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SATURDAY, MAY 5, 2012
CHIEF PETTY OFFICER CHESTER SWARTZ, 86, Berwick, passed away Thursday. He was a U.S. Navy Veteran and was employed by Leslie Fay. He was preceded in death by son, Chester; parents, Thomas and Caroline Wallace (Skwarzec); brothers and sister. Surviving are fiancée, Oce Davis; children, Richard Swartz and wife, Dolores, and Sharon Karboski-Miller; stepson, Angelo Davis and wife, Cathy; grandchildren; great-grandchildren; sisters, Genevieve Witkowski, Dolores Battle, Mildred Talley. Funeral is Monday at 9:30 a.m. from S.J. Grontkowski Funeral Home, Plymouth, with Mass at 10 a.m. in All Saints Parish, Plymouth. Interment will be in St. Mary’s Nativity Cemetery. Calling hours are Sunday from 3 to 6 p.m. DARRYL R. DANKO, 65, of Wilkes-Barre, passed away on Thursday, May 3, 2012. He was born September 8, 1946, in WilkesBarre, a son of the late Jack and Corinne Danko. He attended the Wilkes-Barre schools and was selfemployed, operating Danko Propane Gas, Laurel Run. He enjoyed fishing and spending time with his family and friends. Surviving are his wife, Michelle Evans Danko, daughters, Stacey Danko, Brittany Danko; grandson, Camden; brothers, Jack and Larry Danko; nieces and nephews. Relatives and friends may call Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m. at E. Blake Collins Funeral Home, 159 George Avenue, Wilkes-Barre. Condolences can be sent to the family at www.eblakecollins.com. MARY ELEANOR TOOLE, 78, of Pittston, passed away Friday, May 4, 2012 in Regional Hospital, Scranton. Arrangements are pending from the Paul F. Leonard Funeral Home, 575 N. Main St., Pittston. THOMAS YANOVICH, 88, of West Wyoming, passed away Friday, May 4, 2012 in Highland Manor Nursing Home, Exeter. Funeral arrangements are pending from Bednarski Funeral Home, 168 Wyoming Avenue, Wyoming.
FUNERALS HOMZA – Joseph Sr., memorial Divine Liturgy 10 a.m. today in St. Mary’s Byzantine Catholic Church, Chestnut Avenue, Kingston. MERVA – Mary, Mass of Christian Burial 10 a.m. today in Holy Spirit Parish, Mocanaqua. MCGEEVER – James, celebration of life 3 p.m. Sunday, May 13, in the grove at McGeever’s Pond. POLASKI – Marie, funeral 9:30 a.m. Monday in the Victor M. Ferri Funeral Home, 522 Fallon St., Old Forge. Mass of Christian Burial at 10 a.m. in St. Mary of the Assumption Church at Prince of Peace Parish, Old Forge. Friends may call 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. Sunday. RITCHIE – Foster Jr., funeral services at 9:30 a.m. today in the Hugh B. Hughes & Son Inc. Funeral Home, 1044 Wyoming Ave., Forty Fort. Mass of Christian Burial at Holy Trinity Church, Swoyersville. ROSENTEL – Richard, funeral 9:30 a.m. today in the BetzJastremski Funeral Home Inc., 568 Bennett St., Luzerne. Mass of Christian Burial 10 a.m. in Holy Family Parish, Luzerne. TALARICO – Ada, funeral 9:30 a.m. today in the Louis V. Ciuccio Funeral Home, 145 Moosic Road, Old Forge. Mass 10 a.m. in Prince of Peace Parish - St. Mary’s Church, Old Forge. TERRAGNOLI – Joel, funeral service 10 a.m. today in the Yeosock Funeral Home, 40 S. Main St., Plains Township. Friends may call 9 to 10 a.m. WILLIAMS – Jason, memorial service 2 p.m. today in the Yeosock Funeral Home, 40 S. Main St., Plains Township. Friends may call 1 to 2 p.m.
OBITUARY POLICY The Times Leader publishes free obituaries, which have a 27-line limit, and paid obituaries, which can run with a photograph. A funeral home representative can call the obituary desk at (570) 829-7224, send a fax to (570) 829-5537 or e-mail to tlobits@timesleader.com. If you fax or e-mail, please call to confirm. Obituaries must be submitted by 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Obituaries must be sent by a funeral home or crematory, or must name who is handling arrangements, with address and phone number. We discourage handwritten notices; they incur a $15 typing fee.
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Michael (Mickey) P. Yakalavich
Mrs. Ann B. Sapol
May 1, 2012
May 1, 2012
r. Michael (Mickey) P.Yakalavich, 76, of Pittston, passed away M Tuesday at Wilkes-Barre General
Hospital. Born in Pittston, he was the son of the late Joseph and Ann Stegnunas Yakalavich. He was a graduate of Pittston High School Class of 1953. He served in the U.S. Navy Reserves for eight years. He was employed by Pittston Lumber, Pittston, for 50 years. Michael, also known as Nashville Mike, and his wife, Harriet, ran a country music website called NashvilleMikes.com. The website featured both local and out-of-town bands, showing photos and videos. He was an avid photographer and loved woodworking. He loved to sing. Surviving are his wife, the former Harriet Eckert; daughter, Sherry Carpenter and her husband, Jeffrey, of Exeter; stepdaughter, Danielle Cimakosky and her husband, Christopher, of Hanover Township; stepdaughter Joe Ann Comunale and her husband, Jeffrey, of Roseto; stepdaughter Christina Impeciati and her fiancé, David Cragle of Kingston; seven grandchildren, Ryan and Nicole Carpenter; Alissa and Courtney Cimakosky; Dalton
Ann B. Sapol, 88, of WilkesM rs.Barre, passed away on Tuesday
and Bryan Skasko; Carmon Comunale; brother Joseph Yakalavich and his wife, Joanne, of Pittston; aunt Alberta Kridlo; nephew Joseph Yakalavich Jr.; brother- and sister-inlaw J.S. Geare and Heather McClaren; cousins. Private viewing and funeral services will be held at the convenience of the family. Arrangements are by the Bernard J. Piontek Funeral Home Inc., 204 Main St., Duryea. The family requests, in lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the American Heart Association in his memory.
Dianne Lynn Brennan May 4, 2012 ianne Lynn Rogers Brennan, 57, of Falls, passed away Friday, D May 4, 2012 at Geisinger Wyoming
Valley Medical Center. She was born in Wilkes-Barre, on March 4, 1955, daughter of the late Eldon and Louva Jones Rogers, Dallas. Dianne was a graduate of Dallas High School and Luzerne County Community College, where she earned an Associate Degree in nursing. She was employed by Kingston Commons, Kingston, Pa. Dianne was preceded in death by sons, Dane and Michael Brenna; brothers, Robert D. and Richard J Rogers. Memorial service will be held Surviving are a son, Matthew Sunday at 8 p.m. from The Richard Brennan, Wilkes-Barre; loving fian- H. Disque Funeral Home Inc., 2940 cé and best friend, Joseph Toole, Memorial Highway, Dallas, with the Falls; sisters, Marilyn Trimble, Le- Rev. Dr. William D. Lewis officiatvittown, Pa.; Janet Sorber, Winter- ing. Friends may call Sunday from 6 ville, N.C., and twin sister Donna p.m. until time of service. Kurtz, Beaufort, S.C.; brothers, In lieu of flowers, donations in Thomas Rogers, Meshoppen, Pa.; Dianne’s name may be made to The James Rogers, Mehoopany, Pa.; as American Cancer Society, c/o 190 well as many loving nieces and ne- Wells Street Suite 118, Kingston, PA 18704. phews.
Joseph Piskorik May 4, 2012 Joseph Piskorik, 86, of West Wyoming, passed away peacefully on Friday morning, May 4, 2012 at the rehab unit of Little Flower Manor, Wilkes-Barre. Born in Kingston, he was the son of the late John and Anna Piskorik. Joe will be remembered as a devoted husband and loving father who took great pride in his vegetable garden and woodworking. He was a member of St. Michael’s Byzantine Catholic Church, Pittston, and was a graduate of West Wyoming High School. He also attended Bucknell Junior College in WilkesBarre for Engineering. Joseph had retired from The Consolidated Cigar Co., West Pittston and Puerto Rico, where he
worked as an Assistant Head Mechanic/Machinist. He was preceded in death by his loving wife, the former Helen Harris, in 2008. Surviving are his children, Kathleen and her husband, David Tryzenski, West Wyoming, Mary Joan and her husband, Darren Fetch, Harding, and Joseph M. Piskorik, West Wyoming. Also surviving are his sister, Mary Bobcock, Wilkes-Barre, and numerous nieces and nephews. Relatives and friends are invited to visitation on Monday from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. at the Gubbiotti Funeral Home, 1030 Wyoming Ave., Exeter. Office of Divine Liturgy will follow at 10 a.m. at St. Michael’s Byzantine Catholic Church, 205 N. Main St., Pittston. Interment will be in Sacred Heart Slovak Cemetery, Dallas. To send the family an expression of sympathy or an online condolence, please visit www.gubbiottifh.com.
James M. ‘Sox’ Ruane May 3, 2012 James M. “Sox” Ruane, 86, of Pittston, passed away Thursday at Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center. His beloved wife of 62 years is Mary McGlynn Ruane. Jimmy was the son of the late Patrick and Marguerite Tonrey Ruane. He was a graduate of St. Cecelia’s High School and Eckles College of Mortuary Science. He was a member of St. John the Evangelist Church, Pittston, the Greater Pittston Ambulance Association, Eagle Hose Co. #1 Pittston, IAFF Local 840 Luzerne Co., Pennsylvania Funeral Director’s Association, Knights of Columbus, VFW, Emerald Society, and the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick. Jimmy served his country and community all of his life. After high school, he fought in the Army’s 86th Infantry – Black Hawk Division – during World War II. He recently retired as president of the Greater Pittston Ambulance Association, where he volunteered for 57 years. He was a firefighter in the Eagle Hose Co. #1 in Pittston, where he later retired as fire chief. Since its inception, he volunteered for many years with Medic 303. Jimmy continued working as a li-
Funeral Lunches starting at $ 7.95 Memorial Highway, Dallas • 675-0804
censed funeral director and as the owner-operator of the Ruane & Regan Funeral Home until his date of death. Among many other jobs, he enjoyed working for the U.S. Post Office and the Lehigh Valley Railroad. In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his sister, Patricia Connerton, and nieces, Peggy and Michelle Connerton. He is survived by his wife, Mary; son, Jim, Brussels, Belgium; granddaughter, Laura Mudlock; his beloved dog Maggie; nieces, Terri and Patricia Connerton, and several other nieces and nephews. The funeral will be held Tuesday with a Mass of Christian Burial at 9:30 a.m. at St. John the Evangelist Church, Pittston. Interment will be in St. Mary’s Cemetery, Hanover Township. Anyone attending the funeral is asked to proceed directly to the church. Friends may call 3 to 7 p.m. on Monday at the Pittston City Firehouse. The Luzerne County Funeral Director’s Association will meet at 6 p.m. Please consider making a donation, in lieu of flowers, to the Care and Concern Clinic, William Street, Pittston, or to the Greater Pittston Ambulance Association, Box 615, Pittston. Funeral arrangements are by the Ruane & Regan Funeral Home, 18 Kennedy St., Pittston.
May 1, 2012 in the Meadows Nursing Center, Dallas. She was the widow of John Sapol. Ann was born February 2,1924, in Wilkes-Barre. She was the daughter of the late Ignatz and Mary Sawitski Baker. Before retirement, she was employed in the garment industry as a presser. She was a member of St. Vladimir’s Ukrainian Catholic Church, Zerby Avenue, Edwardsville. In addition to her husband and parents, she was preceded in death by her brothers, Nicholas and Joseph Fedash and Stephen Baker, and her sister, Rose Fedash Lipka. Surviving are her stepdaughter,
Shirley Neuman; nieces, Marion Blessner, Linda Meader, Barbara Brannigan and Mary Louise Fedash; numerous grandnieces and grandnephews. Funeral services will be held Monday at 10 a.m. from the Edwards and Russin Funeral Home, 717 Main St., Edwardsville, with Requiem services and Divine Liturgy at 10:30 a.m. in St. Vladimir’s Ukrainian Catholic Church, Zerby Avenue, Edwardsville, with the Rev. Orest Kunderevych, pastor, as celebrant. Interment will follow at St. Mary’s Cemetery, Hanover Township. Friends may call Monday from 9 to 10 a.m. at the funeral home.
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A private U.S. company has set a new date for launching a cargo ship to the International Space Station. Space Exploration Technologies Corp., better known as SpaceX, said Friday it was now aiming for a May 19 liftoff of its Falcon rocket and Dragon capsule. It will be the first commercial cargo run to the space station. The launch of the supply ship, scheduled for Monday, was delayed for software testing.
Salmonella in dog food sickens 14 people By JEFFREY COLLINS and HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH Associated Press
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Fourteen people in at least nine states have been sickened by salmonella after handling tainted dog food from a South Carolina plant that made headlines years ago when it produced food contaminated by toxic mold that killed dozens of dogs, federal officials said Friday. At least five people were hospitalized because of the dog food, which was made by Diamond Pet Foods at its plant in Gaston, S.C., the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. No pets were sickened, according to the Meta, Mo.-based company. “People who became ill, the thing that was common among them was that they had fed their
WESTBROOKS Continued from Page 1A
her as a “happy-go-lucky” girl, who was looking to get her life back on track to do good things. Westbrooks’ attorney, Allyson Kacmarski, thanked the jury of six men and six women for taking their job seriously. “Sometimes, (the verdict) is a surprise,” Kacmarski said, who represented Westbrooks along with attorney John Pike. “With multiple shots being fired, it was tough. (We maintain) Crum did the killing.”
NATURAL Continued from Page 3A
tribution,” German said. “It makes sense.” And converting to natural gas makes the most sense for companies and municipal customers who store and refuel their vehicles at a central location and that use a lot of gasoline, German and other speakers said. According to Allen Westbrook of UGI Utilities, Inc., powering a vehicle on natural gas saves about $2 per gasoline-gallon equivalent and $1.75 per diesel-gallon equivalent, but vehicle conversion kits are expensive – from as little as $5,000 for a small car to more than $80,000 for a long-haul truck – with much of the cost stemming from the price of thick-walled gas storage tanks. Refueling stations can cost even more, from tens to hundreds of thousands depending on the size of the station and its filling speed. According to Westbrook, the Honda Civic GX – the only out-offactory natural-gas vehicle on the U.S. market today – will pay off its $9,500 higher cost at 120,000 miles, or in six years if driven an average of 20,000 miles per year. A garbage truck that gets only 5 miles to the gallon, by contrast, and drives 40,000 miles per year would pay off its $75,000 conversion kit in just over 4 years, making it a much more attractive option, Westbrook said. Government grants and tax in-
pets Diamond Pet Foods,” said CDC spokeswoman Lola Russell. Three people each were infected in Missouri and North Carolina; two people in Ohio; and one person each in Alabama, Connecticut, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia, the CDC said. “Our folks are really wanting people to be aware of it. They want to be aware that this is causing people to get sick because they may have product in their homes. For every one that is reported, there may be 29 others,” Russell said. People can get salmonella by handling infected dog food, then not washing their hands before eating or handling their own food, health officials said. The South Carolina plant temporarily was shut down April 8.
Diamond Pet Foods has issued four rounds of recalls for food made at the plant, located outside of Columbia, S.C., between Dec. 9 and April 7. The latest recalls were announced Friday. “We took corrective actions at the plant, and today the plant is up and running. Our mission is to produce safe pet foods for our customers and their pets in all Diamond facilities,” the company said in a written statement Friday. In 2005, a toxic mold called aflatoxin ended up in food made at the same Diamond Pet Foods plant in South Carolina and dozens of dogs died. The company offered a $3.1 million settlement. FDA officials were not immediately available for comment Friday on the most recent problems with the plant.
Kacmarski said in her closing argument that there was no direct evidence linking her client to Weaver’s death and that two other people in the car, Crum and Daniel Smith, could also be responsible. “The day after Brandon Crum appears, the gun appears. Why?” Kacmarski said. “Because he did it. Not my client.” Kacmarski told jurors if they were guessing who committed the crime when they went to deliberate, that is reasonable doubt, and that means a not guilty verdict. Smith and Crum went on the run after the homicide, and police were unable to locate them for a
number of months, Kacmarski said. Westbrooks is the one who was in the Hazleton area and reported to his parole officer for a scheduled meeting, she said. Finnegan said in his closing argument that Crum is the one who gave investigators vital information to the case and that Westbrooks was the one telling numerous stories. “Why didn’t he say what happened from the beginning?” Finnegan said of the three different statements Westbrooks gave to police. “Once police found out (where he was) he had to change his story. He ran out of time. He ran out of stories.”
centives can ease the sticker shock of switching over, and are crucial to getting natural-gas-vehicle infrastructure off the ground, speakers said. “This market doesn’t work unless we have public policy and government help to help get it off the ground, and we shouldn’t be embarrassed about that,” Westbrook said. “…We shouldn’t be embarrassed about asking for public policy help; solar and wind do not exist without public policy to make those things financially viable.”
The federal government has also offered tax credits for fleet vehicle conversion in the Natural Gas Act of 2011, but despite its name that act has not been passed by the Senate. The industry has found one eager partner in the Luzerne County Transportation Authority, executive director Stanley Strelish said at the conference. Strelish said LCTA would like to install a fast-fill refueling station – the more expensive of the two varieties that pumps natural gas at comparable speeds to a commercial gas pump – at the authority’s depot on Northampton Street in Kingston, and to replace its 100 buses with natural-gas powered vehicles gradually, initially at a rate of five per year. “I think natural gas is definitely the way of the future,” Strelish said. “We at the Luzerne County Transportation Authority are shovel-ready for a fueling station for (compressed natural gas). Unfortunately, the funding isn’t available right now.”
Plains Twp. experience Plains Township Commissioner Jerry Yozwiak explained the process his municipality underwent in obtaining a $149,000 grant to purchase a natural gaspowered recycling truck and refueling station. That truck now saves the township approximately $1,500 per month in fuel, he said. “Was it worth it? Oh absolutely yes it was worth it,” Yozwiak said. But government aid for gas vehicles has dried up temporarily. Under Act13, Pennsylvania’s drilling impact fee law, the state will invest $20 million in natural gas vehicles over three years beginning in 2013, but the state is not currently issuing any such grants for gas-powered fleet conversion.
Happy Birthday In Heaven
M .J. JUD G E
M MON UM EN T CO. ON UM EN TS - M ARK ERS - L ETTERIN G
8 2 9 -4 8 8 1
N extto the Big Co w o n Rt. 309
James S. Breese
July 28, 1931 to May 5, 2009
Shirley Kennedy Citsay 5/5/56 - 7/9/08
G en etti’s
A fterFu nera lLu ncheons
Date set for first cargo run to space station
If it would be possible to send a Giant Birthday Card to Heaven with your name on it, What a “Surprise” you would get when you opened it and found us inside.
All Our Love & Kisses Forever Michael, Megan, Jimmy & Tyler.
Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine! Heir of salvation, purchase of God, Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood. This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Savior all the day long This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Savior all the day long Greatly Missed and Dearly Loved By wife Barbara, sister Beverly, children, family and friends.