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In spite of the fac

2010 a busy year for Back Mountain, residents



 

 
John Fleschat serves up the perfect square pizza.
 
 CHARLOTTE BARTIZEK/FOR THE DALLAS POST 
 




 

 
Chris Ellis celebrates with Silly String at the Dallas High School graduation.
 
 charlotte bartizek/for the dallas post 
 




 

 
Katarina Banks, Dallas, emerges cooled-off from her swim in the pool at Newberry Estate.
 
 charlotte bartizek/for the dallas post 
 




 

 
Changing Habits performs at the Dallas Harvest Festival.
 
 BILL TARUTIS/for the dallas post 
 




 

 
Linda Ross, hugs a Circle of Friends participant Selena Waters as Sister Bernadette Duross RSM shares a laugh over a clever quip from Selena.
 
 Aimee dilger phtoo/for the dallas post 
 

The year 2010 proved to be one Back Mountain residents won&rsquo;t soon forget. 
Gas drilling issues were paramount to municipalities and residents as oil companies&rsquo; drove and drilled into the area. 
Students pushed themselves to achieve great things, while school officials were marred with scandal. 
Businesses and events reached milestones, while organization leaders left posts they&rsquo;ve held for years. 
Here&rsquo;s a peek into the events that defined 2010 in the Back Mountain:

January

&#8226; Retired United Methodist pastor the Rev. Charles Gommer and others raise money to plan a trip to Haiti after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit the country&rsquo;s capital, Port-au-Prince, on Jan. 12.
&#8226; Dallas School District Superintendent Frank Galicki was retained for another five-year term by a 6-1 vote from the school board. Board member Karen Kyle was absent from the meeting due to illness, but she insisted contractual agreements include the right for the board to terminate the superintendent for misconduct due to &ldquo;the recent indictment of a public school official.&rdquo;
&#8226; The former Back Mountain and Coal Co. building is purchased by BPPNK Reality, a group of five local doctors, to transform the location into the new office of InterMountain Medical Group, formerly located in the Twin Stacks Center, to Route 309 in Shavertown. The clinic officially opens in July.
&#8226; The last of the Civil War-themed memorabilia from Pickett&rsquo;s Charge Restaurant is auctioned off after 31 years of business. Leggio&rsquo;s Pizza eventually becomes the new restaurant to occupy the Center Hill Road and Route 415 location.

February

&#8226; The gas station at the corner of Route 309 and Carverton Road, formerly occupied by Uni Mart, is reopened under the name CK Mini Mart.
&#8226; Paul Sabol, former Kingston Township police chief for 21 years, retires from the board of supervisors after 16 years.
&#8226; Mary Garrity Slaby, Ph. D., wins the 2010 Mom&rsquo;s Choice Award for her book, &ldquo;Call Me Kate: Meeting the Molly Maguires,&rdquo; which is set in the 1860s and follows a character based on Garrity Slaby&rsquo;s great-grandmother, Catherine McCafferty.
&#8226; Tom Daniels, owner of Siani&rsquo;s Cleaners and Tailors in Shavertown, receives a 90-day notice to vacate the premises. The business closes in March after 27 years of service to the Back Mountain community.

March

&#8226; Back Mountain Food Pantry Director Mark Stull resigns from his volunteer position after a letter to the editor sent to The Times Leader and The Dallas Post acknowledges a theft from the pantry. Stull was the director since July 2008.
&#8226; The Dallas High School LifeSmarts team moves to nationals after winning the state competition in Harrisburg. The Internet-based competition asks students to learn about issues such as personal finances, health, consumer rights and responsibilities and the environment.
&#8226; Six students from Gate of Heaven School become finalists in a National Aeronautics and Space Administration contest. The contest, called the NASA Waste Limitation Management and Recycling Design Challenge, asked students in grades five through eight to design a recycling and water reuse system on the moon.
&#8226; Dallas School District parents start a petition to revitalize the Dallas Marching Band, which only has 19 members.

April

&#8226; Dr. Thomas Juniata, of Lehman Township, starts a petition to urge state legislators and the state Department of Environmental Protection to stop the proposed natural gas drilling in the Back Mountain.
&#8226; The state Department of Corrections decides to reduce tower staffing at the State Correctional Institute Dallas, prompting residents, municipal leaders and local legislators to address the security issue at a meeting with SCI-Dallas officials.
&#8226; The Circle of Friends program at Misericordia University ends due to lack of funding. The program, which began in 2002 with funds from the Sordoni Foundation and a private donor, provided independent living skills and educational and social activities in a college setting to young women with developmental disabilities.
&#8226; Shirley George, a secretary at Ross Elementary School, retires after 34 years.

May

&#8226; Four students from Back Mountain schools are chosen for The Times Leader&rsquo;s Best &amp; Brightest Awards. Tara Connors, Kaitlyn Reinert and Jacob Hebda, all from Dallas High School, and Mariah Raspen of Lake-Lehman High School are selected for the ceremony, which honors students for academic and community accomplishments.
&#8226; The Sweet Valley Fire Company&rsquo;s Memorial Weekend Fair and Parade celebrated its 50th anniversary this year. The event included a parade with floats, a white elephant sale, several local bands and homemade food.
&#8226; Debra Lozano gets the Back Mountain Readers book club off the ground. The club is open to anyone who likes to &ldquo;yak&rdquo; about any type of reading from novels to non-fiction.
&#8226; George F. Gracely III, president of the Dallas Youth Basketball Association Board of Directors and vice president of minor leagues for Back Mountain Baseball, was removed from his positions after being charged with 70 counts of possession of child pornography.

June

&#8226; A new reading program at the Back Mountain Memorial Library gives second- to fifth-graders a chance to learn the nuances of book discussions.
&#8226; Board members who oversee the Back Mountain Recreation Complex approve a natural gas lease for a 130-acre property with Chief Oil &amp; Gas Co. The lease states that the land itself will not be disturbed &ndash; it just allows the company to drill horizontally deep underneath the surface. The complex will receive a bonus of $12.50 per acre and 20 percent in royalties if natural gas is found underneath the area.
&#8226; High school commencements are marked with unique actions &ndash; Silly String makes a big play at the 49th Dallas High School graduation, and the 52nd Lake-Lehman graduating class tosses beach balls and blow bubbles to celebrate their educational careers.
&#8226; The Lands at Hillside Farms restores the Conyngham Family Cottage, opening its doors for weddings and other private parties. The cottage was built in 1881 and it took $700,000 and hundreds of volunteers to complete the restoration of the first floor.
&#8226; The Lake-Lehman School Board approves an 11-plus percent increase in property taxes for residents.

July

&#8226; Harveys Lake Borough officials begin discussions for a one-year moratorium on gas drilling in the borough. The measure is approved in September.
&#8226; Encana Oil &amp; Gas prepares to repair roads in Lake Township at no expense to residents for the increased truck traffic on the township&rsquo;s dirt roads due to its work on a gas well drilling site on Zosh Road. 
&#8226; With temperatures soaring above 90 degrees for five consecutive days in July, the Back Mountain sees its most intense heat wave in nine years.
&#8226; The 64th Back Mountain Memorial Library Auction enjoys great weather and many helping hands. The auction raises 40 percent of the library&rsquo;s budget every year.

August

&#8226; Five students from the Luzerne Intermediate Unit 18 celebrate a fruitful summer at the conclusion of their Dream Green Farm program at The Lands at Hillside Farms. Participants learned job skills as they grew and tended to vegetables and sold them at farmers&rsquo; markets.
&#8226; The Dallas School Board approves $80,000 in change orders to the new high school project. Though the board plans to be reimbursed for the cost of &ldquo;errors and omissions,&rdquo; the price keeps steeping for the new school, set to open in September 2011.
&#8226; A new program to honor Lake-Lehman alumni, Knights of the Round Table, gets underway at the junior/senior high school. Superintendent James McGovern hopes the program will honor professionally successful and community-minded graduates. 
&#8226; Current and former employees of Commonwealth Telephone Enterprises reunite for the first time at Konefal&rsquo;s Grove. Hundreds attend the event that was in the works for 21 years.

September

&#8226; Doug Klopp joins the Lake-Lehman Junior/Senior High School as principal this year. Klopp, who has worked as a principal and guidance counselor in Pennsylvania schools, looks forward to bettering the educational environment for students.
&#8226; Dr. Michael MacDowell, president of Misericordia University, and David Yeager, of Radnor Property Group, present to the Dallas School Board a pressing issue of using the old township high school. The men planned to utilize the building for a Misericordia dormitory and daycare center with a 50-year lease from the board. The property would generate tax revenue and eliminate demolition costs for Dallas taxpayers. The school board opts to take its time in deciding on the issue, and no decision was made before the duo&rsquo;s deadline for applying for tax credits approached.
&#8226; Members of the local organization the Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition and others travel to Harrisburg to address the issue of forced pooling and the natural gas severance tax. The natural gas severance tax was not passed in 2010.
&#8226; The eighth annual Dallas Harvest Festival expands for the first time in its existence. Twelve new booths and a new space for entertainment keep the crowd pleased at the Main Street event.

October

&#8226; A new course at Dallas Middle School teaches students about widely used languages and cultures of the world &ndash; Hindi, Japanese, Chinese, Russian and Arabic &ndash; and brings in community volunteers to bring life experiences with learning.
&#8226; Pizza Perfect celebrates its 35th anniversary in Trucksville.
&#8226; Winners in more than 80 categories celebrate at The Dallas Post&rsquo;s third-annual Best of the Back Mountain ceremony. Readers voted online and via mail to choose local professionals to receive top prizes.
&#8226; Lake Township residents press for details at a board meeting for information about the Zosh Road gas well drilling project. Amy Salansky, board member and property owner at Zosh Road, answers questions but many are left unanswered. Encana Gas &amp; Oil leaves Luzerne County in November after not discovering enough natural gas for commercial use on the property.

November

&#8226; Voter turnout is high in the Back Mountain for the 2010 election. Elected leaders Karen Boback of the 117th legislative district, Phyllis Mundy of the 120th legislative district and Lisa Baker of the 20th senatorial district maintain their seats in the Pennsylvania General Assembly.
&#8226; Dallas Superintendent Frank Galicki takes some flak concerning a state auditor general&rsquo;s report released in October that said he knew of a fundraiser that led to a former school employee&rsquo;s misappropriation of funds. Residents attend board meetings in record numbers, demanding answers from the superintendent. Former Dallas guidance counselor John Wolensky pleaded guilty March 2009 to unlawful taking and was order to pay restitution of $24,631, but the October report noted that Wolensky could have misappropriated more than double that amount.
&#8226; The Lake-Lehman Junior/Senior High School theater group performs its first fall play in years. The laugh-out-loud one-acts feature high school students acting as two year olds and fairy tale characters.
&#8226; A townhouse development set to be built at the 33-acre Hanson&rsquo;s Amusement Park former site receives approval from Harveys Lake Borough but with many conditions, including restrictions on using the sewer system.

December

&#8226; Harveys Lake Borough officials get started on preparations for the borough&rsquo;s new comprehensive plan. About 600 community surveys are sent out to residents, and those who don&rsquo;t receive them are encouraged to participate. The last Harveys Lake Borough comprehensive plan dates back to the 1970s.
&#8226; Deborah Basalyga promotes Liberty Reins Ranch in Harveys Lake, which will provide equine therapy for wounded veterans. Basalyga hopes the program will begin in May 2011.
&#8226; Residents from Fairground Road attend a Dallas Township board of supervisors meeting after hearing about a plan to pave the dead-end road. Residents&rsquo; concerns range from safety of children to traffic worries. Supervisors say there are no definite plans to pave the road until grand funds are issued to the township.
&#8226; One year after the Dallas Shopping Center fire, businesses are putting the pieces back together in preparation for the Christmas shopping season. The shopping center was completely rebuilt during the year, including areas of the center that were not damaged in the fire.

A Look Back