Montrose – May another protest be entered in your good paper regarding the proposed action in reference to the village green. To make paths of concrete, or any other sort, in that pretty and unique patch of verdure, to cut it up for any purpose, is to destroy one of the attractive features of this little mountain town. Let us have seats there, let the children play there, but Heaven forbid, a series of carelessly used paths! Put that same amount of money in a street watering movement, thus preventing the epidemic of dust colds which prevailed this summer; fix our sidewalks. Take care of what we have, and above all get the town water from some other source than a near by lake in which one can see cattle standing, and from which there is ever lurking danger. Let us then, take care of what we have already and spend our money for the best return. A Citizen.

Also Montrose High School has added Agriculture and Home Making to its classes.

Rush – Leo Carroll, son of Bernard Carroll, left his home July 3d last and the father is very anxious that the missing man return. Leo is 25 years old, is about 5 ft., 4 in. tall, has black hair, cut short. He is of stocky build and has a finger missing from the left hand. The young man left home giving no intimation as to intentions, or plans, and the grieved parent wishes to get in touch with him, and asks for assistance of anyone who may have knowledge of his whereabouts. Also The High school girls have organized a basketball team with Miss Agnes Brotzman as captain. Miss Amy Hughes, grammar room teacher, Leah and Mildred Stockholm, Bertha Park, Bernice Ainey, Anna Morley, Beatrice Crisman, Nellie Swisher and May Hughes comprise the team. The girls expect to do a great deal of practicing and have already made a start.

New Milford – Mrs. D. W. Shay met her death in a peculiar manner Monday night, September 8. Early in the evening she returned from a drive with her husband and was preparing for lunch. She stepped into the cellarway for something and in some manner lost her balance and fell down the stairs. Mr. Shay assisted her up stairs, but she said she was not hurt. A short time later she was seized with vomiting and a doctor was called. Mrs. Shay took the medicine as prescribed and fell asleep. After a while her husband went to call her and she was dead. Death was due probably to some internal injury. ALSO Hugh Stone has purchased the photography gallery of Wm. Cooper and will remodel the same into a barber shop.

Great Bend – The T. H. Gill Co., of Millport, N. Y., received the contract for fulfilling the state road from the New York state line through Great Bend township and borough, the contract being awarded by the Highway Department in Harrisburg last week. Work will start at once, and it is expected will be completed early next summer. ALSO Ed. L. Jones, of Binghamton, was seriously injured in an auto accident on the outskirts of town, when his machine locked wheels with a touring car coming in the opposite direction, wrecking his car. He was taken to the Binghamton hospital. Mr. Jones was returning from his summer home at Heart Lake when the accident happened.

South Montrose – Miss Mattie B. Sheen has returned to her duties as supervisor of music in the public schools at Washington Court House, Ohio. Her brothers, Earle and Terence are taking a course in agriculture at Perkiomen Seminary at Glenville, Pa. Llewellyn B. Sheen, who has been in charge of the Episcopal churches at Tunkhannock and Springville, has returned to New York city, to resume his studies at the Chelsea Square Union Theological Seminary. All are children of Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Sheen.

Uniondale – W. I. Morgan returned home Friday from Owego, where he captured first money in a spirited race, making a mark for Accolion. He has sold this well known horse to Fred Wilcox, of Deposit, for a sum in four figures. He won at every race he entered.

Forest City – The diamond of the new ball ground at the school as been plowed and partly harrowed. The boys did a fine job picking stones and helping with the plowing and harrowing. Another Saturday or two of hard work and the ground will be ready for use. In order to help pay for the team work, souvenir lead pencils will soon be on sale. Buy a dozen and help the boys. Several have suggested that we ought to fix up two or three tennis courts for the girls. Who will aid in bearing the expense?

Hopbottom – Extensive repairs have recently been made to the interior of the Universalist church by the Ladies Aid Society and in order to complete the improvements needed a special dinner, supper and entertainment has been arranged for Sept. 26. Entertainment will be given by Misses Emily Hackett (violin) and Marian Towne, of Scranton, assisted by Miss Ruth Jeffers, of Foster. Also the water company is nearly through laying water mains and is installing water privileges in many homes.

West Auburn – The primary election passed off quietly in this place. Quite a number of would-be voters found themselves disfranchised on account of failure to enroll in any political party.

Franklin Forks – Eli B. Smith passed away September 22, age 88. He had been very feeble for some time. Mr. Smith was the oldest resident of Franklin.

Springville – Our town was greatly shocked to hear that James Ball had been badly hurt while unloading props at the station and this was followed by the news that the injuries would prove fatal, death coming at an early hour Friday morning without his regaining consciousness. He drove a team for Harry Williams, hauling props from the Risley woods and brought in a load and had taken off the binders when the whole load suddenly started, crushing him to the ground. He was immediately removed to Geo. Haldeman’s house, where he died. Mr. Ball was a hard working, kindly man and leaves two sisters and two brothers. He was about 60 years of age.

Harford – Samuel Smyth passed away at his home in West Pittston, Sept. 22d. He was a native of Susquehanna county, having been born at Harford no Sept. 5, 1841, and was educated at the Harford Academy. He was married to Jennie McCollum, whose death occurred last April. Mr. Smyth moved to West Pittston in 1877, soon after inventing the duplex grate for stoves and ranges, which has since been in universal use and has made him well known to the stove manufacturing trade of the United States and Canada. He also invented many other grates for stoves and furnaces. For many years he was connected with the Pittston Stove Co. and later was on the editorial staff of the Metal Worker, a leading New York paper devoted to the metal trades.

News Brief: There are six township High Schools and ten borough High Schools in Susquehanna county. The township schools are located in Auburn, Brooklyn, Harford, Herrick, Rush and Springville and the borough schools are at Forest City, Great Bend, Hallstead, Montrose, New Milford, Susquehanna, Lanesboro, Oakland, Thompson and Uniondale.

Robert McFarlane is currently serving a life sentence at the State Correctional Institution at Mahanoy for a murder conviction. While serving his sentence, McFarlane began to solicit celebrities for autographed pictures, which he would then sell to someone outside of the correctional facility. The prison officials discovered that McFarlane was operating this little cash cow from his prison cell – and they raided his cell and seized some of his merchandise, i.e., the autographed celebrity pictures that he still had not marketed.

McFarlane was not very happy about losing his inventory – and he filed a complaint against the prison officials for violating his constitutional rights by taking his property without due process. McFarlane alleged that his damages exceeded $25,000. The Department of Corrections responded by noting that the inmate handbook specifically prohibited inmates from engaging in any business enterprise while incarcerated. If an inmate was found to be conducting business activities, the inmate could receive a misconduct and be disciplined. Because the autograph photographs were part of an illegal business, the Department of Corrections argued that they constituted contraband and were forfeit under the terms of the inmate handbook. The trial court agreed with the Department of Corrections and dismissed McFarlane’s complaint. McFarlane appealed.

On May 20, 2013, the Commonwealth Court affirmed the trial court’s decision. The Commonwealth noted that the seizure of his merchandise, i.e., autographed celebrity photos, was an internal disciplinary issue. Inmates are not allowed to collaterally attack prison disciplinary actions. If inmates were allowed to appeal discretionary disciplinary actions inside of a prison, the courts would be filled with every conceivable claim challenging prison discipline. The courts do not run the day to day operations of a correctional facility and will not micromanage and oversee routine disciplinary proceedings.

Further, the Commonwealth Court noted that the regulation prohibiting inmate businesses was a reasonable exercise of the Department of Corrections’ authority. The Commonwealth Court found that there was a legitimate government interest in prohibiting inmates from operating businesses from their jail cell, namely both safety and security concerns that would be threatened by unfettered inmate commercial activities. The Department of Corrections cannot be expected to not only provide for the custody and safety of each of its inmates, but then also monitor, inspect and supervise business activities amongst the inmates themselves as well as the public at large.

Finally, as to McFarlane’s complaint that his autographed pictures were taken without due process or compensation, the Commonwealth Court addressed that issue with a single sentence: “To the extent that the materials seized are not contraband, a claim for damages against Prison Officials cannot be maintained because they are immune from suit for actions performed within the scope of their employment.” In other words, the law protects the warden in his daily discretionary decisions when he has to seize contraband from an inmate. Otherwise, correction officers and prison officials would be looking over their back whenever they were securing a cell and removing contraband from an inmate.

Unfortunately, the Commonwealth Court opinion never identifies the celebrities who were sending a convicted murderer their autographed pictures – or even what value the pictures had on the open market. If they were generic pictures that celebrities send to anyone who makes a request, then they would have no value and the celebrities likely never even knew that they were sending material to a convicted murderer. Given that McFarlane actually had an outside purchaser for his autographed celebrity photos, the suggestion seems to be that McFarlane was somehow obtaining something valuable as a result of his solicitations – and it would have been interesting to know how McFarlane managed to get those autographed photographs.

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/.