SCRANTON — Holding a radish and chewing on chives, Douglas Fernandes peered into the tomato plants in his backyard.

“Farmer Jon, is this one ready?” the 8-year-old asked.

When Jon Maier said yes, Douglas popped the red tomato off the vine.

As part of an effort to increase the availability of fresh food to South Scranton residents, United Neighborhood Centers of Northeastern Pennsylvania started its garden project last year. The organization helped residents plant 20 gardens each of the last two summers.

The project has not only helped teach people about how to garden, but has encouraged them to eat healthy and talk to their neighbors, said Chrissy Manuel, revitalization manager for the organization.

With the closure of Weis Markets on South Washington Avenue two years ago, South Scranton became a “food desert” because of a lack of available fresh food, Manuel said.

United Neighborhood Centers hopes to change that.

Earlier this summer, Maier, who has extensive farming experience, met families and helped plan their gardens.

Depending on soil conditions, Maier planted the gardens in the ground or built raised beds. For people who rent, Maier planted container gardens.

At the Fernandes residence, Maier helped the family plant tomatoes, melons, Swiss chard, collard greens, green beans, eggplant, squash, carrots and herbs.

“This is amazing,” Maier said as Douglas continued to examine the garden. “Just getting people exposed to it can make all the difference.”

Douglas’ mother, Aline Batista, said she is happy to see her son excited about helping care for the garden and eating the harvest.

“It’s something different to do than play video games all day,” she said.

Douglas went back to the chive plant and picked a couple more pieces.

“I have a green thumb. Two, actually,” Douglas said, smiling. “If you have one, learn how to get two.”

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Sept. 3, 1918

Lackawanna grand jury hands down indictments

A Lackawanna County grand jury handed down a mix of recommendations and indictments on its last day of service.

The jury indicted Scranton Mayor Alex Connell and members of city council for the conditions of roads in South Scranton. It also ordered that Clarks Summit officials answer questions about the condition of the main road into the borough. The action was requested by the Motor Club of Lackawanna County.

The jury also decided against issuing indictments on several business owners for selling alcohol on Sunday.

The jury recommended minor improvements to the Lackawanna County Jail and suggested that a vacant lot near the jail be turned into a park. It also recommended to the Scranton Police Department that traffic control officers be on the job continuously, instead of taking a lunch at noon, leaving no officers controlling traffic downtown during that time.

Jimmy Dean, local baseball star, dead

Jimmy Dean, well-known local baseball star, died Sept. 2. He was a pitcher for several local baseball teams, including Billy Wirth’s All-Stars.

In one memorable game in 1904, the All-Stars played in a big game against the Carbondale Pets at Athletic Park. Carbondale would play only if money was paid to the winning team. A sports editor from a Philadelphia newspaper was brought in to be the umpire. Special trains ran between Scranton and Carbondale to bring fans to the game.

Dean, known for being a slow pitcher, was able to earn the win for the All-Stars by getting the Carbondale batters so frustrated that “they swung like a team from the home for the aged.”

Dean worked as a switchman for the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad. He was survived by his wife, two children, his mother, a brother and a sister.

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.

MOSES TAYLOR

ALDUEY: A son, Aug. 24, to Eric Alduey and Johanna Rosario, Scranton.

BROWNING: A son, Aug. 30, to Jason Browning and April Trible, Meshoppen.

DePHILLIPS: A daughter, Aug. 26, to Robert and Nicole Feduchak DePhillips, Clifford Twp.

DESTEFANO: A son, Aug. 23, to Gino and Amanda Golaszew­ski Destefano, Archbald.

DIANA: A son, Aug. 28, to Rocco and Mary Mower Diana, Roaring Brook Twp.

FELKOWSKI: A son, Aug. 28, to Jeffrey and Cara Donahue Felkowski, Dallas.

GAY: A daughter, Aug. 27, to Jacob Gay and Christine Kilmer, Scranton.

HARVEY: A daughter, Aug. 23, to David Harvey and Heather Woodyatt, Scranton.

KILLSTROM: A son, Aug. 30, to Jeremy and Erin Atkinson Killstrom, Scranton.

KUMANI: A daughter, Aug. 29, to Dundappa Sidrumappa and Vidya Dundappa Kumani, Clarks Summit.

LARDNER: A daughter, Aug. 24, to Casey Harkins and Grace Lardner, Olyphant.

MARTINI: A son, Aug. 27, to Carl and Holly Moore Jacobeno, Archbald.

MATTIOLI: A son, Aug. 29, to Anthony Mattioli and Caitlin Pucilowski, Moosic.

PENUGONDA: A son, Aug. 29, to Subash and Jyothisri Penugonda, Clarks Summit.

ROOT: A son, Aug. 30, to Donald and Amanda Thomas Root, Dalton.

RUTKOWSKI: A daughter, Aug. 27, to Daniel and Colette Rutkowski, Elmhurst Twp.

Woman who wandered from festival found save

SCRANTON — A 73 year-old woman with dementia who wandered away from the La Festa Italiano festival Sunday evening was found safe, police said.

Mary Ann Hughes was reported missing at around 5:30 p.m. She was found a Cedar Avenue and Breck Street at around 9:40 p.m., police said. No further information was available.

DICKSON CITY — Beginning with the lease of a new police SUV in August, the borough plans to slowly replace its fleet of police vehicles over the next decade to reduce maintenance costs and keep more vehicles on the road, the police chief said.

With a fleet of eight police vehicles, the Dickson City Police Department has had as many as four vehicles out of service at once, Police Chief Stephen Margeson said.

The department has a peak staffing of three to four officers so it must ensure there are enough functioning vehicles for each officer, he said.

“It’s challenging for us,” Margeson said. “It’s also extremely challenging for our borough mechanic.”

Eighty-five percent of the police budget goes to manpower, so it is “critically important” that they have the tools and resources to do their jobs, he said.

“Unfortunately, we need vehicles to do that,” he said.

So, the borough plans to purchase one to two new police vehicles each year to rotate out aging vehicles, Margeson said.

Vehicle purchases will depend on when leases end, so the borough will be purchasing either one, two or no vehicles every year, Borough Manager Cesare Forconi said. The borough plans to stick to three-year leases but could do five-year leases depending on funds, Forconi said. It also may seek grants or other funding, he said.

Although purchasing new vehicles may sound counterintuitive to save money, Margeson said, obtaining new vehicles could be less expensive in the long run compared to retaining older police vehicles with mounting maintenance issues and downtime.

New vehicles will be more reliable, and the technology in the police packaging is “improving year after year,” Margeson said.

“We’re not going to have as much downtime with an updated fleet, and if we keep rotating and updating this fleet, we could hopefully be able to minimize that downtime over the years as we continue to update them,” he said.

The decommissioned police vehicles can then either be sold at auction or used by other borough departments like the DPW, he said.

Council voted to lease a new, fully equipped Ford Explorer during its August council meeting. The SUV will cost $48,900, which includes the cost of equipment, lights and decals as a package deal, Forconi said after the meeting.

The borough will be leasing all of its police vehicles, Council President Jeff Kovaleski said following the council meeting. By leasing instead of buying, the borough can get more vehicles because payments are spread out over three years at a 3.5 percent interest rate, he said. When the lease is up, the borough buys the vehicles for $1, he said.

“We’ve got to get rid of some of these older vehicles,” Kovaleski said. “Some are 100,000, 120,000, 130,000 miles, so they’ve got to be taken out of fleet. And that’s what we’re trying to do.”

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A Duryea woman recently diagnosed with early stage breast cancer is urging women with certain breast characteristics to undergo testing in addition to a mammogram.

Pauline Reedy, 71, said her cancer was detected as much as one to two years earlier because she heeded her doctor’s recommendations and underwent an ultrasound in addition to an annual mammogram.

A mammogram is an X-ray of the breast performed mostly on women. It’s extremely accurate in finding tumors for most patients, but it has its limitations, particularly for people with dense breast tissue, said Dr. Susan Summerton, a radiologist with Delta Medix Medical Group in Scranton. Breast density refers to the ratio of fatty tissue to glandular tissue.

Cancer in early stages appears as a white speck on a mammogram, she said. In patients with dense breasts, the background of the X-ray image is predominantly white, which makes it difficult for a radiologist to detect the cancer.

“When you are trying to distinguish white on top of white, it’s very challenging, like trying to find a polar bear in a snowstorm,” Summerton said. “An ultrasound is extremely helpful in looking through dense tissue because it displays the tissue in a different way.”

Numerous studies have shown the benefit of supplemental ultrasounds.

Most recently, a study published in May in the British Journal of Cancer shows the cancer detection rate increased by 40 percent when patients underwent supplemental ultrasounds compared to a mammogram alone.

Delta Medix has seen similar results. On average, cancer is found in four of every 1,000 mammograms, Summerton said. Since January, Delta Medix performed 200 supplemental ultrasounds, which detected five cancers that were not detected by reading the mammogram alone.

“If we continue at that rate, we are going to find 20 to 25 cancers per 1,000,” she said.

While an ultrasound is a great supplemental tool, it does not replace the mammogram, Summerton said. Just as the ultrasound detects abnormalities the mammogram can’t, the mammogram detects suspicious marks the ultrasound cannot pick up.

Summerton said most insurance companies cover the cost of the ultrasound. Patients should check with their individual insurers, however, to ensure coverage.

Breast cancer is the second most common cancer in women, behind skin cancer. As with all cancers, early detection is crucial.

“It helps if you find it early when the tumor is not as aggressive,” said Dr. Kristine Kelley, a breast surgeon at Delta Medix. “It also gives you more options in the surgical treatment.”

While dense breast tissue itself is not abnormal, it does increase the risk of cancer. Legislation enacted in Pennsylvania in 2014 requires medical providers to notify patients if they have dense breasts and advise them to consult their physician to determine if additional testing is needed.

Most patients are heeding the advice at Delta Medix. About 80 to 90 percent of patients who get the notice get the ultrasound, officials said.

For the 20 percent who don’t, Reedy has a message: “Look at me.”

Reedy said her tumor was so small it could not be felt during a breast examination or detected on the mammogram.

“The mammogram would not have picked it up for two or three more years,” Reedy said. “If the doctor did not feel it or see it for two or three years, it might have been too late.”

She underwent a lumpectomy — a procedure in which the tumor and some surrounding tissue is removed. She also underwent radiation treatments but did not need chemotherapy. Had the cancer been detected later, she might have had to undergo a mastectomy, a surgery to remove the entire breast.

“I’m extremely lucky,” she said.

She hopes her story encourages women to heed the advice if they get a letter advising them they have dense breasts.

“I know people who say, ‘I got a letter and ignored it,’ ” she sad. “If you do, you are playing with your life.”

Contact the writer:

tbesecker@timesshamrock.com;

570-348-9137;

@tmbeseckerTT on Twitter

For more information on breast density and the impact it has on breast cancer detection, visit: https://www.areyoudense.org/

To assess risk for breast cancer, visit: https://bcrisktool.cancer.gov/

Checks presented

Lackawanna County Heritage Fair visitors may have extra traffic to battle for the inaugural five-day event next year on Montage Mountain.

The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders play five home games against the Rochester Red Wings and Lehigh Valley IronPigs at PNC Field from May 29 to June 2, the same dates as the fair. The fair is planned to be at either the Pavilion at Montage Mountain, operated by concert promoter Live Nation, or Montage Mountain Resorts, owned by developer Charles Jefferson.

The state Department of Transportation also has scheduled a nearly $14 million road resurfacing project on Interstate 81 northbound and southbound lanes from the Luzerne County line to near the Central Scranton Expressway, and several bridge projects on I-81 in Moosic and Scranton, said PennDOT spokesman Mike Taluto. The projects likely will start in April and last several months, he said.

“It’s obviously going to present some issues in terms of congestion getting to and from the fair,” said Armand Olivetti, chairman of both the Lackawanna County Fair and Recreation Authority and fair board.

The baseball team’s schedule was already set for 2019 when the fair dates were announced, he said. Fair organizers plan to coordinate with the baseball franchise for the 2020 fair to try to avoid home games occurring during the event.

The baseball games could prevent lots at PNC Field from being used for remote, off-site fair parking, Olivetti said.

Fair organizers will work with Scranton and Moosic police and the Lackawanna County sheriff’s office to create a comprehensive traffic and security plan for the fair, and likely will appoint a coordinator to develop such a plan, Olivetti said.

The RailRiders do not have home games scheduled during the Northeastern Pennsylvania Air Show, which returns to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport the weekend before the fair, May 25 and 26.

PennDOT officials will work with fair and air show organizers to address construction-related traffic issues, Taluto said.

Traffic issues on the mountain often plague motorists, including most recently Aug. 17, when severe weather, a baseball game that eventually was rescheduled, a concert and other circumstances caused vehicles to back up onto Davis Street and I-81. Some concertgoers waited in traffic for hours, prompting Live Nation to apologize for the inconvenience and frustration some fans experienced.

The fair authority and board continue to work on nailing down the spot on the mountain for the fair.

“I think the fair is a wonderful thing,” Jefferson said. “If the county wanted to consider us, I would certainly be honored to work with them and participate in that.”

Traffic is inevitable and usually means that a lot of people want to attend an event, which is a good thing, he said.

“I’m not worried,” Jefferson said.

Live Nation is discussing the fair venue with organizers, said Live Nation Vice President of Marketing David Niedbalski, who declined to comment further.

Attempts to reach RailRiders officials were unsuccessful.

Contact the writer:

jhorvath@timesshamrock.com;

570-348-9141;

@jhorvathTT on Twitter

SCRANTON — When Debbie Conway arrived as superintendent of Steamtown National Historic Site in mid-2014, the park hadn’t had an operational steam locomotive in close to two years.

That changed when the Boston Locomotive Works 26 engine finally went back into service in April 2016 after a lengthy restoration.

As she prepares to leave later this month to become deputy regional director for the National Park Service’s Northeast Region, Conway listed the return of “live steam” to Steamtown — part of a larger strategy to make certain it remains a consistent part of the park experience — as her top accomplishment during her four years as superintendent.

“We have a plan in place to try to make sure Steamtown isn’t steamless in the future,” Conway, 52, said. “We have worked really hard to be strategic in our thinking about what equipment we need to repair and what our priorities are so we don’t get ourselves in that position again.”

For Conway and her staff at the park, that meant re-evaluating how Steamtown approached its planning, particularly in the long term, and how it developed its requests for funding.

For example, despite the historic site’s lack of a working steam locomotive at the time, rebuilding the park’s steam program was not front and center with respect to its project funding requests when she arrived in 2014, Conway said.

“We really didn’t have any projects for steam engines, and that floored me,” she said.

With the strategic planning she initiated taking place internally, it’s not something park visitors would have noticed, but it will “pay huge dividends in the future as we are able to have better planned-out projects and get more funding from outside our base budget,” she said.

“The point is there is a lot of behind-the-scenes work we’ve done that isn’t going to be forward-facing but is really going to help set the park up to compete for funding better and maintain our equipment better,” she said.

Conway said Steamtown needs to have a minimum of three operating steam locomotives, and that is part of the long-range strategy for the park. It would allow the site to have two engines to operate its yard shuttles and excursions, while the third is undergoing repairs or maintenance.

With the Baldwin 26 serving as “the anchor of our program now,” work continues to restore the Boston & Maine Railroad 3713 locomotive to operating condition. Steamtown is waiting for various components of the locomotive that are undergoing restoration at shops outside the park to be returned.

“That one is sort of like putting Humpty Dumpty back together,” Conway said, adding it will be at least two years and “probably more like four years” before the B&M 3713 is ready for service.

In the meantime, Steamtown has started to develop the funding request for the restoration of a third steam engine — probably Canadian National 3377 — but is likely still several years away from getting any funding to even start that project, Conway said.

“If we have three, we can consistently keep things moving,” she said. “One of the challenges is the Baldwin. While it’s a great little engine, it’s not powerful enough to go on the mainline, so ideally it would be great if we had four, but we could make it work with three.”

Conway foresees funding as a continuing challenge for Steamtown. The site’s annual operating budget of about $5.5 million is solid for a medium-sized park and would be a good budget for a small scenic railroad, but it is tight for an operation like Steamtown that combines both aspects, she said.

The superintendent last year formalized a partnership with an official Steamtown “friends group,” the Iron Horse Society, to support operations at the park. The nonprofit society will be able to solicit donations and apply for grants for projects that park officials themselves cannot, Conway said.

Attendance at the park, which dropped sharply after the park became steamless in 2012, has stabilized and is now pushing 100,000 visitors annually, Conway said. Last October, with the blessing of park service officials in Washington, she eliminated the site’s admission fee, and she anticipates the final attendance numbers for 2018 will show a gain over 2017.

There are other things Conway had hoped to do that haven’t come to fruition — at least not yet.

Steamtown has worked with the Lackawanna Heritage Valley on a grant for a connector bridge that would link the historic site to the Lackawanna River Heritage Trail, she said.

“That’s a key piece and when that happens, that will kind of help us make the loop with the trail,” she said. “There are some great connections being made, and not seeing those through to the end is definitely kind of sad.”

Conway won’t be leaving Steamtown completely behind when she begins her new job Oct. 1.

As regional deputy director of the Northeast Region’s southern tier, she will oversee dozens of National Park Service sites in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia. Steamtown is one of those.

Although she won’t have a role in naming an interim superintendent — something she said should happen in the next couple of weeks — she will select the historic site’s next permanent superintendent.

Conway said she will be looking for a successor with good team- and partnership-building skills. Railroading knowledge would be a plus, she said.

“I am sad to leave here,” she said. “I wasn’t expecting to go after four years. I was expecting it to be a little longer, but this is a great opportunity for me, career-wise, and as far as timing, there is never a perfect time.

“But I feel like we have things in a pretty good spot for the next person.”

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570-348-9132

SCRANTON — A 62-year-old woman was robbed after she withdrew cash from the PNC Bank automatic teller machine at 136 S. Main Ave. around 1:52 p.m. Monday, city police said

The woman, who was not identified, had just withdrawn an undisclosed amount of cash and was walking to her car, which was parked in the bank’s lot, when a man approached her and yelled “give me that money,” police said.

The woman refused and tried to put the cash in her pocket. The suspect, described as a black male, about 5 feet 9 inches tall with a slender build and wearing black jeans and white tank top, pushed her to the ground, grabbed the cash and ran. A second man with the suspect also fled.

— TERRIE MORGAN-BESECKER

SCRANTON — He’s just 13, but Louis DiMattio is already a festival tear-down expert.

The North Pocono High School seventh-grader learned his packing chops starting at age 3, when he first helped his dad and longtime chairman of the La Festa Italiana committee, Chris DiMattio, squeeze hundreds of items into a trailer.

He was there again Monday, when the 43rd annual festival wrapped up its four-day run on Lackawanna County Courthouse Square in Scranton.

The key to making everything fit in several small trailers and one tractor-trailer?

“Keep stuff in groups,” he said. “There’s a specific spot for everything.”

Louis was among about a two dozen volunteers who raced to break down and pack away the hardware that helps make the festival a reality each year.

Between the barricades (more than 100), extension cords (about 2,000), garbage cans (200-plus), table umbrellas (50) and countless other items, the workers were tasked with what seems like an impossible mission: Break down in eight hours what took four days to set up.

Somehow it always manages to get done, Chris DiMattio said. It can be a little stressful, he acknowledged.

“We’re Italian, so we do yell and scream at each other,” he said with a laugh. “We make up at the end of the night and talk about what can we do better next year.”

DiMattio said turnout for this year’s festival was on par with other years, with an estimated 100,000 people enjoying the entertainment, food and merchandise of about 80 vendors.

“For the work we put into it you’d think it lasts several weeks, not several days,” DiMattio said.

A brief thunderstorm around 2 p.m. made the already hot and humid conditions even more stifling, but that did not deter festival-goers who gobbled up their favorite Italian specialities.

The humid conditions and another thunderstorm around 7 p.m. made cleanup all the more difficult.

Festival committee members did most of the work with the help of about 12 men ordered by Lackawanna County Court to perform community service as part of their sentence.

Joe Guido, vice president of the La Festa committee, was in charge of community service workers.

“It’s a big help,” Guido said. “We’d be here much later without them.”

The festival closed at 8 p.m. but workers began the arduous clean up around 6 p.m. The hope was to be done by midnight, but Guido was not optimistic.

“It will be a miracle,” he said.

DiMattio has headed the festival for 25 years. It’s a lot of work and commitment for him and other family members, but it’s time well spent, he said. He’s thrilled his son shares his commitment.

“He’s my left hand, following in dad’s footsteps learning how to boss people around,” he joked.

Contact the writer:

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@tmbeseckerTT on Twitter

Clarks Summit Fire Company volunteers might get a tax credit under an ordinance borough officials are expected to vote on this week.

The ordinance would be a good way to possibly attract new members and retain existing ones, borough council Vice President David Jenkins said.

“The whole idea behind the incentive is to get people to join,” said Jenkins, who is also a past president of the fire company and still active within the organization. “For whatever reason, in a lot of organizations in the community, there just aren’t a lot of people joining.”

Officials modeled the ordinance on one Jessup council adopted in September, Jenkins said. So far, 31 municipalities have adopted tax refund ordinances for volunteer emergency personnel across the state, acting state Fire Commissioner Bruce Trego said.

Council must also approve criteria that must be met in order to qualify for the credit based on factors including the number of calls a volunteer responds to, participation in formal training and drills, time spent on administrative and support duties such as fundraising, bookkeeping and facility and equipment maintenance, and the number of years a volunteer has served. The incentive is only available for

volunteers who are Clarks Summit residents, Jenkins said.

The municipal property tax rate in Clarks Summit is 33.5 mills. The median residential assessed value of property in the borough is $18,000 and carries a municipal real estate tax bill of $603, according to 2014 county assessor’s office information. The tax credit would be $120.60.

Clarks Summit Fire Chief Jay Miller said there are between 20 and 30 active members on the rolls who regularly respond to fires and other emergencies. The department is in need of additional membership, Miller said. He hopes the ordinance will spur growth.

“It’s nice the council is doing this and they’re trying to give something back to the people who do this,” Miller said.

Council is expected to vote on the ordinance at their meeting Wednesday, Borough Manager Virginia Kehoe said.

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Sept. 4, 1968

Scranton students head back to class

Over 17,000 public school students in Scranton headed back to class.

The first day almost wasn’t Sept. 4 but after a last-minute meeting of the Scranton Federation of Teachers, the teachers voted to report to school. The agreement was worked out between the union and the school board solicitor James A. Kelly.

Also returning to school were over 32,000 students in all the parochial schools

throughout the Scranton Diocese.

Cable TV discussed

at council meeting

At Scranton City Council, the matter of cable television coming to the city was discussed by the council members. The members discussed at length the difference between cable and pay television. Cable television, according to council, was commercially operated antenna service and pay television involved a charge for each program watched by a viewer.

Another issue was the amount of money that the city could make off of allowing cable television to come to the city. Council President John Brazil said that the city would receive a $50,000 payment for a nonexclusive franchise and a percentage of the gross income.

Brazil also said the monthly service charge would be $4.25 and any rate change was subject to council approval.

West Sider crowned Miss Northeast Teenager

Christine Kwiatek, a junior at West Scranton High School, was crowned as Miss Northeast Teenager at the contest held at Rocky Glen Park. Kwiatek was to compete in the Miss Teenager contest on Sept. 7 at Palisades Park in New Jersey.

Elizabeth Shuminski of West Scranton was named first runner-up and Helen Rapovich, of Hanover Twp., was named second runner- up.

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.

DUNMORE — Holy Cross High School is closed today after a water pipe burst in the chemistry lab, Principal Benjamin D. Tolerico said.

Last night, Dunmore police notified Tolerico that water had begun pouring from the chemistry lab down into the cafeteria below. The chemistry lab is not damaged but the ceiling tiles in the cafeteria are water logged. A plumber is at the school today to fix the pipe, the principal said.

School will be open tomorrow.

— STAFF REPORT

MIDDLE SMITHFIELD TWP. — A man and woman from South Carolina face charges for kidnapping a 15-year-old Monroe County boy they met online, state police at Stroudsburg said.

Cynthia Delgado, 30, and Confesol Paduani, 45, both of Dillon, are also charged with attempted sexual assault.

On Aug. 23, state police learned the two took the teenager to a trailer park near Dillon. The two had sexual communication with the child and had said they were the minor’s new family. The Times-Tribune does not identify victims of sexual assault.

They were arrested Monday and are awaiting extradition.

An investigation by Trooper Justin M. Leri is ongoing.

— JOSEPH KOHUT

Red Green returns to the F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts in March — potentially for the last time.

The “This Could Be It” tour comes to Wilkes-Barre at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 28.

Potentially Red Green’s last tour, Red Green heads out on the road to hold ‘lodge meetings’ all over North America. This might be your last opportunity to catch Red Green live before he takes a long look at his birth certificate and decides not to keep pushing his luck, according to the show press release.

This latest one man show features some brand new handyman projects, advice to married guys and teenage boys, tips on getting old, an apology to the world on behalf of all baby boomers, special contributions from Harold and a couple of other cast members, talking animals, and a final wish from Red to all of his loyal fans.

Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Thursday and are available at the Kirby box office, www.kirbycenter.org and 570-826-1100. A Kirby member presale begins today.

Tickets cost $53.50 plus fees.

SCRANTON — A doctor accused of deliberately burning his wife with a hot iron last year pleaded guilty today in Lackawanna County Court to two counts of disorderly conduct.

Dr. Bhargav Chowdary Paleti, 31, Dunmore, was immediately sentenced by President Judge Michael J. Barrasse to one to two months in the county prison, plus two years of probation.

Paleti, who was affiliated with Geisinger at the time, was arrested by Dunmore police on aggravated assault and other charges in March 2017 after his wife told officers he twice burned her with an iron.

The second assault left Jaahnari Vajje, who married Paleti in India in 2016, with severe burns on her right forearm, police said.

Under questioning by Barrasse, Paleti said he understood the rights he was giving up by pleading guilty and indicated he had discussed with his attorney, Jason Mattioli, how it could affect his immigration status.

Before sentencing, Mattioli said Paleti had no prior arrests or any previous contact with the criminal justice system.

Mattioli told Barrasse that Paleti, who lost his job last spring, has made arrangements to move to Montreal, Canada, and must leave the United States by Oct. 9 to avoid potential arrest by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

At the time of her husband’s arrest, Vajje told Dunmore police Paleti had been unhappy with their arranged marriage from the outset and frequently subjected her to beatings and other physical abuse, according to court documents.

Contact the writer: dsingleton@timesshamrock.com, 570-348-9132

A 47-year-old Scranton man tried to kidnap a woman’s young child while right in front of the boy’s mother, forcing the woman to physically take her son back, city police charged.

Samuel Uwimana, 1820 Division St., seemed to deny the allegation during a recorded interview Saturday at city police headquarters. He refuted knowing the business police believe he was kicked out of sometime around when the incident happened and said that “God is his witness,” according to a criminal complaint.

Amy Cusick, the victim’s mother, told police that she and her son moved out of Uwimana’s way while on the 1600 block of Washburn Street on Saturday and the man bent over and picked up her son.

The complaint does not state how old Cusick’s son is. A birth announcement from 2016 indicates the child is a toddler.

“Amy was still shaking,” Officer William Hayes wrote in a criminal complaint. “She’s never seen this male before and hasn’t seen anything like this since she’s lived here.”

Cusick physically took her boy back. Uwimana started to flee. The Lackawanna County 911 reported to police that Uwimana had been kicked out of the nearby Villa Maria II and then Cusick lost sight of him.

An ambulance crew saw Uwimana walk into West Side Food and Beer on South Main Avenue and police stopped him. An officer drove Cusick to the store and she identified him as the man who picked up her child.

Investigators asked if Cusick gave Uwimana any reason to believe he could pick her son up. She said no.

Uwimana is charged with kidnapping and disorderly conduct. He’s in Lackawanna County Prison in lieu of $25,000 bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled Monday.

Contact the writer: jkohut@timesshamrock.com, 570-348-9144; @jkohutTT on Twitter.

A Nicholson man did not report that a 25-year-old associate of his had been having sexual contact with a 16-year-old girl even though he was required to as a police officer, state police at Gibson charged.

Joshua Joseph Diddick, 29, faces charges he offered alcohol to teenage girls at a house party earlier this year at that 25-year-old’s Hop Bottom house and “harassed” an underage girl on Snapchat until she blocked him, then messaged her again on Facebook, Trooper Girard Dempsey wrote in a criminal complaint.

Dempsey did not identify victims by name in that complaint.

All of that occurred while Diddick was a police officer, a point that two of the teenage girls joked about to Diddick after he offered them beer.

“Just because I am a cop doesn’t mean I can’t have fun,” Diddick said.

It’s unclear if Diddick is still a police officer. Diddick had been employed as a municipal officer in multiple jurisdictions. A message left for District Attorney Marion O’Malley was not returned.

Susquehanna County’s official website listed Diddick as the police chief of Hop Bottom. A message left at the borough building was not returned.

An article reporting a child abuse arrest in April identified Diddick as a Montrose police officer who filed the charges. Montrose Police Chief Dale Smith said Diddick had been a part-time police officer but resigned from the force roughly a month ago because he took another job elsewhere. The chief believed Diddick had mentioned he would become an electrician.

A phone message left for Diddick was not returned. His attorney, listed on a court docket as Robert Hollister, decline a request for comment through his secretary.

State police began their investigation by the middle of July when a 16-year-old girl said during an interview at the Children’s Advocacy Center she received alcohol and sexual contact from a 25-year-old man and a local police officer knew about it.

The 25-year-old man she identified has not yet been charged regarding that conduct. Trooper Bob Urban, a spokesman for the Dunmore-based Troop R, said that investigation remains ongoing.

Two other teenage girls, 17 and 16, told investigators that the three minors were with the 25-year-old man and Diddick while Diddick drove them in his truck. Diddick appeared drunk but continued to drink as he drove, according to the complaint. He offered the underage girls beer. One of them took one and they teased him that he’s a police officer who is breaking the law.

Once stopped, the 25-year-old and the 16-year-old started “making out” in the back seat. Diddick grabbed the 17-year-old’s buttocks, state police said.

State police interviewed Diddick on Aug. 23 and he denied the allegations. A day later, he acknowledged that the 25-year-old and 16-year-old had been flirting and kissing in the back of his truck.

Diddick is charged with failure to report, stalking, corruption of minors and giving minors alcohol. He is free on $15,000 unsecured bail and has a preliminary hearing scheduled Tuesday.

Contact the writer: jkohut@timesshamrock.com, 570-348-9144; @jkohutTT on Twitter

OLYPHANT — A 35-year-old Olyphant man removed his shirt, then his pants, while challenging a man to a fight for supposedly having sexual relations with his girlfriend, borough police said.

Jason Kozlowski, 215 Willow Ave., exposed his genitals to everyone in the area in the process, including young children watching Monday night’s commotion on Lincoln Street from their windows, police charged.

Kozlowski wanted to fight Lemar Davis. Davis left to avoid a fight with Kozlowski, whose blood alcohol content measured 0.128 percent on a breath test, according to police.

Kozlowski is charged with disorderly conduct, harassment, indecent exposure and public drunkenness.

He is in Lackawanna County Prison in lieu of $5,000 bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled Tuesday.

— JOSEPH KOHUT