Then, circa 1910: This early postcard presents a unique view from the front steps of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad’s passenger station. Originally part of a block of land that was part of the estate of city founder J.C. Platt, after Platt’s death in 1890 the block was split by a short street called Platt Place, creating a triangle of land that became the site of the passenger station in 1908. Passengers departing the Neo-Classical limestone station faced an elegant stone carriageway and a grass terrace along Platt Place, with a single block of private residences below the estate of the Scranton family.

Now: Today the scene looks very different. In the early 1960s the construction of the Spruce Street bridge changed the traffic patterns, and roads approaching the city’s downtown, at the same time redevelopment efforts by the city and University of Scranton razed the homes along the former Platt Place. The university’s Alumni Memorial Hall, opened as the school’s library in 1960, today sits above the access ramps to Interstate 81 and Pittston Avenue.

— COURTESY OF THE LACKAWANNA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

It’s time once again to see what you’ve learned from the weekly Local History columns in 2019. Test your knowledge below:

1. Who first noticed flames engulfing Scranton Technical High School’s steeple and alerted the Fire Department just before midnight Saturday, Feb. 8, 1969?

A. A woman walking her dog.

B. Three Dunmore residents who were driving by.

C. A police officer walking his beat.

D. A newspaper deliveryman.

2. What year did Goose Pond Scout Reservation open for Boy Scouts?

A. Formally in 1982, but they held informal camps organized by local troops starting in 1969.

B. 1889.

C. 1942.

D. Scranton Council, which oversaw local troops, held its first camp for all troops at what was then known as Bidwell’s Pond in 1919. In 1920, the council purchased 450 acres of land and Goose Pond opened to Scouts.

3. The 14-story Bank Towers building was once topped with …

A. A ritzy penthouse.

B. A 40-foot Christmas tree in December and January.

C. A 60-foot tower that lit up at night.

D. A helipad.

4. Back in 1934, two Scranton boys got lost for 75 hours in …

A. The old Diamond Mine, after entering it on Ravine Street.

B. Rocky Glen, when it closed for a long weekend.

C. Nay Aug Gorge, which they were exploring in bad weather.

D. A 181-acre corn field on a Pike County farm.

5. True or false? A Dickson City man’s work played roles in NASA’s Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs.

A. True.

B. False.

6. What did Italian Consul General Nobile Augustino Ferrante tour on his 1931 visit to Lackawanna County?

A. Delaware–Lackawanna Railroad headquarters.

B. Hudson Coal Co.’s Marvine underground workings.

C. Avanti Cigar Co.

D. PNC Field.

7. For decades, Dunmore resident Trudy Hoffman has served as the world’s president of the fan club for …

A. Former President Jimmy Carter.

B. Author Margaret Atwood.

C. Actress Lizabeth Scott.

D. Actor Robert Redford.

8. Which of the following companies did Northeast Pennsylvania native Mel Ziegler help create?

A. Banana Republic.

B. Bath & Body Works.

C. Gibson.

D. Best Buy.

9. Which is the oldest Catholic church in West Side?

A. St. Ann’s Basilica.

B. St. Lucy’s.

C. St. Patrick’s.

D. SS. Peter & Paul.

10. True or false? Northeast Pennsylvania raised about $2,800 in 1966 to send to Aberfan, Wales, after coal mining waste destroyed part of the town.

A. True.

B. False.

Answers: 1. B; 2. D; 3. C; 4. A; 5. A; 6. B; 7. D; 8. A; 9. C; 10. A

SCRANTON — One last hit was all that mattered.

Locked in a car and surrounded by police in a garage in South Scranton, parole absconder Josh Jezorwski tried to “spike up” on crystal methamphetamine. Blood drew back into the barrel of a syringe.

As Jezorwski fumbled with the needle, Patrolman Scott Benzeleski smashed the car window and officers dragged him out. They handcuffed him and walked him toward the headlights of a transport van.

The methamphetamine they found weighed about a gram, or $100 to $120 worth.

It was one more gram seized this year as the opioid epidemic gives way to an increasingly abused and addictive escape.

“It’s as easy to find as going to the grocery store for a cup of coffee,” addiction advocate Marty Henehan said.

As more and more people die from powerful opioid analogues like fentanyl and carfentanil, drug users are turning to the highly addictive crystal methamphetamine to chase a high. It’s easy to make and readily available.

The Street Crimes Unit, a four-man team focused on drugs and guns in Scranton, found 9½ grams of methamphetamine and 357 bags of heroin in 2017. In 2018, the methamphetamine climbed 5,521% to 534 grams while heroin dropped to 103 bags. By mid-December, they seized 233 grams of methamphetamine — not as much as in 2018 but on a much more frequent basis.

“When it came on, it exploded,” Patrolman Jason Hyler said.

Jennifer Smith, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs, went before a state Senate committee in March and said there is “quite an uptick” in cocaine and methamphetamine use in three early warning areas: Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Johnstown, the Associated Press reported. Those areas are usually the first to show new trends in Pennsylvania.

Historically, methamphetamine’s popularity has centered in the West and Midwest of the country, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. Recently, the east coast has seen more methamphetamine as Mexico-based organized crime syndicates, the country’s primary supplier, expand their operations, according to the DEA.

The DEA’s National Forensic Laboratory Information System issued a report in March that showed methamphetamine had surpassed THC — the psychoactive compound in marijuana — as the most frequently identified drug in federal state and local forensic laboratories on a national level.

In Pennsylvania, methamphetamine’s share of the state’s total drug reports increased by 880%, from 422 in 2010 to 3,449 in 2017, the NFLIS wrote.

The eastern part of the state, from Lancaster County through Luzerne County, appeared to have been a driving force behind that shift, according to their data. Lackawanna County was not far behind.

A year ago, members of the Lackawanna County Drug Task Force, Dickson City police and Archbald police took more than a quarter-pound of methamphetamine and more than $16,000 in cash during a raid on a home in Dickson City.

After, Archbald police issued a public warning on Facebook with a picture of six plastic zip bags of white crystal methamphetamine and a long line of $100 bills.

“Methamphetamine is the latest drug trend hitting our streets,” they wrote.

A stakeout in Bulls Head

On a cold and misty Friday night in mid-December, the Street Crimes Unit hit the road looking for methamphetamine. An informant told Hyler about a house in the city’s Bulls Head section where people go to buy it.

He and Sgt. James Sheerin parked their undercover truck in an alley and staked out the house. A vehicle was parked out front. No one was inside it.

Curious, Hyler pulled out a pair of binoculars to read the license plate and typed the numbers into the truck’s computer terminal. The car was registered to a Moosic resident.

The two officers decided to wait the driver out. A cop can easily spend six hours of an eight-hour shift watching a house before anything happens, Hyler said.

A woman walked out of the house and started up the car. She did not use a turn signal to pull onto the road. Hyler followed.

The woman pulled into a gas station parking lot two blocks away. Hyler pulled into a lot across from her and watched.

A message came from fellow unit member Patrolman Kyle Gilmartin. State parole Agent Michael Roberts told him a wanted man, Jezorwski, was in a garage on Bergen Court. Jezorwski would run if given the chance, the two cops mused. Gilmartin would need help.

As the woman they followed appeared to be leaving the gas station, Hyler steered the undercover police truck onto North Main Avenue and roared toward South Side.

Smoked, snorted, eaten and injected

While fentanyl remained the most common drug found during overdose autopsies in Lackawanna County, 2019 saw the first reports of methamphetamine present in overdoses — five of 34 deaths, according to available data from OverdosefreePA, which tracks overdoses.

“I can say with certainty that, yes, stimulant use has increased within our community,” said Barbara Durkin, executive director of the Lackawanna/Susquehanna Office of Drug and Alcohol Programs.

She noted that methamphetamine use is at the forefront of the spike.

“It’s easy to get, it’s easy to make,” she said.

With the intense focus on the opioid crisis continuing, the resurgence of methamphetamine abuse has generally passed under the public’s radar.

She believes that people are “shying away” from using opioids because there’s such a high potential for overdose and they’re afraid.

“Addiction doesn’t necessarily require them to take their drug of choice,” Henehan said. “Their brain tells them that they just need to take something to feel different.”

Henehan estimated that roughly seven out of 10 people he refers to treatment either have a current methamphetamine addiction or have used the drug within the last 30 days.

There is a challenge in placing someone who is on methamphetamine in a treatment facility, Durkin said. It takes time for the effects to wear off. Whether smoked, snorted, eaten or injected, methamphetamine is a highly addictive drug that targets the central nervous system.

“The appeal is the burst of euphoric energy that makes them feel like they’re unstoppable, that they can accomplish anything,” Henehan said. “They believe that it gives them greater vision and focus.”

Chronic use leads to severe consequences. Users can exhibit violent behavior, anxiety, confusion, insomnia, paranoia, delusions and hallucinations, according to the DEA. Sometimes they feel like they have insects creeping on or under their skin, so they scratch themselves and leave open sores.

The effect on a user’s appearance can be so drastic that they are often unrecognizable.

Those afflicted with opioid use disorder have a range of medications that can help, Durkin said. There’s nothing of the sort for methamphetamine, she said.

Geisinger has treated hundreds of people who screened positive for stimulants on toxicology, said Dr. Margaret Jarvis, medical director of Geisinger Marworth Treatment Center in Waverly.

More than 2,700 people were treated for alcohol and opioid use disorder at Geisinger outpatient clinics in Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Bloomsburg and Williamsport over the last two years. A third of those people were positive for stimulants on tests collected during treatment.

In psychiatric treatment units in Bloomsburg and Danville, Geisinger clinicians have seen four to five cases of amphetamine-induced psychosis per month, she said.

A traffic stop and kitchen conversation

Friday night gave way to Saturday morning with the threat of rain.

With Jezorswski in custody after the raid at the South Scranton garage, Hyler and Sheerin drove back to the Bulls Head home to resume watch.

An SUV sat empty in the driveway, but with its lights on and its engine running. Two people came out of the house and climbed in. Again, Hyler followed.

The SUV turned right onto Green Ridge Street off North Main Avenue and Hyler turned on the truck’s red and blue lights.

The passenger, David Wehrmann, seemed nervous.

“What?” he answered when asked if there was anything illegal in the car.

Hyler asked again. Wehrmann repeated the question.

Eventually, he acknowledged he had “some spice,” but uttered an expletive when Hyler found a black zipper pouch in his left jacket pocket.

Among the pills and hallucinogens inside lay 1½ grams of crystal methamphetamine.

Rain poured in sheets.

Hyler assured Wehrmann he could get him help if he wanted it. Dejected, Wehrmann, 41, said addiction plagued him most of his life.

Wehrmann told police he was renting a room in the home they were watching. He gave them permission to search his room. All they found was an agitated roommate.

He paced the kitchen and smoked cigarettes. At 27, he’s been to rehab before. That’s where he was introduced to the idea of methamphetamine.

Now, he is addicted to heroin and methamphetamine. He got high about a half-hour before Hyler, Sheerin and Benzeleski marched Wehrmann into the kitchen.

Hyler knew him from back when the roommate was a Scranton High School student who wrestled.

The 27-year-old now seemed like a different person. Early that Saturday morning, his skin was pale and he flashed a smile missing several teeth.

“It’s incredible,” he said of smoking methamphetamine.

He does it a lot. He knows how to make it but he does not have to. It’s easy to find and he buys it everywhere. He claimed he knew how to get it for $225 an ounce.

He called his wife and she drove over — the woman Hyler and Sheerin initially spotted in front of the house earlier in the night. She had a feeling the police had been watching the house.

She was sober and said she doesn’t use drugs. She mostly stays with her parents in Moosic now.

At their request to protect their privacy as he deals with addiction, The Sunday Times agreed not to identify the couple.

Wearily, the 25-year-old woman told the officers her husband would be in rehab by the end of the day Saturday. She managed to get him a bed.

Hyler assured him he will be on his porch every day if he does not follow through.

He has a little girl and she’s starting to catch on, she told Hyler.

The 27-year-old went to rehab around noon that Saturday.

“The heroin epidemic is now turning into the meth epidemic,” the roommate said.

Contact the writer:

jkohut@timesshamrock.com;

570-348-9144;

@jkohutTT on Twitter

Bill Courtright once seemed destined to be the Scranton mayor who would finally pull the city out of its decades-long financial morass.

As 2019 comes to a close, he appears destined for prison.

Courtright’s resignation as mayor and subsequent guilty plea to federal corruption charges was the clear-cut choice as Northeast Pennsylvania’s top news story of 2019 in voting by The Sunday Times news staff.

It was also the top pick of readers of the newspaper’s website, thetimes-tribune.com.

In the newsroom poll, the mayor’s downfall easily beat out a related story for the top spot: independent Paige Cognetti’s election as Scranton mayor for the next two years as part of a remarkably robust showing by women candidates at the polls in November.

1. Courtright’s downfall

Less than 24 hours after resigning as Scranton’s mayor, Bill Courtright stood before a federal judge and admitted shaking down city vendors and business people for cash and campaign contributions.

“Are you pleading guilty because you are in fact guilty?” Chief U.S. District Judge Christopher C. Conner asked.

“Yes, your honor,” Courtright replied.

Courtright’s July 2 guilty plea to criminal conspiracy, bribery and extortion punctuated a stunning fall from grace for the Democratic politician who, in the midst of his second term as Scranton’s chief executive, appeared to have the city well on its way to shedding its financially distressed status.

In a brazen pay-to-play scheme, Courtright directed city representatives to hold up licenses, permits and contracts as leverage to extort cash payments or campaign contributions from entities doing business with or in the city.

It started a month after Courtright took office in 2014 when he demanded a payment from a contractor. Over the next five years, Courtright pocketed at least $50,000 from 10 business people, according to investigators.

The federal probe came into public view in January when agents raided City Hall. Later the same day, agents found $29,450 — including cash from payoffs made by someone cooperating with the FBI — in a safe at the mayor’s home, investigators said.

The only other person charged to date in the scheme is Courtright associate Edward Weidow Sr., who investigators say passed $9,000 in bribes from a vendor to the mayor. He pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his role as an intermediary.

Both Courtright and Weidow are awaiting sentencing.

On July 24, city council appointed Republican Councilman Wayne Evans to serve as mayor until Jan. 6.

2. Cognetti victory

When Paige Cognetti takes office as Scranton mayor next month, she’ll be the first woman to hold the job.

Cognetti, a Democrat who switched her registration to independent to make the run, easily outdistanced six other candidates in the special election Nov. 5 to fill the final two years of former Mayor Bill Courtright’s term.

A native of Oregon who moved to Scranton three years ago, Cognetti capitalized on her outsider status with an electorate seemingly eager to embrace a fresh perspective after Courtright’s guilty plea to federal corruption charges.

She has said her top priority will be tax reform, calling it a necessity if Scranton is to grow.

Cognetti led a large contingent of local female candidates who made waves in the November balloting.

Jessica Rothchild, elected to Scranton City Council, will be its first openly gay member. Tara Yanni, Sarah Cruz, Ro Hume and Catherine Fox were all elected to the Scranton School Board, where they joined two incumbent women directors, Katie Gilmartin and Barb Dixon, on the nine-member body.

Lackawanna County voters elected Debi Domenick as the first Democratic female commissioner, four years after electing outgoing Republican Commissioner Laureen Cummings as the first woman to join the previously all-male board.

And in Dunmore, Janet Brier mounted a late-developing write-in campaign to improbably but convincingly win a seat on borough council, where she joins incumbent Carol Scrimalli and fellow newcomer Beth McDonald Zangardi. That will give Dunmore three women on its seven-member council — believed to be a first.

3. SSD investigation

The state investigation of the Scranton School District continued in 2019, with two guilty pleas, more inquiries and a promise the probe remains ongoing.

Former fleet manager Daniel Sansky, who admitted to overbilling district taxpayers and charging the district for work on the personal vehicles of its employees, received a prison sentence of six to 23½ months in September.

Gregg Sunday, the former business manager, 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. Sunday’s sentence and ability to keep his pension were widely criticized. Sansky did work on vehicles belonging to Sunday and his family and then billed the district.

The state also examined the district’s contract with DeNaples Transportation, including suspected tampering with public records, and circumstances surrounding the dismissal of former Principal Gwendolyn Damiano. In August, investigators removed at least one large bag of shredded paper from the Administration Building.

In September, the judge supervising the statewide grand jury investigation ordered people involved with the district not to obstruct justice or intimidate or retaliate against witnesses.

4. Year of upheaval

From financial recovery to new leadership, 2019 was a year of upheaval for the Scranton School District.

The state placed the financially challenged district in recovery in January, naming retired Delaware Valley Superintendent Candis Finan, Ed.D., as chief recovery officer.

In August, the Scranton School Board approved the recovery plan, which calls for school closures, tax hikes and finding an outside group to run the district’s preschool program.

Superintendent Alexis Kirijan, Ed.D., abruptly resigned in August, leading to many changes in administration and the promotion of Melissa McTiernan to superintendent. In December, four female newcomers took their seats on the school board, with more women leading the district now than ever before.

Teachers, in their third year of working under an expired contract, remain frustrated. The recovery plan includes no guaranteed raises for teachers for the next five years.

5. Gas card controversy

With no injuries and minimal damage, the fender bender July 18

in Ocean City, New Jersey, didn’t even rate a call to the cops at the time.

Now, almost six months later, the crash is still reverberating through Scranton city government.

The minor wreck involved a city-owned Ford Escape assigned to Fire Chief Patrick DeSarno, who came under scrutiny for taking the vehicle to the Jersey shore for vacation and using his city-issued gas card to buy fuel for the trip.

After The Times-Tribune started asking questions about the fender bender, city officials acknowledged they had no policy limiting employees’ personal use of city-issued vehicles.

In addition, a review by the newspaper of billing records for 85 city-issued gas cards for a two-year period revealed a series of discrepancies and errors, including numerous instances where the employee-issued PINs did not match the names on the cards, along with a lack of oversight.

The revelations prompted city council to seek an audit of the gas cards. Mayor Wayne Evans in the meantime instituted policies for how both the cards and city vehicles can be used.

DeSarno announced earlier this month he will resign as fire chief Jan. 3.

6. Trash fee scofflaws

When the Scranton School Board appointed Kenneth Norton

to fill a vacancy in March, a public records check found he owed $20,379 to the city of Scranton for garbage fees and interest.

It turns out he wasn’t alone.

A Times-Tribune analysis of Scranton trash-fee delinquencies discovered almost 5,400 of the city’s 21,600 property owners — about one in every four — had unpaid fees. The collective delinquencies totalled a staggering $16.8 million.

The biggest scofflaw, PSN Realty of Bronxville, New York, was found to owe $125,376 on 19 properties in the city.

Among the other property owners near the top of the list was Lackawanna County’s chief of staff, Fran Pantuso. The analysis showed she and her brother owed more than $47,000 in delinquent fees at properties on Phelps Street.

Northeast Revenue Service collects back trash fees for Scranton, and pressure mounted on the city to dump the firm after it was implicated in former Mayor Bill Courtright’s pay-to-play scandal.

The amended 2020 city budget approved by council this month calls for selling past trash-fee delinquencies to a third party.

7. Keystone landfill expansion

The battle over the proposed expansion of Keystone Sanitary Landfill raged

in 2019, with developments people on each side of the question could cheer.

The state Department of Environmental Protection handed the landfill a key victory in July when, as part of its review of the expansion application, the agency completed its environmental assessment.

DEP concluded the benefits of the proposed expansion, which would allow the landfill in Dunmore and Throop to operate for 40-plus more years, outweighed the known and potential harms.

In what could have been another crushing blow for expansion opponents, a divided Dunmore council in September amended the borough zoning ordinance to state that landfills are not structures.

The 4-3 vote meant Keystone, if the state were to approve its expansion, could continue pile trash higher than the 50-foot restriction on structures in the manufacturing zone where the landfill operates.

The decision became moot, however, when Mayor Timothy Burke vetoed the zoning amendment and council did not attempt to override the veto.

8. Severe storms

Just three tornadoes touched down in Lackawanna County from late 2010 through last March, a span of more than eight years.

Then we had two in just over six weeks.

The twisters that struck Scranton and Dunmore on April 15 and Newton Twp. on May 28 were the product of an unusually active spring weather pattern that spawned nearly 30 tornadoes across Pennsylvania by Memorial Day. There are typically only a dozen or so statewide all year.

The April 15 tornado ranked as an EF0, the weakest classification with maximum wind speeds of 85 mph. It cut a spotty, three-mile-long path of mostly minor damage from South Scranton to Dunmore’s Sherwood Park.

The Newton Twp. tornado, ranked an EF1 with estimated maximum wind speeds of 90 mph, touched down near Countryside Community Church and traveled southeast for slightly less than a mile, downing trees and damaging several homes and other structures.

9. Origin of epidemic

As the number of pain pills prescribed in Lackawanna County surged during the early years of the opioid crisis, so did the number of overdose deaths.

That was one of the clearest correlations revealed with the release in July

of a Drug Enforcement Administration database tracking 76 billion prescription painkillers distributed in the United States between 2006 and 2012. The Washington Post and HD Media sued to make the information public.

The data showed more than 79 million prescription pain pills flooded Lackawanna County during the period. That was enough to have given every county resident 53 pills every year, the fourth highest rate in Pennsylvania.

As pill use grew, so did the number of drug deaths, with fatal overdoses increasing 81%. In all, 286 people in the county died from overdoses between 2006 and 2012.

10. Prison guard prosecutions

The state attorney general’s office made a big splash when it charged seven

former Lackawanna County Prison guards in 2018 with sexually abusing female inmates.

The prosecutions have not gone quite as swimmingly.

Prosecutors suffered two defeats in the courtroom in 2019 as county jurors at separate trials acquitted ex-guards George T. McHale and Mark A. Johnson of all charges.

In between those two, the attorney general’s office withdrew charges against another former guard, Paul Voglino.

Two other cases resulted in no-contest pleas to official oppression from Jeffrey T. Staff and George R. Efthimiou. They both received probationary sentences.

Cases against John Shnipes Jr. and James J. Walsh remain pending.

1. Courtright resigns, pleads guilty in pay-to-play scandal
2. Sunday, Sansky plead guilty in Scranton School District probe
3. Fight intensifies over Keystone landfill's proposed expansion
4. Analysis finds Scranton trash-fee scofflaws owe $16.8 million
5. Tornadoes tear through Lackawanna County
6. Cognetti elected Scranton's first female mayor
7. Bad cop Mark Icker pleads guilty to federal charges
8. Diocese of Scranton compensates clergy abuse victims
9. One dead, two hurt in Mother's Day shooting at Castle club
10. Scranton officials contemplate selling City Hall

Contact the writers:

dsingleton@timesshamrock.com,

570-348-9132;

shofius@timesshamrock.com;

570-348-9133;

@hofiushallTT on Twitter

Find a pet who needs a new home at the Griffin Pond Animal Shelter.

Magoo is 5-year-old, male terrier mix. He is friendly, but has separation anxiety and should go to a home with no small children.
Contact the Griffin Pond Animal Shelter at 586-3700 if your pet is lost or goes astray. Staff Photo by Ted Baird

Harlow is a 3-year-old male, Australian Shepherd mix. He is sweet and friendly and has separation anxiety.
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:

MOOSIC

Two people went by ambulance to Geisinger Community Medical Center on Sunday following a four-car crash on Interstate 81.

Matthew Kronenwetter, 30, of Danville didn’t slow his 2006 Ford F-350 pickup truck when approaching a southbound traffic jam, state police said. He rear-ended the car of Tony and Nancy Ranella, pushing them into the next car, which pushed into a fourth vehicle about 12:45 p.m. near mile marker 181, state police said.

Kronenwetter continued about two-tenths of a mile before stopping on the shoulder, state police said.

He and a passenger were uninjured, state police said. The Ranellas were taken to the hospital. Nancy Ranella was discharged. Anthony Ranella suffered broken bones and was to be kept overnight, a family member said.

— JON O’CONNELL

SCRANTON HIGH SCHOOL

GRADE 12

Farid Abdul Quddus, Meena Adhikari, Deja Alexander, Julie Allen, Chirayukumar Amin, Paige Antoniotti, Brenda Aroche, Samantha Arroyo, Jose Artigas Irizarry, Nicholas Bader, Quinn Bailer, Evan Bannon, Elizabeth Barrett, Olivia Bell, Neel Bhalja, Aiden Bohn, Samuel Bond, Alexa Bonk, Corey Bridges, Monica Brunson, Louis Bui, Ashley Burdick, Emily Burke, Emilee Butler, Ryan Calpin, Nino Carachilo, Steven Cardenas Delgado, Andrew Chezik, Joshua Christianson, Matthew Christianson, Ian Ciocca, Anna Cipriano, Paige Clark, Samuel Cortese, Cera Crosland, Carlos Cruz, Jacqueline Cunha, Julia Cunha, Priyanka Dahal, Michael D’Angola, Djoolie Dautruche, Matilda Davis, Lauren DelSantro, Sneh Desai, Ranjeeta Dhungel, Glerizbeth Diaz, Daniel Dougherty, Rhiana Dunay, Jacob Eiden, Fione Evans, Brandon Everetts, Ella Ferranti, Brooke Fetsock, Syona Fields, John Finnerty, Lauren Flynn Miller, Xander Frable, Madeline Fueshko, Makayla Gaus, Kaitlyn Gingerlowski, Sophia Glogowski, Billie Jo Goble, Hannah Goldberg, Nicole Golden, Christine Gonzalez, Destiny Gonzalez, Richard Gorniak, Trey Griggs, Benjamin Grosvenor, Zohal Gul Mohammad, Amanda Guziewicz, Megan Guziewicz, David Haikes, Morteza Hamidi, Cassandra Harrison, Jostin Hidalgo, Brian Hobbs, Lauren Holzman, Nicholas Hughes, Aaliyah Jalil, Cheyenne Kamin, Daniel Knautz, Motayuisha Kollock, Devin Kristiano, Angel Kropiewnicki, Eliyana Kubilus, Mackenzie Lavelle, Aleeza Leary, Noah Leety, Joseph Leon, Jacob Loch, Karla Lopez, Daniela Lopez Ramirez, Kayra Lopez Santiago, George Loukopoulos, Julia Loury, Daisy Luddy, Samit Magar, Esteban Marengo, Olivia Maroni, Falen Mason, Erickser Matos Perez, Lydia McConlogue, Maury McLaughlin, Devony Miller, Omar Modesto, Mary Moleski, Judith Moyer, Colette Mulderig, Madison Mullen, Cortney Neal, Shanice Nelson, Aiden Nicholas, Chase Notz, Katerina O’Boyle, Anissa Ortiz, Corey Ovalle, Jonah Parker, Devang Patel, Dhavalkumar Patel, Dhruv Patel, Dhruv Patel, Harpalkumar Patel, Jay Patel, Maitree Patel, Priyal Patel, Vidhi Patel, Vidhi J. Patel, Yashaswini Patel, Mia Pauley, Brandon Peck, Kaitlyn Persuad, Yamilette Piazza, Matthew Prothero, Christopher Reap, Ayalissa Rivera, Ariana Royce, Alexandra Ruiz, Jamar Ruiz, Anntonette Saavedra, Jamie Santiago, Meredith Santiago, Grace Schariest, Samantha Scripp, Sadaf Sediqi, Elizabeth Seprish, Aylssa Shaw, Faith Situmeang, Lilian Smith, Michael Smith, Jennifer Solis, Eric Spivak, Samuel Stein, Joseph Strelecki, Dylan Szydlowski, Jet Li Tang, Grace Taylor, Ebonie Thompson, Abigail Tirva, Phong Tran, Aubrianna VanFleet, Aleah VanLouvender, Oscar Vargas, Abril Velazquez, Trynity Ventura, Juan Vilanueva, Brian Volz, Britney Walsh, Julia Walsh, Sarah Walsh, Angela Williams, Matthew Williams, Sarah Williams, Konstinse Wyman, Alexis Yashinski, Jordon Yisrael and Taylor Zombek.

GRADE 11

Puja Aale, Rogelio Aroche, Bianca Ayala, Elliott Ballino, Maggie Bede, Mason Beebe, Kiera Bennett, Victoria Bogdanski, James, Boles, Jianna Booth, Sadie Bracey, Michael Bromage, Ryan Burge, Eunice Calixto, Erika Callejas, Margaret Campbell, James Carpenter, Madelyn Casey, Shaughn Casey, Edgar Castro Martinez, Christopher Cerra Jr., Briandra Chavis, Melinsa Ciero, Olivia Clough, Carissa Coaty, Nathaniel Colon, Talyah Conmy, Martin Crofton, Wences DeLaCruz, Mia Dempsey, Shubhat Dhungel, Charlene Dixon, Tess Dolan, Bryan Dominguez, Jacob Dougherty, Mianicole Duverge, Jaelyn Evans, Dayanna Falero, Evan Familetti, Mary Kate Farrell, Nicole Gaffney, Alicia Gagner, Mahek Gandhi, Jazly Garcia, Jason Gilbride, Emily Gola, Sarah Goldberg, Kimorah Gonzalez, Luis Gonzalez, Veronica Gonzalez, Zackery Gray, Cheyenne Hail, Anthony Hallock, Natasya Handijaya, Alexas Hawthrone, Robert Heil, Kaylia Hendrix, Kimberly Hernandez, Joseph Holland, Emma Hughes, Mara Hughes, Mckenna Huyser, Khalista Johnson, Emma Jones, Samuel Jones Jr., Jacob Jordan, Hope Kamin, Olivia Keen, Lorelei Kelly, Luis Kepich, Calvin Khamvongsa, Joshua Kilvitis, Laxuman Koirala, Theodore Krokus, Korey Kruk, Kristen Kuniegel, Anthony Leggin, Julia Lidle, Daihana Lozada Sr., Isaac Lozada Jr., Deyonne Lucke, Inez Martinez, Nelly Martinez, Francesca Matheson, Paige McConlogue, Sara McCormack, Emma McNally, Matthew McNichols, Adriana Miguel, Camden Miller, Riley Mitchell, Allina Mohammad Nadir, Susmita Mongar, Joseph Morales Jr., Liam Moran, Rosauni Morel Almonte, Chloe Neureuter, Ryan Norton, Judee Nunn, Amelia Opshinsky, Lily Opshinsky, Daranjeliz Ortiz, Julie Pabst, Aayushi Patel, Bhavyakumar Patel, Deep A. Patel, Deep S. Patel, Dev U. Patel, Jay Patel, Kunj T. Patel, Vrunda Patel, Yashani Patel, Mercedes Phillips, Maria Quinones, Amisha Rai, Ashmita Rai, Ismriti Rai, Sujata Rai, Pujan Raval, Lexa Reed, Sarah Reed, Rafael Rios IV, Anthony Roberto, Loreim Rodarte Mendoza, Yaseer Rodriguez, Cesar Rodriguez Garcia, Ana Rojas, Aaliyah Rosado, Izabella Rose, Rodrigo Salazar, Rylee Sandrowicz, Stevany Sangar, Bobby Singh, Grace Slaght, Taliyah Smith, David Smolsky III, Jacob Stankowski, Rowan Sutton, Daron Sweeney, Charles Talapa III, Sharon Tulenan, Jeremy Valentine, Vedant Vyas, Kiestyn Walcott, William Walsh, Jo-Laeighe Ward, Joseph Waslin, Alifia Wibowo, William Wood Jr., Lexis Woodard, Kayla Zachry and Brenda Zakarias.

GRADE 10

Walter Abad Jr., Alexander Albrect, Krish A. Amin, Paige Anderson, India Arter, Juan Ayala Jr., Ethan Bagg, Luke Bannon, Carlisse Benitez Murrias, Damien Bernavage, Lakria Blakely, Alexander Bond, Gabriella Borgia, Katrina Bower, Elijah Branch, Bryce Budney, Ashlyn Carey, Allyson Carpenter, Bella Cerra, Aliza Chalus, Arvel Chandler, Neveah Chludzinski, Emily Clark, Sarah Clark, Trent Clark, Riley Clarke, Richard Cobley, Gianna Columbo, Bailey Crocker, Josue Cruz, Abbey Cwalinski, Ashton Dainty, Fernando DeLaRosa Jr., Anisha Dhungel, Anju Dhungel, Michael Diehl, Andrew Dinterman, Collin Nicholas Domozych, Janelle Elejalde, Tamara Evans, Anthony Fabbri, Alexander Ferguson, Erileidi Fernandez, William Fox IV, Alexander Franklin, Kristi Gallagher, Paul Gammaitoni, Victoria Gammaitoni, Farzad Ganim, Mohamed Ganim, Hailey Garafola, Brian Gilbride, Celeste Gingerlowski, Liliana Gonzalez, Tyonna Griffin, Matthew Grippi, Brooke Hafner, Antonio Hairston, Katherine Cawley Harding, Fuguan Hart Johnson, Nancy Ho, Emily Hopkins, Hannah Jeffers, Serena Jose Sr., Gabrielle Josselyn, Catherine Karp, Bradley Kaufman, Emma Kelly, Lakeria Kendricks, Riley Kennedy, Anna-Marie Lake, Jacob Laske, William Leety, Shiloh Linder, Nicholas Lolli, Noeliz Lopez, Jasmine Loury, Neyleen Lugo, Mia Macavage, Dustin McAllister, Matison McCloe, Thomas McIntyre, Sara McNicholas, Lizeth Miguel, Mariano Monacelli, Savannah Morante, Zachary Morgan, Maurelys Munoz, Isaac Nambu, Sean Norton, Emily Orlando, Dhruvraj Parmar, Janvi R. Patel, Mihir Patel, Om Alpeshbhai Patel, Vraj Patel, Ashlyn Pena, Yeraiza Pena, Laureen Pierre, Hunter Polishan, Cristian Posada, Tiondrea Poteat, Timothy Prothero, Jessica Raharjo, Judith M. Ramos, Samantha Randazzo, Brian Reyes, Louvena Ridore, Rayan Rivera, Mekhi Robbins, William Rodriguez Jr., Mackenzie Roio, Matthew Saita, Maria Sanchez, Xzavier Santiago, Giovanni Sariti, Airiana Scarfo, Elizabeth Schraner, Robert Sherpinskas, Jason Shields, Ashley Shobari, Valeria Soto, Jack Stigerwalt, Bailey Sudnick, Jessica Sunar, Sara Swavola, Aaron Talbot, Brendan Thomas, Aidan Tomczyk, Gloria Truong, Logan Tucker, Sydney VanOrden, Brenda Vaquero, Miguel Vasquez, Breanna Walsh, Aiden Whitman, Joshua Williams, Mariah Williams, Abigail Wilson, Kathryn Wozniak, Evan Woznick and Abigail Yevitz.

GRADE 9

Jorge Alcantar, Allison Allegrucci, Ignacia Ang, Elizabeth Aronzon, Christopher Balendy, Madison Barletta, Tymir Barr, Charles Bartlebaugh, Aubrey Bayley, Bryn Bede, Jayden Bell, Riley Bittenbender, Jani Boykin, Mekkhi Bridges, Robert Bromage, Jalene Burrus, Kaylee Butler, Sarah Cadwalder, Kaley Calpin, Alana Carachilo, Riley Carey, Nicholas Carrera, Jasmin Carrillo, Aiden Casey, Cameron Chalmers, Sephora Charlot, Myranda Chuldzinski, Nadia Colon, Kole Conforti, Sean Cordaro Jr., Kevin Codero, Daniel Corpeno, Justin Cron, Cole Davis, Kate Delgado, Isabella DeOliveira, Isabel Eckenrode, Christopher Eitutis, Anthony Esposito, Michael Esposito, Natalia Esteves, Gabriella Fueshko, Day-Shon Fulcher, Ashlynn Gagner, Estrella Galvan, Maryeren Galvan, Nicholas Garcia, Walter Garcia, Rachel Gaughan, Cheyanne Giles, Sidney Grippi, Sadid Hassan, Michael Hegedus, Dominick Hernandez, Thomas Hill, Keegan Hughes, Cooper Huyser, Sibyal Iskandarova, Madison Ivey, Bryson Jackson Fischer, Cameron Jackson Fischer, Nathan Jarrow, Kyerra Johnson, Aelisha Kaldan, Amanda Karpiak, Kyle Kilvitis, Amelia King, Aaniyah Kirk, Elizabeth Kramer, Josephine Krokus, Harrison Kubilus, Jennifer Kuniegal, Dylan Labukas, Jacob Layton, Jacob Leonori, Kaleena Lukasewicz, Keylin Maldonado, Jan-Carlos Marin, James Marlin, Rosa Martinez, Jade Marzolino, Samarrah McDermott, Kaitlyn Miller, Elijah Moncivais, Laisha Morales, Quinn Moran, Paris Morante, Elizabeth Moses, Molly Mullen, Dalaina Neeson, Brandon Nelson, Trish Nguyen, Cael Nicholas, Isabella Noreika, Lanee Olson, Chase O’Neill, Hector Ortiz, Aryan Patel, Dhaval Patel, Het Patel, Hinal Patel, Jeet Patel, Nandini Patel, Om Patel, Parth Patel, Siya Patel, Tirth Patel, Julia Pauley, Cindy Perez, Noah Petrewski, Stephen Pikulski, Jean Rafferty, Shayel Rai, Amber Ransom, Aaditya Raval, Treston Reese, Daniel Rinaldi, William Robbins, Narelyn Rodriguez, Kaybri Rogers, Kaydence Ross Amorine, Samantha Sanzone, Mahi Sheth, Matthew Shillings, Ryan Spies, Madeline Stallo, Michael Steltz, Donato Stepney, Alison Stevens, Roel Teixeira, Chloe Tucker, Omyxel Vazquez, Deion Veloz, Jennifer Villanueva, Ramses Viloria Fernandez, Mira Walsh, Rachel Walsh, Benjamin Warring, Nathaniel Wasko, Alexandria Webster, Shaskia Wibowo, Tracy William, Benjamin Williams, Kaydence Wyman and Evan Zemalkowski.

Clarks Summit

The Gathering Place, 304 S. State St., will host its monthly Songwriters’ Roundtable from 7 to 9 p.m. Jan. 19.

All skill and interest levels are welcome. Regional songwriters will share music, stories and ideas.

— ROBERT TOMKAVAGE

rtomkavage

@timesshamrock.com;

570-348-9100 x5365;

@rtomkavage on Twitter

Dickson City

Borough residents are getting new recycling bins.

The borough received an approximately $70,000 grant for recycling containers, said council President Jeff Kovaleski. Borough Manager Cesare Forconi applied for the grant on behalf of the town, he said.

Residents will receive three bins for different recyclable items, Kovaleski said.

Kovaleski expects the borough to get the new bins sometime in the spring. To get new containers, which will be at no cost, residents will have to go to the Borough Building with proof of residency, he said.

Dickson City has been out of recycling bins for about a year and a half, Kovaleski said.

— FRANK WILKES LESNEFSKY

flesnefsky

@timesshamrock.com;

570-348-9100 x5181;

@flesnefskyTT on Twitter

Bowman Street is getting a bit of a makeover thanks to two grants.

The borough received $334,000 to install a traffic light at Bowman and Main streets, said council President Jeff Kovaleski. It also received nearly $200,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds to install sidewalks on Bowman Street from Main Street to the railroad tracks, he said. Bowman Street doesn’t currently have sidewalks.

The traffic signal will replace a one-way stop sign from Bowman Street onto Main Street, which has caused problems when people make a left turn onto Main, Kovaleski said.

— FRANK WILKES LESNEFSKY

flesnefsky

@timesshamrock.com;

570-348-9100 x5181;

@flesnefskyTT on Twitter

Lackawanna County

Pennsylvania Secretary of Aging Robert Torres recently recognized the county Area Agency on Aging’s Protective Services Team with the Protective Services Award for Excellence.

The protective services team investigates official reports of elder abuse, exploitation and neglect in Lackawanna County, an often unforgiving but necessary task. Team members include Kerri Anzulewicz , Christine Buckery , Michele Grohs , Lucy Jezorwski , Sara McDonald , Nick Panagakos , Sara Pankevitch , Emily Stout , Stacey White and Paula Yale.

“This was truly a team effort,” Area Agency on Aging Director Jason Kavulich said. “Everybody in this place, from the people who take the calls right to my desk, has a hand in it.”

County commissioners also recognized the team recently, awarding members a “Good Works” certificate for their efforts.

— JEFF HORVATH

jhorvath@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9141;

@jhorvathTT on Twitter

Mayfield

From now on, the borough has a day to honor its Eagle Scouts.

Mayor Alexander Chelik proclaimed Jan. 5 as “Mayfield Eagle Scout Recognition Day” in honor of Boy Scout Troop 87.

The troop, which dates back to 1933 in Mayfield, has produced 56 Eagle Scouts, according to the borough.

The mayor proclaimed the day to honor the borough’s three newest Eagle Scouts: Jonathan Nowak, who refurbished a borough playground; Michael Nowak, who made repairs to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Cemetery; and Christian Swatt, who repainted the flagpole at the United Methodist Church in Jermyn.

— FRANK WILKES LESNEFSKY

flesnefsky

@timesshamrock.com;

570-348-9100 x5181;

@flesnefskyTT on Twitter

Moscow

The North Pocono Trails Association will sponsor its annual First Day Hike on Wednesday beginning at 10 a.m.

The day will feature a 3.5-mile walk on the easy trails of the North Pocono Community Trails system. The trailhead is located at 307 Market St. in the borough, with parking at Old Mill Park adjacent to the trailhead.

— JEFF HORVATH

jhorvath@timesshamrock.com;
570-348-9141;
@jhorvathTT on Twitter

Dec. 30, 1954

Mercy Hospital leaves Community Chest

Sister M. William Joseph, R.S.M., administrator of Mercy Hospital in Scranton, sent out a surprising letter to the head of the Community Chest.

In her letter, Sister M. William said the hospital was withdrawing from Community Chest support because she felt that smaller agencies needed the allocation more than the hospital.

The hospital was slated to receive $13,000 from the Community Chest.

Responding to the letter, John Simpson, Community Chest president, said, “The Chest considers this a commendable action on the part of Mercy Hospital, giving consideration as it does to the greater needs of other Chest agencies.”

TB hospital

patients upset

Patients at the Lackawanna Tuberculosis Hospital on West Mountain were told

by hospital staff that there was a possibility that the

hospital would close in the near future.

Some of the members of the Hospital Council of Lackawanna County started advocating for the closure of the hospital.

Patients were reportedly upset with the news, with some saying that they “would go home” rather than go to a state institution if the West Mountain Sanatorium closed. Others expressed that they liked being close to home because family and friends could visit. They said they would lose that if they had to transfer to a different TB hospital.

At the movies

“Three Ring Circus” at the Comerford, “So This Is Paris” at the Capitol, “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” at the Strand, “Jesse James” and “Return of Frank James” at the Riviera, “This Is My Love” at the West Side and “White Christmas” at Granada in Olyphant.

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.

An Old Forge man faces felony assault charges after police say he tried strangling his wife and fractured eight of her ribs.

Kristen Lavery, 50, 308 Orchard St., and his wife, Lisa, had returned Thursday night from a concert in Bethlehem when they began arguing.

Kristen Lavery pushed his wife to the floor and repeatedly kicked her in the ribs and punched her face, Officer David Moran said in a criminal complaint.

Then he started to choke her. She told police she felt like she would pass out.

She told her husband that she couldn’t breathe and that he was going to kill her.

After she managed to get up, he told her that he would kill her if she called police, then ransacked the house, police said.

Officers found red marks on Lisa Lavery’s neck, ribs and left arm. She had blood in her nose and mouth.

Before leaving her home by ambulance, she told police that her husband “stated firmly that he would be back to the residence and that he was going to kill her,” Moran said in the complaint.

Kristen Lavery faces a stack of charges, including strangulation, aggravated assault and making terroristic threats.

Police filed the charges Saturday. As of Sunday night, Kristen Lavery had not been arrested, and police said he may have fled the area.

Anyone who knows of his whereabouts should contact Old Forge police at 570-457-7441, or by calling the Lackawanna County 911 center nonemergency line, 570-342-9111.

Contact the writer:

joconnell@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9131;

@jon_oc on Twitter

Dickson City

Church services: Church services at St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church, 25 Hillcrest Drive, will now be at 4 p.m. on Saturdays; no Sunday services.

Honesdale

Group event: Northeast LGBTQ group Friendsmass and New Year Get-Together, 6-8 p.m., Sunday, St. John’s Lutheran Parsonage, 107 Seventh St.; age 18 and older; bring a favorite side dish to share; nonalcoholic and alcoholic beverages available for 21 and older. Info: skeller56@yahoo.com.

Jessup

Garbage change: JP Mascaro & Sons will be the new garbage and recycling hauler for the borough, effective Wednesday. First day of collection will be Jan. 7; garbage and recycling will be picked up once a week on Tuesday, unless it’s a holiday. A collection schedule will be mailed; residents shouldn’t put out garbage until the night before pickup and cans should be taken away from the curb as soon as possible after collection.

Scranton

Schedule change: Steamtown National Historic Site, 350 Cliff St., will have reduced winter visitation hours, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., until late March; the park will be closed on New Year’s Day; info: 570-340-5206.

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.

CLARKS SUMMIT — A recent five-hour road trip went by in a flash for Sophia Evans.

The 10-year-old, a fifth grader at Abington Heights Middle School, checked out some of the Abington Community Library’s new Playaway audiobooks for the trip and listened to them nearly the whole ride.

She also enjoys listening to the audiobooks before bed.

“I can fall asleep listening to them, instead of having to keep my eyes open and needing a light on when reading,” Sophia said.

The library added about 60 Playaway audiobooks for kids and teens along with a small adult selection to its collection in December. The books can be used anywhere because they don’t require an internet or WiFi connection and they have a battery life of more than 30 hours, said Laura Gardoski, head of youth services at the library.

“They are proving to be very popular,” Gardoski said. “We started small, but we hope to get more for all our collections.”

The library, at 1200 W. Grove St., has a variety of classics and new books in the kids’ collection from “Charlotte’s Web” and the American Girl book series to the “I Survived” series and “Diary of a Wimpy Kid.” The kids books are primarily geared toward children in grades two through six, Gardoski said.

The Playaway books offer many benefits to young readers, regardless of their age.

“Little brothers and sisters can still listen to the books, even if they may be above their reading level,” Gardoski said. “Some children also like to read and listen at the same time.”

Sophia’s mother, Lisa Evans, likes that the audiobooks take kids away from their phones and other devices and feels comfortable because they’re screened to be age-appropriate.

She also believes the books help make household chores more manageable and fun for kids.

“They can listen to them when doing tedious tasks like cleaning the house,” Lisa Evans said.

Contact the writer:

rtomkavage

@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100 x5365;

@rtomkavage on Twitter

MOOSIC — Amanda Scott had not laced up a pair of roller skates since she was a teenager, but after just a few weeks in the “duck pond” the 32-year-old was skating like a radical.

With the help of trainers, the Plymouth woman refined her skating skills and also learned to throw a mean hit on opponents as a member of the Roller Radicals, a division of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Roller Derby League.

Each Tuesday and Thursday, Scott — “Panda 46” as she’s known in derby circles — puts on a helmet, mouthpiece and knee and

arm pads and zips around an indoor flat track the league constructed inside a warehouse. She’s joined by other team members with colorful names, including Bette Machete, Chemical Reaction, Cold Blooded Myrtle, Surgikill Steel and Whiskey Throttle.

Founded in 2009, the league of about 40 members is looking to expand. It will hold an open house at 6 p.m. on Jan. 5 at its track, the Roller Derby Factory, at 4949 Birney Ave., Moosic. In addition to skaters, they’re looking for folks to fill other positions, including timekeepers and referees.

The league consists of women, ages 18 to 58, who come in all shapes, sizes and abilities. Virtually anyone can learn to play derby. No experience is needed, said Lydia “Whipple Shot” Whipple, 28, of Laceyville, a three-year veteran.

“It takes a lot of time and energy, but if you put those things in, you’ll have an amazing time,” Whipple said. “This is a great opportunity to get out of the house … It’s great exercise and a great bunch of people.”

Scott joined the league about three months ago after a friend convinced her to check it out.

“I’ve always been sporty, but I haven’t done anything in 10 years,” Scott said. “I wanted to get back into something. I came to one practice and I was hooked.”

Roller derby began in the United States in the 1930s and was popular until the 1970s, when interest waned. Recreational leagues made a comeback in the early 2000s, when a group of women in Austin, Texas, started the Texas Rollergirls, according to the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association,the governing body for recreational roller derby.

Whipple and other veterans of the organization hope to transform roller derby’s image, which many people still associate with the highly theatrical and scripted professional bouts that competed on banked tracks in the 1970s.

“It’s not like on TV in the ’70s, where you’re throwing elbows and knocking people over the bar,” said Sarah “Alexander Slamilton” Scinto, 28, of Ashley, a two-year veteran of the team.

The league is among 450 recreational teams in six continents that compete through the WFTDA. As the name implies, the teams play on a flat surface. That’s opened the sport up to many more people since the tracks are far less expensive to build.

A team consists of four blockers and one jammer, whose job is to earn points by passing as many members of the opposing team as possible within two-minute jam sessions. The blockers are tasked with impeding the opposing jammer, as well as clearing a path for their own jammer to pass. Whichever team has the most passes at the end of the 30-minute game, called a bout, wins.

The sport has strict rules to ensure safety. Competitors cannot use their forearms or feet to hit an opponent and cannot strike them in the head. Hits are delivered with the hips and shoulders.

“I’m not going to say you can come to a roller derby game and not see some big hits,” said Brandy Ralston,34, of Wilkes-Barre, another veteran team member. “We are a full contact sport. We all know injuries can happen and do happen.”

To lesson that likelihood, new skaters must first go through a roughly two- to three-month training session — known as the “duck pond” — where they learn the key elements of the sport taught by “momma ducks.”

The league has two teams. The Roller Radicals consists of the more skilled skaters who travel to play other WFTDA teams in the Northeast to earn a worldwide ranking. Less experienced skaters play on The Low Rolling Deuces. They also travel but are not ranked. In addition, the league has two home teams comprised of its own members that play each other at the warehouse.

The sport is open to women age 18 or older. Men cannot compete, but can take part in other areas, such a being a referee, scorekeeper, penalty tracker or timer.

For information, find the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Roller Derby Facebook page.

Contact the writer: tbesecker@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9137; @tmbeseckerTT on Twitter

Three years after fundraising began, the lighting project at a Hillside Park softball field is finished.

Clarks Summit-based Walsh Electrical Inc. started working on the project during the first week of November and wrapped up the job Dec. 20, Abington Area Joint Recreation Board co-chairman Mark Spatz said.

The Abington Area Girls Softball League raised $110,000 over the past three years to help fund the project, league President Jack Walsh said. Local contractors and engineering firms helped out by donating their services, he said.

The project was delayed for a short time due to wet weather.

Musco Lighting was contracted by the park board to supply the lights.

The park board contributed about $10,000 for the improvements of common facilities around the field.

The park board also plans to pave the gravel surface leading down to the fields, which was eroding, he said.

Walsh expects the lights to be used for the first time in late March or early April, adding that team members are eager to finally get onto the

field at night.

“I know the girls love it any time we travel to a local community to play under the lights,” he said.

Games have been affected by darkness often, especially during the fall season, which runs into November.

“We lose light pretty quickly during the fall,” Walsh said. “The lights will allow us to play several games a day and add about seven game slots per week.”

Having lights also means the league can host tournaments and travel games, during which they can raise money by selling concessions, Walsh said.

While the lights will primarily help the softball league, they will also benefit members of the community.

“The field is open to anyone when the softball teams aren’t using it,” Spatz said.

The park board is also considering installing two lights by the lake to allow for night ice skating and hockey, Spatz said.

The park receives funding based on the number of residents from five municipalities: Clarks Green and Clarks Summit boroughs, as well as Glenburn, South Abington and Waverly townships.

Contact the writer:

rtomkavage@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100 x5365;

@rtomkavage on Twitter

MONDAY UPDATE brings

Times-Tribune readers up to date on past or pending stories of interest. To offer a suggestion for a Monday Update, please email metrodesk@timesshamrock.com with

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SCRANTON — A judge allowed a Green Ridge civic group to enter a zoning appeal involving a developer’s plan to convert the former Scranton State School for the Deaf into an artists’ apartment complex called Marywood South.

Los Angeles-based Urban Smart Growth plans to have its affiliate, Brick Investment Corp., buy the 10-acre site and its nine buildings from Marywood University.

Most of the property and eight buildings are in Dunmore; one structure, at 1800 N. Washington Ave., is in the Green Ridge section of Scranton.

Brick Investment initially sought a variance in fall of 2018 for the building in Scranton, which is called Building 1 in the plans, and which Urban Smart Growth founder Lance Robbins views as the “gateway linchpin” of the entire project.

But the firm withdrew the zoning application in November 2018 after some neighbors in a civic group called Green Ridge Revitalization Committee raised concerns about traffic, parking, noise and what they saw as a lack of details.

The company then revised its plans to try to alleviate concerns and went back before the zoning board last summer. In July, a split zoning board approved the special exception and variance sought by the firm, but imposed six conditions — one of which Robbins is unwilling to accept.

That condition holds that if Robbins subdivides the building in Scranton — where he plans a bar, restaurant and outdoor event space — from the rest of the campus, the Scranton variance and special exception would be revoked.

In August, Robbins, who has called that condition “a poison pill,” filed in Lackawanna County Court an appeal of the conditional zoning approval.

The civic group responded in September with a petition filed in county court to intervene in the appeal, in support of the zoning board decision.

This fall, Lackawanna County Judge Tom Munley granted the civic group’s petition to intervene.

Brick Investment did not contest the civic group’s petition to intervene, noted group member Samantha Maloney of Scranton.

“We’re not contesting the variance as granted,” Maloney said in a phone interview on Dec. 23. “We’re good with what the zoning board did. He’s not happy with what the zoning board did.”

After the board’s conditional vote in July, Robbins in August claimed the project was dead and he was walking away, but a week later filed the zoning appeal.

“I’m cautiously optimistic,” Robbins said in December. “We haven’t exercised the purchase, so there’s still a lot of stuff on the table” for negotiation.

Robbins first sought Scranton’s approval for Building 1, before dealing substantively with Dunmore regarding the rest of the campus situated in the borough.

Contact the writer: jlockwood@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100 x5185; @jlockwoodTT on Twitter

SCRANTON — After finally getting invited by the Scranton Sewer Authority to audit the 2016 sale of the sewer system, state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale said his office may have to take a pass because of cuts to his agency’s budget and staff.

DePasquale said the state Legislature’s nearly $4 million cut to his agency under the state fiscal year 2019-20 budget has led to a 30-person reduction in his department’s staff, which now has dipped below 400 employees, as compared to about 900 in the late 1990s.

As a result, he’s not sure whether his office has enough manpower to conduct a performance audit of the $195 million sale of the Scranton sewer system to Pennsylvania American Water.

“I want to (do the audit), but we have to see if we can do it,” DePasquale said in a recent phone interview. “We’re still analyzing the situation, whether we have the staff to perform the function.”

Scranton Councilman Bill Gaughan, long an advocate of having the state’s top fiscal watchdog independently review the sewer sale that closed Dec. 29, 2016, expressed dismay that it might not occur.

“I would hope that the auditor general would put whatever resources he has in his office toward completing this audit. That’s how important I think it is,” Gaughan said. “I think it has implications not only for Scranton and Dunmore, it has implications statewide, as well,” in terms of serving as a guide in other, future transactions.

The state auditor general’s office does not have the power to independently review or audit a municipal authority, but can do so at an authority’s request.

In 2017, Scranton City Council and Dunmore Borough Council both urged the sewer authority to seek an outside review by the auditor general of the sewer sale, but the authority refused to do so. The sewer sale, which ranks among the largest such utility transactions ever in the state, was pushed through by former Mayor Bill Courtright as a major plank in the city’s Act 47 financial recovery plan.

But the sewer transaction has raised numerous concerns, including about legal fees, lower-than-anticipated proceeds to the city and borough, lawsuits pending regarding 700 missing sewer-line easements and whether the sale was executed properly, the status of millions of dollars held in escrow to finalize easements and other matters, and the fact that the skeleton authority continues to exist — three years after the sale closed — with no apparent end in sight.

In January 2018, DePasquale issued a statement supporting a state bill that would give his office the power to independently audit municipal authorities. If his office had that power, he said the first municipal authority he would audit would be the Scranton Sewer Authority.

Also in January 2018, the state Attorney General’s Office said it had conducted a limited review of the sewer sale’s legal and consulting fees and found that there was no fraud in the fees. The attorney general’s office did not conduct a full audit of the sewer sale transaction, but had its Public Protection Division review the $5.3 million paid out in professional fees to 16 providers between late 2012 and April 2017.

This past October, concerns arose anew when The Times-Tribune reported the authority and water company had a confidential deadline for the authority to secure the missing easements; and failure to do so by an undisclosed deadline could result in about $16.5 million in sewer sale proceeds in escrow reverting to the water company.

City council then again called for an outside audit of the sewer sale, emphasizing a need for transparency amid lingering questions and concerns.

Last month, the authority reversed course and agreed to ask the auditor general to examine the sale, saying an audit could clear up public confusion and misconceptions surrounding the transaction.

“To come this far and get a vote of approval (by the SSA for an audit), and to have the auditor general say he may not have the resources — that’s not acceptable,” Gaughan said in an interview Friday.

Gaughan said he realizes the budget and staff cuts in the auditor general’s office are not DePasquale’s fault. However, the councilman hoped an audit of the sewer sale would put it to bed and finally bring answers and closure.

“If the sewer authority board had the guts to do it when we asked in 2017, this point would be moot,” Gaughan said.

He also plans to raise the issue with city council in the new year.

“I would ask council to get something in writing to urge him (DePasquale) to reconsider and put resources to this audit,” Gaughan said.

Contact the writer: jlockwood@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100 x5185; @jlockwoodTT on Twitter

SOUTH ABINGTON TWP.

A popular sushi and Japanese restaurant in the township closed suddenly.

Jumbo Seafood, 918 Northern Boulevard, announced its closure on Facebook early Monday. Restaurant owners did not explain why they closed, and attempts to reach them were not immediately successful.

Customers who still have gift cards can redeem them for a cash refund by sending their name, address and a picture — front and back — of the card by email to sushichen1225@gmail.com or by mail to Jumbo Seafood, 918 Northern Boulevard, South Abington Twp., PA 18411.

— JON O’CONNELL

Hoping to “recreate the magic” it worked in South Scranton, United Neighborhood Centers of Northeastern Pennsylvania will soon start forming a plan to revitalize Pine Brook, the group’s president said.

Over the next six or so weeks, UNC will start assessing how to breathe new life into the Scranton neighborhood, CEO Lisa Durkin said. The aim is to create “a stronger, more attractive neighborhood with a lot of buy-in from the residents who live there,” she added.

“Like all neighborhoods, it has its own charm and character,” she said.

UNC has $70,000 in state and nonprofit funding to begin work.

Gov. Tom Wolf today announced the approval of more than $5 million in new funding to support 42 community revitalization projects across Pennsylvania, according to the governor’s office. Of that, $25,000 was approved for UNC to create a neighborhood revitalization plan for Pine Brook.

“This funding is an investment in our area, which will continue to make Scranton a location where local businesses will thrive and help our local economy,” State Rep. Marty Flynn, D-113, Scranton, said.

The Margaret Briggs Foundation and Scranton Area Foundation approved grants of $25,000 and $20,000 respectively to help bolster the project.

Durkin said the first steps involve figuring out the wants and needs of the neighborhood’s residents, taking an inventory of the neighborhood’s assets and finding the best way to highlight those strengths.

“There’s a couple of small businesses that provide good character for the community,” said Tim Schwartz, PTA president at Capouse Avenue’s John Adams Elementary School. “There’s a ton of diversity in the community, families from all around the world, which is what I think the community should look like.”

Mayor Wayne Evans said that Pine Brook — which borders the downtown, North Scranton and Green Ridge — is a condensed, mixed-used neighborhood with industrial, retail and residential buildings. If done right, that combination could attract younger, millennial-generation residents.

“I’ve been sitting in on some meetings with UNC and some stakeholders the past few months and I’m pretty excited,” Evans said.

Evans lauded UNC as the organization to do it, noting their track record in South Side.

In 2008, they led a community-wide effort to make significant improvements in South Scranton.

“UNC does great work,” Evans said. “It lends to a good opportunity for Pine Brook.”

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

Elsewhere in Northeast Pennsylvania, state revitalization money was awarded to:

- Downtown Hazleton Alliance for Progress. They will use $30,000 to create a welcome center on the ground floor of the Penn State University Hazleton LaunchBox, 13-15 West Broad St. The space is designed to serve as a pop-up shop for start-up culinary and retail businesses, according to the governor’s office. It doubles as an information center for Hazleton’s downtown.

- Susquehanna County Housing/Redevelopment Authority. They will use $388,500 for the first phase of a construction project centered on the environmental remediation and demolition of a blighted former school building in Hallstead. The project will involve asbestos removal, underground storage tank removal, site preparation and construction of a housing unit for people 55 and older, according to the governor’s office.

SCRANTON — City police seek a man who robbed the Wells Fargo Bank in West Side this afternoon.

Police responded to the bank at Jackson Street and North Main Avenue about 3 p.m. after a middle-aged man wearing a dark winter jacket and blue jeans entered the bank and demanded money from the cash drawer, Detective Sgt. James Pappas said. The man is white, approximately 5 feet, 10 inches to 5 feet, 11 inches tall and possibly in his late 30s to early 40s, police said.

The man fled on the bank on foot with an unspecified amount of cash, Pappas said.

Police would not say how much money was stolen or if a weapon was used in the robbery. About 10 city police vehicles, including the crime scene unit, parked at or around the bank as officers and detectives investigated.

Several Wells Fargo patrons were turned away during the investigation, which is ongoing. Anyone with information is asked to contact city police detectives at 570-340-4139 or the local office of the FBI.

Check back for updates.

Contact the writer: jhorvath@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9141; @jhorvathTT on Twitter

CARBONDALE - A drunk Carbondale man bleeding from the mouth threatened to stab a woman’s boyfriend with an ice pick early Saturday morning, police charged.

Sean Heenan, 47, 159 Terrace St., is charged with terroristic threats, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, possession of drug paraphernalia, harassment and public drunkenness.

Police were called shortly before 1 a.m. to 89 8th Ave. to deal with a drunk man who refused to leave. Heenan dropped a 4-inch ice pick and glass marijuana pipe the moment officers approached. Police handcuffed him after a brief struggle.

Witnesses there told officers that Heenan planned to stab a man with the ice pick.

Heenan is in the Lackawanna County Prison in lieu of $5,000 bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled Monday.

— JOSEPH KOHUT