Republican and Herald from Pottsville, Pennsylvania • 15

57 ZEE 03 xL 1 JL 16 Tax advice needed Take time to sit down with accountant before selling, home to avoid tax problems. 17 Birthday plans ruined Reader asks Dear Abby what to do when screaming children disrupt dinner at restaurant POTTS VILLE (PA.) REPUBLICAN HERALD PAGE 15 MONDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2005 Tvvf i MOMMY For updates of today's top stories, visit Oschuylkill Link to AP's THE WIRE i I'- J- I' the cuisine of northern Italy. The new eatery is scheduled to open this month. The old Park Crest school, with its panoramic view of the Barnesville area, is taking on the ambience of an upscale restaurant that will feature oltktth A) New restaurant ready to open in Park Crest BY STEPHEN J. PYTAK Staff Writer 2 spytakrepublicanherald.com BARNESVILLE New restaurants featuring ethnic specialties seem to be popping up throughout the region.

Last week, an authentic Mexican restaurant, La Casita de Familia, opened at 8 E. Centre Shenandoah. And soon Park Crest Calle Larga will begin serving northern Italian cuisine at the former it i 1 Blue CrossBlue Shield wants to launch bank CHICAGO (AP) The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association wants to launch a bank that will administer its consumer-directed health plans, a responsibility currently shared by third-party financial institutions. The association announced that its board of directors has approved development of the Blue Healthcare Bank. The aim is to simplify the administration of health savings accounts and other similar plans offered by Blue Cross insurers throughout the United States, said Scott Serota, president and chief executive officer of the asso- ciation.

The bank, which would be based in Salt Lake City, would give those enrolled in Blue Cross plans a familiar, centralized financial institution to monitor and access their accounts, Serota said. Creation of the bank is subject to regulatory approval. Ten 2006 vehicles win Top Safety Pick award WASHINGTON (AP) Ten 2006 passenger cars won praise from the insurance industry Sunday for offering top-of-the-line protection to passengers in front, side and rear crashes. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety announced a new designation, the Top Safety Pick award, based on the performance of vehicles in their crash tests. Winners of the institute's gold award included the Ford Five Hundred and Mercury Montego with optional side air bags; the Saab 9-3; the Subaru Legacy; and the Honda Civic four-door.

The Five Hundred and Montego are corporate twins and were considered by the institute to be the same car, for award purposes. They earned top scores in frontal offset and side impact tests, and a test that reviews seat and head restraints in rear crashes. The silver award went to the Audi A6, Audi A3 and Audi A4; the Chevrolet Malibu with optional side air bags; and the Volkswagen Jetta and Passat. Domino sugar refinery plans to reopen plant NEW ORLEANS (AP) The Domino sugar refinery near New Orleans, which sustained heavy damage from Hurricane Katrina, plans to reopen Dec. 12 with the majority of its work force back in place.

The refinery is located at Arabi in St. Bernard Parish, which was blitzed by the storm and ensuing floods when levees broke. It produces about 950,000 tons of finished sugar per year, making it one of the largest producers in the United States. A recent spike in refined sugar prices was blamed on the closure, along with a much-briefer closure of the Imperial Sugar refinery. Optimistic employers expand payrolls after lull WASHINGTON (AP) The nation's businesses cranked up hiring in November after a two-month lull, a sign the labor market is back in the groove as the ill effects of the Gulf Coast hurricanes fade.

Employers expanded payrolls by 215,000 jobs last month, the most since July. The unemployment rate held steady at 5 percent. The Labor Department's fresh snapshot of the jobs situation suggested employers are intfetter hiring mood now that energy prices have retreated from record highs and disruptions to commerce from the hurricanes are easing. Retail gas prices continue to drop CAMARILLO, Calif. (APfRefail gas prices have continued to drop across the country, falling an additional 1 1 cents in the past two weeks, according to a survey released Sunday.

The weighted average price for all three grades dropped to $2.16 a gallon on Dec. 2, said Trilby Lundberg, who publishes the semimonthly Lundberg Survey of 7,000 gas stations around the country. Prices have fallen about 88 cents a gallon since September, Lundberg said. Among stations surveyed, the lowest average price in the country for regular unleaded was $1.89 a gallon in Tulsa, Okla. The highest price was $2.55 in Honolulu.

Park Crest Elementary School, 15 Berkley Road. "It will be sometime in December," said Mahanoy City native Carol A. Gerber.the restaurant's owner and manager. The chef will be Croatia native Franco Basic, who has been managing and cooking in various establishments in the United States since he immi- grated here from Croatia's Dalmation Coast in 1981. The two are a couple and have been working hard during -mi ni "in in 11 -J ANDY MATSKOStatf Photos Part of the inspiration for the name of the new eatery came from the sign at the entrance to the old school.

Park Crest Calle Larga owner Carole Garber and chef Franko Basic plan to open their restaurant this month. The New York Times praised Basic's cooking in an article published Feb. 12, 1995, which is framed and on display in the dining room in Park Crest Calle Larga's west wing. "That's when he had his own restaurant in New York," Gerber said. "It was a three-star restaurant." For a time, Basic owned Calle Larga Restaurant at 24763 Jamaica Bellerose, N.Y.

"I was at Calle Larga from 1994 to 1999," Basic said. Then he sold the restaurant and went on to work as a chef at Sergio's Saratoga Restaurant, Saratoga Springs, N.Y. And recently, Basic worked as a chef at Black Bread Cafe, Jim Thorpe. The Park Crest school, built in 1931, closed in the early 1980s. It was privately owned for many years and Gerber purchased the building from George and Judy Sanchez in April.

Since then Gerber and Basic have working hard renovating the building. The former school cafeteria is now Basic's kitchen. "There's also going to be a coffee station and an expresso station," Gerber said. Educational dining? The school's two main classrooms have been turned into dining rooms. The one on the building's west end was built in 1931.

The one on the east, in said. New pine floors were installed in both of them. And the handsome refreshments bar was installed in the west dining room. Please see RESTAUR ANTPage 16 the past six months to turn the old schoolhouse into an fancy eatery. "It's going to be upscale fine dining," Gerber said.

"And it will be northern Italian," Basic added. Specialties The menu may feature dishes like carpaccio, hot antipasto, mushroom salads and gnocchi. "He makes the best gnocchi," Gerber said, referring to Basic's Italian dumplings that are made of potatoes and semolina or flour and ri-cotta cheese. "You can serve it with either pesto sauce or red sauce," she added. There will also be homemade desserts.

And Gerber said, "he makes the best tiramisu." Weaver Models last remaining company to manufacture O-gauge trains in U.S. Robert and Shirley Weav er founded Quality Craft Models in 1965. Originally, they made wooden kits that modelers could use to put together their own detailed buildings or rail cars for van ous gauges or model train United States, and it's located near Northumberland. Weaver Models along Route 11 is the last remaining manufacturer of O-gauge trains that still makes the majority of its products in the U.S. All other O-gauge train manufacturers make their products in China and Korea, including the American Lionel brand.

Even Weaver was forced to import some of its products and parts, but the company still creates trains in Northumberland and uses that lasted long after the holiday. Most of those trains were called Lionel trains, which really referred to O-gauge. These are trains that are built to the scale of Winch model size, which corresponds to 1 foot on the real train. In O-gauge scale, a 48-foot boxcar would be 12 inches long. Today there are several companies selling "Lionel-sized" model trains, but there Is only one manufacturer still making this popular size of model trains in the as many local suppliers as possible.

"We try and keep all our business right here in the area instead of depending upon suppliers in other said Joseph Hayter, owner and president of the company. Hayter has worked for the company since 1969 and although he is president, he is not the "sit behind the desk" sort of guy. During a recent visit he was busy on the production floor, working on whatever needed his attention. BY JEFFREY FEDEROWICZ and VAUGHN MURRAY Associated Press WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. -What could be more American than an electric train running underneath the tree at Christmas? For nearly 100 years, many American households had a "choo-choo" encircling the tree and moving among mountains of festively wrapped presents.

Trains became a beloved holiday tradition and an activity that enabled families to create special memories sizes. Eventually they expanded to include ready-to-run plas tic and brass O-gauge model cars and engines, making their first plastic 2-bay coal car in 1980. Please see WEAVERPage 16.