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those who defaulted on a prior payment plan within the last three years. Brominski said he sympathizes with property owners facing financial difficulties but said all tax collectors should be current on their own properties because urging timely payment is one of their primary duties. He raised the tax delinquency issue at last week’s county council meeting during a discussion on options for county tax collection. County officials have been stressing the need for all tax collectors to strive for high collection rates. Some tax collectors contact property owners by phone to remind them to pay. The county’s new home rule government gives council the power to stop using 69 elected tax collectors or reduce their pay. Elected tax collectors are paid $3.50 per bill. Council members said they need more research and discussion before voting on the matter. A decision must be made by the end of the year because tax collector seats are on the ballot in 2013.
THE TIMES LEADER
Toddler program starts at Sem
victions of driving under the influence of controlled substances from 2003 to 2005, and a drug trafficking conviction from 2006. Walsh, an employee in the Luzerne County Clerk of Courts Office, likely handled Raven’s license suspensions. Her duties, among others, included processing license suspensions with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. According to court records: • Raven was sentenced Sept. 11, 2008, to one to two years in county prison when Wilkes-Barre police said he was under the influence of cocaine while operating a vehicle on North Pennsylvania Avenue on Dec. 1, 2005. He was paroled in March 2010. • A county judge sentenced Raven to 72 hours in jail on charges he was driving a vehicle while under the influence of cocaine in Wilkes-Barre on Sept. 12, 2004. • He was also sentenced to 48 hours in jail on separate counts of DUI on Dec. 31 and Nov. 29, 2003, according to court records. Preliminary hearings are scheduled on Sept. 11. For obituaries for Pizano and Walsh, see page 8A.
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PETE G. WILCOX PHOTOS/THE TIMES LEADER
Maggie Hornung meets the class pet in residence, Ringo the Guinea Pig, during the first day of classes for toddlers at the Wyoming Seminary Lower School in Forty Fort on Tuesday.
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MARK GUYDISH mguydish@timesleader.com
ORTY FORT – Go ahead; try not to smile with a guinea pig named Ringo on your back. Maggie Hornung beamed like a little cherub as the class pet gave new meaning to the term “piggy back” during the official start of Wyoming Seminary’s new “toddler program” Tuesday, nestling briefly on the back of the youngster sprawled on the floor. Soft carpet under you and fuzzy fur ball on top? Maybe they’ve invented a new relaxation technique. The new program takes in children from 18 months to 3 years old, up to five days a week – the school is flexible on how many days a child shows up, as long as the total count per day stays at 10 tykes, Director of Admissions Katie Callahan said. That’s five for each of the two teachers. The goal is to give the toddlers early lessons in independence, self care and social skills, as well as a head start in their education. “She’s already learning letters,”
Gigi Ruderman, 23 months, visits with her mom, Katie Callahan. Callahan is the director of admissions at the school.
one proud mother said while watching her child through a one-way window set up to let parents check on their children without being seen. That’s one of the features built into a converted home next to Wyoming Seminary’s Lower School, which now houses both the new toddler program and the existing pre-school for 3- and 4year-olds. There’s also a changing station with hide-a-way stairs the youngsters can use to get onto, a kid-size bathroom area separated by a wall high enough for toddler
privacy but still allowing adult supervision, and alarms on the exterior doors that give a gentle but firm notice someone is leaving. And there’s a super-soft play area outside, made of artificial turf on top of extra bouncy rubber. Maggie headed straight for the Playskool cop car. Cash Harrison opted for the pint-size sliding board, only he didn’t want to take time running around the back to the ladder; he started working his way up the slide before turning around at the top and enjoying the descent. The new early education building – officially dubbed “Arlington House” – sits across the Lower School parking lot, fronting Arlington Road. It currently handles 13 toddlers and 19 pre-school children. Along with a full day of activities from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., there is beforeschool care beginning at 8 a.m. and after-school care until 5:30 p.m., Callahan said. Being the class pet, Ringo attends full-time.
STATION
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and describing herself as the “mom in chief,” made no mention of Republican challenger Mitt Romney. But those who preceded her to the podium on the first night of the president’s convention were scathing. “If Mitt were president, he’d fire the reindeer and outsource the elves,” declared former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland in one biting speech. Tapped to deliver the keynote address, San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro said Romney was a millionaire politician who “quite simply, doesn’t get it” when it comes to the needs of the middle class. Referring to the Republican’s support for mandatory health insurance when he was governor of Massachusetts, he added, “Gov. Romney has undergone an extreme makeover, and it ain’t pretty.” Polls made the race for the White House a tight one, almost certain to be decided in a string of eight or10 battleground states where neither the president nor Romney holds a clear advantage. There was ample evidence during the day of an underperforming economy, including a report that said manufacturing activity declined for a third straight month and the government’s debt exceeded $16 trillion at the close of the business day. There was no end to the appeals for donations to Obama’s re-election campaign, falling further behind Romney in cash on hand with each passing month. “If you think Barack’s the right man for the job, please show your support with a donation of $5 or more today,” the first lady emailed supporters a little more than 90 minutes before her speech. She walked out to the crowd’s cheers as the band played Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours,” the song he sang onstage at Obama’s Denver convention ifour years ago. “Believe it or not, when we were first married, our combined monthly student loan bills were actually higher than our mortgage,” she told the convention. “We were so young, so in love and so in debt.” She confided that at family dinners in the White House with her and their daughters, the president joins in “strategizing about middle school friendships.” Mrs. Obama’s poll numbers are better than her husband’s, and her speech was aimed at building support for him, much as Ann Romney’s remarks at last week’s Republican National Convention were in service to her husband’s presidential ambitions. “When it comes to rebuilding our economy, Barack is thinking about folks like my dad — who worked at a municipal water plant — and his own grandmother, a bank secretary,” the first lady said. Referring to her own children as well as those of others, she said, “If we want to give them that sense of limitless possibility, that belief that here in America there is always something better out there if you are willing to work for it, then we must ... stand together for the man we can trust to keep moving this great country forward, my husband, our president, President Barack Obama.” Castro, the first Hispanic chosen to deliver a keynote address, was unsparing in criticizing Romney, suggesting the former Massachusetts governor might not even be the driving force on the GOP ticket. “First they called it ‘trickle down, the supply side,’ ” he said of the economic proposals backed by Republicans. “Now it’s Romney/Ryan. Or is it Ryan/Romney?” “Either way, their theory has been tested. It failed. ...Mitt Romney just doesn’t get it,” Castro said. Romney’s running mate is Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan. Republicans did their best to rain on Obama’s convention, whatever the weather. Vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan spoke in Westlake, Ohio, standing behind a lectern bearing a sign that read “Are you better off?” Republicans released a web video that interspersed images of Obama and the economy’s weak performance with slightly out-of-focus video clips of former President Jimmy Carter discussing the nation’s economic woes when sat in the Oval Office more than 30 years ago.
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Energy Services was “obviously… disappointed” with the board’s decision, but said the decision of whethertoappealtherulingwouldbemadebyUGI after reviewing the important facts of that ruling. Reached by email after the meeting, UGI Energy Services spokeswoman Lillian Harris said the company “will be considering an appeal of the decision.” “UGIES continues to maintain that this project is beneficial to the Wyoming Valley and it will be pursuing the project to fruition,” Harris said. Harris and Persico said UGI considered a number of possible station locations and selected the West Wyoming site because its proximity to the both the Transco pipeline and the Saylor Avenue facility would provide for an efficient flow of gas. “As the testimony explained at the last hearing, thatnotonlywasaremotearea,butanefficientarea as well,” Persico said. The many residents of West Wyoming and surrounding communities opposed to the project, however, took issue with UGI’s characterization of the site as remote. “I think it’s more just a nice quiet neighborhood; it’s not a remote area,” said Janice Metzo, a Fire Cut Road resident whose property borders Kalinosky’s. “An industrial park would be more appropriate – somewhere where there’s not so many people.” “This is important for the future of my grandchildren,”saidMarionPacovski,anotherFireCutRoad resident who lives just over the West Wyoming border in Kingston Township. “Hopefully, they’re going to be someday living where I’m living and we don’t want this industrial activity in our area. It belongsinanindustrialarea,notanagriculturalarea.” During an Aug. 7 public hearing that lasted more than five hours and was attended by well over 100
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UGI Energy Services attorney Joseph L. Persico on Tuesday awaits the three-member zoning boards decision on the UGI compressor station. The board denied the utility’s proposal for the facility in West Wyoming.
opponents of the project, area residents also expressed concerns about the volume of emissions the station would produce, its potential impact on public health, its effect on property values, emergency access routes and storm-water runoff. Nancy Dolan of Exeter, a member of Luzerne County Citizens for Clean Air, challenged the location of the facility in an agricultural district on zoning grounds at that meeting. “My hope is that UGI as a responsible corporation considers the message the people have sent and looks for a reasonable alternative for the placement of a polluting facility like this,” Dolan said after Tuesday’s meeting. The West Wyoming Borough Council and state Rep. Phyllis Mundy, D-Kingston, also publicly opposed the project. “The residents of West Wyoming were not in favor of this, so we’re pleased with the decision,” West Wyoming Council President Eileen Cipriani
said. At least one area resident attending Tuesday’s meeting, though, said he supported UGI’s plan and was disappointed with the board’s decision. Wayne Weaver of Northmoreland Township, Wyoming County, said he has signed a gas lease but thinks the delayscausedtoprojectslikethepipelinelessenthe likelihood that a well will be drilled on his property. He added that Kalinosky should have the right to use his property as he sees fit. “He owned that property; he paid taxes on it, and people who had nothing to do with it shouldn’t be able to tell him what to do with it,” Weaver said. UGI’s compressor station would also require approval from Luzerne County Planning Commission, the state Department of Environmental Protection and the Luzerne Conservation District, but UGI cannot begin building the compressor station without zoning approval. Natural gas pipelines do not require zoning approval.
• U.S. Sen. Bob Casey told the Pennsylvania delegation Tuesday morning the focus is on preserving Medicare “as we know it.” The senator said there is a “stark difference” between the Democrats’ plan for Medicare and the Republicans’ proposal. “This is not just an issue in the presidential race,” Casey, D-Scranton, said. “This is a major issue in my race and in all other congressional races. The Democratic Party wants to assure that the guaranteed Medicare benefit doesn’t change.” • Matt Cartwright, Democratic candidate for congress in the 17th District, a pro-life candidate, missed the first day of the convention to attend Labor Day events in his district. He said he received a “special invitation” to Charlotte to “rub elbows” with Democratic Party big-wigs. “I felt I needed to be there to help become an effective congressman in 17th District,” he said. • David Gliddon, 35, of Nanticoke, is a voting delegate at the convention. He’s a professor in the Colorado Technical University online program. Gliddon said he has been busy since he got off the plane in Charlotte. “Ever since I got here I’ve been attending meetings and events,” he said. “I’m focused on learning as much about the party’s education platform. I’m also interested in learning about innovations in leadership and creating jobs. It’s definitely going to be a learning experience.” • Gliddon said he and other members of the Northeastern Pennsylvania convention delegation are constantly sending out messages on Twitter. He said the messages can be accessed at: barackthevalley#. One tweet noted “Our Barack the Valley Women’s Caucus members heard Nancy Pelosi, Sandra Fluke, and Ashley Judd speak today.” Bill O’Boyle