Official Paper
More Than
Forty Years
MILFORD — Although it has been publishing much, much longer, the Pike County Dispatch has been the newspaper of record for the County of Pike for more than 40 years. That means the Dispatch is the place to go to find out about public meetings, estate notices, bids, public hearings, real estate sales and transactions, and Sheriff sales.
The Pike County Commissioners listed the Dispatch as an official newspaper for legal notices during their opening meeting of 2010, and once again, during their annual reorganization meetings on the first business day of the New Year, most of the other municipalities in Pike County followed suit. So far, Milford and Matamoras Boroughs, and Westfall, Dingman, Delaware, Shohola, Blooming Grove. Milford and Lehman Townships have made it their business to have the Dispatch as an official newspaper.
So make it your business to keep up with all the news in Pike to print, including official business and legal notices from your town.
To find out where to buy your copy of the county’s official newspaper or to subscribe for home mail delivery, click here.
The Voice Of Pike County
Since 1826
The Pike County Dispatch is not only Pike County's largest circulation weekly newspaper, it is also the oldest.
Founded as the Eagle of the North, it has been in continuous operation reporting news and covering local events since 1826. It is, and always has been, the mainstay in keeping the local citizenry informed. Today, subscribers are as far afield as California and Florida
The Dispatch has covered the historic events that have shaped Pike County for almost as long as that history has been in the making.
Over the years, hometown news has shared pages with national and world events, and world events were sometimes right here in Pike County, Pennsylvania.
Its pages carry news of joy and sorrow, homespun advice, births, deaths, marriages, spats, feuds, political controversy, scandals, murders, heists, social affairs, dedications--in short, all the news in Pike to print.
Look for the Pike County Dispatch at local news dealers, and read all about it!
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‘Share The Harvest’ Event
MILFORD — The Milford Business Council will host its third annual “Share the Harvest” dinner on Monday, September 13 at 6 p.m. in the gardens of the Laurel Villa Country Inn in Milford. The evening will benefit local food pantries and upcoming MBC charitable events.
Guests at “Share the Harvest” will feast on appetizers, salads, entrees and dessert from more than twenty local chefs and restaurants who are donating their creations to support the cause, as they enjoy the music of singer/guitarist Eric Langberg. Participating restaurants include Apple Valley Restaurant, Balch’s, Jorgenson’s at the Dimmick, Milford Dinner, Chang Mao, Tom Quick, Patisserie, Fauchere, The Grill, Two Rivers Grille, Laurel Villa Country Inn, The Water Wheel, Muir House, Village Pizza II, J&J Cafe, River Rock Inn, Fretta’s, Dunkin Doughnuts, 7th Street Coffee, Milford Dairy Bar, Irene’s Kitchen, Milford Farms, & Deerpark Ravioli.
There will also be more than thirty raffle prizes donated by generous MBC members. “We’re asking guests to bring donations of non-perishable food items,”said Kelly Wilson of Hare Hollow, co-chair of “Share the Harvest.”
Part of the evening’s proceeds, and all the food items donated, will go to the Ecumenical Food Pantry hosted by the Church of the Good Shepherd in Milford. The remainder will support MBC efforts like the December “Festival of Lights,” the Lions Club tree-lighting fund, and the MBC Scholarship Fund.
Tickets for”Share the Harvest,” at $30 per person or $50 per couple, must be purchased in advance. For tickets or to make a donation, call the Laurel Villa at 570-296-9940 or Hare Hollow at 570-296-5757.
Could DV Drug Policy Stand Up In Court?
Parents Renew
Debate About
Testing Limits
By Lisa Mickles
WESTFALL — Several Shohola parents want the current drug testing policy abolished citing that it is against the United States Constitution and violates a child’s right to privacy with one parent threatening to sue Delaware Valley School District (DVSD).
At the Aug. 19 DVSD Board of Education meeting, the issue of whether the school district has the right to drug-test students who are involved in athletics or co-curricular activities or park on the high school campus came to the forefront again.
Shohola parents Kathy Kiederer and Natalie Melchionda butted heads against the school board directors by demanding that the drug testing policy be removed. Kiederer said she will not permit her daughter to be drug-tested and because of that, she is unable to participate in the district’s scrapbooking club.
“I am asking for my children and any other parents that want to join me to have my children exempt from the drug-testing policy and be allowed to participate in all co-curricular activities,” said Kiederer.
School Board President Sue Casey said that the policy stands as is and will be in place for this school year with no changes and everyone would be expected to comply.
“Oh well, then I will take it to court,” replied Kiederer.
Kiederer said that the PA Supreme Court mandated that the school district remove and revise their drug testing policy and that the school board has done nothing about it.
Director John Fisher said her statements were inaccurate. First, the PA Supreme Court did not mandate the board to remove the policy, and two, “We as a board are doing something to rectify the situation. We have a committee that would determine what these new regulations would be but until that committee presents to us their findings, we are going to keep this policy as is,” he said...for complete story, get this week's issue.
Memorial Fund-Raiser Set For
Former Pike Solicitor, Bill Rice
By Marilyn Rosenthal
MILFORD — Friends of the late Bill Rice, a former Pike County solicitor, will host a memorial chicken barbeque fund-raiser from 1 p.m. to 5
p.m., Sunday, Sept. 19, at the Greeley Fire Department.
Rice and his wife Janet had been very active in the Greeley Fire Department and the community for many years. This fund-raiser is an outpouring of love and support for his family. Rice, 48, had been bravely battling leukemia for more than two years, including two bone marrow transplants, but he succumbed on Saturday, Aug. 28. Rice’s friends hope to raise money to help cover some of the tremendous expenses this illness has put upon the family.
Rice, a cum laude graduate of Gannon University (Erie, PA) and Dickinson School of Law (Carlisle, PA), clerked for Judge Harold A. Thomson, Jr., President Judge of the Pike County Court of Common Pleas. Rice was also a Pike County Public Defender, before he became Pike County Solicitor. At one point he was a former partner with Arthur Ridley at Ridley & Rice. He most recently was an attorney at Weinstein, Schneider, Kannebecker, & Lokuta.
Friends and legal associates of Rice describe him as a gentleman, a scholar, and a true professional with a great sense of humor. He was also treasurer of the Greeley Fire Dept. and very active in the church and community. It has been said that Rice always had time for people. One of his friends described him as “a lawyer that people actually loved.”
Rice leaves behind his wife Janet and his four daughters: Keyne, 20, Margaret, 17, Natalie, 13, and Emily, 10.
The family will be grateful for all supporters of the fund-raiser. Tickets to the barbeque are $10 per adult, and $5 per child. They will be available at the Honesdale National Bank offices at the Lackawaxen and Lake Wallenpaupack branches. You can also purchase tickets by calling Harry Kessler at 570-685-7394 or Frank Impastato at 570-685-4940.
There has been an account set up at the Honesdale National Bank to help the family to cover the medical expenses. Checks should be made out to “Bill Rice Benefit,” Honesdale National Bank, PO Box 192, Lackawaxen, PA 18435.
See obituary.
Sprinkler Regulation Will Hurt Housing Recovery, Builder Says
By Chris Jones
MILFORD — The president of the Pike County Builders Association (PCBA) says a recent court ruling mandating installation of sprinkler
systems in newly built homes will retard recovery from the housing slump.
On Aug. 25, the state Commonwealth Court ruled that the process used to adopt the 2009 edition of the International Residential Code, including the residential fire sprinkler requirement, was constitutional.
The Pennsylvania Builders Association (PBA) wanted to roll back the 2009 code to the 2006 version, saying that the estimated added cost of the 2009 code changes to a new home in Pennsylvania would amount to $13,000, between mandatory sprinklers and other requirements.
The new code mandates that homebuilders must install sprinkler systems in all newly constructed one- and two-family homes beginning this January.
“For every $1,000 the price of a new home goes up, we lose another buyer,” said Len Crescimanno, owner of Cresci Construction and president of the PCBA.
He called the new mandates “overkill,” saying builders are focused on stopping fires through using dry wall, fire blocking and smoke alarms.
“Older houses are the issue, not new houses,” Crescimanno said.
Speaking specifically of the Pike County market, he said, “We have a totally different problem with vacation homes, because water is usually drained from the system when they are closed up.”
This would require an auxiliary tank for fire protection, he said.
The PBA has 30 days to appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court, but they said the judicial process leading to a reversal could take all of 2011...for complete story, get this week's issue.
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