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Strub Gets Seat On Wolf's New
LGBTQ Commission
By Jessica Cohen
ne rang in July while he was researching possible grants for the borough. A member of Governor Tom Wolf's staff was on the line, wanting to know if Strub would serve on the new 40-member Pennsylvania Commission on LGBTQ Affairs, the first in the U.S., according to the governor's press release. Strub agreed.
"I knew it would be substantive. The governor doesn't do fluff," he said.
He surmised that he was invited because of his long history of LGBTQ activism as well as his mayoral position. Originally from Iowa, he had gone to Washington in the 1970's with political aspirations, "deeply closeted," as he describes himself then. But he later "came out" and participated in the rise of activism for LGBTQ rights and for people with HIV and AIDS. He was near death from AIDS when medical breakthroughs saved him, as he describes in his memoir, "Body Counts."
He founded and edited the magazine POZ to address issues of HIV+ people and is now executive director of the Sero Project, which he describes as "a U.S.-based national network of people living with HIV, and their allies, fighting for freedom from stigma and injustice."
"We combat HIV criminalization laws all over the U.S. and Mexico and are part of HIV Justice Worldwide, a global consortium of HIV-related human rights organizations," he said.
In late July he attended the International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam where Sero co-sponsored a pre-conference, "Beyond Blame," on HIV criminalization. A number of Sero staff members spoke at programs and plenary sessions, Strub said.
HIV criminalization, making potentially illegal certain kinds of sexual contact by someone with HIV+ status, is one issue he will bring up with the commission. Such laws are often based on misunderstandings about how HIV gets transmitted, Strub says.......For more information pick up a copy at a local vendor or subscribe.
Hip-Hop Director's
Anti-Drug Movie
Shot In Port Jervis
By Ken Baumel
PORT JERVIS — Filmmaker Gerald K. "Gee Bee" Barclay, who documented and filmed the Wu-Tang Clan (one of the all-time great hip-hop groups) for 15 years, last week co-produced, directed, and shot a low-budget independent film, "The Sixteen," in the Tri-state area.
Barclay is a Liberian born, Staten Island-raised producer, director and videographer of the Wu-Tang Clan's "36 Chambers: Enter the Wu-Tang Clan." He also has a handful of other documentaries, such as on the Ebola epidemic in Africa.
Barclay said, " 'The Sixteen' is based on real events and real people." Screenplay writers Jessica Gerlach-Petrovic and Barclay drew stories about opioid abuse from youths they knew from Staten Island, Port Jervis, and elsewhere.
Actors include Port Jervis Councilperson Gina Fitzpatrick and her daughter Taylor. Gerlach-Petrovic is Fitzpatrick's sister. Port Jervis High School student Travis Conklin has a role as well.
The film documents a sweet-sixteen party and the aftermath. Most of the youths at the event are already using illicit drugs, but at low non-addictive levels.
A negative domino effect is set in motion after a girl twists her ankle at the party. When the ankle is later infected, one of the party friends gives her an opioid drug to dull the pain. That drug use escalates and leads to an overdose. The other youths at the party also become addicted and suffer the consequences.
"The Sixteen" was shot on location in Port Jervis at Knight Auchmoody Funeral Home, Erie Trackside and the Port Jervis Middle School, and also in Middletown and Wawayanda, New York......For more information pick up a copy at a local vendor or subscribe.
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 2014, 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!
Train Wreck Spills Diesel In Upper Delaware
DEPOSIT, NY — Upper Delaware River officials released a river alert last week saying a "significant amount" of diesel fuel had spilled into the river. Subsequent reports indicated most of the fuel had been dissipated downstream as the river continued running high and fast during a prolonged rainy period this week.
A freight train derailed near Hale's Eddy Road in Deposit at 2:30 a.m. Aug. 9, spilling some diesel fuel into the New York side of the Delaware. The spill site was located on the West Branch of the Delaware between the New York hamlets of Deposit and Hancock, 75 miles from Milford.
"The contaminated water is in the northern end of the river but will make its way to the southern waters. It is recommended that visitors on the river do not come in contact with the water," stated the alert posted last week on the Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River website.
Dave Jones of Kittatinny Canoes said last week that the high water conditions would help dissipate any fuel that comes downstream and that the Milford Matamoras area "should be OK." During the recent spate of high water, Kittatinny is only renting rafts, he said.
The New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway Corp. out of Cooperstown released the following statement about the derailment:
"A west-bound train, departing from New Jersey heading [toward] Binghamton, with four locomotives and 63 railcars derailed west of Hale Eddy Road in the Town of Deposit, New York. Both crewmembers are unharmed and there are no other injuries. All four locomotives are derailed; the exact number of railcars derailed is yet to be determined.
"None of the cars containing hazmat were derailed and there were no releases or spills of hazmat material. Two of the cars that were derailed are partially submerged at one end in the West Branch of the Delaware River; both cars were empty, not carrying freight. All of the fuel from one of the locomotives has leaked from the fuel tank; a second locomotive had a fuel tank leak that was contained. NYS&W has an environmental containment company working on the fuel cleanup......For more information pick up a copy at a local vendor or subscribe.
2018 Turning Into Tough Year For Emergency Responders
By Wayne Witkowski
DINGMANS FERRY — Delaware Township emergency responders have had a tougher job throughout the year than a year ago, according to reports presented to the township Board of Supervisors during its regular meeting last week.
Chris Kimble, chief of the Delaware Township Volunteer Fire Company, said there were 189 calls from Jan. 1 through Aug. 1, 59 more than last year. There were 3,275.8 volunteer firefighter work hours during that time. He said afterward that "about 50 of the calls came during the March storms" and reported that one female firefighter was injured at that time. The calls included five structure fires and 18 automobile accidents.
The fire company will hold an open house 2-5 p.m. on Aug. 18 at 131 Wilson Hill Road. Kimble and his officers will be on hand to answer questions and there will be demonstrations of firefighting and automobile extrication. There will be water games and educational activities for children, with hot dogs and beverages served.
Ambulance Corps Report
Mary Lou Corbett, captain of the Delaware Township Volunteer Ambulance Corps, said her company responded to 534 calls from Jan. 1 through the end of June but its resources are strained.
The ambulance corps has three ambulances, one loaned from the insurance company while it assesses repairs to the corps' 2010 vehicle that was damaged skidding out on ice earlier this year. The insurance company provided a loaner and had to replace it when the first one had broken air conditioning.
A new model purchased earlier this year still awaits state inspection before it can be used. Its third vehicle is a 2003 model year.
Kyle Wright, owner of Delaware Valley Emergency Services, in his report said that the average response time for Advanced Life Support (ALS) and Basic Life Support (BLS) has improved by four minutes to 14:05. His service received 482 calls, 276 (57.7 percent) from Delaware Township. The rest came from 20 different municipalities. His service, which involves paid professionals, operates on a 40-hour-a-week schedule during times that are considered peak time frames.
Wright said, "69 percent of the calls are for an ALS level (response) from the emergency call center because of our variety of services but most get downgraded to BLS."
Wright said Pike County "is having a huge BLS crisis" saying that Medicare reimbursements are not processed for months. He later noted that the state passed increases in Medicaid insurance coverage for ALS services from $200 to $300 and for BLS services from $120 to $180.
Township Solicitor Thomas Farley took issue with Wright's report, saying there were details but no financial figures given of that service period. "How can the township decide funding if there are no financial figures? We want financial figures," Farley pressed....For more information pick up a copy at a local vendor or subscribe.
Nurse Faces Biggest Test On Mt. Rainier
By Wayne Witkowski
MESA, AZ — Milford native Nicola Ciarelli had faced some staggering challenges as a registered nurse in the emergency room at Wayne Memorial Hospital for three years and after that at Banner Desert Hospital in Mesa for the past four years as well as two relief medical trips she took to devastated Haiti.
But Ciarelli says nothing, not even her dangerous rock climbing hobby, is like what she encountered physically and mentally in her two-day climb to the summit of Mt. Rainier outside of Seattle a few weeks ago.
It was the first mountain-climbing expedition for Ciarelli, 40, and she says it's not her last.
Family and closest friends shared admiration but skepticism of why she would take the daring 14,411-foot climb.
"They were very proud of me but thought I was crazy," Ciarelli said. "It's very dangerous. No one knows why I did it."
But she fully understood why when she and two other women taking the climb with her completed the trip on July 16.
"I cried as I summited," said Ciarelli, who has to stifle her emotions in her nursing career but could not hold back this time. "There's the altitude and special breathing and the mental game where you push beyond your physical limits. I knew I wanted to summit the mountain and that nothing would stop me."
Ciarelli was part of an all-female contingent of seven hikers and four guides assigned from RMI Expeditions in Ashford, Wash. Two hikers turned back midway through the hike as some lost their vision or got sick along the way. Ciarelli said the actual fee for the climb, which includes two days of instruction, costs $1,200 and then there is the cost for gear, food and the flight.
The first of the two days covers 10,000 feet to Camp Muir. The second day goes the remaining 4,000 steep feet to the summit...For more information pick up a copy at a local vendor or subscribe.
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