Montrose – Sunday morning dawned warm and quiet, although the air was heavy and it seemed that March first had “come in like a lamb,” but by two o’clock in the afternoon a light snow had commenced to fall. By three o’clock, the wind had risen and from then on the storm seemed to quickly gain intensity and Sunday night was one of the wildest ever seen in this locality. The wind by this time had veered to the West and came with terrific force. Windows were blown in, blinds torn off, and some buildings were unroofed. Buildings were rocked and the occupants put in a night of apprehension and fear. Trains: No trains entered or left Montrose Monday nor Tuesday. Lehigh Valley passenger train on up trip Sunday afternoon got stalled in the snow drifts just South of South Montrose and the fire had to be drawn from the locomotive. A big snow plow came up from Tunkhannock Monday but got disabled near Lynn and a third relief engine, from Tunkhannock, also got stuck in the snow. All three engines were helpless and had to draw their fires. Stages: The first stage to get into Montrose, after the storm, was from Rush. After a hard day’s travel it reached here at 5 p.m. Tuesday and was obliged to remain overnight. The Franklin Forks stage got in Wednesday morning for the first [time]. The road to Forest Lake is completely filled up, it is said, and the
Forest Lake stage may be a day or so in getting in. Mail: All the rural mail carriers have been unable, as yet, to make their regular trips, although efforts have been made each day to do so. Yesterday Carrier Olin Tingley walked to Heart Lake delivering what mail he could. Carriers Sechler and Palmer went to Fairdale yesterday and took down a lot of mail for sections nearby. Carriers Smith and Lyons got out a few miles and made deliveries where possible. Storm stories: One of the highest drifts reported is near the Village Hall. It is about 15 feet high. Frank Cole, of Tiffany, had a barn partially unroofed by the hurricane; the large ice house at Heart Lake suffered considerably in the big wind storm. A part of the roof, 30 ft. square, was blown away and a portion of the cupola torn off. The Beach Mfg. Co. had to shut down this week, being unable to get a supply of coal. Probably one of the highest snow drifts in the county was at the M. J. Harrington farm near Watrous Corners. A high bar of snow was swept at right angles across the road, connecting the house and barn. It is said that one could pass from the house to the roof of the barn on the drift’s crest. John W. Gardner, of East Bridgewater, was one of the first visitors in town Monday morning, and managed to get here by walking on the tops of stone walls. In South New Milford the severe blizzard filled roads full to overflowing. Drifts for long distances were 4 to 6 ft. deep and piled up around houses and barns up to 18 ft. deep. Many can’t get their stock out as doors are banked up and several had to shovel tunnels from house doors to get out side. Scranton reported five persons frozen to death and five deaths occurred in Philadelphia.          If it were not for our telephone communication, which held good in the majority of instances, the storm of the first of the week gave us a fair idea of primitive conditions in times when there was no means of communication by horse, post or train. News from the outside world was eagerly sought for as we missed our daily paper and got real hungry for news, something which we thought almost impossible in this day of the sensational press.

Thompson– Rev. Purington [Perrington] R. Tower, aged 81 years, one of the best known Methodist clergy men in the Wyoming Conference, died at his home in Thompson on Friday morning, Feb. 27 [or 26], 1914. He suffered a stroke of paralysis several years ago, from the effects of which he never recovered and for some time he had been in failing health. The well-known clergyman, during his 46 years of service in the ministry, had always held charges within his conference and his labors were in adjoining localities, namely Lanesboro, Jackson and Gibson. Since 1896 he had been on the retired list but his activities were only lessened, as he had been frequently called upon since that time to act as a supply. Rev. Tower was a Civil War veteran of Co. F, 203rd Pennsylvania Infantry. Funeral services were held at his late home Sunday afternoon, the body being taken to Tower cemetery at Lenox for interment.

Heart Lake – The Ladies Aid of the Baptist church gave a surprise to Mrs. Lucy Cobb and sewed her carpet rages.

Springville – John Maryott, wife and children, of Red Lodge, Montana, are visiting friends here after an absence of several years. He went west thirty-three years ago and this is his third trip east. His wife was formerly Miss Nellie Luce, of Lynn.

Herrick Center – Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Potter and child, of Pleasant Mt., returning home from a visit with Mr. and Mrs. Fred Jones, of West Herrick, were overturned in the drift in front of the home of Will Davis, at Lowe Lake, and were still staying with the Davis family when last heard from on Wednesday.

Susquehanna – Benny Borne had his eye put out in the Erie Shops Saturday by a flying piece of steel. ALSO Misses Helen Smith and Clara McNamara (of Lenox) graduated as trained nurses from Dr. Burns’s hospital, in Scranton, last week.

Hallstead – B. F. Brooks and Lynn Merrell have taken the agency for the Chevrolet automobile. They have a car load of the cars ordered and will display them in Clune’s garage.

News Brief: A bridegroom is a person who spends a lot of money buying himself a wedding suit that nobody notices. ALSO J. H. Armstrong, superintendent of the Borden milk station, in speaking of the snowstorm of this week, states his belief that we have had nothing like it since the terrible blizzard of 1888. At that time the city of New York was held in the grip of the storm for days. No produce or milk could be shipped in and exorbitant prices were paid for food. One well to do attorney, the father of a pair of twins, paid $400 for four quarts of milk to keep his children from starving.

Bucks County Commissioner Diane Marseglia recently told an audience at a Lower Bucks County Chamber of Commerce event that the most important issue facing Bucks County was the growth of heroin distribution and use in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She described heroin usage as something that had grown to “epidemic proportions.” The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Commissioner Marseglia noted that 60 percent of the admissions to the county treatment were for heroin use – and that 63 people overdosed in one month from the use of heroin – but miraculously there was only one fatality out of that group.

Bucks County is not alone. The Inquirer went on to note that Delaware County District Attorney Jack Whalen had reported 52 heroin overdose deaths in Delaware County in 2012. As I noted a few weeks ago, we have already had a number of heroin overdose deaths here in Susquehanna County – and since I wrote that column, we have added to that number. Another news report from Cambria County disclosed that the Cambria County Coroner has logged almost one overdose death per week in 2013, and the Crawford County Coroner saw a 22% increase in drug overdose deaths in 2013.

The Pennsylvania District Attorney’s Association (PDAA) recently considered the heroin epidemic in Pennsylvania at a roundtable discussion in Washington County. Cumberland County District Attorney David Freed, the president of the PDAA indicated that “heroin is a drug that devastates everything in its path.” He also noted that too many Pennsylvanians end up with a heroin addiction as a result of prescription drug abuse.

The PDAA has requested the legislature to provide law enforcement with an enhanced prescription drug database that could be utilized to better track prescription drug abuse. The idea would be to get to allow law enforcement to get to the problem earlier – and hopefully the earlier intervention would lead to a better treatment success rate. Freed noted that heroin is a national problem – but it has hit Pennsylvania particularly hard. Pennsylvania’s treatment centers have seen more heroin users than any of the other states except for California and Illinois.

In 2012, the Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs was created to review the issues surrounding substance abuse. Gary Tennis, Secretary of the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs, recently told a legislative committee that drug overdoses has now overtaken automobile accidents as the leading cause of accidental death. The Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs has now created guidelines for physicians to follow when treating patients for pain. Tennis described the common problem that led to prescription drug abuse: patients getting too many painkillers – or getting refills that were not needed – and the end result was an atmosphere where prescription drug abuse would thrive.

This is the reason that the PDAA is seeking the legislature to provide law enforcement with a tool that would allow investigators to red flag potential prescription abusers based upon prescription date maintained by pharmacies. The County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania (CCAP) has indicated that the prevention of substance abuse and drug overdoses was a priority in 2014. CCAP has also advocated the implantation of “a prescription drug monitoring program and database, based on real time data, so that prescribers and pharmacists can be assured that individuals who legitimately need pain medication have access while identifying potential abusers.”

Freed was right – heroin use or opiate prescription abuse is a tornado – it is destructive to everything it touches – the user, the families, neighbors, and the entire community. Last week, we put another young man in jail for violating his probation – he had overdosed and his mother gave him CPR and kept him alive until the paramedics arrived. At the hearing, his mother cried as she recounted her son’s overdose – and the terrible path that opiates had taken her family down. While there is no silver bullet, the PDAA and CCAP proposal is a reasonable step in the right direction.

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/.

“Whether the eave-drops fall/Heard only in the trances of the blast, or if the secret ministry of frost shall hang them up in silent icicles, quietly shining to the quiet moon.” – Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Where In The World Is “Flat Stanley”?

International traveler “Flat Stanley” has been

touring various parts of Susquehanna County during his 50th birthday month. He has been spotted, as was previously recorded, going to the County Courthouse with Co. Commissioner Alan Hall, as well as checking out the Juvenile Fiction section in the Main Library in Montrose, trying out Mayor Nancy Hurley’s chair in the Borough of Susquehanna Depot Council Room, learning about the local real estate market with Hallstead/Great Bend Librarian Angie Hall, checking out his own book with a group of friends in both the Forest City and Susquehanna Branches, and perched on the elephant’s trunk waiting for young patrons to come and check out books in the Susquehanna Branch.

In all seriousness, Springtime is a fine time to introduce your family to your local Library Branch and all of the adventures it holds. Many other famous literary characters await you on the shelves. Reading aloud stimulates a child’s imagination and encourages them to read on their own.

The Susquehanna Branch Library is raffling off a very nice prize for all those who love cozy mysteries and especially fans of Author Joanne Fluke. A cream-colored metal picnic basket contains an autographed hard-bound copy of Ms.Fluke’s latest “Hannah Swensen Mystery” entitled “Blackberry Pie Murder”,

A paperback copy of “Red Velvet Cupcake Murder”, an aluminum pie pan, a pie server, a set of measuring spoons, a teakettle-shaped kitchen timer and a five-dollar gift card (perhaps to use toward another “Hannah Swensen Mystery??”), all coordinated with a blackberry and white checked napkin. Many thanks go out to the kind and generous staff at Kensington Publishing in New York for donating such a timely basket of goodies as Ms. Fluke’s book has just been released on Feb. 25th. If you are a fan of Hannah and her Lake Eden sleuthing and cookie café, you know that every volume in the series has lots of tasty recipes included in its pages. As with the “Red Velvet Cupcake Murder”, one of my cookie recipes has been included. I am honored to be known in the book as Lisa’s Aunt Nancy.

Please stop by and purchase your raffle tickets soon. Tickets are 1.00 each or 6 for 5.00 and the drawing will be held on March 31st.

All proceeds benefit the Susquehanna Library Branch. You can’t win if you don’t play!

Computer classes will be held at the Susquehanna Branch Library in the month of March. If you have wanted to learn the basics and beyond, here’s your chance. If you are interested, please stop in or call and speak with Laura, Pam. Elizabeth or Deb and they will be glad to sign you up. Watch this column for more details.

While I wish to see sprigs of green grass and only watch another r0und of snow squalls pass by the window, I leave you with this thought:

“How beautiful it was, falling so silently, all day long, all night long, on the mountains, on the meadows, on the roofs of the living, on the graves of the dead!”~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Sledding –School Delays—Warm Quilts

ENJOY!!