HARFORD: Thomas M. Maynard was born in Factoryville in 1840 and died at his home in Harford, Oct. 23, 1911. Mr. Maynard lived in Factoryville till the breaking out of the Civil War, when he enlisted in the 57th Pennsylvania Volunteers, Co. A. He saw much active service, being twice taken prisoner; the last time at Gettysburg and being imprisoned in the Libby prison. When the war was over he was honorably discharged and returned to his home in Factoryville, where in 1865 he was united in marriage to Miss Adah L. Sterling. He carried on the milling business in Harford until 1870, when he moved to Scranton and took up the same line of business in Providence. He remained there until 1888, when he and his family moved back to Harford where he has been identified with all vital problems connected with the life of the town. He was a man of strong convictions, sterling honesty and undaunted courage. Besides his wife he leaves five sons: Charles, Gilbert and Arthur, of Scranton, and Orva and Walter, of Harford. He was a member of the Baptist church.

MONTROSE: Miss Ethel Lyons, daughter of mail-carrier B. R. Lyons, has at the distinction of being the youngest rural mail-carrier in the United States. For some weeks Miss Lyons has been acting as substitute for her father, going over the 25 mile route daily and is giving the patrons of the route excellent satisfaction, to date not having made an error in handling the mail. Miss Lyons is 17 years old. She has been troubled with asthma for some time, but since taking the daily outdoor drives the asthmatic trouble has ceased its unwelcome visits. ALSO, Capt. W. D. B. Ainey was elected to Congress by a safe majority, and is receiving the congratulations of a wide circle of friends.

FRANKLIN FORKS: A. D. Fish had the misfortune to have the end of his thumb cut off in a fodder cutter. This in only one of a series of misfortunes Mr. Fish has met with. Handicapped for years by failing vision, he has undergone several operations, but received little aid. On one occasion three fingers were cut off by a buzz saw, but were grafted on, leaving the hand crippled. Three toes on his foot were cut off, while using an axe, and in an accident he sustained a broken rib and other injuries. Notwithstanding, he grittily keeps at work. As he puts it: “There’s no room on earth for a dead man.”

SUSQUEHANNA: Stephen Van Horn and Ella Baxter were quietly married at the home of Will Whitterdon, Saturday. They will spend their honeymoon at Syracuse and on their return will reside at Lanesboro. ALSO, Miss Mabel Brush pleasantly entertained the Autumn Leaf Thimble club recently.

EAST ARARAT: A very pleasant surprise party was held at the home of Mr. and Mrs. John Avery, Friday evening last, for their daughter, Delcie, her birthday being Oct. 31. There were 56 present to enjoy an evening of pleasure. In the small hours of the morning they dispersed, all declaring they had a fine time. She received quite a few presents and some money.

AUBURN FOUR CORNERS: A fine new bell has recently been placed on our school building, which makes the hour of 9 o’clock more attractive to the school children. Both teachers and pupils are to be congratulated upon the improvements they are making, as during the past few years an organ, teacher’s desk and wall clock have also been added by their efforts. We think the school board should now offer encouragement by painting the exterior of the building, which it needs badly. ALSO, in South Auburn the hunting season opened Wednesday, Nov. 1, and our woods and fields are run with men and dogs, who came in from the city. I wonder what they would say if we took the same liberties on their premises.

CLIFFORD: The Hallowe’en social and chicken pie supper, which was held in Finn’s Hall, was a success in every way, in spite of the rain. ALSO, a box social was held at the school building, for the purpose of raising money to purchase singing books for the school. There was a fine attendance and everybody enjoyed it.

HOP BOTTOM: There will be a Thanksgiving hop at the Valley View House, Thursday evening, Nov. 30, to which all are respectfully invited. Cohen’s Orchestra, of Binghamton, will furnish music. A chicken pie supper will be served at Valley View House. Don’t fail to avail yourself of this opportunity to enjoy a special evening and Prof. Cohen’s splendid music.

FLYNN: We have one young lady here who besides attending to her own courtship has the audacity to attempt the affairs of another young lady. ALSO, Lawrence Curley has his cutter [sleigh] out.

FOREST CITY: John Zuraszko, commonly known to the residents of our town as John Williams, yesterday sailed for Rome, Italy. It should be a source of pleasure to us all to think that Mr. Zuraszko has been selected by Bishop McConnell, of Brooklyn, to pursue his studies abroad. It is a distinctive mark to our public schools of Forest City, which prepared the foundation for Mr. Zuraszko's future studies. He finished the 8th grade of our public schools when his pastor the Rev. J. E. Gryczka, sent him to Chicago where he remained for two years. Later he went to Lisle, Ill., attending there for one year. A year ago he was adopted into the diocese of Brooklyn, studying at the St. John’s seminary of that city. He has now gone abroad to complete his studies at the Eternal city. He will remain there for five or six successive years, expects to be ordained there to the holy priesthood and then to return to our town to celebrate his first mass. Mr. Zuraszko’s parents reside here and are held in the greatest esteem by all classes. Although they will miss their son, they should yet rejoice at the honor that befell him.

BROOKLYN: From articles written by Jasper T. Jennings. One of the first settlers in Brooklyn (1787) was William Conrad. He was a Hessian soldier in the British army, at the time of the Revolutionary War; and deserted to the Americans. His first home in the wilderness was hurriedly and crudely fixed up by placing poles and pieces of bark against a great overturned hemlock root. Here one of their children was born, which was probably the first child born in the county. William Miller, son of Adam Miller, another early settler of Brooklyn, was born in December 1789, which was probably about the same time. Captain Bailey killed the first deer he ever saw the morning after his arrival in the Brooklyn settlement. He and Mr. Gere split some lumber from a cherry log and made them a table and bedstead. Possibly this is the only piece of furniture now in the county which was furnished by its forests and foresters in 1801. Educational facilities were not very good in those days. In most of the early districts the only branches taught were reading, spelling, writing and arithmetic. Some of the early teachers were Samuel Weston, William Weston, Edward Chapman, George Catlin, James W. Chapman, Sally Kingsbury and many others whose names are kindly remembered.

I received a written inquiry from a reader concerning the Catastrophic Loss Fund (CAT Fund). The reader indicated that he recalled the creation of the fund and that it was later eliminated, but the reader was confused as it seemed that fines were still assessed for the CAT Fund on traffic tickets and DUI offenses. For the past 12 years, I have listened to over a thousand DUI offenders get assessed a CAT Fund surcharge as part of their sentences, but I never really researched what happened to that money. The reader’s inquiry provided me with the motivation to take a quick look at the CAT Fund surcharge.

The CAT Fund was created back in early 1980s to provide medical treatment and rehabilitation services for persons seriously injured in motor vehicle accidents when those persons had no other financial ability to pay for the required treatment. The CAT Fund was initially funded by an assessment in each vehicle registration, i.e., each motorist when registering his or her automobile paid a fee that was assigned to the CAT Fund. As you might expect, this insurance program was not funded properly, the liabilities piled up, and the Legislature killed it in 1989.

As it stands now, the CAT Fund only provides benefits for injuries sustained in motor vehicle accidents between October 1, 1984 through June 1, 1989, which some limited additional coverage for accidents occurring up to December 31, 1989. In other words, the CAT Fund only provides coverage for about 5 years of potential claims from 1984 through 1989. Of course, there are other limitations aside from the timeframe of the accident. The claimant must have been a resident of Pennsylvania when the accident occurred. The CAT Fund did not cover accidents involving motorcycles, ATVs or similar types of motor vehicles.

The CAT Fund only kicks in when the treatment expenses exceeded $100,000 and there is no other available insurance coverage. The CAT Fund also requires proof that the first $100,000 in medical/treatment expenses was paid. If you are an eligible person under the CAT Fund, then you are allowed up to $50,000 of coverage per year (though this limitation does not apply to the first 18 months of treatment), and there is a lifetime limit of $1 million.

The CAT Fund is still paying out claims that accrued during its short 5 year existence. Based upon the 2010-2011 report, since its inception, the CAT Fund has paid out over $500 million for medical and rehabilitative treatment to 1,880 eligible claimants. Of that number of claimants, 112 people have reached the $1 million limit and no longer receive any CAT Fund benefits. Based upon its report, the CAT Fund is holding about $80 million in benefit dollars which was funded to it by the surcharges applied to traffic citations, DUI convictions and similar vehicle offenses through 2002.

Based upon information provided by the Pennsylvania Insurance Department, starting in 2004, the Legislature directed the CAT Fund surcharges no longer be allocated to the CAT Fund, and the CAT Fund is apparently managing to operate off the interest from the $80 million it is currently holding in a trust fund. Ironically, when I looked up the provision relating to the CAT Fund surcharge in the Vehicle Code, it still indicates that the surcharge will be remitted to the CAT Fund. It took some digging to find out where those monies are going now, and it appears that the Legislature has transferred that CAT Fund monies collected after 2004 to the MCare Fund, which provides coverage for those injured by medical malpractice and negligence where other coverage does not exist. So the traffic surcharges are now being funneled away from traffic injuries and into a fund for medical negligence injuries.

Are you wondering how much that surcharge money amounts to? Well, in each DUI case, there is a surcharge of anywhere between $50 and $300 depending upon how many prior DUI offenses the defendant has accumulated. For each speeding ticket, the surcharge amounts to somewhere between $30 and $50 depending upon how many miles per hour you were driving over the speed limit. Every year, these surcharges create tens of millions of dollars in revenue for the Commonwealth. Based upon one report, $47 million was added in 2008 alone to the MCare Fund as a result of the traffic surcharges.

The next time you get a traffic ticket with a $25 fine - and wonder how the ticket adds up to over $150, you know a little bit of the history behind one of the many surcharges built into the ticket - and where the money goes.

Please submit any questions, concerns, or comments to Susquehanna County District Attorney’s Office, P.O. Box 218, Montrose, Pennsylvania 18801 or at our website www.SusquehannaCounty-DA.org or discuss this and all articles at http://dadesk.blogspot.com/.