TEXAS TWP.
A Florida man died in a fire Saturday afternoon in Wayne County, Coroner Edward Howell said.
Gregory C. Scheer Sr., 81, 5551 NW 70th St., Chiefland, Florida, was pronounced dead at the scene at 2:36 p.m., Howell said.
The death was ruled accidental as the result of a structure fire caused by the combustion of propane tanks and a heater in a wooded area, Howell said.
— ROBERT TOMKAVAGE
SCRANTON — Before sunrise Tuesday, a man slept but his dog stirred as smoke began to fill their home on Finn Road in Benton Twp.
Michael Murphy’s chocolate Labrador, Izzie, sensed the danger. She didn’t howl. It was more of a whimper.
Izzie was scared.
Murphy noticed the dog’s distress as he woke.
“She never comes into my bedroom,” he said from Ale Mary’s at the Bittenbender in Scranton 12 hours later. “She was crying, not barking … that’s what I (first) remember.”
An uneasy feeling. A dog crying. A smell of smoke.
“I didn’t understand what was happening,” Murphy said. “Why couldn’t I see anything? Why was everything so black? What was that smell? I’ve never smelled anything like that in my life.”
Fire. Got to get out.
“I was asleep in a room full of smoke,”
he said. “I had to be inhaling that poison.
I don’t think I would be here if it weren’t for that dog.”
Murphy, 52, lost pretty much everything, including his phone, journals and pictures.
But he and Izzie were safe.
Murphy recalled the chaos of the harrowing day from the restaurant after the Red Cross set him up at the Red Carpet Inn in Scranton, about 20 miles from his former home.
As the blaze intensified, Murphy headed for the back door with Izzie.
“The living room was engulfed in flames,” he said. “The heat was unbelievable, like a blast furnace. I couldn’t get to my phone and I was four feet from it.”
Murphy ran to a neighbor’s home, who called 911.
Crews arrived at 855 Finn Road in Benton Twp. around 6 a.m. as flames engulfed it, and worked to quell the blaze for about three hours, according to the Fleetville Volunteer Fire Company.
Murphy and Izzie escaped, but two cats, Tiger and Cali, were unaccounted for Tuesday night.
“We turned away from the fire and immediately headed back through the bedroom out the back door,” Murphy said. “The only thing I could think about was if we stayed here, we would die.”
Murphy attempted to rescue his cats, but struggled to navigate through the kitchen to the mud room, where they stayed each night.
“I couldn’t breathe,” he said. “The smoke was so dense and thick, I almost had to feel my way to the mud room door, which was only about 12 feet away.”
He kicked open the door, but didn’t see his cats. He couldn’t see anything.
The fire is under investigation by a state police fire marshal, but the cause doesn’t appear to be suspicious, police said.
Izzie is staying with Murphy’s mother and sisters in Scott Twp.
The show of support from his neighbors in the hours following the tragedy overwhelmed Murphy.
“When I say we lost everything, it’s not an exaggeration,” Murphy said. “The house burned down to the foundation.”
Kristy Kozlansky and her husband, Mike, made Murphy breakfast and took him to get a photo ID.
“He’s a super outgoing, fun guy with a laugh you’ll never forget,” Kristy Kozlansky said. “He’s always welcoming and very nice. I wanted to help out as much as I could.”
Other neighbors donated clothing and gift cards.
“I’d suspect, in time to come, I’m not going to think of this as a time of loss — I’m going to think of this as a day of giving,” Murphy said. “The outpouring of support, both material and emotional, from the people around me has been extraordinary. Without them, it would be a nightmare.”
Contact the writer:
rtomkavage@timesshamrock.com;
570-348-9100 x5365;
@rtomkavage on Twitter
WILKES-BARRE TWP.
Police are advising drivers to use extreme caution in one stretch of business Route 309 due to a malfunctioning traffic light caused by a tractor trailer running over the signal’s control box.
The affected light is at the busy intersection of the Sheetz gas station and the shopping center anchored by Sam’s Club and Kohl’s.
Drivers traveling on Route 309 encounter a constant yellow blinking light — meaning traffic isn’t stopping at all. Motorists trying to leave the businesses face a constant blinking red, making it a difficult — and sometimes dangerous — exit, especially if they try to cross two lanes of opposing traffic to get to their desired direction.
The control box was hit Thursday night when a tractor trailer driver was trying to pull into Sheetz, the chief said.
— BOB KALINOWSKI
For Gregg Sunday, every day is Christmas.
The disgraced former business manager of the Scranton School District is free to rise from his own bed, sip coffee in his kitchen and drop off his wife, Joan, at her job in the district he defrauded.
Sunday is 58, retired, and his $79,000-a-year pension is the gift that keeps on giving, secured by a weak felony charge crafted to keep him out of jail and collecting checks from the taxpayers he ripped off.
Sunday deserved to go to prison, but had the “assets” to land a sugarplum plea deal. Prosecutors said his sentence — three years probation, $8,000 in restitution and the preservation of a $6,566-per-month state pension — was predicated on his cooperation. Sunday was the district’s top “financial watchdog” for 33 years. He knows where to dig for damning bones in the district’s financial graveyard.
Maybe Sunday gave prosecutors blockbuster evidence, but nearly eight months after he sashayed out of court sporting a smarmy grin, no one has been charged or put behind bars except a mechanic who once foolishly considered Sunday a friend.
Dan Sansky deserved to go to prison, and refused to cough up names of co-conspirators he said he didn’t have. He wakes up each day in a Lackawanna County Prison cell. The school district’s former “fleet manager” pleaded guilty to one felony count of theft by deception for billing repairs on district employees’ personal vehicles to taxpayers. Sunday, his wife, son and relatives had their cars serviced at Sansky’s West Elm Street garage at least 38 times, all on the public dime.
Sansky was locked up on Sept. 6. He holds a “light construction” job on work release and reports back to prison each evening. While Sansky, 68, serves a six- to 23½-month sentence for felony theft by deception, his 66-year-old wife battles lung cancer and COPD.
This morning, Lacka-
wanna County Court Judge Margaret Bisignani-Moyle will hear a request to allow Sansky to serve the rest of his minimum sentence — about three months — on house arrest. Tom Nolan, Sansky’s attorney, told me Tuesday that Mary Ann’s health has deteriorated and time is all Dan has left to give her.
Sansky sold two properties, including the garage raided by state police in 2018, and escrowed proceeds to pay $31,000 in restitution. Nolan said Sansky plans to retire. The business he built was liquidated to pay his debt to society and he’s eligible for Social Security — which Gregg Sunday will also be able to collect around the time his wife’s public pension checks begin.
Nolan will stand before the judge and plead for justice tempered by mercy. He will say, as he did at sentencing, that but for “one mistake,” Sansky lived an honorable life as a former Pennsylvania Army National Guard soldier, hard worker and loving husband, father and grandfather. Sansky is 68, and had no prior criminal record, a fact Moyle herself noted before sending him to prison.
Nolan will argue that although Dan Sansky deserved to go to prison, Mary Ann Sansky deserves to have her husband by her side as she fights for every sunrise she has left.
It’s an easy case to make.
If every day is Christmas for Gregg Sunday, justice and mercy demand that Dan and Mary Ann Sansky be together at home for what could be her last Christmas.
CHRIS KELLY, the Times-Tribune columnist, also notes that because his November sentencing was postponed, convicted former Scranton mayor Bill Courtright seems likely to spend the holidays at home. Contact the writer:
kellysworld@ timesshamrock.com, @cjkink on Twitter. Read his award-winning blog at
timestribuneblogs.com/kelly.
MARRIAGE LICENSES
■ Aneri Ashokkumar Patel, Dunmore, and Krutang Rajenddrakumar Patel, Chicago.
■ Augustine Joseph Angelicola, Shavertown, and Carrie Ann Thorne, Clarks Summit.
■ Jessica Raine Moser, Scranton, and Kwangbum Lee, Atlanta.
■ Ellen Elizabeth Genovese and Eugene Francis Metschulat III, both of Jefferson Twp.
PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS
■ George E. Rush to Juan J. Torres; a property at 940-942 E. Elm St., Scranton, for $70,000.
■ Susan Keisling, executrix of the estate of Jeanette Brown, also known as Jeanette R. Brown, to Emma Georgia Thompson, Jim Thorpe; a property at 107 Upper Knapp Road, Clarks Summit, for $163,000.
■ Jerard A. Butala and Alison Duffy, Clarks Summit, to Daniel and Mari Walker, and Leonard and Joanne Deutchman, as joint tenants with rights of survivorship; a property at 519 Colburn Ave., Clarks Summit, for $312,000.
■ Tara and Patrick Houlihan, and Thomas J. Phillips, life tenant, by his agent, Sharon K. Phillips, to Jerard Butala and Alison Duffy; a property at 221 Ashmore Ave., Clarks Summit, for $195,000.
■ Joseph T. and Renee Munley, Jessup, to Luke Raymond Castellani, Jessup; a property at 128 Palm St., Olyphant, for $125,000.
■ Gravel LLC, Clarks Summit, to Gravel Pond Townhouses Inc., South Abington Twp.; a property in South Abington Twp. for $30,000.
■ Gravel LLC, Clarks Summit, to Gravel Pond Townhouses Inc., South Abington Twp.; a proeprty in South Abington Twp. for $30,000.
■ Laura Lee Grover, now by marriage Laura Lee Hetherington, Stockbridge, Ga., to Juan Nacipucha and Yolanda Leyva, Scranton; a property at 1506 N. Sumner Ave., Scranton, for $27,000.
FEDERAL TAX LIENS
■ Tanya A. and Robert M. Kurey, 841 Albert St., Dickson City; $17,363.77.
■ Refik Babic, 3342 Birney Ave., Moosic; $12,464.69.
ESTATES FILED
■ Delmarwade Rosemergey, 619 Lincoln Ave., Jermyn, letters testamentary to Rebecca A. Rosemergey, 1009 Church St., Jessup.
■ Barbara Nancarrow, also known as Barbara J. Nancarrow, 100 Linwood Ave., Scranton, letters testamentary to John J. McGee, 400 Spruce St., Suite 302, Scranton, and Mary Ann Williams, 218 Lily Lake Road, Dalton.
ONLINE: thetimes-tribune.com/court
Archbald
Santa visit: Santa with Mrs. Claus and elves, Saturday, East Side Hose Company 4, 458 Salem Road, visits and gifts, fire station, 11-11:30 a.m.; community visits aboard Engine 21-4 and Tanker 21, 11:30 a.m.-5 p.m.; to request a Santa visit, call Chief Bob Harvey, 570-876-1524, and leave your name, address and call-back number.
Forest City
Christmas luncheon: Stone Soup Kitchen at Christ Episcopal Church annual Christmas luncheon, Saturday, noon-1 p.m., Delaware and Dundaff streets, free; monthly luncheons will not be held January-March, will resume in April.
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.
SCRANTON
City police charged a Scranton man Saturday with strangling a woman after telling her to move out of his apartment.
Tariq Jahad Jackson, 29, 134 Hennessy Court, told police his landlord told him that Tamara Brown is not allowed to live with him any longer, so Jackson broke the news to her when they came home from a night club.
Jackson said that she started pulling out his hair. Brown, however, told officers Jackson started to drag her from the home after she told him she needed a few days to move out.
Police alleged that Jackson punched and choked her.
He is charged with strangulation and related counts.
Jackson is in Lackawanna County Prison in lieu of $75,000 bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled Monday.
— JOSEPH KOHUT
Immigration agents looking for a Guatemalan man facing deportation targeted a Scranton woman first.
Despite a federal work card allowing the Salvadoran woman to be in the United States legally, agents boxed in her car at a Scranton convenience market, handcuffed her, then drove her home to search for the man, who is her boyfriend. Agents banged on the front door for an hour, demanded he come outside, scared her children and left with their mission incomplete, the woman and her lawyer told The Times-Tribune.
They also threatened to take away her four boys, all American-born citizens.
The agents did all that with no justification Friday morning, said the woman’s lawyer, Tracey Hubbard Rentas, who is representing the woman in her bid for asylum.
Their behavior outraged Hubbard Rentas, who cannot understand why agents used her client as bait.
“She was never the target. She showed them a work authorization (card), which said she had a pending asylum application,” Hubbard Rentas said.
The newspaper agreed
to keep the identity of the woman, her children and her boyfriend private because the woman fears for their safety.
ICE spokeswoman Mary Houtmann
confirmed Monday that agents “conducted a targeted enforcement action.” She refused to provide details, but said ICE officers focus limited resources on “the greatest threat to public safety and border security.”
David Clark,
head of ICE’s Pike County office, whose agents arrested the woman, referred questions Tuesday to Houtmann. Attempts to reach Houtmann to arrange an interview with the ICE agents were unsuccessful Tuesday.
The boyfriend, 21,
who was inside the home, has since fled and his whereabouts are unknown.
Besides fleeing ICE agents, he failed to show up for a preliminary hearing Monday
on charges of driving without a license and lying to Scranton police about his identity after another car struck his from behind
.
Hubbard Rentas said her client has no criminal record. The woman, 32, who packs tomatoes at a local farm, acknowledged walking into the United States from El Salvador 16 years ago when her father urged her to come. She has lived in Scranton with her boyfriend and her children the last three years.
“I’m afraid because they (the ICE agents) told me the work authorization is not a guarantee I can stay here,” the woman said.
The woman, who speaks little English, spoke calmly as Hubbard Rentas translated.
The woman said she drove to the convenience market at Meadow Avenue and River Street about 6:30 a.m. to fuel up. As she got out to pump, two cars suddenly boxed her in and two agents jumped out.
One agent told her “I was illegal,” as another translated, the woman said.
“I said, ‘No, I have a work authorization’ ( card) and I showed it to him,” she said.
The agent said the card was no guarantee she could remain in the United States.
“I got scared, I didn’t know what’s going on,” she said.
One agent kept the work card and her state-issued ID.
“They handcuffed me and they told me they were going to take me to my home,” she said.
At first, the agents focused only on her.
“And then they said, ‘Where’s your boyfriend?’” the woman said. “And I said, ‘I don’t know where he’s at.’”
She agreed to voluntarily go home with them because she believed her boyfriend was driving her children to school, she said.
“When we got there and I saw that his car was still there, I really got scared,” she said.
Two agents headed around back, the other two led her onto the screen-enclosed front porch through an open screen door. Her children, still home, heard the commotion. She and the two agents walked up to the interior front door, which has two locks.
“We got to the house and they said, ‘OK, open the door,’” she said. “I took the key and put it in the door to open it, but it didn’t open the door because the children had heard from the inside and locked the top lock.”
Only her landlord has a key for the top lock. The children refused to unlock it.
“He (the boyfriend) may have told them to lock the top lock. I don’t know how they knew to lock the top lock,” the woman said.
The agents pounded on the door.
“I said, ‘Don’t scare them, my children are inside, don’t bang on the door,’” she said.
Later, she learned her eldest son, 15, wanted to open the door, but her second oldest, 13, hugged the boyfriend and told his brother ICE agents would take him if he opened the door.
“The children love him. He is like their father,” the woman said.
She met him about four years ago, and they moved in together about three years ago after his release from an ICE detention prison, she said.
The children cried watching their handcuffed mother from a front window, the woman said.
Unable to get the door open, one agent acted as if he were talking to someone on a cellphone about taking away the children.
“I said, ‘Why? I haven’t done anything wrong,’” the woman said.
“He said, ‘I’m going to take you and arrest you because you won’t open the door,’” the woman said. “He said, ‘You love him so much that you won’t open the door?’ Then they got tired of banging on the door, they opened my handcuffs and they told me, ‘Good job.’”
They never tried to break down the door. Hubbard Rentas said ICE agents have no authority to enter a home.
The boyfriend called his brother, who came by with another woman to pick him up, the woman said. ICE had stuck around and then chased that car. Somewhere, the car pulled over, and the brothers ran off. The agents caught the brother, but the boyfriend escaped, the woman said.
For a citizen, stopping the woman’s car the way the agents did would violate the constitutional prohibition against illegal search and seizure, but federal courts have ruled they can do things like that as long as their behavior isn’t egregious, said Hubbard Rentas.
“If they came out pointing firearms, we could suppress that stop,” she said. “If they were watching the house, they saw a female come out of the house and you’re looking for a male. So, that does not give you any basis to stop the car of a female.”
In an interview Sunday at the home, the woman’s 15-year-old son called the boyfriend the “man of the house,” and said he bought groceries and paid half the rent.
“He was a good guy. He wasn’t a drunk. He didn’t hit us. He used to buy food for us; he even took me to buy my XBox One S,” he said, referring to a video game system. “I really liked him for that.”
The woman said she loves her boyfriend. She came to the United States for opportunity and wants to stay because of her children, she said. She fears gangs in El Salvador would force her children to join, part of the reason she’s seeking asylum.
“Here, they have a future,” she said.
JOSEPH KOHUT, staff writer, contributed to this report.
Contact the writers:
bkrawczeniuk@timesshamrock.com;
570-348-9147;
@BorysBlogTT on Twitter
joconnell@timesshamrock.com;
570-348-9131;
@jon_oc on Twitter
Dec. 11, 1954
Oakleys welcome their 20th baby
Mr. and Mrs. Rexford Oakley welcomed their 20th child to the world at the Carbondale General Hospital. Helen Oakley gave birth to a son the evening of Dec. 10.
The couple and their children lived on Madison Avenue in Childs, Carbondale Twp. Living at home were Rex, Jerry, Ellen, Eileen, Gale, Donald, Elizabeth, Thomas, Margaret, Sharon, Leon, Lawrence and Allen. The couple’s older children James, Jane, Louise and Ruth were all married and lived outside the area. Katherine died at age 10 and another child died in infancy.
City Hall Christmas tree arrived
It’s beginning to look a bit more like Christmas at City Hall in Scranton. The building’s 18-foot balsam fir tree arrived from an unnamed Pocono Lake tree farm.
Superintendent of Buildings Charles Murray and staff set to work decorating the tree in time for the start of City Hall’s choral performances.
Snowy owl finds new home
An unidentified man presented the Nay Aug Park Zoo with a new resident — a snowy owl. The man told zoo officials he discovered the owl in a field in the region.
When the owl first arrived at the zoo it had an injured wing tip but soon recovered.
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.
PITTSTON
Frank Serino will remain president of the Pittston Area School Board for another year, the school board decided at a reorganization meeting last week.
Joseph Salvo is vice president of the board. Serino, Salvo and three other board members — Michael Crawford, Frank Lawler and Rosanne Ricotta — took oaths of office at last week’s meeting to begin new four-year terms. They won new terms in last month’s election.
— MICHAEL P. BUFFER
For the last few years, Revello’s Pizza owner Pat Revello envisioned selling specialty beer in Old Forge that pairs well with pizza and that local restaurant owners could sell.
He told his neighbor restaurant and bar owner TJ Cusumano about his idea and he was on board. They wanted to come up with a specialty line of beers that pays homage to their businesses’ hometown, which is known as the “Pizza Capital of the World.”
The problem was they couldn’t find a brewery that would produce the quantity they wanted to sell until Tim Brice got his license to begin brewing beer earlier this year at Bearded Barrel Brewing Co. in Plymouth.
Revello and Cusumano met with Brice and he partnered with the Old Forge business owners to create a specialty line of beers called Brew Devil.
The first beer was released Sunday and it’s called “Let It Snow Baby Joe, Baby Joe!”
The American ale is loaded with fresh cherries, honey and chocolate malt. Cinnamon and ginger were added. It’s sold on tap and was released for “Snow Forge,” a Christmastime event promoting holiday spirit in Old Forge.
Revello said the beer was named in honor of Joe Lettieri, co-owner of Salerno’s Cafe in Old Forge, who died in 2009.
“He was loved by so many people,” Revello said. “In this town, we are all very close and ‘Baby Joe’ stood out. You would always see him in everyone else’s restaurants.”
The beer was released after a few taste tests and Revello said he heard “nothing but great reviews.”
In addition to Revello’s Pizza and Cusumano Restaurant, the beer is sold on tap at Arcaro & Genell Restaurant, Cafe Rinaldi and Salerno’s Cafe.
Brice said he produced three barrels of the beer, which translates to about 93 gallons. Ninety pounds of cherries were used to create it, he said.
Throughout the year, Revello said there will be about six different beer offerings in the Brew Devil line available only in Old Forge. The beers will be promoted on social media prior to their release, he said.
They contacted people from Felitto, Italy about what ingredients they could use for beer for Old Forge’s popular Felittese Festival in September, Revello said.
Felitto is considered a “sister city” to Old Forge because many residents’ ancestors came from here and the beer would by symbolic of their heritage, he said.
Brice began brewing beer earlier this year at Bearded Barrel Brewing Co. at 439 W. Main St. in Plymouth and he now supplies beer for 14 places throughout Luzerne and Lackawanna counties.
He said the number will increase to 16 by the end of the year and he has more customers lined up for next year. He expects to start can and growler sales in late January next year.
It was his dream to open his own craft brewery. He started with a three barrel brewing system and he said he ordered additional equipment to grow. He expects to open a taproom in late spring or early summer next year.
Brice said he enjoyed meeting with Revello and Cusumano to create the new beer based on their input.
He said the partnership between Bearded Barrel Brewing Co. and the Old Forge business owners is a “great opportunity for both of us.”
“They wanted to do it for quite some time,” he said. “They were lucky that we are small enough to produce it and also flexible with the volume. We could have produced that size or five times that size. We could produce enough to accommodate them. It’s a good partnership.”
Contact the writer:
dallabaugh@citizensvoice.com; 570-821-2115;
@CVAllabaugh on Twitter
An Ashley man will go to state prison for causing a drunken April wreck on the Casey Highway, Lackawanna County President Judge Michael J. Barrasse ruled Tuesday.
Wayne A. Ferrier, 34, 18½ Wyoming St., was sentenced to 15 months to six years behind bars and must pay about $48,000 in restitution.
Part of that sentence also stems from a violation of his probation on a 2018 DUI.
Ferrier collided with a family April 5 while driving the wrong way on an exit ramp. Speaking in court Tuesday, Lacey Neal testified the effects of that day have lingered. Only recently has her daughter been able to make it through the night without a nightmare.
State police said Neal was trying to exit the highway at Exit 1 shortly before 8 p.m. while Ferrier tried to get on the highway using the exit ramp.
Neal said she saw Ferrier’s headlights and first thought it was odd. Then she felt sure this oncoming vehicle was going to kill them.
They collided. Ferrier got out and fled on foot.
“I know he heard the screams,” Neal said. “But, he ran and he hid.”
State police found him walking down the Casey Highway away from the crash scene.
Ferrier reeked of alcohol. He refused a chemical test.
A judge allowed him to enter rehab in August.
Ferrier pleaded guilty Sept. 19 to counts of DUI and accidents involving death or personal injury, according to court records. The plea agreement dropped counts of aggravated assault by vehicle while DUI, among other charges.
Ferrier’s sponsor in Alcoholics Anonymous testified that Ferrier works diligently to maintain his sobriety.
Ferrier said he is grateful no one was killed or more seriously injured during the wreck.
“I deeply apologize for every heartache that I put them through,” Ferrier said. “I made a terrible decision and affected so many lives.”
Contact the writer:
jkohut@timesshamrock.com,
570-348-9144;
@jkohutTT on Twitter
SCRANTON — Ousted Licensing, Inspections and Permits Director Patrick Hinton used Monday’s city council meeting to blast the department and accuse at least one councilman of slander.
Hinton, who addressed council during public comment, accused members of continually bashing the LIP department without justification and attempting to tie him to former Mayor Bill Courtright’s corruption.
The former director led the embattled department while Courtright weaponized it to shake down vendors and entities doing business with the city. Courtright, who resigned and pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges in July, admitted to brazenly directing city representatives to hold up licenses, permits or contracts to extort cash and campaign contributions.
Mayor Wayne Evans ousted Hinton in August after offering him a choice of switching jobs to director of the city Parks and Recreation Department, which would have required Hinton abandon his plan to open a coffee shop in Nay Aug Park, or termination. Hinton chose the latter.
In conversations with The Times-Tribune, Hinton described how Courtright leaned on him to cooperate in the pay-to-play scheme but argued he had nothing to do with the former mayor’s “shadiness and shenanigans and shaking people down.”
Hinton told the newspaper in August that Courtright retaliated against him for not cooperating. Though he had misgivings and suspicions about certain conduct and requests, Hinton said he did not know the full extent of Courtright’s scheme.
At Monday’s meeting, he painted himself as a reformer whose attempts to improve the LIP department were stymied by Courtright and his administration. Hinton blasted council for repeatedly criticizing the department, and then told the newspaper Tuesday that the city has not invested sufficient money, staff or resources in the department and that council often overstates LIP-related complaints.
Council approved legislation last month to contract with Allentown-based Barry Isett & Associates to review the department for efficiency and best practices.
Noting at the council meeting that he can’t speak for his colleagues, council President Pat Rogan denied bashing any department. He said any comments he made about LIP were related to specific issues raised by residents or contractors.
Hinton specifically accused Councilman Kyle Donahue of besmirching his name at a Green Ridge Neighborhood Association meeting earlier this year. Donahue publicly said he was behind the criminal activity at City Hall, Hinton alleged.
Donahue didn’t respond during the public comment period, but defended his criticism of the department later in the meeting. Donahue said he frequently sent requests to LIP during the first 18 months of his term without receiving a response and likely hears more LIP-related complaints from residents than complaints about potholes.
“Whether you knew (about the pay-to-play scandal) or not, you were responsible for that office,” Donahue said to Hinton. “That was your responsibility, and I’ll leave it at that.”
Attempts to reach Donahue were unsuccessful Tuesday.
Hinton said Tuesday he was never in Courtright’s inner circle and feels he’s being made a scapegoat because of his former job title.
“I expect to be back again because I do have a lot to say,” he said at Monday’s meeting.
Contact the writer:
jhorvath@timesshamrock.com;
570-348-9141;
@jhorvathTT on Twitter
Gov. Tom Wolf joined state and local leaders Tuesday for a walking tour of Honesdale’s historic downtown.
SCRANTON — Daniel Sansky is home.
The former fleet manager of the Scranton School District, who admitted to overbilling taxpayers and charging the district for work on the personal vehicles of its employees, will serve the remainder of his sentence on house arrest, Judge Margaret Bisignani Moyle ordered today.
Before going to prison, Sansky, 68, of Jefferson Twp., served as the primary caregiver to his wife, who suffers from lung cancer and COPD. His sentence of six to 23½ months incarceration has had a “significant impact” on the family, Sansky’s attorney, Tom Nolan, told the court.
Erik L. Olsen, Pennsylvania senior deputy attorney general, said the prosecution would not “advocate or oppose” the house arrest. He said the investigation of the district is ongoing.
Sentenced in September, Sansky moved to the county work release center after a week in Lackawanna County Prison. He must also serve five years of probation and pay $31,186 in restitution to the district — which he has paid. He has about three months left if he serves the minimum sentence.
In June, Sansky pleaded guilty to one felony count — theft by deception — as part of a plea deal. He originally faced seven felony charges, including corrupt organizations, dealing in unlawful proceeds, criminal conspiracy and theft by deception.
A statewide grand jury charged Sansky in September 2018. Sansky charged the district for work on the personal vehicles of least a dozen employees or their family members, including former school district Business Manager Gregg Sunday. Sansky’s guilty plea specifically involved doing the work on those vehicles, as well as wrongfully billing the district $53,000 to put 114 tires on one garbage truck, a 2014 Mack Packmaster.
Sunday pleaded guilty in March to one felony charge — conflict of interest, restricted activities — for his role and received a sentence of three years of probation and kept his $79,000 yearly pension.
As the judge informed Sansky that he would go home today, his wife began to cry.
“You’re coming home,” Mary Ann Sansky said as she embraced her husband before they walked out of the courtroom together.
Contact the writer: shofius@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9133; @hofiushallTT on Twitter
Fidelity Deposit and Discount Bank’s parent company is scooping up a Northampton County bank in a deal that will expand its footprint into the Lehigh Valley.
Fidelity D&D Bancorp Inc. will acquire MNB Corp. and its whollyowned subsidiary Merchant’s Bank of Bangor, which has nine branches in the Lehigh Valley county, according to a Tuesday announcement.
Fidelity will pay shareholders 1.039 shares for one share of MNB stock, an allstock deal worth $78.5 million. Two MNB board members will sit on Fidelity’s board, and all MNB branches will rebrand under the Fidelity flag.
The banks expect to close the deal in the second quarter 2020.
Montage Mountain opens for daily skiing starting Friday.
Most Northeast Pennsylvania ski areas welcomed their first skiers last week with limited hours. Warmer temperatures and rain this week is stymieing some slope action, including at Camelback Mountain near Tannersville, which closed Wednesday because of bad weather. Montage could have between nine and 11 trails open Friday depending weather conditions, spokesman Jeff Slivinski said.
Starting Friday, Montage is open regular hours: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday; 8:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday; and 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday..
State police in Wayne County arrested a Lake Township man today on charges he sexually abused four girls over the last 10 years.
Glen Edwin Donahue, 54, 1866 Lake Ariel Highway, raped one girl multiple times over the last 10 years, according to the district attorney’s office. At one point, she was younger than 13.
State police alleged that Donahue threatened to kill the children, county workers and police involved in the investigation.
The Times-Tribune does not identify victims of sexual assault.
He is charged, among other counts, with rape, unlawful contact with a minor and terroristic threats.
He is jailed at the Wayne County Correctional Facility in lieu of $600,000 set in two criminal cases.
Check back for updates.
BENTON TWP.
A fundraiser has been set up on Facebook to help Michael Jerome Murphy, who lost his home to a fire Tuesday morning.
Murphy credits his Chocolate lab, Izzie, for waking him up in time to escape the home safely.
Donations may be made on Facebook on the Michael Jerome Murphy and Izzie Fundraiser page. facebook.com/donate/2874652422558564/2597528070284411/
More than $1,300 was raised on the first day.
Donations may also be dropped off Thursday from 6:40 to 7:30 p.m. at the Fleetville Fire Company Station, 58 Firehouse Lane, Fleetville or any time on the covered porch of the Wescott family’s home, 133 Gumaer Road, Factoryville.
Murphy is in need of clothing, size 3X and 54x30 pants, and size 12 shoes.
— ROBERT TOMKAVAGE
A father and son from Jefferson Twp. accused of dumping their septic company’s waste directly into the sewer lines will each spend a year on probation, a judge ordered Wednesday.
Homer and Eric Butler, 69 and 39, respectively, appeared before Lackawanna County Judge Margaret Bisignani Moyle.
A jury returned a mixed verdict in September against the pair, who were charged with avoiding tens of thousands of dollars in fees by directing millions of gallons of Butlers Septic Services LLC’s waste through a standpipe on their property.
“You were afforded an opportunity to present your defense to the jury and they found some value in what you had to say,” Moyle said.
Homer Butler maintained he had an agreement with the township to dump into that line.
The jury convicted Homer Butler, owner of the company, with one count of theft of services and two environmental charges — unauthorized sewage discharge and violating the Clean Streams Act. However, the jury found that Butler’s actions were negligent and not intentional.
The jury found him not guilty of a more serious theft charge and two other offenses.
Eric Butler was convicted on one count of unauthorized sewage discharge but acquitted on two counts of unlawful conduct.
Attorney John Petorak, who represented both men, noted that the sewage they dumped did not go directly into public waterways. It was treated first, though at a cost to the Lackawanna River Basin Sewer Authority.
According to the criminal complaint, the connection helped them avoid paying almost $229,999 to the authority for treatment services over an eight-year period.
Eric Butler took the opportunity to decry overzealous prosecutors from the state attorney general’s office, which handled this case.
Angrily, he said they care more about winning the case than the law.
“That disgusts me,” he said.
Homer Butler, who now lives off his Social Security in Florida, was also ordered to pay a $5,000 fine. Eric Butler must pay a $2,500 fine.
Contact the writer: jkohut@timesshamrock.com, 570-348-9144; @jkohutTT on Twitter.