Standard-Speaker from Hazleton, Pennsylvania • Page 5

Hazleton Standard-Speaker, Saturday, July 29, 1995 Hospice Hundred bike ride Sun. 4 IVjfr "Often, patients do not have insurance or insurance benefits. Hospice Saint John relieves that financial burden by caring for all, regardless of their ability to pay. In fact, Hospice Saint John never sends a bill to a patient or their families," Myers said. "It is an exhilarating ride that will leave you with the warm feeling that you are helping your friends and neighbors1 live out their lives with dignity." Myers said there will be several stationary bikes on site during the event so those who cannot ride long distances or whose schedules don't permit a full day of riding can join in the fun.

"People can pay a dollar a mile to join in spirit with the riders out on the course," she, said. "If you are not a rider or a volunteer, you can still join us for a chicken barbecue dinner for only $5. Hospice Hundred commemorative merchandise, including tote bags, T-shirts, pins, socks, caps and Hospice Saint John mugs will also be available for purchase." Dallas Area High School will be the center of attention Sunday as more than 100 cyclists from throughout the region are expected to coverage there for the second annual Hospice Hundred Ride for Dignity. The pledge tour, featuring 100 km, 50 km arid 20 km routes, will help raise funds for patients' and families' cared for by Hospice Saint John. "More than 100 cyclists are registered, including large teams from area institutions such as College Misericordia.

The three different routes as well as the addition of a Kids Ride will ensure a strong turnout," said Diane Myers, director of development for Lutheran Welfare Service of Northeastern Pennsylvania, owner and operator of Hospice Saint John. "A troop of boy scouts, in uniform, will participate in the 20 km ride." Despite the large number of advance registrations, day-of-ride registrations will be accepted. Registration is $35. Since this is a fund-raising event, participants the grounds and offer face painting. Team Kids, a pair of special children's rides, is scheduled for 2 p.m.

There will be two different categories: ages 4 to 7 and 7 to 12. All children will receive a prize and a Wendy's gift certificate. There is no entry fee for Team Kids. "None of this would have been possible without the tremendous outpouring of community support. There will literally be hundreds of volunteers doing everything from watching the roads, manning short-wave radios, offering first aid, passing out fruit, cooking dinners and everything else that helps make a great event even greater," Myers said.

The schedule of events includes a sunrise service at 7:30 a.m., the 100 km start at 8 a.m., the 50 km start at 9:30 a.m., the 20 km start at 11 a.m., a chicken barbecue picnic from 12:30 to 3:30 p.rn. and Team Kids at 2 p.m. The cause, as well as the unique nature of the tour, attracts cyclists, Myers said. vr ssis -SiiJ4. i tf I (' II iy are being asked to raise pledges.

With a minimum of $250 in pre-collected pledges, riders will receive a four-color commemorative T-shirt. The more pledges a person collects, the more valuable the additiotal prizes. Dallas Area High School is the starting point for the tour, which will continue through the Wyoming Valley's Back Mountain area. The Hospice Hundred celebration starts the night before when all riders gather together for a special dinner today at 5:30 p.m. The dinner, sponsored by Metz Associates, will be held at Wilkes University, and will feature a special "carbo load" dinner designed to give the riders the long-lasting energy needed for Sunday's ride.

Food, fun and fund raising are also on Sunday's schedule. A chicken barbecue lunchdinner will be the post-ride highlight Sunday afternoon. A live jazz fusion trio will stroll the grounds. WZMT The Mountain will broadcast live. Clowns will roam City council briefs Bid ads Hazleton gets funding for buses ELLEN O'CONNELLStandard-Speaker SAWING THE LINE Sparks fly as Jim McGeoy of PottsviUe, a laborer for Slusser Brothers, uses a partner saw to cut a bell off of a 12-inch water line at Cedar Street and Diamond Avenue Friday morning.

McGeoy was working on the sewer pipe so it can be rerouted around a 48-inch sewer manhole. upset councilmen The way a bid was advertised upset some members of Hazleton City Council. Councilman James J. Ferry Sr. objected because the advertisement for bids for an auditor bore the name of Jack Ross, the manager of the city's department of public services.

The council, not administrators, are supposed to approve the advertisements, Ferry said. Samuel D. Monticello, the city's director of administration, said Ross, who started working for the city four months ago, didn't know the procedure. Ross placed the advertisement to speed the process of hiring a company to do an audit that the state requires of Hazleton's bus service. He thought he was doing everyone a favor, Monticello said.

"No one is denying that proper procedure wasn't followed," Monticello said. After debating the procedure for seeking the bids, the council agreed to open the bids. One auditing company, Zavada and Associates of Wilkes-Barre, wrote a letter saying the advertisement on July 21 gave too little to prepare a bid by the meeting on Wednesday. Rather than accept any of the bids that it did receive, the council opted to study the offers. In his closing remarks, Councilman Michael Marsicano, who is running for mayor, criticized the decision to expose the bids.

Council President Philip Andras implied that Marsicano was posturing for the election. Andras banged the gavel to adjourn the meeting while Marsicano was asking for another chance to speak. Wilkinson is tax collector The Don Wilkinson Agency will collect taxes in Hazleton for another year. On Wednesday, the city council extended a contract with Wilkinson despite the objections of two of the five council members. James J.

Ferry Sr. and Michael Marsicano said the city received complaints about Wilkinson's performance. For example, Ferry said Wilkinson waited too long to cash checks of people who paid their taxes. Mayor John Quigley, who missed Wednesday's meeting, said on Thursday that he met monthly with workers from Wilkinson to correct problems this year. "Anything we've asked them to do, they've done," Quigley said.

Under its contract, Wilkinson collects taxes in categories of earned income, pensions, occupational, business privilege and mercantile and fees for sewer transmission and garbage collection. Through another contract, the agency collects property taxes. Candidates for mayor and council have considered having the city collect its own taxes or hire another tax collector. Quigley, who leaves office this year, said Wednesday's vote will give his successor time to study those options but save Hazleton from starting the year without a tax collector. So far, the city instituted door-to-door service for senior citizens with stops in front of the buildings and hourly runs to the Laurel Mall and Wal-Mart, he said.

Also, a feasibility study looking at bus service to the Valmont and Humboldt industrial parks is By KELLY MONITZ Standard-Speaker Staff Writer Hazleton received more than $500,000 in state and federal subsidies this week to keep its buses rolling. Mayor John Quigley said the city is dependent on the money, which is distributed each year by the state Department of Transportation. "Without the funding especially the federal funding we simply could not operate," he said. The city received $274,722 from the federal government and $232,554 from the state. The county also chips in $65,000 and the remainder comes from fares paid by riders.

No money comes out of the city's tax dollars, Quigley said. The local share is only about 20 percent of the public transit's budget and that was dropping when the city took over the former city Transit Authority earlier this year, he said. Instead of trying to shift the trend and find ways to get more people on the buses, the authority did nothing, Quigley said. Under the city's management, Quigley's hopeful that will turn around. He said ridership is already up 20 percent, but it's still to early to tell if that will continue.

The city will try to increase the number of people riding the buses by offering better bus services. With more people riding the buses, more money will also be generated. But even still the budget will rely heavily on the subsidies, which went up 3 to 4 percent for the current year. And the city has no guarantees that the federal funding will be there next year let alone increase, Quigley said. Funf est Hazleton area individuals, businesses and organizations of all kinds are being asked again to become Funfest patrons.

This year's festival, Funfest '95, will be held Sept. 9 and 10 in downtown Hazleton and will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II. "Funfest has grown tremendously over the past five years or so," Funfest chairman Rocco Colangelo said. "And that growth would not. have been possible were it not for the fact that the community began to support the event financially.

"We can proudly say that the Hazleton area is unique in that it offers an event of this stature at virtually no cost to those who attend," Colangelo added. "I believe the people of the Hazleton area recognize that Funfest is truly a 'gift' from its contributors, and are grateful The patron program, initiated in 1992, gives small businesses, clubs, organizations, and individuals an opportunity to contribute to what has become the area's largest community event. Contributions of all sizes are being accepted to help defray the cost of running the event. Drinking charge A Hazle Village youth faces an underage drinking charge after an incident in McAdoo early Thursday morning. McAdoo police said Wayne Cusatis, Campbell Avenue, was charged after an incident on North Manning Street at 1:50 a.m.

Police Police probe death of man State police at Frackville are investigating the death of a Gilberton man found dead in his bedroom Thursday. Police said David D. Synder, 37, of 33 Main Mahanoy Plane, was found dead in bed by his son after he couldn't wake him several times during the day by knocking on the bedroom door. The son then kicked the door open and found his father. Police said Snyder had been depressed over the recent death of his wife.

Schuylkill County pathologist Dr. Richard Bindie was scheduled to perform an autopsy on the body Friday at the Pottsville Hospital and Warne Clinic to determine the cause and manner of death. Traffic accident injures woman A Harrisburg woman hurt her arm Thursday when the driver of the car she was riding in didn't stop for a stop sign at Interstate 81 and Route 924 in Hazle Township and their car was hit by a pickup truck. State police at Butler Township said Aqulda Felix, 43, was treated in the emergency department of Hazleton-St. Joseph Medical Center and released.

According to police, Solomon Felix, 18, was approaching Route 924 from the exit ramp of 1-81 at about 9:45 p.m., ran the stop sign and was struck by a southbound truck operated by Michael Novit-sky of Oneida. Assisting at the scene were members of the Hazle Township Volunteer Fire Co. Charged with rape A Monroe County man faces rape charges in connection with an incident involving a teenage family member a month ago. The Pocono Mountain Regional Police Department said Ronald Carullo, 37, of Pocono Lake, was arrested Thursday on charges of rape, statutory sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault, indecent assault and incest in connection with an incident that happened the last week of June with a 15-year-old female relative. The incident occurred on Locust Ridge Mountain, off Slut-ter Road, in Pocono Lake, police said.

Carullo was arraigned by District Justice Richard Claypool in Pocono Pines, and committed to Monroe County Prison on $50,000 bail. A preliminary hearing has been set for Thursday before Claypool. Bicycle stolen A girl's bike was stolen from a Hazleton home Wednesday. City police said a bike owned by Tina McClain, West Diamond Avenue, was stolen from her front porch. The bike is a pink and white Huffy 10-speed.

Anyone with information is asked to call police at 459-4940. '95 looking for patrons Teens injured in Friday crash Two Luzerne County teenagers were injured Friday morning when their car overturned on the Nuangola Road in Rice Township, Mountaintop. State police at Butler Township said the driver, Phillip S. Woods, 19, of Wilkes-Barre, was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol. Woods and passenger Erin Marie George, 15, of White Haven, received minor injuries, police said.

A second passenger, Lynn Ann Nicholas, 17, of Mountaintop, the only one not wearing a seatbelt, was not hurt. Police said Woods was driving east when his car moved across the westbound lane, onto the berm and hit guardrails. The car continued moving east, came back onto the roadway, crossed both lanes, hit a dirt bank and flipped onto its roof. Woods faces a hearing on the DUI charge before District Justice Ronald W. Swank, who will notify him by certified mail as to the time and date of the proceedings.

Assisting were police from Wright and Fairview townships, the Mountaintop Ambulance Paramedic Unit, and the Rice Township Fire and Rescue Co. Device explodes What police called "an explosive device" was detonated in front of a Shenandoah home Friday morning, breaking a 5-by-6-foot plate glass window. Borough police said the incident happened outside the home of Carmella Kovalesky, 41 W. Coal St. Police are investigating.

Juvenile charged A 17-year-old juvenile will be charged with the theft of a golf cart stolen from Edgewood In The Pines three days ago. Butler Township police found the the EZ-GO Dumpster golf utility cart Friday morning. The juvenile will be petitioned to Juvenile Court and will be charged with theft by unlawful taking or disposition, receiving stolen property, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and related traffic offenses, police said. Police are investigating to find out who else was involved. Man arrested A Hazleton man faces numerous charges after he was found intoxicated in the city Thursday night, police said.

Hazleton police said Mario J. Davila, 37, of West Maple Street, was arrested on charges of simple assault, resisting arrest, public drunkenness, disorderly conduct and criminal mischief after he was found drunk on Dietrich Avenue at 9:33 p.m. He was arraigned by District Justice Leonard Harvey at City Hall and committed to the Luzerne County Correctional Facility on $25,000 bail. planned, Quigley said. The mayor said there may be people who want a job in one of the industrial parks, but can't get one because they don't have a car.

Physically and mentally handicapped people who can't drive may also gain employment if ple. Entertainment will reflect the big band era and will have a military theme, with featured performers to include the Lee Vincent Big Band and the Commodores, the U.S. Navy Band. A USO show, sponsored by Lutheran Welfare Service of Northeastern Pennsylvania, will provide family entertainment in the spirit of shows enjoyed by millions on Saturday nights in the 1940s. Veterans will be honored at an interfaith service to be conducted transportation is available, Quigley said.

Public transit's mission is to serve the people and find ways to continually improve that service, he said. That's what the city will try to do, Quigley said. by the Greater Hazleton Ministerium on the afternoon of Sept. 10. Other activities include a street fair, a craft show, a muscle car and street machine show, a sports card and comic book show, a bed race, a flea market, and a wings competition.

Special events will be held for teenagers and younger children. A fireworks display will highlight the Saturday night activities on Sept. 9. Further information is available by telephone at 455-1508. The schedule for the contest is: Monday James Street Playground, 10:15 a.m.

to noon. 12th Ward Playground, 1 to 2:45 p.m. Tuesday Northgate, 10:15 to noon. Lahm Avenue, 1 to 2:45. Wednesday Arthur Street, 10:15 to noon.

Altmiller 1 to 2:45. Thursday Pine Street, 10:15 to noon. Aug. 7 West Court, 10:15 to noon. East End, 1 to 2:45.

Aug. 9 Freeland Recreation Program, 10 a.m. to noon. Drums Program 12:45 to 1:45. Heights, 2 to 3 p.m.

BAug. 11 Camp Rotawanis, 1 to 2:30. For more information call Serento Gardens Prevention Education Department at Poster contest starts Mon. "Many are unaware of the great expense of putting on a festival of this size," Colangelo stated. "For example, we are happy to offer free entertainment on Funfest's stages, and an exciting parade each year.

But that entertainment costs Funfest tens of thousands of dollars each year." According to the chairman, the Funfest Committee has been able to add to the size of the event each year "only because of the financial support we receive from our sponsors and patrons. All patrons will be listed in an advertisement that will be published in the Standard-Speaker during the Labor Day weekend. Additionally, anyone contributing $25 or more will receive a limited edition cloisonne lapel pin designating himher as a "Friend of Funfest." This year's pins reflect the 1995 theme, "A Salute to Victory A Swinging 1945," and depict a dancing couple outlined with stars. The colors are red, white and blue to reflect the patriotic flavor of the theme. The pins are distributed only to sponsors and benefactors.

Patron contributions can be sent to Funfest, 1 S. Church Suite 200, Hazleton, Pa. 18201. The "Swinging 1945" aspect of the theme will be carried throughout the weekend's activities, with parade participants being urged to reflect the theme. Funfest banners hanging along Broad and Wyoming streets in the weeks leading to Funfest weekend also will depict the dancing cou Serento Gardens Alcoholism and Drug Services will conduct its fifth annual poster contest at Hazleton area playgrounds over the next two weeks.

The theme for the contest is "Why I Won't Use Drugs." The contest runs from Monday through Aug. 11. All entries will be displayed at the Laurel Mall from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Aug.

26. Judging will take place at noon. Participants will compete in one of three age categories: 4 to 6 years, 7 to 9, and 10 to 14. First-, second- and third-place winners will be selected in each group. Mary Ellen Oswald of McDonald's restaurant, which is sponsoring the contest, will present prizes to the winners.

Citizen Publishing Hazleton, donated the poster board to be used in the contest..