go lackawanna 06-03-2012

7/31/2019 Go Lackawanna 06-03-2012

1/40

7/31/2019 Go Lackawanna 06-03-2012

2/40

2 GOLackawanna Sunday, June 3, 2012

Newsroom829-7242

[email protected]

CirculationJim McCabe [email protected]

Published weekly by:

Impressions Media15 N. Main St.

Wilkes-Barre, PA 18711

Periodicals postage paid at

Scranton, PAPostmaster: Send address changesto Times Leader, 15 N. Main St.,

Wilkes-Barre, PA 18711

+(ISSN No. 0896-4084)USPS 499-710

Issue No. 2012-155

INSIDE

Page 5 Recovery Plan calls for tax increasePage 8 Parking tax angers business owner

Page 11 Graduation gifts that fit your budget

Page 13 Obituaries

Page 15 PocoNotes present blues concert

Page 18 Crossword puzzle

Page 22 Northwest defeats Old Forge

Page 26 SWB Yankees join Adopt a Field programPage 29 Penn State names Matt McGloin starting

quarterback.

GO Lackawanna EditorDon McGlyyn - [email protected]/PhotographerRich Howells 558-0483

[email protected] RepresentativeKaren Fiscus [email protected]

News [email protected] Paper 829-5000Classified1-800-273-7130Advertising 829-7101Subscriptions 1-800-252-5603Office Hours9a.m. 6p.m.; M-F; 210 WyomingAvenue, Scranton 18503

OUR TEAM

The Go Lackawanna Lower Valley edition publishesinformation about the communities in the Old Forge,Riverside and West Scranton school districts. Send yourinformation to [email protected] or 210Wyoming Avenue, Scranton, PA 18503.

A newspa-per is only asstrong as thecommunity itserves. Andthose of us atGo Lackawan-

na have seen how strong thecommunities of West Scran-ton, Old Forge, Taylor andMoosic can be. We want toshare in the success of thosecommunities by sharing sto-ries about their people, theirevents, their histories.

Were excited about diggingdeep into those areas to learnabout great people, wonderfultraditions and colorful neigh-

borhoods - and we want toshare those stories with ourreaders.

We started shifting our at-

tention to those communitieslast month and so far we havethoroughly enjoyed meetingresidents like Frank Ruggieroand Joe Guido Sr. in the kitch-en at the 35th annual Spaghet-ti Dinner at St. Lucys Churchin West Scranton; have beenimpressed with the way OldForge seniors Melanie Wylam,Mia Baresse, Brian Tomasseti,Anthony Piccolini, Tyler Sa-lerno, Shauna Nunes, DavidChromey and Anna Balanovich

organized Old Forges firstRelay for Life at the Old ForgeVeterans Memorial Stadium;were entertai ned by Peter

Alexander and Claxton Rabbsperformance of A Year WithFrog and Toad at the TaylorCommunity Library; and werehonored to be invited to Ca-thedral Cemetery in Scrantonfor a ceremony honoring Unit-ed States Marine Lance Cpl.James Reddington, a Scrantonresident who was killed inbattle while serving in theVietnam War.

Weve al ready met a numberof wonderful people whilecovering these stories. Thisweek alo ne we had the oppor-tunity to talk to Jessica Meoni,a West Scranton High Schoolgraduate who is one of the

organizers of the ScrantonZine Festival at New VisionsStudio & Gallery, and DenisYanashot, the coordinator of

Riverside Alive 2012 at River-side High School, which gaveall of the students at theschool a chance to showcasetheir talents in all the dis-ciplines the school has to offer.

There really are t oo manypeople to name individually,and in the coming weeks andmonths were looking forwardto meeting more members ofthese communities and hear-ing their stories.

Our hope is that sometimesoon you will consider us apart of your community, andthat you will feel welcome toapproach us with comments,suggestions or criticisms

about the publication, eitherin person or by contacting usat 558.0113 or [email protected].

Becoming a part of your communityEDITORS NOTED O N M C G L Y N N

Don McGlynn is the editor of Go

Lackawanna.

ARTS ON FIRE

The Scranton Iron Furnaces, 159 Cedar Ave., the site of the first mass production of iron

T-rails in the United States, is hosting the annual Arts on Fire Festival through Sunday, June

3. A Ring of Fire demonstration performed by the Steamtown National Historic Site is

planned for Sunday. Art vendors, live music, food, and historical tours and displays will run

throughout the weekend.

7/31/2019 Go Lackawanna 06-03-2012

3/40

Sunday, June 3, 2012 GOLackawanna 3

Excitement was in the airat Riverside HighSchool on Wednesday,May 30, as students had

the opportunity to show theirfriends, family, teachers andmembers of thecommunity what

theyve learnedthis year.For the seventh

year in a row, theschool hosted Riv-erside Alive 2012.The event sees theschool open itsdoors to the com-munityto letevery-one get a glimpseas to what goes onin the building

each day.If you look

around, youre go-ing to find we havealotoftalentedstu-dents, said eventcoordinator DenisYanashot.

If you walkaround the school,you see what everydiscipline (maththrough science)does in our school.It cant be every-thing that we do,but it may be someinteresting tidbitsso people can seewhat happens.

Greeted witha performance bythe schools jazz band as they en-tered the building, those in at-tendancescattered,taking part inZumba lessons, sampling chili at

the chili cook-off, watching sci-ence experiments or taking partinone ofthe other manyactivitiesoffered that night.

It gets better every year, saidHelen Byrne, a math teacher atthe school.

Byrne brought her three chil-dren, Emma, Billy and Molly, tothe event, which has become a

family-favoriteouting for the

group.They love it.They love seeingall the art and ev-erything ourschool has to offer,its nice, said By-rne.

According to Ya-nashot,the Byrnesare one of manyfamilies who lookforward to the

event each year,and seeing whatthe students havedone.

We get a lot ofpeople from thecommunity. Weeven get somepeople outside ofthe communitywho come in. Iveseen people atFirst Fridays thatcome down andsee whats goingon, said Yanash-ot.

If he neededany, the large buzz

surrounding Riverside Alivecould serve as validation for aneed for an event like this.

Yanashot conceived the ideafor Riverside Alive seven yearsago, originally planning for it to

be an arts festival.It all began as an arts festivalGO LACKAWANNA/DONMCGLYNN

Sean Ritter worked on Raku during Riverside Alive 2012.

ShowcasingTALENTSchool hosts Riverside Alive 2012

DONMCGLYNN [email protected]

See TALENT, Page 7

Billy and Emma Byrne

attended Riverside Alive .

Samantha Sulkowski

served chili at the event.

7/31/2019 Go Lackawanna 06-03-2012

4/40


SCRANTON City Councilvoted against transferring$940,000 from the citys contin-

gency fund to the bank of theScranton Parking Authority(SPA) during its meeting on

Thursday, May 31, forcing theSPA to default on its debt dueJune 1.

The legislation to give theSPA the necessary funds to paytheirdebtwasvoted down 3 1,

with Councilman Bob McGoffdissenting. Council PresidentJanet Evanswas absentfromthe

meeting.The SPA appeared beforecouncil in a public caucus thatpreceded the councilmeetingtoexplain what the money will beused for. Several members ofcouncil said they were dis-pleased with the SPAs re-sponses during the caucus.Councilman Pat Rogan said he

wastroubled by theSPAs lackofcorrect figures and a one-pagedocument thatwas moreof the

same and did not have any re-forms.

How cancouncilmake an in-formed decision without theproper documentation? Rogansaid.

Rogan, who voted against in-troducing the legislation last

week,said he believes the entireSPA board, including ExecutiveDirector Robert Scopelliti,should be disbanded and theparking garage should be takenin house.

Ifwe have to lease garages tomake the debt payment for theauthority, lease them, Rogansaid. If we have to sell them,sell them. But the solution isntmoreborrowingWe allknow ifthis is approved tonight, they

will be back here in a fewmonths, looking for more mon-ey.

Councilman Jack Loscombe

said agreeing to this bailoutwould set a bad precedent forother city authorities with fi-nancial problems.

We cant keep bailing themout because it gives the otherauthorities the incentive to do

what they (the SPA)are doing,Loscombesaid. At thispoint in

time,with theamountof moneyand debts and borrowing thatthis city is facing just to coverour own bills, we cannot coverthe authoritys malfeasance.

Loscombe said the parkingauthority will facetwo addition-al payments this year and theSPA doesnot have thesufficientincome to pay them.

Let the authorities be on no-tice, Loscombe said. If they

want to be autonomous, theywant to be on their own, theyreon their own. Were not here toburden the taxpayers.

Council Vice President FrankJoyce said it was appallingthat the parking authority didnot bring correct figures to thecaucus and wasdispleasedwithlack of urgency displayed theSPA and the timeit tookfortheparking authority to agree to apublic caucus.

Its interesting howit tooksolong to get the parking author-ity to come in to a council cau-cus, andhonestly I dontthink ifit werent for the fact they werelooking for money they wouldeven be here in the first place.Joyce said.

Councilman Bob McGoff saidnot agreeing to pay the parkingauthoritys debt willonlylead tothebond insurersgoingto courtand the city being forced to paythe debt under court order.

Why not pay the debt now?McGoff said. Were going tohave to pay it anyhow. Its ludi-crousto let this goand then payit after it hasgoneintodefault.

McGoff said allowing thedebt to go into default will hurtthe citys opportunity to get un-funded debt and cause approxi-mately $16 million in budgetdeficit.

Voting no on this legislationisvotingto putthecityof Scran-ton into bankruptcy, McGoffsaid.

SCRANTON CITY COUNCIL

Council deniesSPA bailoutCORY BURRELL

Go Lackawanna Correspondent

The Friends of the Forgotten NEPA Wing has been working hard, raising money to

build a memorial in honor of 2nd Lt. Carol Ann Drazba, R.N., U.S. Army Nurse

Corps since 2009, and the Scranton School District has helped them achieve their

goal.

The school district presented a check to the Friends of the Forgotten for $7,120.87 on

Tuesday, May 29, for the memorial, which will be unveiled during a dedication ceremony

on Saturday, June 16, at 2

p.m.The money was raisedthrough

a district-widedress-down day,where students paid $1and facul-ty paid $2 to dress down with allfunds going toward the memo-rial.

Kathleen McGuigan, whos aScranton School Board member,shes the one who brought it tomy attention, said ScrantonSchool District Superintendent

William King.We thought it was a really

good cause, and it also came at areally good time leading up toMemorial Day.

The fundraiser taking placeclose to Memorial Day, a day set

aside to honor men and womenwho lost their lives while servingin war, does seem appropriate

considering Drazbas story.The memorial, which will be

placed at the corner of MulberryStreet and Franklin Avenue atthe Gino Merli J. Veterans Cen-ter, atthe site donated by theDe-partment of Military and Veter-ans Affairs, is being built in hon-

or of the Dunmore native, whowas the first American militarywoman to be killed in the Viet-nam War, where she served as anurse.

She was in Arizona and sheworked in a military hospitalwherethere werepilots, and theywould come and see her if they

had a little problem, and they allsaid to her, Carol, youre such agood nurse, why dont you come

with me to Vietnam, take care ofme when I get shot down. Andshe did, she signed up and she

volunteered, her and her friendfrom Dunmorethey boarded aship, andit took them twoweeksby seato get toVietnam. Shewasthere for eight months beforethis accident happened, saidKim Atkinson, public relationspersonfor theFriendsof theFor-

District raises funds to help build memorial

GO LACKAWANNA/DON MCGLYNN

The Scranton School District held a fundraiser for the planned memorial of 2nd Lt. Carol Ann Drazba,

R.N., U.S. Army Nurse Corps. In attendance at the check presentation were, from left, Nick Fata, Gino

Wasczcak, Kathleen McGuigan, William King, Kim Atkinson, George Atkinson and Ed Faatz.

To the rescue

200 commemorative coins

were made up in honor of 2nd

Lt. Carol Ann Drazba, R.N., U.S.

Army Nurse Corps.

DONMCGLYNN [email protected]

See MEMORIAL, Page 6

7/31/2019 Go Lackawanna 06-03-2012

5/40


lion Tax Anticipation Note(TAN) in 2012, the lending insti-tutions required that the mayor,PEL, and City Council work to-gether to formulate a new Re-

vised RecoveryPlan,an updateofthecitys2002revision. Scrantonentered Act 47, the Municipal-ities Financial Recovery Act, dis-tressedstatus on Jan.10,1992.

The real key thing is makingsure weget themoney topay the

bills...This came about becausethe budget that was passed this

SCRANTON Mayor ChrisDoherty and thecitys Act47 co-ordinator, the PennsylvaniaEconomy League (PEL), re-leased a Revised Recovery Planfor the city on May 24 that man-dates a series of annual tax in-creases through 2015, the sale orlease of cityassets,an increaseinfees, and the implementation of

new taxes, paintinga grim finan-cialpicture if immediate action isnot taken.

In order to secure a $11.5 mil-

Recovery Plan calls fortax increases, sacrificeRICHHOWELLS

[email protected]

See SACRIFICE , Page 9

While Scranton officialscontinue to do every-thing they can to avoidfiling for Chapter 9

bankruptcy protection, at leastone resident with an extensivebackground in distressed fi-nances believes that it may bethe citys only solution.

A graduate of the Universityof Scranton, Gary Lewis is a Se-nior Consultant with Deloitte,one of the Big Four profes-sional services firms, where he

specializes in complex ac-counting for distressed assetswith a focus on banking indus-try mergers and acquisitions.

Since 2009, he has worked pri-marilyon theclosureor consol-idation of failed banks and sayshe now wishes to help the cityhe grew up in with his exper-tise, though he believes theymay not want it.

In a May 8 letter addressedto Mayor Chris Doherty andScranton City Council, he en-couraged them to abandontheir current plans to increasetaxes and borrow to cover ex-penditures, which he feels willleave the city in the same con-dition as Detroit, and urged

them to review his analysis ofthe citys financial state usingthe most recent budgets andaudits available.

I feel like I have this moralobligation. I have a skill setthat is fairly rare in this area,and I think that I am making

valid, logical, reasoned points,and I want to help, Lewis toldGo Lackawanna. He found thata structural deficit of almost$10 million will exist in futurebudgets, beginning in 2013.

With a $9 million def icit in 2011combined with an $8 millionincrease in Departmental Ex-penditures and adjusting forone-time revenue sources usedto balance budgets previously,

he expects the structural defi-cit to reach approximately $20

SCRANTON FACES TOUGH DECISIONS

GO LACKAWANNA/RICHHOWELLS

Gary Lewis, a Senior Consultant with Deloitte, has been to several Scranton City Council meetings to discuss the benefits of filing for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection.

Analyst: city should declare bankruptcyRICHHOWELLS

[email protected]

See BANKRUPTCY, Page 10

7/31/2019 Go Lackawanna 06-03-2012

6/40


gotten.The memorial is the brain-child of Atkinson, a nurse her-self, whowentto thesamenurs-ing school as Drazba, ScrantonState General Hospital Schoolof Nursing.

My nursing instructor, whogave us a tour of the hospitalthat morning, my first day ofnursing school, walked downthe hall and pointed to theplaque that was on the wall and

said, This is my friend CarolDrazba,and told us thestoryof

what happened to herand it(left) a big impression, said At-kinson.

Over the years, as Atkinsonscareer continued, she learnedmore about Drazba, and heropinion of the late nurse onlygrew more positive.

Every department I workedin, every class that I took, everyclass that taught, I came acrossa nurse, or a doctor, someone

who had a story about her, and Ialways thought she must havebeen really special, because Ihave heard nothing but good.She was stuck in everyonesmind, said Atkinson.

While pleased that those whoknew Drazba remembered herand were sharing her story, At-kinson felt it was important forothers to know about the sacri-

fice she had made.She brought the story to the

Friends of the Forgotten .The group wanted to help her

on her mission, eventually de-ciding they would raise fundsfor a six-foot bronze statue ofthe late nurse.

With the help of members ofthe community, Friends of theForgotten was able to raiseclose to $70,000 for the memo-rial, which would also include a

version of the VietnamVeteransMemorial Wall behind it andtwo benches.

The group thought they hadenough money raised,but someunanticipated expenses, suchas the cost of lights and con-struction, tacked on another$10,000 to their goal.

The group, who had $3,000ofthat, made a call to McGuigan

who helped put together the

fundraiser in theschool district.It was a blessing for us, be-cause we didnt know which

way to turn, said Atkinson.

The Scranton School Districthas done fundraisers like this inthepast, butMcGuigansaid shethinks thisis the largestturnouta dress-down day has ever got-ten, and she said she appre-

ciates the students participa-tion.The memorial will also fea-

ture pavers, or bricks, with do-nors names carved in them.

As a way of saying thank you,a paver is being placedin honorof theScrantonSchoolDistrict.

The students and facultyhave also been invited to thededication ceremony, which

will feature keynote speakersBrigadier General Wilma

Vaught of the Womens Memo-rial Museum in Arlington, Va.,and Major General Jimmie Kee-nan, Chief Commander of theArmy Nurse Corps, along withseven other officers from theCorps.

Invitations havealso been ex-tended to former President BillClinton and Vice President JoeBiden and their families.

In addition to the memorial,the four Dunmore residents

who also lost their lives in Viet-nam-2nd Lt. Anthony JosephBattista, SP4 Thomas WilliamMalloy, SP4 Karl Francis Ry-nearson and Pvt. Thomas Mi-chael Wharton, are going to behonored andtheir names willbeengravedon oneof thebenches.

Atkinson said the Friends ofthe Forgotten are in the processof trying to find family mem-bers of the four to be present atthe dedication.

Pavers are still available topurchase.For more informationon purchasing a paver, or any-one with any information onfamily members of the fourDunmore ve terans, cal l383.9552.

MEMORIALContinued from page 4

Dignitaries from the military and local government participated inthe annual Armed Forces Day Luncheon held at St. Marys Center onWednesday, May 16. The affair pays tribute to past and current indi-viduals who have dedicated a life of service to the various branchesof the military. Those in attendance included, front row, from left,Michael Semian, Jonathan Heavner, Lackawanna County Commis-sioner Jim Wansacz, former Scranton Mayor David Wenzel, secondrow, Col. Chuck Gibson, Frank Tyson, Lackawanna County Commis-sioner Patrick M. OMalley, Joseph Sylvester, Lackawanna CountyCommissioner Corey D. OBrien, Lackawanna County PresidentJudge Thomas Munley, Dr. Frederick K. Mauger, Scranton MayorChristopher Doherty and Joseph Severini.

St. Marys Center hosts Armed Forces Day Luncheon

7/31/2019 Go Lackawanna 06-03-2012

7/40


Architecture, history and sto-rytelling merge on the pathwaysof the Lackawanna Historical So-cietys downtown Scranton walk-ing tours.

The tours are held in thespring, summer, and early fallmonths, or by special request.The various tours offer differentperspectives on the foundationand growth of the city and some

of its more prominent buildingsand historical figures.

In additionto theannualSatur-day morning tours conducted byLHS docents, the society now of-fers custom walking tours led byDr. R. Guy McGinnis, a retired

college professor who has ledtours in Europe and the UnitedStates.

The Saturdaytours encompassa three square block area andhighlight the history, design andcraftsmanship of such architectu-ralgemsas theScrantonCulturalCenter at the Masonic Temple,Scranton City Hall, the AlbrightMemorial Library, the Federal

Courthouse and Post Officebuilding, St. Peters Cathedral,and St. Lukes Episcopal Church.

Three tours of slightly differ-ent emphasis rotate on a weeklybasis.

The tours take place June

throughOctoberand depart at11a.m.

A rotating trio of tours is alsoconducted during ScrantonsFirst Fridaysthrough October be-ginning at 5 p.m. at theRadissonHotel on Lackawanna Avenue.Dr. McGinnis guides the toursduring First Friday.

Newly created custom toursare structured to provide learn-

ing experiences for local resi-dents, businesses and organiza-tions, educators, students, vis-itors, and representatives ofScranton and surrounding areas.

For more information, call344.3841.

Walking through historyLackawanna Historical Society announces summer walking tours

GRIFFIN POND ANIMALSHELTER HOLDS PET WALK

The Griffin Pond Animal Shelter volunteers will sponsor aPet Walk to benefit the animals at the shelter. The eventwill be held June 10 at Nay Aug Park. Registration beginsat noon with the walk scheduled for 1 p.m.

that we planned on having on the westwing, because down hereon the west wingwe do the arts, family consumer sciences,andthe shopsand wewantedto showthepublic what we do in the classroom everyday, said Yanashot.

During the planning stages, the eventeventually grewto includeevery disciplinetheschoolhadtoofferandbecamea way toshowoffallthestudentstalentsandbroad-en theappeal of theevent.

There is something for everyone. Wewill peak everyones interest who comes inthe doortonight,said Yanashot.

Priorto theevent,studentssignup foraproject to work on in the subject of theirchoosing,and then prepare it in theweeksleading up to theevent.

Most of the students would agree onWednesday that the hard work was worthit.

(I likethat)we get toshow whatwe doto the entire community, and its great forall the kids to have support from friends,

family, anyone, said Ellie Helcoski.This is the second year Helcoskihas tak-

en partin Riverside Alive, volunteering todo Raku, a type of Japanese pottery mak-ing, andspin a potters wheel.

Yanashot said his hope is that Helcoskiand her classmates will have the opportu-nity to participate in the event again nextyear, and be able to come back after theygraduatefor years to comeas spectators.

I would hope that this could keep con-tinuing, that we could always get support

from thedistrict, becausethe teachers willalwaysbehereforthekids,andImsurethekidswillbe always beenthused toshowoffwhat they can do, too, said Yanashot.

Brian Sophabmixay participated in the

Iron Chef Competition.

Denis Yanashot is the event coordinator

for Riverside Alive 2012.

TALENTContinued from page 3


Gracie Maopolski was able to do some painting at Riverside Alive 2012.

7/31/2019 Go Lackawanna 06-03-2012

8/40


731309

731309

ALL JUNK CARS &

TRUCKS WANTED

V&G 570-574-1275

Free Removal. Call Anytime.Highest Price Paid In Cash!

755815

SCRANTON A longtimedowntown business owner ques-tioned the citys new parking taxduring City Councils May 24meeting and threatened legal ac-tion if the city and the ScrantonParkingAuthority (SPA) arecon-tinually allowed to solicit hiscustomers.

East Mountain resident JamesBoccardo, co-owner of BoccardoJewelers, Inc., 201Jefferson Ave.,said that he recently obtained acopyof a letter from LackawannaCounty thatstatesthat theScran-ton Parking Authority and thecity of Scranton will providecounty employees 300 parkingspaces at its garages for $80 amonth.

The SPAs Medallion Garagecurrently charges $112 a monthper space, Boccardo said, while

he charges$110for hisspaces.Herents 14 parking spots to countyemployeesandisnowsubjecttoaparking tax passed by council onApril 26, which he felt wasunfairbecause the added cost would bepassed onto his customers whilethe authority is not required topay it.

The ordinance imposes a 15percent tax upon each parkingtransaction by operators of park-inglots and garages locatedwith-

in the cityand establishes annuallicense fees of $1 per space, butlots and garages owned by theSPA are exempt.

They sent somebody to mystore and told me if I dont dropthe price to $80 that theyre pull-ing alltheir county carsMy ten-ants are leaving. Why wouldntthey? Boccardo asked council.

Thats a benefit of $32 permonth perparking spotto a Park-ing Authority thats in defaultright now. They cant pay their

billsThey dont have any mon-ey and theyretryingto solicitmycustomers, he added, referringto $1.4 million in bond paymentsowed by the SPA .

Asking several questionsaboutthe parking tax but not receivingdefinite answers, Boccardo toldcouncil that they shouldnt have

voted on legislation if they didnot fully understand it first andcalled for it to be revoked.

Im going to start a lawsuit if

this isnt retracted or if you guysdont make up your mind howyoure going to charge this tax,Boccardo said. Get your act to-

gether because Im not going tolet this drop.

CouncilmanPat Roganagreed,noting that just before the April26 vote, a Scranton landlordnamed Jerry Ferrario also hadquestions about the legislationthat council could not answer in-

volving his tenants spaces,which is why he made a motionduring that meeting to table thelegislation until all questions

were answered. The motion diedfor a lackof a second, and heulti-mately voted against the tax, butit passed 4-1.

Not knowing all the facts, Idont think we should (have a)

vote for it. I think some effort hasto be made to clarify the legisla-tion, Rogan said.

We did try to get the ParkingAuthority and our solicitor foundcase law where we werent al-lowed to charge the Parking Au-

thority. We dont believe its faireither, Councilman Jack Los-combe added.

According to the ordinance, aparking lot is defined as anyplacewithin thecityof Scranton,

whether wholly or partially en-closed or open, including a ga-rage or enclosed building, at

which motor vehicles are parkedorstoredforany periodof time inreturn for a consideration.

An operator is defined as anyperson conducting the operation

of a parking lot or receiving theconsideration for the parking orstorage of motor vehiclesas suchparking lot, includingany gov-ernmental body, governmentalsubdivision, municipal corpora-tion, public authority, nonprofitcorporation, or any person oper-ating as an agent of one of theabove.

In the citys 2012 budget, theparkingtax is estimated to gener-ate $500,000.

My taxes, onceagain,are over$30,000 a year. I pay them. Imhappy to paythem. Youredoubledipping me on these taxes, Boc-cardo said.

If youre going to punish mefor being a businessman, thatsnot fairIm going to pursuethis.

Parking tax angers

business [email protected]

The Littl e Sist ers of thePoor will honor Moosic resi-dents Pete and Mary CarolKanton at its sixth annual golftournament, scheduled forSaturday, June 9, at the Scran-ton Municipal Golf Course inLake Ariel.

Re gi strati on i s at noonwi th a sh ot gu n st ar t at 1p.m. The format is captainand cre w. Si ngle s wi l l beplaced on a team. The cost

is $100 per golfer, which in-cludes green fees, use of acart, an official tournamentgolf shirt, a pre-tournamentrefreshm ent rece p ti on, alight meal during the tour-nament, and a post-tourna-m e nt di nne r at the courseclubhouse. Golfers will alsohave a chance to win prizesbased on their performancein the tournament.

Several types of golf and

sponsorship packages are alsoavailable, including holesigns for $100 and sponsor-ships of $250, $500 and $750.

There will be a gift basketraffle , as well as prizes valuedat over $100.

For more information, callJackie Galvin at 343.4065 ext.314 4, e ma il s cd ev el op [email protected], or visit www.little-sistersofthepoorscranton.org.

SUBMITTED PHOTO

Little Sisters of the Poor Golf committee, from left, Charlie Butler; Janet Skibinski; Pete Kanton,

honoree; Sr. Gerard Marie OConnor, lsp, administrator; Mary Carol Kanton, honoree Gene Cosgrove,tournament co-chairman; Ann Kwak; and Jackie Galvin, director of development and communi-

cations.

Little Sisters of the Poor honor Moosic residents

7/31/2019 Go Lackawanna 06-03-2012

9/40


year has $16.5 million in borrowing. You re-member my budget (rejected by council)hada 29 percent taxincrease. Weve gone toallthebanks andtheonlyone that was inter-ested was M&T and they would do a bondplacement. They said they want to seea Re-

covery Plan before they give us themoney,Doherty explained in an interview on May30.

Theexecution of the2002 plan occurredwithin an environment of extensive litiga-tion and delays that has prevented some ofthe 2002 Revised Recovery Plans recom-mendations from being implemented, ac-cording to page one of the new plan. It re-quires compromise and sacrifice from allthe citys elected officials, employees, andtaxpayers, buttheybelieve it willeliminatetheprojectedoperating budget deficitsandprovide financial stability.

Each mandate was developed with theexpress intentionof providing theCity withanopportunitytoeffectivelyprovidemunici-pal services to its residents in a financiallysustainable andresponsible manner, bothinthe short-term and long-term, the docu-ment continues. Timeis ofthe essence andmanyof themandatesincludedherein mustbe implementedexpeditiously.

Oneofthe mandatesin theplanis increas-ingrealestatetaxmillageratesby29percent

in2013,20 percent in2014,and15 percent in2015 to eliminate the remaining projecteddeficits for a total of a 64 percent increase

over thenext three years.

Financial summaries and projectionsbleak

Using the citys 2010 audit and most re-cent financial data available from the Busi-nessAdministratorsoffice,PEL andthe cityfound that Scranton has run a general fundoperating budget deficit in four out of thepastfiveyears.

Accordingto theplan,the citys operating

revenues, excludingTANs,decreasedby 1.6percent between 2006 and 2010 from $58.8million to $57.8 million. Revenue fromsources other than real estatetaxes, such asproperty transfer taxes, local service taxes,permits, fines, and business privilege andmercantile taxes, declined by $6.3 million,or 27 percent, from 2006 to 2010 while thecitys annual operatingexpenditureshavein-creased by 5.9 percent over the past fiveyears.

Employee-related expenditures account-edfor74.1percentofoperatingexpendituresin 2010, withdirect compensation beingthelargest operatingexpenditure. Healthinsur-ance expenditures have increased 15.5 per-cent between 2006 and2010.

Base wages for Department of PublicWorks and Clerical employees increased19.2 percent and 17.1 percent, respectively,from 2006 to 2010. Police and firefighterwages increased 28.2 percent and 36.4 per-cent, respectively, due to 2009 Common-wealthCourtdecisions.Administrativewag-es fluctuated, increasing in 2008 and 2009

but lowering in 2011. Retiree benefits andworkers compensation also factor in tothese costs, along with the 2011 Supreme

Court decision in favor of the citys publicsafetyunionsthatfoundthatAct47 doesnotsupersede the Policemen and Firemen Col-lective Bargaining Act, or Act 111, meaningthat thecitycouldno longer delaycollectivebargaining awards because of the citys eco-nomic state. Council President Janet Evansestimatedthatthiscouldcostthecityatleasthalf of its annual operating budget, thoughan official numberhas yetto be released.

Weve reached out to the bargaining

units.I haveto say weve had a verygood re-lationship over the last several months andwereworkingtogether tosee if wecan putastructuretogetherfor somelong-termstabil-itybetweenthecityandtheemployees,Do-herty commented. Theres nothing defi-nite, buteverybody is on thesame page.

In addition, the citys annual debt serviceobligation has increased by 10.9 percentsince2006.

Due to the countys lack of a countywideproperty value reassessment since the1970s, real estate tax collections must relyon new development of taxable land for in-creases in revenue, leaving real estate taxgrowth stagnant. The plan also pointedout that the city has chronically relied onone-time revenuesourcesto balanceitsbud-gets.

If theplanis notimplemented, theannualgeneral fundoperatingbudget deficit is pro-jected to increase from $4.2 million in 2012to$14.7millionin 2015.Thecumulativegen-eral fund deficit from 2012 through 2015 isprojectedto be $39.2 million.

Total general fund expenditures are pro-jected to increase by $8,413,641 or 12.8 per-cent through 2015 while the citys revenues

areprojectedtodecreaseby$1,479,168or2.4percent duringthe same period.

The plan even projects that the citys cur-rent 2012 operating budget is unbalancedand will incur a deficit of $4,232,275. Coun-cilsamendmentsdecreasedthemayorspro-posed real estatetax increase from 29.1 per-cent to 4.8 percent, the real estate transfertax from 2.9percent to 2.8 percent, and thebusinessprivilegeandmercantiletaxesfrom33.3percentto 16.7 percent.

While Evans and Council Vice Presidentand Finance Chair Frank Joyce worked ontheRecovery Plan with themayor andPEL,members ofcouncilhavesaidthey wouldbeagainst majortax increases.

Ifcouncildoesntwantto passthe Recov-ery Plan, then they have to make amend-ments to it that would still give thebankingcommunity the confidence to lend us themoney, and Im open to that, Doherty ac-knowledged.

Impact on residents

WhileScrantontaxpayersmaynot behap-py with the impending tax increases, themayor noted that the city collects the leastamountof taxes while proving allthe essen-tialservices,such aspoliceofficers, firefight-ers,garbage pick-up,paving,and snowplow-ing.

When you getyour taxbillwhen you livein the city, 57percent ofthatbill goesto theschooldistrict,24 percent goes to thecoun-ty, and then remaining19 percent comes tous, yet weare the ones who provide the ser-

vices, Doherty said.Its been a bargain in terms of the taxes.

Were askingpeople to step up.

SACRIFICEContinued from page 5

James Armillay Jr., of Taylor,graduated from Trinity Collegein Hartford, Conn., on Sunday,May 20 majoring in Italian Stud-ies, Political Science.

A total of 585bachelordegreesand 43 masters degrees wereawardedat the186thCommence-ment Ceremonies held on Trini-tys quadrangle.

The commencement addresswas given by Anne Fadiman, au-thor of The Spirit Catches Youand You Fall Down, winner ofthe 1997 National Books CriticsCircle Award for General Nonfic-tion.

For more information on thecommencement ceremony, visit:http://www.trincoll.edu/News-Events/NewsArticles/pages/Commencement2012.aspx.

Taylor residentgraduates from

Trinity College

GOLDEN LIVING SUPPORTS

WEST SIDE SENIOR CENTER

Golden Living, a national company that operates the GoldenLiving Center at 824 Adams Ave., Scranton, recently present-ed a check in the amount of $1,000 to United NeighborhoodCenters of Northeastern Pennsylvania. Themoney will beused to purchase fitness equipment for older adults at theWest Side SeniorCenter. Michael Hanley, UNC ExecutiveDi-rector; Ryan Gilmartin, Patient Transitions Representativeand Laurie Fleming, West Side SeniorCenterManager, fromleft, were in attendance for the check presentation.

Scranton Tomorrows vol-unteer efforts to supportScrantons continued down-

town economic revitalizationhave been rewarded throughaccreditation by the NationalTrust Main Street Center for2012.

Each year, the NationalTrust and its partners an-nounce a list of accreditedMain Street programs thathave built strong revitaliza-tion organizations and dem-onstrate their ability to usethe Main Street approach for

strengthening their localeconomy and protecting theirhistorical buildings.

Accomplishments by MainStreet Scranton volunteers in-clude instituting a faade pro-gram to help restore and pre-serve downtown storefronts;recognizing downtown busi-nessesfor goingabove andbe-yond in the maintenance andappearance of their buildings

through the Golden BroomAward; holding tours of down-town businesses and attrac-

tions to showcase all thedowntown has to offer; pro-moting downtown throughfamily-friendly events likeChalk Walk, Drive In Down-town movie nights on Cour-thouse Square and the Holi-day Decorating Showcase;partnering with local collegesto encourage students to shopand eat downtown; and sup-porting businessdistrictbeau-tification efforts from City

Pride to recycling.The NationalTrustbasesits

accreditation on 10 perform-ance standards that demon-strate use of the Main StreetFour-Point Approach forbuilding comprehensive andsustainable partnerships, se-curing an operating budget,tracking economic progressand preserving historic build-ings.

Scranton Tomorrows work recognized

7/31/2019 Go Lackawanna 06-03-2012

10/40


Overeaters Anonymous meet-

ings, First Presbyterian Church, 201Stone Ave., Clarks Summit, weekly,Mon. and Wed., 7 p.m.; Tues. andThurs., 9:30 a.m. and Sun., 4 p.m.Info: 587.4313.

Coal Mining info sought, CarlOrechovsky, research editor ofAnthracite Archives, Old Forge, isseeking information about the coalmining industry during the 1950sand 60s in Old Forge.Anyone interested with informa-tion or photos of mine openings,buildings, miners, breakers or

stories of life and workings in themines can contact Orechovskyevenings at 702.4217 or [email protected] County Commission

for Womens 7th Annual HealthSeminar will be held at AlliedServices, located on Moffat Driveoff of the Morgan Highway onTuesday, June 5 at 6 p.m. Cost: $15Marine Corps Museum League

Northeast Detachment Scrantonwill hold a Flag Retirement onSaturday, June 9 at 11 a.m. The

museum is located at1340 AlderSt., Scranton, off Wintermantel Ave.Marywood University LifelongLearners are holding a SpringLuncheon on Tuesday, June 12 at 1p.m. in the Theresa Maxis Room,IHM Center preceded by a tour ofthe School of Architecture. Cost:members $15, non-members $20.Info: 348.6292.The Memorial Dedication for 2ndLt. Carol Ann Drazba, R.N., U.S.Army Nurse Corps will be held onFriday, June 16, 2 p.m. at Gino J.

Merli Veterans Center, 401 PennAve., Scranton.A low-cost spray and neuterclinic is scheduled for Tuesday,June12 from 8 a.m. to noon at theJackson Street Skate Park.The West Scranton Hyde Park

Neighborhood Watch will hold itsnext meeting on Thursday, June 21at 7 p.m. at All Saints Auditorium,1403 Jackson St., behind St. Pa-tricks Church. Info: http://hyde-parkneighborwatch.word-press.com/.Paws for a K-9 Cause Weekend

will be held at Bigsys Bar & Grill,1420 Lafayette St., Scranton onSaturday and Sunday, June 23 and24. The upcoming benefit is beingheld to help in the cost of purchas-ing a new K-9 dog for the ScrantonPolice Department. The weekendwill kick off with a beer bash from2 to 6 p.m. with basket raffles, a50/50 drawing, hot dogs andhamburgs, and DJ Steve Hill play-ing for your listening pleasure. AScotch Doubles Pool Tournamentwill be held on Sunday, starting at 11a.m.For more information, call 702.1716.

COMMUNITYCALENDAR

million in 2012.Total revenue received bythecity in 2012willincrease byabout $4millionover2011for atotal of $57 million, accordingto Lewis, but expenditures willexceed $76 million. Account-ing for one-time items, actualexpenditures expected to re-cur in 2012 are approximately$66 million, including $47.2million in employee compen-sation.

I took the same approachthat I take when Im dealing

with the banks that Im work-ing with and Im looking overtheir numbers when I sat down

with the citys numbers. Obvi-ously, governmental account-ing is substantially differentthan financial accounting, butat the end of the day, yourestill looking at the same basicconcepts. Youre still lookingfor a positive net cash flow.

What Im finding is that thecity has not had positive netcash flow for quite a long time,and weve been borrowing andborrowing and borrowing andnow were just in over ourheads, Lewis said.

On May17, council approveda final reading of unfundeddebt legislation that autho-rized $9.85 million in borrow-ing to pay back 2011 debt and

refinancing of $8.6 million inexisting debt for a total of$18.45 million. Up to $26.6million could ultimately be ap-proved depending on interestrates, bond pricing, and otherfactors, andon May24, councilapproved a related ordinancethat will levy a real estate taxmillage increase starting in2013 for a period of 10 yearsdedicated to retiring the un-funded debt incurred in 2012,

an increase which could be upto 10 percent.

Members of council reluc-tantly voted for the legislation,saying that they felt it was thecitys only option to avoid astate takeover or declaringbankruptcy. But Lewis said theincrease in debt service along

with recurring expenditu reswill result in t otal 2013 expen-ditures exceeding $67 million,meaning the 2013 deficit willexceed $10 million and requirea tax hike of 72 percent ormore to cover the 2012 short-

fall, along with additional taxhikes in future years. If taxra tes a re n ot rai sed , h e

warned, an a ddition al $20 mil-lion in borrowing will be re-quired based on current bor-

rowing rates.

Benefits of Chapter 9

After speaking with the may-or about his analysis, Lewisfelt the administration wasntinterested in his proposal, andhe also spoke publicly to coun-cil during their last few meet-ings. Lewis said that Harris-burg City Council AttorneyMark Schwartz, who filed thebankruptcy motion on behalf

of Harrisburg council, also re-ached out to the city to offerhis assistance but received noresponse.

Lewis listed three key ben-efits to filing Chapter 9 that hethinks would be massivelybeneficial to Scranton.

The first is that is stops allpending litigation, so we im-mediately stop paying thoselawyers fees and just presspause on all the ongoing litiga-tion. The second thing is thatit allows the city to renego-tiate, retire, and refinance allof their outstanding debtThats going to massive-ly reduce our debt service, hesaid.

The third thing is that itnullifies any existing unioncontracts so it gives the citythe ability to sit down with theunions and say, Look, we sim-

ply cant support you anymoreat the rates you want to be sup-ported at and its time for youto negotiate a fair and reason-able compensation package.

The citys public safetyunions, Lewis continued,make up an exceedingly largeportion of the citys spending,and he suggested the city lookinto voluntary employees ben-eficiary association, a trustfund whose only purpose

would be for employee bene-fits.

Youre talking about a po-lice department that spendstens of millions of dollars onsalaries for140employees. Youlook at it and its not support-ableYoure dealing with acity where the average personmakes $28 to 29,000 a year.Youre paying $66 to 70,000 topolice and firefighters to start.You cant support that. Youcant sustain that, he said.

Its really as simple as thefact that we have a municipal

government and a compensa-tion structure scaled for a cityabout twice the size. If we hadtwice the tax revenue, we

wouldnt be having this con-versation . The cit y shru nk, but

the government nevershrunk.With at least $2.4 million

given to the PennsylvaniaEconomy League (PEL) toserve as the citys Act 47 coor-dinator, however, he believesthat they are most at fault forthe city sinking deeper anddeeper into this financialabyss. Scranton declared Act47 distressed status in 1992and has yet to pull itself out;

Lewis said that lawyers he con-sulted with on his analysiscalled PEL a gift to special in-terest with its guaranteedconsulting fees, no oversight,and no real timeline for exit.

I think that PEL has beenasleep atthe wheel.I dontnec-essarily think that there is mis-management or bad manage-ment occurring within the ad-ministration. I think that th ereare a lot of people that are do-ing the best that they can with

what theyve got and maybearent completely equipped tobe doing the jobs that theyredoing, Lewis acknowledged.

Lewis found that PEL hasmissed several red flags overthe years that financial expertsshould have picked up on. Inthe 2010 audit report, there

was a finding that said the c ityhad improperly recognized in-

terfund transfers as revenue.Thats a kissing cousin tofraud, Lewis argued. It in-flates your revenue number-sThese mistakes build onthemselves, but to me, PELshould have been somebodythat stopped that.

Personal motivations

Lewis is currently mulling arun for City Council in 2013,buthe insists that he would on-

ly get involved in politics if hedoes not see steps taken to cor-rect theissues he addressed, ashe prefers his private sector

work.Lewis also claimed that his

offer to help the city is not abusiness venture and he is notseeking any consulting ar-rangement with the city. Rath-er, he said he just wishes tohelp the city his family still re-sides in.

While officia ls may beagainst bankruptcy, formulat-ing a Revised Recovery Plan at

the behest of lending institu-tions that includes large taxand fee increases over the nextthree years, Lewis believesthat preparing for Chapter 9 ascontingency planning would

still be worth the citys time.Theres no easy way out,but Chapter 9 is the clean-estWe can definitely make itto December, but come Janu-ary, I dont see how theyrekeeping the lights on. And allIm saying is weve got sixmonths. Lets put our heads to-gether. We can fill out the pa-perwork. We can explore allthe other options, he said.

Officials avoid bankruptcyas solution

Council Vice President andFinance Chair Frank Joyce,

who has also analyzed thecitys financesand playeda piv-otal role in formulating thecitys previous two budgets,said after the May 24 councilmeeting that he does not sup-port declaring bankruptcy.

I dont think that bankrupt-cy is the way out. I dont thinkthat anyone wants to go bank-rupt,Joyce said.Personally, Idont want to see the city gobankrupt.

Doherty agreed when reac-hed for comment on May 30,saying that he wants to avoid afederal takeover.

I fight right to the end. Ihave a responsibility to the20,000 homeowners here, andI p rote ct the val ue of the

home, Doherty said, referringto the citys property values.The mayor returned to Har-

risburg on May 31 to continuehis regular meetings with stateadministration with the goal of

working out the cit ys financ ialissues and trying to come up

with a ny sc enario possible justto get us through this.

People think (bankruptcyis)a panacea, butI think youregetting into something where

we dont know what the resultswill be. I t hink maybe well beforced to make the decisions

we were supposed to makeanyway, so why not makethem? he asked.

Then you dont have all thestain and everything. It just be-comes more stressful. I knowthese are not easy decisionsand I respect all the people

who hav e to make it, b ut at theend of the day, we have tomake some type of decisionthat will provide a strong pathfor the future.

BANKRUPTCYContinued from page 5

7/31/2019 Go Lackawanna 06-03-2012

11/40

NOW OPEN

SUNDAYS

10AM - 3PM

1 1 7 7 Hig h w a y 3 1 5 Blv d ., Do lp h in Pla z a

W i l k e s- B a r r e, P A 1 8 7 0 2

www.comprehensivepaindocs.com

Comprehensive PainManagement Specialists, LLC

TOLL FREE 1-855-558-2050

Have opened their own practice.To continue your care with these physicians call us.

Now accepting new patients. Call today!

formerly of Advanced Pain Management

Joseph Paz, D.O. AND Avner R. Griver, M.D.


Graduation time is here andthat means lots of graduationparties. There have been yearsthat we had five or more parties,and its tough to stay on a bud-get without looking cheap.However, if you plan in advancethere are some great gifts thatare meaningful and inexpensive.

My favorite all time highschool graduation gift has to bethe Dr Seuss classic, Oh, thePlaces Youll Go! Personalizethis book with a little note onthe inside cover. This is sold atmost bookstores or on Ama-zon.com for just under $11.

Greeting cards can get expen-sive, but not when you can getthem for free.

Shutterfly.com is offering onefree personalized greeting cardusing the coupon code CARD4U

at checkout.We love sending greeting

cards, but what about sending acookie greeting across the coun-try? Cheryls offers a graduationcookie greeting for only $5 plusa $5 gift card is also included.

This is a sweeter way to saycongratulations than just a card.Visit Cheryls.com and searchgraduation to find this specialdeal.

This time of year you will findgood sales on graduation itemslike picture frames, teddy bears,and mugs. These can be addedto any gift to make it extra spe-cial. Personalized items makemeaningful gifts from places likePersonalizationMall.com. Frompersonal picture frames to Ru-biks Cubes, this site has it all.Plus, use the coupon codePMALL10D at the checkout to

get $10 off purchases of $50 ormore. Things Remembered alsooffers personalization and at afaster turn around. These areproducts that people love toshow off and keep forever.

Take advantage of half pricedeals on Groupon, Living Social,and all the local daily deal sites.I dont see anything wrong withgiving someone a half off vouch-er as a gift or even better buythe voucher and go shopping fora special gift. For example, afew months back I purchased ahalf off voucher to a womans

boutique and plan on shoppingthere this weekend to buy pieceof jewelry for a graduation party.I paid $15 for the voucher, but I

will be buying a piece of jewelrypriced at $30.

Think of a basket of personalcare items, which can be in-expensive. One year I usedcoupons to buy shampoo, tooth-brushes, toothpaste, body wash,nail polish, and really all thegirly stuff that no one likes tospend money on and added it toa basket. The value of the basket

was probably over $50 but noone has to know that you usedcoupons and got most of the

stuff for free or very cheap. Thisrequires a few weeks of search-ing through ads, but if you havemultiple parties to attend, thisis a great way to save moneyand make a few baskets full ofpersonal care items.

Of course, gift cards are al-ways a great idea but can getcostly. If you know where thegraduate will be attending col-lege, think about purchasing agift certificate for restaurantsaround the college campus oreven an Entertainment Bookletfilled with coupons.

Remember that graduation isa time of celebration, so look fora more meaningful gift, some-thing that will remind the grad-uate of where they came fromand where they are heading inlife.

Do you have a unique gradua-tion gift idea? Share it with us at

facebook.com/golackawanna.

Meaningful, inexpensivegraduation gifts

DEAL DETECTIVEJ E N N A U R B A N In 1889, Scranton was a

bustling, growing city. Themines and the railroads, andrelated manufacturing indus-tries provided jobs for all admittedly tough, dangerous

jobs with life and limb al-ways at risk, but jobs none-

theless.The populat ion had grown

to 75,000 up dramaticallyfrom 45,000 in 1880 withno end in sight. Contractorsstruggled to meet the needfor new houses, stores, andoffice buildings; and a newmercantile class flourished.Clearly Scranton was a cityon the move.

Just as clearly to some ofthe city fathers, it was timefor a library. To that end, ahandful of business leadersstarted a subscription drive hoping to raise $25,000. Butbefore that effort got veryfar, this group received aremarkable letter from JohnJ. Albright of Buffalo, NY.

Mr. Albright offered togive the people of Scranton alibrary, to be built on the siteof the Albright homestead,

on the corner of North Wash-ington and Vine. His require-ments were few: the building

would be of his design ,would be named in honor ofhis parents Joseph and El-izabeth Sellers Albright, andthe city would provide rea-sonable funds to operate thelibrary. The response was aquick yes and on June 1,1891, ground was broken.

Albright originally thought

that a library could be built

for perhaps $55,000. As itturns out by the time theribbon was cut on June 1,1893 the cost had risen to

$125,000 a princely sum inthose days. Why so much?Simply put, Albright wouldnot compromise on quality.He commissioned Buffalosfinest architects, Green &

Wicks, to design the library incorporating some of theelements of the Musee deCluny in Paris. Only thefinest materials and highestlevel of craftsmanship wereacceptable. Albrights wil-lingness to provide the fundsnecessary to realize his vi-sion produced what we havetoday one of Scrantonsmost beautiful buildings.

But the true value of Al-brights gift is not defined by

the building or even its col-lections, but rather its use.Judge Hand summed this upnicely in his opening dayremarks: Beautiful in designas this structure is, valuableas its contents are, its great-est beauty and value are

what it can accomp lish inindividual lives. The richman can buy his own books,but here, with a card in hishand a free gift the poor-est child from the 12th wardpractically owns a betterlibrary than the wealthiest ofour citizens.

On June 1, 2012 the Li-brary enters its 120th year ofservice.

Thank you Mr. A lbright .

--Jack Finnerty

Mr. Albrights GiftLibrary enters its 120th year of service500 VINE

500 Vine focuses on local library

events and services. Find it b-weekly

in Go Lackawanna.

7/31/2019 Go Lackawanna 06-03-2012

12/40


AMemorial Day service was

held on Monday, May 28 inWest Scranton at CathedralCemetery, where over

13,000 veterans are buried. SenatorRobert P.Casey, Jr. attended thecere-mony and spoke about the impor-tance of remembering those whoservedin thearmedforces, bothlivingand deceased.

"Today, we express gratitude for awhole range of those who served.

First and foremost, those who gave

their lives - as Lincoln said, those whogave the last full measure of devotionto their country. So we rememberthem today and pray for their fam-ilies," Casey said.

"In addition to gratitude, today is atime to express, I think, a renewal ofour commitment to help those whoserved and to help their families. Weneed to renew that commitment to-day, whether its health care or educa-tion or whatever our returning veter-

ans need."

Over 13,000 veterans are buried in

Cathedral Cemetery.

U.S. Marine Sgt. Thomas Marko-

vitch of Scranton.

Volunteers placed flags and markers

on the gravesites.

Paulette Costas sang the national

anthem.

Casey honors veterans

GO LACKAWANNA/RICHHOWELLS

Senator Robert P. Casey, Jr. spoke at the Memorial Day service in West Scranton at Cathedral Cemetery.

A Memorial Dayservice was held

in West Scran-

ton at Cathedral

Cemetery.

7/31/2019 Go Lackawanna 06-03-2012

13/40


OBITUARIES

Jane Coale, 86, of Scranton,died May 15, at the home of herdaughter, surrounded by herfamily.

Born in Harford county Mary-land, she was the daughter of thelate Edgar and Grace HornbergerColeman. Prior to her retirementshe was an office manager for theU.S. Government at AberdeenProving Ground.

Jane was an outgoing personand had many loving friends. Sheloved to travel and play cardswith her friends. Her amazingsense of humor and wonderfulpersonality will be missed by allwho knew her.

The family would like give aspecial thanks to the staff of Tra-ditional Home and Health Hos-pice for their wonderful care andsupport given to Jane and herfamily.

Surviving are two daughters,Deborah Doty and husband Ge-orge Jr., Scranton and AdeleGrafe and husband Mike, GreatFalls, Mont.; numerous grand-children and great-grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers, memorialcontributions may be made toTraditional Home and HealthHospice 113 W. Drinker St. Dun-more, Pa 18512.

To sign the online guestbook,

go to www.lawrenceeyoungfuner-alhome.com.

Jane Coale

MAY 15, 2012

Martha M. Brack, passedaway Saturday, May 26, after along, courageous battle withAlzheimers disease. Her hus-band was the late Edmund E.Brack, who died in 1992.

Martha was born in Scran-ton and was the daughter ofthe late Adam and Martha

Kederis Pachase. She attendedScranton Technical HighSchool. Martha was employedby Williams Bakery, C & DSportswear, and then became acaregiver for her mother. She

was very active in many orga-

nizations, including, TheKnights of Lithuania, ZontaClub, St. Josephs Guild, Va-sares Club, Polish Union and aPinochle club, which was herfavorite game. She was also a

member of St. Josephs Churchin Scranton and attended OurLady of the Snows Church inClarks Summit.

Martha loved to laugh. Herbeautiful smile and wonderfulsense of humor will be missedby all who knew her.

Marthas family would liketo thank Dr. Steven Eisner andthe staff at the Jewish Home inScranton for their wonderfulcare and compassion.

Surviving are two daughters,Arlene Brack, Scranton andJeanne B. Peffer and husband

Robert, Glenburn; two grand-daughters Susan Tassey andhusband William; Nicholsonand Denise Ubaldini and hus-band Ronald, Blakely; sixgreat- grandchildren, several

nieces and nephews and awonderful family friend Larry

McAndrew, Scranton.She was preceded in deathby two sisters Ann Page andHelen Yacinek, and threebrothers Adam, Andrew, andJohn Chase.

A mass of Christian burialwas held on Wednesday, May30.

In lieu of flowers, memorialsmay be made to Griffin PondAnimal Shelter, 967 GriffinPond Rd., S. Abington Twp.

18411, or to the AlzheimersAssociation, 225 N. MichiganAve. Fl. 17, Chicago IL.,60601.

To sign the online guest-book, go to www.lawren-ceeyoungfuneralhome.com.

Martha M.

BrackMAY 26, 2012

Frances Elizabeth Matrone, 92, ofOld Forge, died Wednesday, May 30,2012.

She was the widow of Ralph Ma-trone. She was born in Pittston,daughter of the late Salvatore andCologera Marranca Mendolla.

She was a member of the Prince ofPeace Parish, Old Forge.

Surviving are two sons, Rich Milaz-zo Sr., Hartford, Pa., and Al MatroneSr., Old Forge; and two grandsons.

She was preceded in death by agrandson, Brian Milazzo; sisters,Connie Skrutski, Rose Randazzoand Mary Clark; brothers, Frank,Charlie, Angelo and Joseph Men-dola.

Funeral services were held Sat-urday, June 2 from the Palermo &Zawacki Funeral Home Inc., 409 N.Main St., Old Forge.

FrancesElizabeth

MatroneMAY 30, 2012 Eugene R. Carroll, 74,

died Tuesday morning, May22, at Regional Hospital ofScranton. His wife is theformer Mary Ann Sheehan.The couple have been mar-ried for 42 years.

Born in Scranton, he wasthe son of James and Flo-rence Jordan Carroll Sr. Hewas a graduate of South

Catholic High School inScranton and received hisassociate degree in LawEnforcement from the Uni-versity of Scranton. He wasan army veteran serving inKorea. Prior to his retire-ment, he was a DetectiveSergeant for the City ofScranton Police Depart-ment. Gene served as presi-dent of the EB JermynLodge, #2, Fraternal Order

of Police and served 35years as a state delegate forthe Pennsylvania FOP. He

was the first Scranton Po-lice officer to graduate fromthe Pennsylvania StatePolice Academy.

Gene was a loving hus-band, father and grandfa-ther, who will be missed byall. The Carroll familywould like to thank theextended family of doctorsand nurses on the fourthfloor Telemetry Unit at theRegional Hospital of Scran-

ton for their gentle care,kindness and professional-ism.

Surviving are three sons:

Michael and wife MaryBeth; Thomas and Patrick,all from Louisville, Colo.;two daughters, Nancy Car-roll Mercanti and husbandJohn of Clarks Green; andJean Carroll of Clarks Sum-mit; four grandchildrenSara Mercanti Lowe, ElizaMercanti, Liam Carroll andEvan Carroll; and severalnieces and nephews.

He was preceded in deathby five sisters, BettySchwenk, infants, Florence,Mary, Jatchie and MarieCarroll and five brothers,James Jr., Paul, Raymond,John and Gerald Carroll.

In lieu of flowers, contri-butions may be made to St.Judes Children Hospital501St. Jude Place Mem-phis, TN 38105.

To sign the online guest-book, go to www.lawren-ceeyoungfuneralhome.com.

Eugene R.Carroll

MAY 22, 2012

Oscar WebbSr., 87,Moosic, diedTuesday, May29, 2012, at MosesTaylor Hospital, Scranton.

Survivingare his wife, EllenSmith Webb;two children,twobrothers,four sisters, twogrand-children and a great-grandson.

Funeral were held Saturday, June2 in the Moosic Christian Mis-sionary Alliance Church, 608Rocky Glen Road, Moosic, con-ducted by the Rev. DouglasJensen.

In lieu of flowers, memorialcontributions maybe made in hisname to theMoosicAllianceChurch, 608Rocky Glen Rd.,

Moosic,PA18507. Visit www.Kear-neyFuneralHome.com for onlinecondolences.

Oscar Webb Sr.MAY 29, 2012

John Misencik , 83, of Moosic,passedaway Thursday, May 31, 2012at VNA Hospice, CMC Hospital,Scranton.

Funeral arrangements are

pending from Kiesinger FuneralServices Inc., 255 McAlpine St.,Duryea.

John MisencikMAY 31, 2012GO Lackawanna publishes obituaries of local individuals who reside, formerly

resided or have family living in the West Scranton, Old Forge, Taylor or Moosic

area. Obituaries should be submitted by 12 p.m. Saturday to ensure publication in

the same weeks edition. Email is preferred for submission, but mailed entries will

be acceptable with a contact name and phone number. Entries not including a

contact name and telephone number will not be published. Email obituaries to

[email protected] or mail them to 109 New St., Pittston, PA 18640.

OBITUARY POLICY

7/31/2019 Go Lackawanna 06-03-2012

14/40


Over the last few

years, technology

has changed the

way a majority of people

read newspapers, magazines

and books, eliminating the

tangibleproduct and putting

all the information into one

device.

The switch has gone unno-

ticed by some but others,

like West Scranton resident

Jessica Meoni, say they pre-

fer notonlyto havethe print-ed material, but are also still

working hard at creating

them.

Meoni isorganizingthe secondannual Scranton Zine Festival,along with Dana Marie Bloomand Brian Fanelli, whichwill takeplace at New Visions Studio andGallerystarting at noonon Satur-

day, June 9.A whole arching idea of why Ilike puttingon theZineFestivalisto show people that maybe digi-tal isnt totally taking over, saidMeoni.I reallylikeactuallyhold-inga zine, andreading throughit.That way you can actually feelhow much time someone spenton it,versusclicking a buttonon-line.

Zines are independently run,literary publications. Meoni ex-

plained that zines can vary instyle, content, price and methodsof production. This variety willbe on full display at New Visions,where 40 vendors are scheduledto be taking part in the festival,displaying their work.

The vendors on hand will becoming from as close as Scrantonandas faraway as Toronto,Cana-da. One of the more fascinatingthings Meoni said she found lastyear was not only discussingzines with those who traveledlongdistances to getto thefestiv-al,but also thosewho only hadto

come from a few miles away.It was reallyinteresting to seethat there is a knowledge and afan base for zines in Pennsylva-nia, in cities in Pennsylvania thatIve neverheardof, joked Meoni.

Meoni began her own zine,Ruthless, in 2009, that sheprinted herself, and would dis-tribute at shops in Scranton andWilkes-Barre.

I was under 21 at the time-and I was just tryingto get peo-

ple my own age to voice theiropinion about Scranton andsome social commentary. It wasfor people that felt they couldntreally write to newspapers andother journals, said Meoni.

Ruthless was well received,andMeoni said shereceived a lotof positive feedback from it, butshedecided to stop workingon itshortly after putting on Ladyfest,a community-based, not-for-prof-it global music and arts festivalforfemaleartists held in NayAug

Bringing creative people

[email protected]

See TOGETHER, Page 17


Jessica Meoni is organizing the

Scranton Zine Festival.

What: Scranton Zine FestivalWhen: Saturday, June 9, zinefestival noon to 6 p.m., poetry andzine reading begins at 7 p.m.Where: New Visions Studio &Gallery, 201 Vine St., ScrantonInfo: [email protected]

IF YOU GO

Itwas a bittersweetmoment forTheresa OConnor and ConorOBrien, co-owners of the VintageTheater in Scranton last Friday.

The all-ages concert venue andcaf was packed forLocals anex-hibit featuring the work of artistSam Barrese, during ScrantonsFirst FridayonJune1.Whilemanywere drawn in for the art, the ma-jority of those in attendance wereclamoring in to see the theaterone last time.

Fridays event was the lastOConnorand OBrien will host attheirPenn Avenue location,as theduo announced earlierlast monththat they would be moving theVintage Theater.

People we havent seen in a

whileare comingout, its like a sit-com series finale. Its very nice,OBrien said on Friday.

The co-owners were quick topoint out this isnt the end of theVintage Theater, but a new begin-ning. Thetwo said they will begintheprocess oflookingfor a newlo-cation to set up shop this week.

Were really excited, were ex-cited to move onand were defi-nitely excited to do somethingnew, said OConnor.

Rather than take the first loca-tion that becomes available,OConnor and OBrien are going

to be putting together a gameplan, and will be looking for aspace that accommodates all oftheir needs.

We dontwantto leave theFirstFriday footprint, so it definitelyneedsto bedowntown,and itdefi-nitely needs to be somewherewhere we can play music, so itskind of tough to find somethingideal for us, said OConnor.

Knowing that finding the per-fect space wont be easy, the own-ers have not put a timetable onthemselves to find a new locationand saidthey willwait aslong asittakes.

While their patience shouldhelp themsecurea space that hasthe potential to be an improve-ment , many of the VintageThea-ters most loyal customers are left

wondering what theyll do withtheir time during the search.

It was a great venue for localartists to play musicits a goodthing for the local people, a goodplace to go for a good time, saidScranton resident Gregory Wer-ner who madeonelast tripto theVintage Theater on Friday.

They have other places, theyhave New Visions,whichis a goodplace to gobut without it (TheVintageTheater), its notreallygo-

ing to be the same.The Vintage Theater, founded

by OBrien, began on Wyoming

Avenue insidethe Ritz Building in2009. In September of that year,with OConnor now on board as apartner, the twomoved theiroper-ation to 119 Penn Ave.

Since opening its doors at itsPenn Avenue location, the spacehas provided a stage fora numberof different artists looking toshowcase their talent

Werners sentiments have beenechoed to OBrien and OConnorby a number of individuals sincethenewsof theclosingbroke, whohave spent countless hours at thespace,which hasbecomea secondhomefor many, but none moresothan the owners.

While they are excited aboutthe new opportunity they see be-forethem, part of themis still sadto be saying goodbye.

Ithinkwhatweregoing tofindis going to be so amazing in somany ways,(but) this hada charmto it that I dont know if were go-ing to be able to fully replicate,said OBrien. This had a bit of, Icant explain it, there was some-thing about the space itself thatwas very different than any spacethat I know is even out there. Itshard to find a space that has somuch of its own charm.

For more information and up-

dates on the new location of theVintage Theater, visit www.scran-tonsvintagetheater.com.

Vintage Theater owners look to the future

GO LACKAWANNA/JASON RIEDMILLER

Theresa OConner and Conor OBrien are looking for a new location for the Vintage Theater.

New [email protected]

7/31/2019 Go Lackawanna 06-03-2012

15/40


Blues musician Jack Owenswas sitting on his front porchin Bentonia, Miss. with hisfriend,Bud Spires,a blind har-monica player, when Toby

Walker first met him around 1989.Walker, finger-style guitarist, singer,

songwriter and storyteller, recalled arriv-ingatthe housewithan offeringof grocer-iescoldcuts, orangejuice,milk andoth-er basic items.

When I gotthere,Walker said, I toldhim, Look, I brought all these groceriesforyou, andhe said, Well, weve got a lotof eatin to do. When Walker suggested

just putting the items in the refrigerator,he saidSpires juststarted laughingand re-plied, We have to eat all this now...Therefrigerator hasnt worked in probably 10or 15 years.

Sure enough, when Owens opened thepadlocked refrigerator, all it containedwas dried goods.

So,we wound up eatingpounds of bo-logna and American cheese that day,Walker said.

This is one of countless stories thatWalker, 56, of Denville, N.J. (originally

PHOTO COURTESY OF JIM GAVENUS

PocoNotes will present Faces and Voices of the Blues at the Tripp House in Scranton, June 8, 9 and10. The eventwill include the work of photographer

JimGavenus and musical talents of bluesmanToby Walker. Pat Thomasof Mississippi is shown in this photo, which will be displayed at the event.

Infused with bluesELIZABETHBAUMEISTERFor Go Lackawanna

What: PocoNotes Presents: The Faces and Voices ofthe Blues

Where: Tripp House, 1011 North Main Avenue, Scranton

When: June 8, 9 and10

Schedule: June 8 Photo exhibition from noon - 4p.m.; June 9 Photo exhibition from noon - 4 p.m.;

Blues workshop from 2 - 4 p.m.; Musical performanceat 8 p.m. (doors open at 7:30); June10 Photo exhibi-tion with musical accompaniment from noon - 4 p.m.

Cost: $35 for VIP (includes photo exhibit, cocktailreception launch party, blues workshop, pre-showmeet and greet and musical performance), $25 forgeneral admission (includes photo exhibit, bluesworkshop and musical performance), and $10 forseniors and students. All tickets are three-day pas-ses and are available at www.PocoNotes.com or bycalling 888.800.POCO.

IF YOU GO

See BLUES, Page 19

7/31/2019 Go Lackawanna 06-03-2012

16/40


Youre notsupposed tojudge a book byits cover, but incase you do,Chip Kidd isthe one who

makes sure that you leave thebook store with the jacket hedesigned.

Known for the instantly recog-

nizable skeletal image on MichaelCrichtons Jurassic Park, hesworked on covers for practicallyall the major publishers in theindustry and bestselling authorslike Dean Koontz, CormacMcCarthy, John Updike, DavidSedaris, Bret Easton Ellis, andothers too numerous to name.

Hes also an author and editorin his own right with a penchantfor comic books,having worked on

several books for DCComics, so when heappeared atSTRETCH: TheCreativity Confer-ence at MarywoodUniversity on April14, I was particularlyinterested to learnabout his enduringlove of all thingsBatman. This affec-

tion materializedinto Batman: Deathby Design, a long-delayed graph-ic novel finally set to be releasedon June 5.

I caught up with Chip rightafter the conference to geek outabout the visually stunning com-ic, but have held onto the in-terview until now to coincidewith its release.

Go Lackawanna:You grew up

with Batman. What were yourfirst memories of Batman andwhy has Batman stuck with youall these years?Chip Kidd:Well, my first me-

mories were of the TV show in66 through 68, and I was two tofour years old during that time,so then that brought me into thecomics and I just became totallytaken with it. I think probably atfirst it was because my brother,who is two years older than me,was into it, and of course I wasworshipping him or whatever,and I can still remember we

would sit and watch it on TV askids. It was mesmerizing. Weloved it. Somehow it just alwaysstuck with me and I think it wasa particular part of American

mythology that really took holdof my imagination and my pas-sion.GL:How did the opportunity

come up to write a Batman book?Was it from the work youve donepreviously designing books withBatman and other comics?CK: It came up as a suggestion

by Dan DiDio backstage after astaged event I did with Neil Gai-

man at the 92ndStreet Y for the 20th

anniversary of TheSandman series. Onstage, we were geek-ing out about Bat-man, and then after-wards, Dan DiDiocame back and justcompletely out of theblue said, You shouldwrite a Batman storyfor us. I just said,You shouldnt say

that to me unless youreally mean it. Andhe said, No, I really mean it. Youshould follow up and write toMark Chiarello, and hell be youreditor. So I didThey had noagenda at all. It was all going tobe completely out of continuity. Itwas kind of this dream cometrue, but then youve got to figureout, Well, what was the dreamthen? What do you want to do?so I had to figure out what I could

bring to this possibly that hasntbeen brought or that I could givea special, unique perspective on.GL:How did you end up find-

ing an illustrator that could bringwhat you wanted to bring to life?

CK:Well once I decided that Iwanted it to be about architectureand design but also very much ahuman story, I had a wish list ofpeople who would be anybodyswish list of people. But I alsoknew that this was going to be amajor commitment on some-

Redesigning Batman

SeeBATMAN,Page17

Whats your take onthis version of theDark Knight? Let Richknow by e-mailinghim at [email protected] orcomment at www.go-lackawanna.com/category/infinite_im-probability/browse.html.

DID YOU GROW

UP WITH

BATMAN TOO?

INFINITEIMPROBABILITYR I C H H O W E L L S

7/31/2019 Go Lackawanna 06-03-2012

17/40


Park in 2009.Ladyfest raised over $600 for

the Womens Resource Centerand gave Meoni, and Bloom whoalso helped organize Ladyfest,the knowledge of what goes intoplanning a large event, some-thing that would come in handyfor the two the following year.

IwenttothePhilly Zinefestin2010, (and) I wanted to bringsomething like that here, said

Meoni.Meoni, Bloom and Fanelli did

just that in 2011, and it was so

wellreceivedthat they decidedtodo it again this year, and hope tocontinue it next year.

Since 2009, Meoni has worked

on zines Razzle Dazzle, UltraViolence and Spew, but at themomentmostof herenergy isgo-ing into the final preparations forSaturdays event.

The bulk of the vendors com-ing to New Visions are new this

year, with only two of the 40 par-ticipantsreturning fromlast year,making the anticipation of meet-ing everyonejustas high asit wasthe first year.

We take the time to get to

know each one of our participa-ntsandreallyseewhattheirzinesare about.Wecallthem, wewrite

them letters, so by the time thatwe get there to match up theirface with the phone call is reallyexciting, said Meoni.

In addition to the vendorsbringing their zines, the festival

will also feature some artists notinvolved with zines, includingpainters, photographers, book-binding artists, and bookmarkartists.

Following the Scranton ZineFestival, there will be a poetryreading, put together by Fanellifeaturing Fanelli, William James,amemberoftheSteelCityPoetrySlam in Pittsburgh; Steve Keat-

ing, Rachael Goetzke, Jason Lu-carelli and Go Lackawanna staff

writer Rich Howells.

TOGETHERContinued from page 14

bodys part, so obviously DarwynCooke couldnt do it. The otherpeople that I wanted to do itcouldnt do it. Mark Chiarellosaid, Theres this guy I know of,Dave Taylor, who I think could beright. He does great buildingsand he does great facial expres-sions. And I said, Well alright,Im open, and then it turned outthat Taylor had done this retell-ing of Robins origin that hadbeen written by Archie Goodwin

for Legends of the Dark Knight#100, which came out in 96 IbelieveI think he did an amaz-ing job.GL:Why architecture? Why

design? Why would that playsuch a big role in this particularstory?CK:Frankly, the title came first

because I thought I wanted tostack the deck. What will fansthink I will be able to write aboutand do a god job? Design. There

is the whole phrase of doing Xby design, and so lets add anelement of danger, so its Deathby Design. So theres the title.

Then I just started thinkingabout, OK, why does Batmanexist? Well, Batman exists be-cause theres urban injustice, andI live and work in New York City.So I started to think about,What are the examples of urbaninjustice that I see every day?

One of them was the destructionof the original PennsylvaniaStation in 1963, which was sort oftorn down kind of overnight andcaused an outcry afterwards thatbecame the movement for histor-ic preservation in New York,

which had not previously exist-edThen there were these con-struction crane collapses in thespring of 2008, when I was sortof figuring out this story, andthose were just such blatantexamples of corruption in thecity that these improperly in-spected cranes were going up andnot being properly attached orerected the way they were sup-posed to be. They fell over, and ithappened twice and killed a totalof like nine people. Just incred-ible, and it caused a tremendousamount of damage in broad day-light in one of the most affluentneighborhoods in the city. Its justlike, How could this happe-

n?And so I thought, This is ajob for Batman. This is the kindof thing that this character wouldpursue in Gotham City.GL:With design being so

important to the story, what wasit like to able to redesign whatGotham would look like? When alot of people think of GothamCity, they maybe think of the

Tim Burton version or somethinglike that where its very gothicand moody, so what did you and

the illustrator bring to this?CK:The main architectural

influence on the look that wegave it is an architectural render-er named Hugh Ferriss, who

worked in the 20s and 30s andwho also, frankly, was a greatinspiration to Bruce Timm whenthey were doing the animatedseries, which is a very sort ofmythic-looking, black-and-white,

very spare Art Deco forms with

dramatic lighting that are mas-sive and mythic. That was thereal vision for Gotham City that

we really tried to give this. Theidea is that Bruce Waynes father,

Thomas Wayne, had built thistransit hub, the Wayne Central

Station, at the beginning of the20th century, which was thissymbol of hope and functionalaspect of the city. If you werecoming to Gotham City from faraway, this would be your in-troduction to it. Heres this in-credible building, but now, as thestory starts, its fallen into dis-repair, disuse. Its going to betorn down. Theres this womannamed Cyndia Syl who wants tofight to preserve it because shesa great passionate admirer of thearchitect who made it and of thething itself and what it repre-sents. Early on in the story, shecomes to Bruce Wayne and shesort of pleads to him and she

says, Mr. Wayne, youre in aunique position to save this city.And he says to her, Im wellaware of that, and Im doing itmy own way.GL:You were also able to

redesign what Batman looks likeand what Bruce looks like to anextent.CK:A little bit. I mean, its

very, very romantic. Its very oldschool cinematic Fritz LangsMetropolis was a big influence,

Ayn Rands Fountainhead, andOn the Waterfront by EliaKazan. We based the look ofBruce Wayne on MontgomeryClift, but the hairstyle is very sortof 30s modernist, long on top,short in the back. The look ofBatman himself is very oldschool. We chose the chest sym-bol to just be two wings like inDetective Comics #27 in 1939.Other than that, its just a very

classic look, with the round beltbuckle on the front.GL:The Joker too seems to

have a distinct feel in this too.CK:The Joker is very1920s

silent movie villain, very Dr.Caligari but very dapper, very

dressed up. I loved the way Davedressed him up. Its just spectac-ular. Therere little details I couldshow you where theres a littleleather belt that goes across hismidsection, which is just classicdressing up of that era. And theboots, theyre just amazing. AndCyndia is just gorgeous myinstruction for that was shes amixture of Jackie Onassis andGrace Kelly. The reason I broughtup Jackie Onassis was Jackie Oprevented the destruction ofGrand Central Station, which wasgoing to happen in the wake ofPenn Station, and she fought forit to be saved. Its truly one of themost spectacular spaces in New

York City and it was preservedthanks to her. Its an endlesssource of inspiration, so here wasa character who did what JackieO did but looks like Grace Kellylooked, which is just heavenly.

Shes just amazing. Shes reallysmart and she gets kidnapped bythe Joker and all this damsel indistress stuff. That was a realtreat. I think theres never been aproper Lois Lane for Brace

Wayne.GL:So many great graphic

novels have been done aboutBatman. What do you want read-ers to take away from this partic-ular version of Batman?CK:Thats a really good ques-

tion. Honestly, every time I try toarticulate it, it sounds so dry andso dull and so uninteresting, butthat cities are built a certain wayfor a certain reason and that canso easily become corrupted. I see

this every day in New YorkTheultimate takeaway? I want this tobe the great old fashioned Bat-man movie from the 30s thatnever got made, and here it is ina book.

BATMANContinued from page 16

18

7/31/2019 Go Lackawanna 06-03-2012

18/40


S d J 3 2012 GOL k 19

7/31/2019 Go Lackawanna 06-03-2012

19/40


KTAutowww.ktauto.com

430 West Market St.,Scranton 346-1133

Stocking all major brands We gladly install internet tire purchases.

A division of Kelleher Tire SEE US FOR ALLYOUR TIRE NEEDS!

Check OUR MONEY SAVING COUPONS ON OUR WEBSITE! We Buy Low Mileage GM Cars!

CARS

10 Impala LT Florida Car $12,99510 HHR Florida Car $12,99509 Pontiac G-6 V6, 41K $12,99508 Impala LT 1-Owner $11,99508 Saturn VUE FWD $12,99508 HHR LS $9,99508 Malibu Hybrid, 44K $11,99508 Pontiac G-5 In Stock $10,99507 Malibu 38K $9,99506 Lucerne CX $10,99507 Impala Police Car 47K $9,995

TRUCKS

07 Uplander Cargo $7,99505 Uplander Cargo, 3 Pass $8,99505 Uplander PassengerVan $9,99503 GMC 2500 8 Passenger, 58K $9,995

PICKUPS

02 Silverado 2500 3/4 TonCNG or Gas 6.0 V-8 Auto, 2WD $11,995

from LongIsland, N.Y.), col-lected during his travels toback roads and front porch-es tucked away in obscuretowns in the south. He saidon his journeysto Mississip-pi, Arkansas, North Caroli-na, West Virginia and Virgin-ia he sought out, got toknow and learned frommany great old-time bluesmusicians, most of whomare now no longer living.

He has plenty more sto-

ries (and lots of songs) uphis sleeve for an upcomingevent in Scranton, at whichhe will teach a blues work-shop as well as give musicalperformances along withhis wife, Carol, who will ac-company him on the up-right bass.

The Faces and Voices ofthe Blues, presented by Po-coNotes, will be held at thehistoric Tripp House in

Scranton June 8, 9 and 10and feature Walkers musicand stories as thevoices ofthe blues. It will also fea-ture the photography of in-ternationally -recognizeddocumentary photographerJim Gavenus, as the facesof the blues.

Walker said of Gavenusphotographs,They area vi-sual time machine. Theyrereally wonderful...You canalmost hear the cicadaebugs cracking away in thebackground. You can almostsmell the dirt in theroad...Theyre just...visuallycompelling.

Gavenus, 47, of Kingston,recently returned from atrip to some of the sameplaces down south thatWalker visited in his travels.He too, spent time getting

toknow thebluesmusiciansthere, sitting with them intheir living rooms and ontheir front porches. He saidalthough his main purposewas to photograph the peo-ple, he preferred to first sethis camera aside and be-come friends with them.

Ittakesmoretime from aphotographers stand-point, he said. But at thesame time, I think the pic-

tures are more real, theyremore authentic, and theycapture the personality of

thepeople.And forme, thatexperience is as importantas a picture, I think, to beable tosit thereandhearthestories.

He said those experienc-esare what make thephoto-

graphs meaningful to him.Because Ive had the op-portunity to spend timewith these people, he said,theres a joy, because I canhear them talking, I knowthe conversations wevehad, I can hear the music.But theres also a bit of sad-ness, because a lot of theblues musiciansare reallyinfinancial trouble...Most ofthe guys Ive talked to,

theyve saidif someplaceof-feredthema mealanda cou-ple drinks, theyd go andplay it. And these people in-fluenced so many others,and yet, right now, theyrehaving a tough time.

Hesaidit saddens him tosee them in that position,but at the same time, theyall tell him they are happy.

Walker spoke of similarexperiences and senti-ments. He said after hestarted hanging out withand learning from peoplelike Owens and Spires, herealized most people whodo the same never pay themusicians a dime or giveanything in return for theirtime.

He said most of Owenscontemporaries were dis-coveredby traveling field re-

cording agents in the1930s,but Owens wasnt discov-ered until the 1960s, anddidnt launch offas wellasthose in the earlier days.

But still, Walker said, Itwas a real honor and I wasvery excited to meet some-body like Jack...He was myconnection to all those peo-pleI first started listeningtoin records many years ago.

Walker said he first be-

cameinterested in thebluesas a 14-year-old listening toRolling Stones records.

When he found out their in-fluences were with theblues, he set out to learnaboutthatstyleofmusic.Hesaid he was fortunate tomeet someone who was ol-der than him who played

the blues and was able toteach him a lot. He laterle

go lackawanna 06-03-2012

Documents