the 26-year-old is going to sing for the president of the United States.
Savinelli, of Avoca, said she’s been chosen to sing the national anthem Thursday during a campaign rally for U.S. Rep Lou Barletta, R-11, Hazleton, that will be headlined by President Donald Trump. The rally takes place at 7 p.m. at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre Twp.
“The president is going to hear me sing and it’s incredible; I’m so excited,” Savinelli said.
Savinelli had worked hard on her singing, and a few years ago felt ready to let the rest of the world in on her passion. She auditioned for the television show “The Voice” and, after making it through several rounds, made it all the way to the blind auditions on the show. However, before she could audition for the judges, the producers let her know the rosters were filled.
It was a crushing blow for Savinelli, but she didn’t give up. Savinelli kept singing and her hard work will pay off when she sings for the president.
According to Savinelli, Jimmy McGrath, the owner of McGrath’s Pub & Eatery, showed longtime friend Tom Weber some Facebook videos of Savinelli singing. Weber then passed along the videos to the right people because, a few days later, Savinelli received a phone call from Weber offering her the gig, even without an audition. She’ll sing at the event for Barletta attended by Trump and U.S. Rep Tom Marino, R-10, Lycoming Twp.
“I wanted to do it for my family,“ Savinelli said. “I wanted to do it for them, the people who offered me the job, as well. I feel so honored.
— NICO ROSSI
A South Whitehall police officer who shot and killed a man on Hamilton Boulevard on Saturday afternoon has been put on paid administrative leave while police investigate the incident, authorities said Sunday.
But many other details remain unanswered, including the name of the officer and the identity of the man who was killed.
The man had been disrupting traffic across from Dorney Park, and at one point ripped out a car window, Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin has said. A bystander’s video shows the officer firing five shots at the man after he walked toward the police car and ignored the officer’s commands to “get on the ground, get on the ground.”
South Whitehall police Chief Glen Dorney said state police and Lehigh County Homicide Task Force will investigate whether the officer was justified in using deadly force.
The South Whitehall Township Police Department is conducting a separate internal investigation, Dorney said. That’s typically done in these cases, to determine if an officer followed the department’s protocols.
Additional information on the South Whitehall shooting was sparse Sunday. The county coroner’s office, which is conducting an autopsy on Tuesday, did not release the man’s name.
State police Capt. Richard D’Ambrosio, who is in charge of the Troop M barracks that includes Lehigh County, said his department is assisting in the shooting investigation, but could release no further details.
Police officers rarely face criminal charges after the death of a civilian. Two U.S. Supreme Court decisions in the 1980s set up a framework for deciding such cases: Use of deadly force is justified if an officer has an “objectively reasonable” belief that his life or another person’s life is in danger.
In some cases nationally, an officer has been found to have used justifiable deadly force, but was then later fired for not following department guidelines.
This year, more than 580 people have died after they were shot and killed by police, according to The Washington Post, which tracks cases across the U.S. involving police officers who have killed someone.
The last time someone died as a result of a police shooting in Lehigh County occurred in March. Authorities say 26-year-old Aaron Ibrahem was fleeing a Walmart in Lower Macungie Township when he pointed a homemade gun at a trooper during a foot chase. Less than two months later, Martin ruled the shooting justified.
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Introducing your #DWTSJuniors judges!!! ⭐️ @iamValC @nopenother @Adaripp pic.twitter.com/bLutKfiQH6
— Dancing with the Stars: Juniors (@DWTSJuniors) July 30, 2018
BELLEFONTE, Pa. (AP) — A former Penn State University fraternity brother faces a potential jail term after becoming the first of more than 20 defendants to plead guilty in the death of a pledge who was fatally injured during a night of heavy drinking and hazing.
Ryan Burke of Scranton is due in court for sentencing Tuesday. Prosecutors are asking for a jail term of 90 days.
Burke pleaded guilty to hazing and other charges.
Engineering student Tim Piazza, of Lebanon, New Jersey, drank a dangerous amount of alcohol and suffered fatal head and abdominal injuries in a series of falls during a bid acceptance ceremony and party in February 2017.
Burke was accused of giving Piazza a bottle of vodka at the party.
More than 20 other members of the now-closed Beta Theta Pi fraternity face trial in February.