LUZERNE COUNTY IN 1940

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Gaining State-wide attention because of the part it played in volunteer military service enlistments as well 
as efficient conscription of some 60,000 draftees, Luzerne County in 1940 also led many sections in defense 
contracts.  But it was not all "war drum" publicity Luzerne County received.  During the year highway 
improvements were completed, civic organizations reached a new high in activity and Wilkes-Barre was host to 
50 conventions.

Uncle Sam's Army obtained nearly 1,500 recruits from Wilkes-Barre and vicinity.  These recruits joined at the 
recruiting station in Federal Building, which was in command of Staff Sergeant Joseph R. WEIMAR.  These 
recruits entered all branches of service.

In June, the U.S. Marine Corps sent a recruiting detail to Wilkes-Barre, in charge of Sgt.  William W.C. BLACK, 
and ended the year with recruiting tally of 200 men.

Luzerne County signed 60,000 draftees on National Conscription Day, October 16 and these men were placed under 
the control of 19 draft boards, comprised of three board members, one government appeal agent and a medical 
adviser.  Wilkes-Barre was made the center for induction of conscripts from a 17-county area.

A half-dozen agencies of government coordinated efforts to make possible the retraining of machinists and 
machine operators by holding sessions in machine shops at G.A.R. and Meyers High Schools.

In August, the U.S. government announced that Route 11, which goes through the heart of Wyoming Valley, was 
one of a dozen highways which had been designated as those to be called into military service first, should a 
national emergency rise.


Defense Orders for Valley


More than $50,000,000 worth of contracts went to Luzerne County firms and American Car and Foundry Company, 
Berwick, which employs a large number of county residents.  Highest contract in the county area went to 
Barnard Aviation Equipment Company at Ashley, which is making $1,083,439 worth of ammunition accessories, 
bomb hoists and fire control equipment.  Other firms receiving contracts from Army and Navy Departments were 
Freeland Manufacturing Company, work suits; Duplan Silk Corporation, Hazleton, cartridge cloth; American Chain 
and Cable Company, Wilkes-Barre, cables; Wilkes-Barre Lace Manufacturing Company, mosquito netting; Hess 
Goldsmith and Company, ammunition components, and Cohen-Fein Company, worsted shirts.


County Takes Real Estate

Despite numerous postponements Treasurer's Sales of county properties for taxes were held during the year.  
At the first sale on February 28 the county commissioners were forced to buy 6,500 of 6,700 properties listed 
for sale for delinquent taxes of 1929 and 1930.  Sale of delinquent properties for 1931, 32, 33 and 34 were 
merged into one sale held July 9, at which time the commissioners took custody of 6,000 of the approximately 
6,120 properties in the sale.  A real estate bureau was created by county commissioners to handle the 12,500 
properties, which remain in control of the original owner until the two-year redemption period expires.  No 
more than 50 redemptions were made to December 1, according to Real Estate Bureau Statistics released by Harry 
FARRELL, head of real estate bureau.

In October, Edward OLCZAK, former Duryea tax collector, was sentenced to serve three to six years in Luzerne 
County Prison by Judge W.A. Valentine after he pleaded guilty to misappropriating money paid to him for taxes 
on Duryea properties.  Under the terms of the sentence, OLCZAK is to impoverish himself in making restitution 
before a parole will be considered.  County commissioners told the court the speculation of tax funds alleged 
to OLCZAK totaled $26,000.

State Highway Department, aided by WPA grants and other forms of Federal relief in most instances, carried on 
an extensive program, the largest being the relocation of East End Boulevard to eliminate the Hairpin Curve.  
The new links between Trucksville and Tunkhannock, through Dallas, will be completed with the starting of the 
new year.  Berwick to Shickshinny section of highway was improved, as well as the section between Shickshinny 
and Hunlock Creek.

On July 12, the Public Utility Commission was asked to approve the merger of Wilkes-Barre Railway Corporation, 
operating company, and Wyoming Valley Public Service Company, original owner, into a new Wilkes-Barre Railway 
Corporation.  If the merger is approved, the resulting operating company plans to give trackless trolley 
service over 65 per cent of the street railway trackage operated by the railway corporation.  Latest line to 
lose street cars was that to Miners Mills, busses taking over temporarily on October 20, pending PUC 
permission to use trolley coaches.  Street car tracks were removed on North Pennsylvania Avenue from Market 
to Scott Streets in October.

One of the most outstanding highway improvements, insofar as Wyoming Valley motorists are concerned was the 
removal of street car tracks and the paving of Wyoming Avenue from Kingston to West Pittston.

With the Wilkes-Barre Wyoming Valley Airport classified as an important national defense air center, officials 
during the year worked on a plan to build a dike along the river end of the flying field and enlarge the field 
by relocating Wyoming Avenue.  Under the new plans the airport would take in all of the territory now covered 
by Wyoming Avenue, which would be sent along a route nearer the mountains.

These plans later were held in abeyance when federal aeronautics inspectors suggested a site in Pittston 
Township, east of Avoca Borough, for an entirely new airport, to be shared by Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, 
Lackawanna and Luzerne Counties, under government sponsorship.

Typed by Gail Elm,  May 2004

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WILKES-BARRE IN 1940

For the third straight year, Wilkes-Barre faced a sizeable deficit at the end of 1940.  City Council, urged by 
Councilman Tom A. EVANS, Superintendent of Accounts and Finance, voted to authorize a bond issue of $110,000 
to help pay off temporary loans amounting to $275,000 made necessary to continue city government.  He 
recommended that the 1941 tax rate be continued as it was, 14.5 mills.  Unless the bond issue were floated, 
EVANS told Council, it would be necessary to increase the tax rate at lease 1.5 mills.  Tax rate was set at 
14.5 mills.

At the end of 1939 the city was $200,000 in debt, raised the rate from 13 to 14.5 mills and floated a bond 
issue of $100,000.  Deficit in 1938 was $95,000.

Reduction of assessments by one million dollars in 1940 forced the City Council to base its estimates for 1941 
upon a valuation of 83 million dollars.  EVANS also proposed that revenue from taxes be estimated on the 
collection of only 85 per cent of the duplicate, rather that 90 per cent as had been estimated the year before.

Tax Collections Lag
Reasons given by EVANS for the $275,000 temporary loans included:  failure of the Commonwealth to pay the city 
$90,000 from liquor license revenues until June, 1941; failure to receive from the County Institution District 
an estimated $68,500 for rent for Retreat properties and need to transfer $40,600 to complete swimming pools 
and other improvements authorized under the 1938 bond issue approved by the voters.  In addition, the 
anticipation of 90 per cent tax collections left the city $64,000 short.  As of November 1, 1940, only 79 per 
cent of the taxes had been collected.

Outstanding events in the city government during 1940 included:

Sudden death of two police sergeants, John RITTENMEYER on June 10, and John LOFTUS, on July 4, offered an 
unusual situation in the department.  Both died suddenly, RITTENMEYER at his home and LOFTUS while on duty at 
headquarters a few weeks after he had been appointed by Council to fill the vacancy.  Council later named 
Traffic Policeman John LEONARD as sergeant to fill the vacancy.

Death removed one of the assistant city assessors early in the year when Joseph HUDOCK died after a brief 
illness.  Council appointed Stephen AMRICK to the vacancy.

Retirement of City Solicitor Edwin B. MORGAN because of failing sight and poor health in September brought to 
notice that Wilkes-Barre has had only two solicitors since the city was incorporated in 1896.  Attorney 
MORGAN, who was a Ninth ward Councilman from 1909 to 1913 and one of the four commissioners under the Clark 
Third Class City Act in 1913 for two years, had served as assistant solicitor from 1916 to 1924, succeeding 
Charles F. McHUGH as solicitor after the latter's death.  Council appointed as Mr. Morgan's successor, Howard 
E. KENNEDY, native of Wilkes-Barre, who had served since 1938 as city chairman of the Republican Party.

Mr. MORGAN died in his sleep during the night of December 11.  Acute heart trouble caused his death.

F.M. KIRBY Dies
Fred Morgan KIRBY, 79, an organizer of the F.W. Woolworth store chain and Wilkes-Barre philanthropist, died of 
pneumonia October 16 at his Glen Summit estate.  He had been in ill health for several years.  Majority of his 
estate, listed "as over" $150,000 in real and personal property, went to a son, Allan P.  KIRBY, of Morristown, 
N.J.

Introduction of trackless trolley busses by the Wilkes-Barre Railway Company on several of its lines, 
replacing electric trolley cars, brought about a significant change in the City's street paving operations 
during 1940.  Under an agreement with the Wyoming Valley Autobus Company, subsidiary of the Railway Company, 
and in conformance with a city ordinance, approved by the Public Utility Company, trolley tracks were removed 
from a dozen or more streets in various parts of the city.  The company agreed to pay the city $32,500 at once 
and then $614.47 a month for four years to pave the streets from which tracks were removed and to maintain 
its obligation to pave between the trolley tracks at a rate of seven cents a square yard.  The agreement did 
not include streets traversed by the Nanticoke or West Side lines.

Few Electric Lines Left
Preparations were made late in 1940 to install trackless trolleys on the East End, Heights, North Main Street 
and Ashley lines and the company was permitted by the PUC to use motor busses until the facilities for 
trackless trolleys were installed, probably early in 1941.  At the end of 1940, passengers were traveling by 
trackless trolley busses to West Pittston, Luzerne, Forty Fort and Kingston and only remaining electric 
trolley cars were those to Plymouth, Nanticoke, Larksville, Edwardsville, sugar Notch, Ashley, Hudson and 
Parsons.

City officials launched a large-scale WPA project in the late summer to provide new asphalt pavements on many 
of the streets from which trolley tracks had been removed.  The city paid for materials and equipment and the 
Federal Government provided the labor.  Among streets resurfaced were Academy, Brown, Dana, Pennsylvania 
Avenue from Market to North Streets, Chestnut Street from River to Washington Street and Miner Road, renamed 
Washington Street from Brookside to Miners Mills.

J. Bowden NORTHRUP, who became City Councilman on January 1, took charge of the street Department, William B. 
HOUSER, reelected in 1939, remained at the head of the Parks and Public Property Department and the other 
members of Council retained their departments; Mayor Charles N. LOVELAND, Public Affairs; Tom A. EVANS, 
Accounts and Finance, and Thomas TOOLE, lone Democrat on the body, Department of Public Safety.

Two swimming pools, built as WPA projects under the bond issue of 1938, were completed and opened for use in 
1940, to the delight of thousands of children and adults.  The larger, in Miner Park, named in honor of the 
Boy Scouts, cost the city about $35,000 for materials and equipment and the Federal WPA share for labor was 
about $80,000.  The pool in Hollenback Park, named in honor of War Mothers and American Legion, which was 
opened for a few days late in the summer of 1939, cost the city about $24,000 for materials and equipment, the 
WPA contributing about $60,000 for labor.

In November, 1940, Council granted the Federal government the right to use two acres of land in Morgan B. 
Williams Park on Scott Street as a site for a fabricated steel building to serve as a training center for 
National Youth Administration workers on metal products needed for the Army and Navy under the defense program.

Pumping Stations Readied
Flood control system, erected since 1937 under U.S. Army Engineers' plans and directions, neared completion 
late in 1940, with contractors rushing to finish the five pumping stations to intercept sewers and toss sewage 
and drain water out into the river in times of flood.  Six of these were being completed on the east side of 
the river:  at Union, Market, Ross, Old River Road, D. & H. Bridge in Firwood and at Horton Street.  A seventh 
was being erected in Hanover Township and three were nearing completion on the West Side:  at Church Street, 
Loveland Street and at the Woodward Breaker in Edwardsville.  Largest of the stations in the city is at Union 
Street, where the capacity of the four electric pumps will be 145,000 gallons a minute.

Factional differences developed on Council in September when George WILLIAMS, plain clothes policeman, was 
named captain of detectives by the four Councilmen over opposition by Mayor Charles N. LOVELAND.  Councilman 
W. B. HOUSER introduced a measure in August creating the position, which the Mayor insisted was not needed but 
he was voted down.  A sequel to the incident occurred early in November when Captain WILLIAMS, who had not 
been given authority and continued as plainclothesman, charged that a raid on a South Pennsylvania Avenue 
nightclub had been "bungled" by the police.  This led to an agitation by newspapers and citizens for an 
investigation of the police department.

Ending a two-year controversy in which an appeal had been made by Mayor Charles N. LOVELAND to the Public 
Utility Commission, Council early in the fall agreed to a new 10-year contract with the Pennsylvania Power & 
Light Company to light the streets and public buildings of the city.

The rate accepted represents a savings of approximately $21,000 a year from the former 10-year contract price 
and means an improvement in the lighting of certain streets, especially those where motor and traffic 
accidents had been of frequent occurrence.  Mayor LOVELAND indicated upon the contract's acceptance that he 
does not consider the fight before the PUC for a lower rate completed, having joined with Allentown in asking 
the Commission to determine a fair rate for cities.

BUILDING ACTIVITY
An increase of almost $75,000 in building, plumbing and electrical work in Wilkes-Barre in the year ending 
December 1, 1940, over the same period in 1939 was reported by Building Inspector Edward EYERMAN.  During the 
12 months, a total of 2,420 permits were issued calling for total expenditure of $966,769, of which $208,253 
represented 107 permits for new work and $245,033 represented alterations to residences for which 731 permits 
were issued.  Total expended for plumbing and heating work was $227,176 while 697 electrical permits called 
for expenditure of another $138,798.

Unlike former years when one or two large building projects were started, the year's activity was confined 
largely to smaller jobs, Mr. EYERMAN reported, as not one sizeable structure was built in the year.  Eight 
single dwellings were erected at a total cost of $35,320, and three four-family apartments cost $21,000.  
Forty-six private garages cost $15,635 and two freight elevators represented $6,500.  One of the largest 
building jobs of the year was erection of a new convent for St. Nicholas Church and repairs to the church at 
a cost of $25,800.

WILKES-BARRE PARKS
Wilkes-Barre has 433.22 acres of public parks, valued at $5,938,082, which must be maintained with a yearly 
appropriation of about $20,000.

Kirby Park, 131.71 acres, valuation $329,275
Nesbitt Park, 44.63 acres, valuation $111,575
Hollenback Park, 107.19 acres, valuation $131,212
Mayflower Park, 4.5 acres, valuation $27,000
Public Square Park, 4 acres, valuation $3,600,000
River Common Park, 35 acres, valuation $1,488,500
Firwood Park, 43 acres, valuation $8,000
Morgan B. Williams Park, East End, 6.06 acres, valuation $26,800
River Parkway (along Riverside Drive), 8.3 acres, valuation $153,750
Huber Park, 1.9 acres, valuation $14,370
Griffith Park, 7 acres, $10,000
Slocum Park (playground), 1 acre, valuation $15,250.
Miner Park, 13.6 acres, valuation, $27,200.
Scouton Park, 7.13 acres, valuation $4,950.
Franklin Field, 12 acres, valuation $6,000.
Eyerman Park, 1 1/5 acres, valuation, $4,200

Typed by Gail Elm,  May 2004