FIFTY YEARS AGO, FROM THE ELMIRA “TELEGRAM:” Fifty years ago today it snowed at Montrose and Joe Gruslin, who was on a surveying expedition with a party of Lackawanna county men, was obliged to telegraph to Binghamton for aid. Twenty-five men with snow shovels started from State Street. They went via Brackney and many claimed that it was “cold enough to freeze the eyes and ears from a cross eyed Rocky Mountain Billy goat.” The party was rescued and Gruslin, who is now an engineer on the Montrose branch of the Lackawanna, often related the story. “The snow was so deep that it was up to the ordinary horses’ heads. We were lucky in getting out alive,” says Joe.

HOPBOTTOM: The contractor’s, some 20 or 30 in number, took dinner one day last week at Canfield Stone’s looking over the ground for the new cut-off from Clark’s Summit to New Milford. It is expected that the work will commence the coming summer.

BROOKDALE: The donation at J. J. Tingley’s hall was a decided success. The Franklin Forks orchestra furnished music. Several pieces were recited by Miss Mallery, of Franklin Forks, and Mrs. Jenny Fish, of Rhiney Creek. Proceeds $34.50.

SOUTH MONTROSE: A load of employees from Louden Hill Farm - the beautiful home of Mr. and Mrs. Percy Balletine, enjoyed a sleigh ride to Montrose on Saturday evening and attended the Cnic Theatre.

NEW MILFORD: Columbia Hose Co., of New Milford, will hold their 19th annual reception in the opera house on Thursday evening, Feb 15. Music for the dancing will be furnished by Livingston’s orchestra, Binghamton. A supper will be served. A number from Montrose and vicinity are planning to attend this enjoyable annual event.

FAIRDALE: About 125 people were in attendance at the social held in the pleasant home of Mr. and Ms. D. M. Roe on Friday night. It was for the benefit of the church at that place, which is prospering under the pastorate of Rev. James Lawson. An excellent supper was served and all attending had a most delightful time and were hearty in the praise of their hosts and those assisting in making the occasion such a pleasant one. The proceeds amounted to $20.

BROOKLYN: Our chances to go down to Hopbottom in a horseless carriage are bright, for our genial stage driver has bought a team of mules. ALSO, in Alford, the new Lackawanna station was opened to the pubic February 1.

HEART LAKE: Heart Lake is getting to be quite a shipping place for lumber as well as ice. There will be several hundred thousand feet shipped if the sleighing holds out. Mr. Cobb and Mr. Crossley, of New Milford, are the principal shippers. ALSO, E. L. Whitney had the misfortune to hurt his foot very badly, by dropping a cake of ice on it.

GREAT BEND: A number of old veterans and their wives made R. B. Howard a pleasant surprise last Friday evening at the home of his daughter, Miss John Flynn, the occasion being his 75th birthday. Mr. Howard received a number of presents and a very pleasant evening was spent by all. A supper was served and at a late hour the company departed, wishing him many more birthdays.

DUNDAFF: Crystal Inn, which was burned to the ground late last fall, is about to be rebuilt by the owner, Wm. Coffin, of Greenfield.

FRANKLIN FORKS: Southworth Post No. 222 will celebrate the anniversary of Lincoln’s birthday, Monday, Feb 12, in the evening, with speaking recitations and songs. All are cordially invited to attend, at Alliance Hall.

FLYNN, MIDDLETOWN TWP.: Edward Kelly is breaking horses for F. Robinson; some western horses which he bought lately. ALSO, we have no doubt but that it is more than amusing for a young lady to watch the actions or listen to a young man trying to propose to her, but if we are not much mistaken there is a young lady here who has made it as amusing as a young man ever did.

FOREST CITY: Miss Nellie Todd, of Uniondale, is employed in her brother’s jewelry store here. Mr. Todd is in New York.

LITTLE MEADOWS: W. T. Bergin was in Endicott the other day. He is a well-known Little Meadows farmer. He was at Endicott with a load of apples, which he sold at 75 cents and $1.00 a bushel, according to the quality. Mr. Bergin raised about 900 bushels of potatoes last year, a few of which he sold a 65 cents per bushel, but later has been selling them at $1.00 per bushel, and they are still higher now. The high prices make it interesting for Mr. Bergin and the other farmers who have them to sell - more pleasant for them than for the people who have to buy.

MONTROSE: George B. Felker, the soft-drink man, was calling on his trade in New Milford and Hopbottom. Mr. Felker has every modern appliance for turning out a very fine product and his trade is constantly growing. Better soft drinks are not made anywhere.

LENOX TOWNSHIP, BY JASPER T. JENNINGS - ISAAC RYNEARSON WAS AN OLD SOLDIER OF THE REVOLUTION. He came up the Tunkhannock creek from the Nicholson settlement, then called Thornbttom, in 1797, carrying his ax and gun, kettle, etc., and a pack of provisions on his back. He had stated to go to the New Milford settlement, but he became very tired under the heavy load he carried, and night overtook him in the midst of the great woods. He laid down to sleep soundly under the overspreading branches of a great hemlock. In the morning he was so well pleased with the situation that he resolved to locate there. He had cut a willow stick for a cane on leaving the Thornbottom settlement, and when he laid down at night he stuck it in the moist earth, where it took root and grew, as if to mark the spot long after he was dead, where the old pioneer passed his first night in the wilderness. It grew to be a tree of some two feet in diameter, near the present bridge in that vicinity. A few years since, the old landmark was cut down. The Rynearson family burying ground is near this spot. Isaac Rynearson kept the first well-known hotel at this place. Another Revolutionary soldier who settled here at an early date was Nathaniel Tower.

I received a letter from a reader seeking information as to whether a person who has been convicted of a crime can collect Social Security benefits. The reader believed that there were certain crimes, such as child abuse, that resulted in an automatic disqualification. Frankly, I am not an expert in Social Security law, but it was an interesting question so I did a little research.

First, a person is disqualified from receiving Social Security benefits when they are incarcerated for committing a crime. The statute actually allows the correctional facility to receive certain Social Security benefits for eligible persons provided that the correctional facility has properly notified the Social Security Administration. A fair number of defendants in Susquehanna County are receiving some form of Social Security benefits. A few months ago, we did a hearing where the defendant was seeking an early release from incarceration so that he could get his Social Security benefits started back up again in order to help to pay his mortgage so that he would not lose his house.

The prohibition against the receipt of benefits by an incarcerated criminal does not apply to intermediate punishments, such as home confinement, electronic monitor or similar programs that result in a restriction of liberty, but not total incarceration. In the example that I referred to above, the Court released the defendant from incarceration into home confinement so as to allow the Social Security benefits to be reinstated. In that particular scenario, the person had been convicted of a felony drug offense in connection with growing marijuana plants, and he was still eligible to receive Social Security benefits. Apparently, a felony conviction does not result in disqualification.

When I reviewed the statute, there was a specific provision relating to sex offenders that had been released from incarceration. It indicated that such sexual offenders were not eligible for Social Security benefits if the court ordered a civil commitment based upon the danger they posed to society. There was nothing in the disqualification statute that suggested that a convicted sexual offender could not receive Social Security benefits - the only prohibition related to sexual offenders that were incarcerated or civilly committed.

There is also a provision that disqualifies a person from receiving Social Security benefits if they are seeking to avoid arrest, i.e., on the lamb, provided the underlying offense is a felony offense. This makes sense as you would not want the government providing a fleeing criminal with the financial means to continue to run and hide from law enforcement. With today’s digital world and direct deposits, it would be pretty easy for someone to make withdrawals from anywhere from an account - and it would only stop when the benefits stopped being deposited into the account. In order to make sure that wanted persons are not provided unwitting financial aid, the statute specifically allows for Social Security benefits to be terminated.

The statute also contains a provision that allows for the termination of benefits if the person is not complying with the terms and conditions of his or her probation or parole. This obviously provides the probation/parole departments with an added stick to ensure compliance with supervision conditions. The most common condition that is violated is the payment conditions, i.e., people are not current on their payment plans and this can result in a determination of ineligibility for further benefits.

Finally, there are some state rules that may result in disqualification from benefits for a period of time. For instance, in the welfare fraud cases that we have prosecuted here, there is always a one-year disqualification from any form of public assistance, whether it be a Social Security benefit or some other form of public assistance, if the person has been adjudicated of committed some fraudulent conduct in connection with the receipt of benefits.

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/.

Networking has been much in the news of late, especially with all the excitement about the probable initial public offering (IPO) of Facebook. However, networking itself has never been limited to the Internet. Your Susquehanna County Library system has been networking for years.

Need some material housed in another Susquehanna County location? No problem. These items can be delivered to your nearest location. Need books not in our system? Arrangements can be made to borrow them from others libraries outside our area. Remember, why buy when you can borrow?

But library networking is not just limited to books. It involves the interaction between people in different communities that may have the expertise or information someone needs. Each library location is “tuned into” its community and the library should be considered as another source when you are looking for something special.

We appreciate those in the community who have taken the time to respond to the annual support drive. They have made a tangible statement showing how they value the Susquehanna County Historical Society and Free Library Association. If you have not yet done so, it is not too late stop at any of our four locations (Susquehanna, Hallstead/Great Bend, Forest City or Montrose) and pick up a support drive slip. Your donation is vital to our organization.

Being your resource for lifetime learning is very important to the Susquehanna County Library. Visit our website at www.susqcolibrary.org and check us out. Come in a meet our staff and network.

Dear EarthTalk: I was horrified to read recently that our oceans are actually becoming acidic, that the continued burning of fossil fuels is changing the chemistry of our seas. What’s going on? ~Kim

It’s a known fact that our oceans are becoming more acidic as a result of the increasingly large load of human-generated carbon dioxide (CO2) entering our atmosphere. About 25 percent of all the CO2 we send skyward out of our tailpipes and smokestacks ends up in the world’s oceans, where it triggers chemical reactions in the water column that lead to increased acidification. Researchers estimate that the acidity of our seas has increased 29 percent since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. If we do not slow down the pace of greenhouse gas emissions, our oceans could be two to three times as acidic in 2100 as they already are today, which could prove disastrous to marine ecosystems and the world’s food chain.

“When carbon dioxide is absorbed by seawater, chemical reactions occur that reduce seawater pH, carbonate ion concentration and saturation states of biologically important calcium carbonate minerals,” reports the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). These calcium carbonate minerals, typically abundant in areas where most marine life congregates, are the building blocks for the skeletons and shells of many marine organisms, from oysters to coral. “However, continued ocean acidification is causing many parts of the ocean to become undersaturated with these minerals, which is likely to affect the ability of some organisms to produce and maintain their shells,” adds NOAA. The process will not only wreak havoc on the shellfish we eat, but also on smaller marine organisms that are key components on the lower end of the marine food chain.

According to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a leading green group, coral reefs around the world may face an even greater risk than shellfish because they require very high levels of carbonate to build their skeletons. “Acidity slows reef-building, which could lower the resiliency of corals and lead to their erosion and eventual extinction,” they write. This would be an unmitigated environmental disaster, given that an estimated one million marine species depend on healthy coral reefs for survival.

“Such losses would reverberate throughout the marine environment and have profound social impacts, as well - especially on the fishing and tourism industries,” NRDC reports. “The loss of coral reefs would also reduce the protection that they offer coastal communities against storms surges and hurricanes - which might become more severe with warmer air and sea surface temperatures due to global warming.”

Researchers are working on strategies to protect aquaculture farms from further losses due to acidic water, but any large-scale effort to address ocean acidification will require the slowing down or phasing out of fossil fuels. Powering our cars, heating our homes and running our machines and appliances all require burning fossil fuels which generate greenhouse gas emissions and in turn cause acidification. Cutting back on our consumption of oil, gas and coal and switching to renewable energy sources - solar, wind, biomass and others - will be a necessary part of the strategy to counteract ocean acidification.

We can all help by driving less and walking/biking more; upgrading our vehicles, light bulbs and appliances to more energy efficient versions; patronizing companies that work to reduce their carbon footprints; and pushing our state and federal governments to enact binding reductions in CO2 pollution.

Dear EarthTalk: Is it true that cable and other pay TV boxes that sit atop television sets consume massive amounts of energy, in part because they are always on, even when the TV is off? ~Sam

We hear a lot about how much energy modern day flat screen TV sets consume, but the innocuous set-top boxes that drive them, along with their built-in digital video recorders, may be even more to blame. A recent analysis conducted by the consulting firm Ecos on behalf of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) found that “the average new cable high-definition digital video recorder (HD-DVR) consumes more than half the energy of an average new refrigerator and more than an average new flat-panel television.” Overall, set-top boxes in the U.S. consume some 27 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity. This is equal to the annual output of six average (500 megawatt) coal-fired power plants and accounts for the emission of 16 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.

Part of the reason these boxes are such energy hogs is that they typically operate at nearly full power even during the two-thirds of the time when they are not actively in use driving TV screens or recording to built-in DVRs. “As a nation, we spend $2 billion each year to power these boxes when they are not being actively used,” reports NRDC.

To make matters worse, American consumers have little if any choice about which set-top boxes they get from their cable or satellite service providers. Since the providers usually own the boxes yet don’t have to pay consumers’ electric bills, they have little incentive to utilize or develop more efficient models. In Europe, Sky Broadcasting is beginning to distribute more efficient equipment to subscribers there. NRDC is urging the largest pay-TV service providers in the U.S. (Comcast, Time Warner, DirecTV, Dish Network, Verizon and AT&T) to heed the efficiency call with their own set-top box and DVR offerings.

Redesigning set-top boxes to power down when not in use is perhaps the biggest opportunity for energy savings. “Innovation to reduce power consumption when not in active use - such as has occurred with mobile phones, which also work on a subscriber basis and require secure connections - is sorely needed in set-top boxes,” counsels NRDC. Also, re-jiggering content delivery systems so that only one main set-top box sends signals to all the televisions in the house (or to lower power “thin client” boxes) could also cut down household electric bills and carbon footprints. The group adds that “better designed pay-TV set-top boxes could reduce the energy use of the installed base of boxes by 30 percent to 50 percent by 2020.”

Last year the U.S. government released new energy efficiency standards for set-top boxes within its EnergyStar appliance efficiency rating program. While this new specification is a step in the right direction, consumers have little knowledge about such options. NRDC urges pay-TV subscribers to request that their providers make available set-top boxes and DVRs that meet the newer EnergyStar 4.0 standards. The more of us that request such improvements, the likelier they are to happen. And the cable or satellite provider that can save customers money while reducing overall environmental impact may just win over an increasingly large sector of the American people that actually cares about being green.

EarthTalk® is written and edited by Roddy Scheer and Doug Moss and is a registered trademark of E - The Environmental Magazine (www.emagazine.com). Send questions to: earthtalk@emagazine.com.