Pawtucket 7, Yankees 3



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Cross Creek Community Church to host Awana program
Cross Creek

County council candidate urges a vote for change
I am running as an independent candidate for the new Luzerne County Council to change the way we govern ourselves.
 I encourage all voters to learn about the candidates and to vote for those who will make tough decisions to change the way our county government works by using less politics and more independent thinking. Those people elected on Nov. 8 to the council have the opportunity to start our new county government by listening to the citizens and to one another, by cooperating to address tough issues and by working for progress of all the people of the county. That progress will be measured when the new council selects a strong county manager, improves the debt situation, passes a realistic budget, confirms competent department heads and appoints good, honorable people to serve the public on authorities, boards and commissions.
 A cooperative, honorable, independent-minded county council is the key to effective and excellent county government. If the council works together to solve tough issues, it can serve as a model for our elected officials at other levels of government. 
We can change how we govern ourselves. Oct. 10 is the last day voters can register to participate in the November election. I urge everyone 18 and older to register to vote, and vote as if our future depends on it ... because it does.

Rick Williams

Candidate, Luzerne County Council
Kingston
Writer disputes editorial on natural gas drilling
The Times Leader&rsquo;s editorial (&ldquo;It&rsquo;s drill at will even minus a shill,&rdquo; Aug. 9) demonstrated its unwillingness to come to grips with the facts about responsible American natural gas development. 
While the editorial maintains that the natural gas industry &ndash; which has helped create work for more than 141,000 Pennsylvanians, according to the state Department of Labor and Industry &ndash; &ldquo;does what it wants,&rdquo; your readers should know that Gov. Ed Rendell and the state&rsquo;s former top environmental regulator, John Hanger, believe &ldquo;Pennsylvania has the strongest enforcement program of any state with gas drilling.&rdquo;
Rendell and Hanger &ldquo;strongly disagree that there is lax regulation and oversight of gas drilling&rdquo; in the commonwealth. Our company, which has been operating in the region for more than 30 years and pioneered the Marcellus, agrees.
Oddly, the editorial attempts to make the case that &ldquo;out-of-state energy companies&rdquo; are getting &ldquo;a free pass to siphon the prized fuel without putting any money&rdquo; back into the state coffers. The facts, of course, tell a starkly different story. Indeed, our industry has generated more than $1.1 billion in tax revenues since 2006 &ndash; hardly a &ldquo;free pass,&rdquo; and far from a &ldquo;spooky&rdquo; proposition for state taxpayers.
Like so many across the commonwealth, my family settled in the region three generations ago. And I&rsquo;m fortunate to have the opportunity to work and raise my children here. Unsubstantiated, personal attacks have no place in our dialogue about natural gas development. Your readers deserve better.

Matt Pitzarella

Director of public affairs
Range Resources Corp.
Canonsburg
Writer says bakery deal will only hurt taxpayers
On Aug. 5, a miscarriage of justice was perpetrated on the taxpayers of the Wilkes-Barre Area School District when the board voted 7 to 1 to forgive $440,000 in back taxes on the former Old River Road Bakery property.
Ignoring pleas from myself and a few other concerned citizens to reject Mayor Tom Leighton&rsquo;s presumptuous demand, the board took another step backward in its &ldquo;effort&rdquo; to restore public confidence after the recent wave of corruption and scandal that swept three directors from office. The few conditions attached to the agreement seemingly amount to nothing more than a farce. 
If perhaps the board would have stipulated the specifics of the sale more stringently, in terms of having the final say about who buys the property and for how much, the agreement would have been less outrageous. But when all is said and done, the mayor apparently will have pulled off another egregious coup and the taxpayers of this district will once again get the short end of the stick since somewhere down the road we will have to compensate for this huge debit.
In an ironic twist of this tale, I spoke out at a July budget meeting, asking whether the board could save money by closing some of these tax-forgiveness loopholes that it has arranged with the city. Vice President Jim Fisher replied that the board rarely, if ever, grants such exemptions. I suppose it is now safe to say that this is a bald-faced lie or Mr. Fisher and his colleagues are living in a parallel universe.
And what about the pie-in-the-sky promise of future development and the possibility that this property might successfully return to the district&rsquo;s tax rolls? On more than one occasion I tried to convey to the board that it should be accountable to only two groups: the taxpayers and the students (not business interests and not certain public officials). But, of course, the board proved once again that it is out of touch and oblivious to the financial travails of the district&rsquo;s taxpayers.
If you are like me and feel an excruciating sense of frustration and anger over this board&rsquo;s pandering to the mayor, if you feel it is time to stop complaining and take action, then contact me. We will organize a citizens&rsquo; advisory panel to closely monitor the proceedings of this dysfunctional group. Enough is enough!

Sam Troy

Wilkes-Barre
Cancer Institute to survey residents in Shale region
The Northeast Regional Cancer Institute recently received a grant from Pennsylvania to conduct a community health survey in the state&rsquo;s Marcellus Shale region.
The study, which will be conducted by Cancer Institute researchers, will document the health of residents of Bradford, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Lycoming, Pike, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Tioga, Wayne and Wyoming counties. 
The goals of this study are to estimate the prevalence of common medical conditions among residents of counties where natural gas production has begun or is likely, as well as estimate the prevalence of known health risk factors in this population. In the coming weeks, approximately 500 adults will be randomly selected and asked to complete a mail survey providing demographic, health and residential information. By gathering data from representative members of the public, studies such as this help us understand the health of our neighborhoods and develop programs to make where we live safer for our children and grandchildren.
It is my hope that the community will be willing to join with us and support this research. 
For more information, call 1-800-424-6724. You also may find information about the Cancer Institute at www.cancernepa.org.

Dr. Samuel Lesko

Director of research
and
Medical director
Northeast Regional Cancer Institute
Scranton
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County council candidate urges a vote for change I am running