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‘Sharks’ award $5,000 to longtime business

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LGBT 101: Seminar seeks to inform and educate

<p><strong>Diamonds</strong> to the Friends of the Osterhout Free Library, whose annual book sale is poised to reach a milestone during its latest run, which is now underway.</p><p>Over its 42 years of sales to benefit the library, the group will soon have raised $500,000.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s incredible, when you consider we&#8217;ve sold books for $1, or children&#8217;s books for a quarter or 10 cents,&#8221; volunteer Elaine Schall told reporter Mary Therese Biebel.</p><p>The sale runs through next Saturday, June 23, but is closed on Sunday.</p><p>Book lovers can be assured there really is something for everyone, and the sale benefits a much-loved and valuable community resource.</p><p>And you might even find a hidden treasure.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s like being at a garage sale where you never know what you&#8217;ll find,&#8221; Schall said, glancing at a table of vintage volumes that were printed in the 1920s and &#8217;30s. &#8220;We&#8217;ve had people come back and tell us they&#8217;ve sold a book from our sale on eBay for $50.&#8221;</p><p><strong>Coal</strong> to generations of Luzerne County government officials for managing to overlook the fact that a county-owned half-double home in Hazle Township has been actually occupied for 50 years by a family who wasn&#8217;t paying real estate taxes.</p><p>&#8220;I assumed it was OK because nobody ever said otherwise,&#8221; said Marilyn Bevans, who has lived in the half-double since she was born 59 years ago.</p><p>&#8220;I never received anything to say I must pay a tax bill. I never understood why I didn&#8217;t have to pay taxes.&#8221;</p><p>County officials said they would have no claim to recoup taxes from prior years because the county was the owner.</p><p>We&#8217;re not faulting Bevans. She had always heard the structure and one or two others in the tiny village of Jeansville were not taxed because it was a &#8220;homestead house,&#8221; possibly with some connection to nearby coal mining. It had passed to county ownership when she was a child, after her coal miner father had died and two trustees defaulted on taxes.</p><p>But the county seems intent on doing the right thing by her, at least.</p><p>The property was recently put on the county&#8217;s auction list, but county Manager C. David Pedri said he will ask council to consider removing the house from the list so it can be purchased by Bevans.</p><p><strong>Diamonds</strong> to everyone who has pitched in on clean-up efforts at the Arena Hub Plaza and at damaged businesses along Mundy Street. That list includes Wilkes-Barre Township police and responders from Luzerne, Lackawanna, Columbia and Wyoming counties, along with 12 area fire departments, eight ambulance units, sheriff&#8217;s officers, 911 personnel and the Red Cross, among others.</p><p>Fred Rosencrans, Luzerne County&#8217;s 911 director, said right from the beginning of the tornado Wednesday night, the goal was to &#8220;control chaos.&#8221; We would say that officials succeeded.</p><p>Generous donors, meanwhile, kept volunteers refreshed and fed with so much food that the Red Cross did not need to spend a penny.</p><p><strong>Diamonds</strong> to state Rep. Gerald Mullery, whose bill that would ban nicotine-based products and electronic cigarettes in Pennsylvania schools is moving forward after the state House passed it unanimously.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">People shop for books during the 41st annual book sale at the central branch of the Osterhout Free Library in Wilkes-Barre last June. The 42nd annual sale is now underway. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/web1_TTL062017BookSale-cmyk-3.jpg</photo0><caption0>People shop for books during the 41st annual book sale at the central branch of the Osterhout Free Library in Wilkes-Barre last June. The 42nd annual sale is now underway. </caption0><photoCredit0>Times Leader file </photoCredit0></div></div>

Our View: Diamonds for Friends of the Osterhout sale milestone