1950 WB Record Almanac, Luzerne County in 1949 Inflationary spiral which developed after the end of World War 2 started to level off in 1949 as goods and services became more plentiful in contrast to the lean war years of rationing. Despite a noticeable drop in the cost of living index by the year’s end, however, there were still plenty of high-priced commodities which made readjustment difficult. Utilities, hard hit by rising maintenance costs, appealed to the Public Utility Commission for increased rates with the result that virtually all were successful in getting boosts after hearings were conducted. Most residents were compelled to pay alight increases for telephone, electricity and steam service. Fares of Wilkes-Barre Transit Corporation were raised from eight to 10 cents but White Transit Company still advertised a five-cent fare. An increase in population found jobs becoming scarcer and rolls of the unemployed growing larger. An estimated 15,000 men and women in the Wilkes-Barre Labor Market were unemployed at the beginning of the year and by mid-august a peak of 21,500 unemployed was reached. The unemployed list would have been much greater, observers declared, if it were not for the enrollment of thousands of ex-GIs in various veteran training schools with Uncle Sam footing the bill. A revision of the program by the Veterans Administration in the early fall made it tougher, however, for the veterans to enroll in GI Schools. A number of strikes occurred during 1949 but in most instances difference were adjusted and work resumed. The public was most inconvenienced by a 54 day work stoppage of employees of the Martz and white Transit Bus Lines. The 116 employees went on strike on May 20 and returned to work on July 14. Repeated requests by Wilkes-Barre City officials to have the county take over the city’s one-third interest in the Wilkes-Barre-Wyoming Valley Municipal Airport at Forty Fort bore fruit on April 19 when Luzerne County commissioners, after a number of meetings, agreed to purchase the city’s chare for $40,000- spread over a five-year period beginning October 1, 1950. Urgent need for construction of a modern administration building at Wilkes-Barre-Scranton Airport at Avoca became more evident during the ear when the volume of traffic in and out of the airdrome increased as a result of the addition of a fourth carrier – All American Airways – and the starting of night flights on October 5. The latter was made possible by completion of obstruction markers on nearby mountain approaches at a cost of $20,588. Bi-County Board of Management assigned architects to draft basic requirements for a “functional” terminal building, but at year’s end the specification stage had not been reached. Luzerne County and Wilkes-Barre City and School District effect an agreement in January whereby all moneys received from the sale of properties on which taxes were owned were to be distributed equally between the three groups. Properly Owners Protective Association of Luzern County created a furor among county employees in February when it suggested that if the new county budget granted them cost of living wage increases, they should also have their weekly hours raised from “31 ½ hours to 35 ½”. The suggestion was ignored March 9 when the commissioners adopted the 1949 budget by granting a salary increase to all the county’s 475 employees not covered. The increase, third since 1946, amounted to approximately $88,000. Commissioners adopted an operating budget of $2,846,928 by retaining the tax levy of 8/7 mils. Commissioners appropriated $48,000 toward construction of a sanitary sewer connecting the Veterans Administration Hospital with the Wilkes Barre City sewer system, thus reliving taxpayers of Wilkes-Barre the responsibility of meeting the obligation. The city will be responsible for the maintenance and upkeep. Protest and dissatisfaction were voiced by several thousand taxpayers over the 1949 triennial valuation in creases levied by the County Board of Assessment and Revision of Taxes. Property owners’ groups sprung up in all parts of the county to register complaints over the boosts. Result was that certification of valuations was delayed by the commissioners and tax notices went out several months late. At the year’s end cores of assessment appeals were pending in the county courts, including those of major coal companies. Luzern County’s 1949 total valuation was fixed by the board at $271, 856,924, as compared with the $265,477,856 in 1948. Downward trend in coal tax valuations was stopped with the finding of newly accessible coal, including strip tracts, de-watered areas and remote deposits made available by modern mining methods. State Highway Department construction projects, held up during and after the war because of lack of materials and high costs, got into full swing during 1949 with the department letting contracts for jobs in all parts of the county. Largest project started was relocation of 3.49 miles of Route 1145 in Lehman and Dallas Townships at a cost of $507,028. The contract was awarded to Ryan Brothers, Incorporated of Clearfield. Ninety-three years of continuous passenger service on the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad between Sunbury and Scranton ended on November 15 when train 1702 made its last run over the railroad’s 90 mile Bloomsburg Division. Nineteen persons rode the last train, but only eight of them were aboard when the train pulled into the station at Jefferson Avenue, Scranton, at 11 a.m. on November 15- on time. The train consisted of a baggage car and a passenger coach. NO special ceremonies occurred along the line on the last run, but many persons, old-timers and youngsters alike, placed pennies on the rails to have them flattened by the locomotives weight. They will be retained as souvenirs. Crew members included Thomas McCaffrey, 405 Chestnut Street, Kingston, engineer; Edward Corcoran, 67 Bedford Street, Forty Fort, fireman; Edward I. Gibbons, 328 Taylor Avenue, Scranton, conductor; Alban Collins, 1420 Pine Street, Scranton, Baggage man; E.H. Mayer, 619 Deacon Street, Scranton, messenger; A.F. McDonald, 1302 Murray Street, Forty Fort, trainman; Arthur Evans, 912 South Ninth Avenue, Scranton, flagman. One of the last riders was John A Davies, 28 Walnut Street, Plymouth, retired, who visited Scranton for the first time in “at least 50 years.” Davies made the return trip from Scranton to Wilkes-Barre on the Laurel Line. Wyoming Valley Chapter, American Red Cross 1949 Campaign for $108,000 went over the top with contributions exceeding the goal for the 11th consecutive year. Donald Tretheway was campaign chairman. Arthur L. Strayer was reelected chairman of the Wyoming Valley Chapter at the annual meeting of the directors in the Mary G. Stegmaier Memorial house on June 24. Ground was broken June 29 for the erection of a blood bank building the rear of the Chapter House at 156 South Franklin Street. Target date of opening the Regional Blood Center was fixed for February. The two-story structure will be one of 34 in the nation containing refrigerated rooms for storage of whole blood to be used for emergency distribution. On completion, it will have a staff of 26 physicians, nurses, technicians and other personnel. Two special mobile units will assist in serving 30 Red Cross chapters within a 75-mile radius in 18 Northeastern Pennsylvania counties. S. Clair Borland, executive director of the local chapter, was appointed blood center director and Harold S. Buttman, assistant director. County Bridges Maintained by County Bridge Opened Rebuilt Length in feet Breslau 1911 1946 2,510 Nanticoke 1913 --- 2,400 Shickshinny 1860 1919 1,515 Water St. Pittston 1878 1913 945 Maintained by State Bridge Opened Rebuilt Length in feet Carey Ave (new) 1948 --- 1,883 South Street 1925 1947-48 1,327 Wyoming 1910 1937 1,296 Market Street (new) 1929 --- 1,274 North Street 1887 1925- 1934-35 1,134 Fort Jenkins 1926 --- 1,068 East End 1915 -- 893