Wellsboro Gazette (Newspaper) - July 27, 1994, Wellsboro, Pennsylvania Inside The MARKETPLACE Legion wins award Riding through hills Baseball camp at MU Gardener divulges secrets 1 2 9 Pg. 13 High Low July 20 82 21 86 22 82 23 80 24 80 25 80 26 74 64 68 66 66 60 60 60 The Wellsboro 65' per copy Total for July 4.04 119TH YEAR NO. 38 JULY 27, 1994 Citizens vent anger over sheltered workshop closing by Natalie Kennedy Over 100 area residents who gathered to express concerns about the closing of a sheltered workshop for mentally and cally disabled workers in were challenged to form their own sheltered workshop at a meeting last At the July 26 town about 125 individuals gathered at First Presbyterian Church in Wellsboro to discuss the closing of Partners In Progress and transporting 15 developmentally disabled persons to an Despite assurances from John administrator of the Tioga County Human Services that the move was only many of the crowd ex- pressed anger that it happened at Several were upset that a con- tract could not be negotiated at the end of the June for the con- service through Partners In managed by Hope Enterprises Inc. of The contract was not renewed when Hope Enterprises re- quested funding totaling from the The county offered a ence of said one referring to pulling the workers from the county over the may acknowledged where is the coming and me and everybody else in the county has got to pick it responded the where does it Kravas Many also expressed tion to the two-hour transport that the former Partners in Progress clients are required to undertake daily to and from the New York state sheltered workshop where they are now Kravas acknowledged that dislikes the long He said he had urged Partners In Progress to change the workshop remove itself from the Wain Street building with its costly upkeep and develop smaller enclaves of workers so that those from Cowanesque ley were not traveling an hour to get to we are interested in more than anything else and I hope you are too is what is in the best interest for these said we transport half our clients to other areas of the county 50 to 60 utes away and we limit the type In Wellsboro School District Board approves 3-year pact with teachers by Natalie Kennedy A three-year contract granting an average 3.9 percent annual wage increase to members of the Wellsboro Education Association was approved by the Wellsboro Area School Board last Directors voted 5-1 to approve the contract at a meeting on July 20. The meeting last week came about as a result of the adjournment of a July 12 Voting in favor of the year which provides salary increases of 3.6 percent for members in the 1994-95 school year and 4.1 percent in- creases in each of the two re- maining years of the were Dolores Linda Lenore Theodore Compton and John Harold Frantz cast the sole dissenting Board members Jerome Craig Horton and Clifford Ruland did not attend the The new contract will expire June 30, 1997. think this is a fair said the chief were probably things on both sides they would like to see but there wasn't a clear winner or clear loser and that's the way contracts should money is in the neighborhood of where most contracts are being settled he Members of the Wellsboro Education Association ratified the agreement by a vote of 74-9 just prior to the The 134-member union consists of guidance school nurses and librarians in the school according to the association's chief Charles The economic times indicate and both sides felt this was a reasonable Jacobson Negotiations began in early April and negotiators have con- to meet he This is the first time in recent years that the contract was so close to the expiration of the prior Jacobson a credit to both tions that we were able to do The starting salary for district teachers with a bachelor's degree will be for the 1994-1995 school The peak for teachers with a master's degree and 15 years or more service with the district is set at for the upcoming school for teachers with a master's degree who have taken an tional or 60 credits of con- peak salaries increase respectively to and For 1995-1996, salaries will range from to And in the final year of the starting pay is set at and peaks at The new pact continues sions of the old agreement with few said tors for the district and teachers in a joint press The current career ladder was dropped in lieu of an expanded salary differential for advanced course In the ers moved ahead one step on the ladder each up to the 15th For a teacher would be hired at step The following the teacher would advance to the step two pay With the new ers are frozen at the current step for the duration of the The only other major language change involved travel cals and restricting their use by the second year of the In other the board unanimously voted to have tor Robert Cox Jr. withdraw the Antrim Mining tax assessment Board grants Kelchner contract extension by John C. Heverly Mansfield University dent Rod C. Kelchner has had his contract extended through June 30, 1997. At its quarterly meeting this past the Board of nors of the State System of Higher Education voted to extend contract for another According to Scott press secretary for contract extension was proved unanimously 19-0. Shewell stated that one of the governors on the 20-mem- ber board was absent due to Under his present who has presided over MU since being named interim president in the summer of 1983, earns per Shewell said James H. chancellor of the State tem of Higher vided the board with information from the presidential review which included reports from faculty and alumni to MUs council of At its meeting last the MU trustees deadlocked at five votes each with regard to ing a favorable review of performance to Two reports regarding one favorable and one were issued to mick the council of the Shewell said that mick's recommendations to the board with regard to the sion of the contracts of both Kelchner and fied system president were made in an executive session as a he was not privy to the information included in the chancellor's report to the Shewell did The board of governors reviewed the actions taken by Mansfield University's council of and while they gave great weight to the the board ultimately voted to extend the president's con- Shewell The board of not the council of is the employer of and the ultimate arbiter of mance by system MU Council of Trustees Vice Chair Merle L. an MU alumnus and ardent supporter of was asked for his im- pressions on the state I'm very pleased that the board of governors has taken this said McCalips is not only in his favor that such a show of support was but it is in the best inter- ests of the Now that this issue has been I hope the president and the council can move ahead and start working Thomas M. MU Council of Trustees Chair and a tor of was contacted for his A secretary at Ford's place of employment Ford has said he will not be taking any calls from The Wellsboro Cynthia M. MU Council of Trustees who prepared the unfavorable evaluation of was con- for her response to the chancellor's Vennie indicated that she was disappointed that the chancellors office had not apprised her of the vote and that she had learned of it from another newspaper re- I don't know what all took I only hope that the board of governors was given all the by I mean that each member was given a copy of the report that ex- the reasons for our she Vennie was asked if that un- favorable report contained mation in addition to the report presented to McCormick at an executive session in August 1993, which detailed a list of purported failings as uni- versity Among other that re- port charged Kelchner with and other unfair nel Vennie tive of although we included some of the concerns that were brought to us by the AFSCME of County and Municipal representatives before our last Vennie refused to elaborate on the specifics with regard to any new revelations against The Gazette was unsuccessful in its attempts to contact trustee Dayton A. Brown of Elkland about a news article that ing in an daily newspaper that quotes Brown as get a fair and ased investigation on any we may have to resort to the U.S. Attorney At last month's meeting of the council of Brown im- plied wrongdoing on the part of the university's administration and requested telephone and turn to page 12) Prison to get in-house cooking by Natalie Kennedy The Tioga County Prison discussion at yesterday's meeting of the county Warden Ralph Youmans brought several matters to com- missioners for discussion and action including contracting for an inmate telephone con- a prison ing inmates pay a share of their doctor's operating the prison kitchen and repairing the prison The county agreed to hire Lyle Sumner as cook manager and Mary Ollikainen as a full-time cook to operate the prison Sumner will receive per hour and Ollikainen will earn per Both will work 40-hour work The county currently con- tracts with Broad Acres Nursing Home to provide meals for in- The facility will be fied immediately of the county's intent to terminate the contract The new employees will begin at an undetermined com- missioners Meals will be phased in by the new employees until all cooking is done at the Commissioners also approved a one-year contract with Dr. Ivan Brechbill of Wellsboro to provide medical services and a 24-hour service for emergencies at the prison For this Brechbill will receive an annual fee of to be paid monthly Youmans also announced that he will begin researching and writing a policy that would re- quire inmates to pay a minimal fee for doctor and dentist and Many prisons already have similar policies in said By having inmates pay a minimal it cuts down on reduces the number of un- necessary visits and helps avoid overtaxing the medical staff In Rome the mini- mal fee has cut sick calls by as much as 90 Youmans No inmate will be refused treatment under the he con- Indigent inmates will have a negative balance entered in their If they do re the balance will be determined Medical emergencies will not be charged to Inmate will also continue to receive frw medical and dental service prior to admission to the Youmans suggested a for dentist and doctor sick calls and a fee for prescriptions He will bring a policy back to commissioners for consideration at a future Commissioners approved a request from Youmans to renew a contract with Business Systems Inc to run 1 through July 31, 1998. BTS will install 10 inmate telephones at no cost to the With the inmates may call collect to or The phone system relieves wardens from acting as tele- phone added In addition to the a computer will be installed which includes a photo imaging system The prison takes instant photographs at a cost of per The imaging system would the cost to 1 cent per Youmans said In a the county will ably save in photograph he said In commissioners approved a request from mans to seek bids to repair the prison The warden received an estimate of from Chilson Brothers of Middlebury Center to repair the problem since the cost is over state law requires the county seek bids of work they we do them a disservice and Kravas challenged those present to work with the agency and the county to come up with a local plan for these incumbent on the community today is to do thing local so we can bring the clients home and give them something something more than they Kravas The problem with creating a turn to page 12) photo by KENNEDY Courthouse face lift CREWS FROM ANDEREGG'S Decorators brighten the Tioga County Courthouse with a coat of white paint on window columns and The project was originally scheduled for 1993, but workers were unable to start the project last County officials blame illegal dumping on WASD contractor by Natalie Kennedy The alleged perpetrator of il- legal dumping activity on owned property will answer charges at a hearing Aug. 2, at in District Justice William Farrell's boro According to Commissioner Walter G. Lobar Con- tractors of Dillsburg was gered as the culprit following some amateur sleuthing last July 20. Last Chief Clerk Derek Williams announced that someone was illegally dumping construction debris on owned property located above the prison on Shumway Hill Materials included cinder stair tread and wire The next iams and George a Shumway Hill went up and looked at George was kind of said Derek and I got back to the George was He'd been maging around and found dence that led us to Charlotte Lappla The evidence included a board box filled with construction waste and bearing the address of the A piece of stair tread matched some found at the school Barnes The county has since filed and requested an injunction against Lobar the company hired by the district to oversee renovations at the elementary and Rock L. Butler Middle to have them stop ing and remove materials dumped In the county plans to install a gate to prevent future misuse of the we hadn't found out who it the taxpayers would have had to pay for of Barnes Visitor center funding unlikely by John C. Heverly A proposed visitors center along U.S. Route 15 is not likely to get funding from a federal highway program administered by the Pennsylvania Department of According to Ron gram coordinator for the Trans- portation Enhancement Program the grant application pre- pared by the Tioga County Corporation for federal Intermodal Surface tion Efficiency Act ing was given very low by the department's Trans- portation Enhancements sory Committee during its July 15 review session grant which was reviewed and highly recommended by the Northern Tier Regional Planning and De- velopment Commission before it was finally sub- mitted to the requested over million in funding from the federal highway program ad- ministered in this state by The advisory committee is comprised of 24 senting various public interest federal and state cies and planning organizations throughout the was actually surprised at how low a priority it was given by the advisory said Myers Director Fred who serves as pon with the Route 15 Coalition turn to page 12)
