BROOKLYN: Dr. A. J. Ainey retired from his practice after 45 years. In 1867 he came to Brooklyn, fresh from his medical studies with his aged mother. Prior to his medical studies he was a private in Co. D, 35th Pa. Emergency Militia. He married Lila Haight, of Forest Lake, in 1874.

LENOX: Mrs. Sarah Moore Ferguson, mother of District Attorney John Ferguson, died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Jos. Sinsabaugh, in Lenox. March 25, 1912. She had been failing in health for some time and death was due to heart failure. Mrs. Ferguson was born in Ireland, March 6, 1827, coming to America and settling at Newburgh-on-the-Hudson in the same year with her parents. Later they moved to Baltimore and in 1867 came to Lenox, where since has been the family homestead. Besides the son mentioned, three daughters survive, Mrs. Elizabeth Conrad, of Lenox, Mrs. A. W. Hawley, of Harford and Mrs. Sinsabaugh. The interment was made in Tower cemetery.

AUBURN 4 CORNERS: Miss Annie Cavanaugh closed a most successful term of school here Monday. A pleasing program of music and recitations was given in the afternoon. It is with much regret that we hear that Miss Cavanaugh does not intend to return another year.

FAIRDALE: Geo. F. Frink and W. E. Barron each lost a valuable cow recently.

CHOCONUT: The Choconut Valley Creamery Co. has 100 cords of wood stacked up in readiness for next season’s business. ALSO James Moony and an assistant opened up the snow blockade on the main turnpike to Friendsville. The snow was packed in places four feet deep.

VESTAL CENTER: John L. Shore, breeder of full-blooded Rhode Island Red fowls, operated upon one of his 7-pound chickens on Saturday for the removal of the appendix, and found many full-sized eggs, some of which had shells on, and removed 12 ounces of fat.

FOWLER HILL: More snow on the ground than at any time this winter.

HOWARD HILL: Philip Hayes and Cleo Chamberlain, of the Orphanage at Brookdale, visited Mrs. Effie LaSure, Monday last. [Appreciate information on the Brookdale Orphanage. Reply to S.C.H.S., 18 Monument Street, Montrose 18801 or info@susqcohistsoc.org.]

JACKSON: A new exchange of books has been received from the Montrose Public library, and our book lovers can now be accommodated with the best literature. ALSO There is, or will be a change of operators at the Jackson Exchange, Miss Pauline Darrow having resigned and Miss Ada Dimock, of Uniondale, has been assigned the position. The Jackson Exchange seems to be a matrimonial oasis; no less than three pretty girls have fallen into the net that shy Cupid has set for them; and we soon expect to chronicle the debut of Miss Ada on the matrimonial barque.

ELK LAKE: Homer Shay has a sugar bush of nearly 300 trees in operation.

HOP BOTTOM: March 23, the mercury registered four degrees above zero, with more snow than at any time during the winter.

SUSQUEHANNA: John Buckley, who ran a clothing store in Susquehanna for over forty years, and was highly respected wherever he was known, dropped dead of heart disease March 12, 1912, on the street, on his way from his store to his home. He put in the forenoon going over inventory with a New York man, who was arranging to buy him out, as he desired to retire from business. As he almost reached his home he dropped down in front of the McGinnis residence and was dead before a doctor could be secured.

DIMOCK: The school house near Harmon Stone’s house, in Dimock twp., caught fire between the hours of 3 and 4 a.m., Tuesday morning, and burned to the ground. The cause of the fire is unknown. Miss Eva Sheridan, sister of Mrs. Thos. F. Kelly, was teaching there.

MONTROSE: Liveryman W. A. Harrington arrived the first of the week with his carload of heavy draft Missouri horses and is having fine success with them, having already disposed of 13. W. A. knows the kind that takes the eyes of the agriculturists in this locality and aims to bring back that kind. Among the sales was a handsome pair of mules to M. W. Palmer, of Brooklyn. He also sold four head to J. D. Williams Co., of Scranton.

LITTLE MEADOWS: FOR SALE: Situated near Lake ‘a’ Meadows, known as the Houghton farm, 125 acres cleared, balance in woods. Well watered, large basement barn, 30 x 76 feet; silo and wagon house, other outbuildings. Large 16 room house, fine cellar, lawn surrounded by evergreen hedge. Price $2500. Address owner, C. J. Camp, Little Meadows, Penn’a.

GREAT BEND: In a telegram received from Washington last week, William Williams was notified that he had been appointed postmaster at Great Bend in place of F. G. Trowbridge, whose commission expired in February. The appointment was confirmed Monday by the Senate. Mr. Williams is well known in this section. For a number of years he was a conductor on the Lackawanna and at present is one of the proprietors of the “Great Bend Plaindealer.”

WELSH HILL, CLIFFORD TWP.: The drama, “A Country Store” that was staged by the members of Cambrian Grange, last Thursday evening, was a complete success in every way. The play was very pleasing, the situation unique, and a Comedy well worth seeing. The amateurs acted like old-timers and kept the house in roars of laughter; there was not a poor character in the cast, everyone acted a star part. Boys and Girls, do so again. Receipts $39.35 net.

NEWS BRIEF: People who are in a hurry to tell disquieting news, or to say something that will make some one uncomfortable, or parade around with a bit of unfounded gossip, sorrow to say, are to be found in every community. For such there is splendid advice in the following lines clipped from a scrap book - If you know of a thing that will darken the joy of a man or a woman, a girl or a boy, that will wipe out a smile, or the least way annoy a fellow, or cause gladness to cloy - it’s a pretty good plan to forget it.

I received an inquiry from a resident regarding inmate litter trash crews with the request that I address the lack of such inmate efforts in Susquehanna County. If you ever travel in the Binghamton, New York area, it is very common to see inmate crews out picking up trash on the side of the road. The resident noted that he had recently seen Pennsylvania Department of Transportation workers out picking up trash and he wondered why the county was not sending the inmates out to do that work. From the resident’s perspective, it would be a lot cheaper to have the inmates picking up the litter than state workers who could be otherwise working on improving the public roadways.

Over the past several years, there have been occasions when inmate crews have been sent out of the Susquehanna County Correctional Facility to perform litter clean ups. Generally speaking, the litter crews have been organized by the institutional probation officer who oversees the work release program, and then transported and supervised by the deputy sheriffs. The logistics of these efforts is not a small feat. First, the institutional probation officer has to identify potential candidates for the litter detail. Some of the inmates have community service hours to perform and this would be an ideal opportunity to knock some of those hours out, but their discipline history in the jail has to be checked to see if they should have the privilege of leaving the facility even for a work detail. Second, there are times when none of the inmates have court ordered community service hours to perform, either because none were ordered or they performed tasks at the correctional facility to satisfy their court ordered hours. When this occurs, the institutional probation officer literally has to solicit volunteers for the work detail. In this solicitation process, the institutional probation officer has to consider community safety issues, flight risks, the inmate’s disciplinary record while incarcerated and any medical or health concerns that would prevent the inmate from working on a litter crew.

The institutional probation officer is also the work release officer, and the pre-parole officer. Which means that he is overseeing the work release program, i.e., making sure that work release inmates are working and complying with the conditions of work release, and he also has to do the investigations into any parole petitions, including checking disciplinary records at the jail, reviewing home plans, and making decisions as to whether a particular inmate is a good candidate for parole. The institutional probation officer also coordinates many of the other community service projects that request to use inmates. The institutional probation officer is not a dedicated staff member at the correctional facility. Instead, he is a full-time regular probation officer with a full case load of adult offenders on parole and probation that he is also responsible for supervising. In short, this particular probation officer has a lot on his plate.

Even when a small litter crew is put together, the question becomes whether there is anyone who can supervise the efforts. Given staffing issues, the correctional facility cannot afford to lose a corrections officer during any part of a shift. There have been occasions when members of the probation office have supervised litter crews as well as the sheriff and deputy sheriffs. Whenever this occurs, those individuals are pulled from their regular duties for anywhere between a half and a full-day. It is simply difficult to find the spare time to find manpower to supervise an extra activity such as an inmate litter crew.

On the other hand, the public has always responded well to the inmate litter crews, including folks stopping to thank the inmates for their hard work. The inmates enjoy doing the work and the positive feedback from the community that they receive is likely a strong impetus toward rehabilitation. In the past, there have been some efforts to create a part-time community service officer position with the sole purpose of organizing litter crews and other inmate-oriented community service projects. These efforts have never proved fruitful for a variety of reasons. In my view, a part-time community service officer would pay back the community many times over, not only in terms of the community service projects we could accomplish, but also through the rehabilitative effect that performing community service has on the offenders.

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/.