Former Marine wants your toys

By Charles Reynolds
MILFORD — Marine Commandant Jim Slevin addressed the Pike County Commissioners regarding the Toys for Pike County Kids program. Slevin's detachment, along with Pike County's Christine Kerstetter, gather toys for children in Pike County. The former Marine and his group were outside Walmart and Kmart on Dec. 7 and 8, and they will be there again on Saturday, Dec. 14, and Sunday, Dec. 15, taking in donations of new, unopened toys.

Along with the toys, the group also accepts cash donations, checks and clothing.

Supervisor, and former marine, Rich Caridi stated that the reason the group is not associated with the national Toys for Tots campaign is that the national has a cut off policy at the age of 12, where their group works with youth up to the age of 18. And these older children are more in need of clothing and other supplies rather than toys. He said the local chapter felt that providing the needs for all children was more important than being part of the national campaign. This is also the reason for accepting new clothing, as well as the cash and checks, which can then be converted into gift cards for the major box stores.

“We must remember all these young boys and girls are not as fortunate as others,” Slevin reminded everyone. He said that his detachment wanted to make sure that no child went hungry or without a gift this holiday season.

Banner year for the Poconos
Carl Wilgus of the Pocono Mountain Visitor's Bureau was also on hand to give his annual report. He said that 2013 was a banner year for the bureau and that they had set many new records in the way of income and visitors. Part of the success of 2013, Wilgus said was due in part to the increase in mobile web access, which accounted for 51 percent of the traffic the visitor's bureau saw this past year versus the 12 percent use of the traditional web access. Also, he attributed the success to the webcams, which had been used by television stations in the news reports and weather forecasts.

Wilgus said that the total time of webcam use for the year came to 19,812,000 minutes of viewer time. This would be comparable to one person viewing the webcams over a period of 38 years. The estimated value of all the live webcam footage was set at $2.9 million. Additionally, 82.5 percent of the budget was used for sales advertising.

The live cams, along with about 630 people reached through press clippings and over 80,000 followers on social media, saved approximately $7 million on the advertising budget. (The total budget for the bureau was $5,223,712.) The bureau also used social media to reach more people by initiating a summer giveaway whose prizes were based on tiers of Facebook Likes. For instance, the “Rapid Escape” Giveaway was arranged that for 75,000 page LIKES, 10 fans won a Logo'd beach bag and towels. At 80,000 LIKES, 5 fans won Water Recreation passes and lunch. But at the 85,000 LIKES level, the prize was a 2-night getaway to Great Wolf Lodge for one fan. The prizes were selected at random.

Figures for the year showed that there were 25 million visitors, which is 17 million more than 2006 when the bureau began its rebranding efforts. These visitors spent a total of $2.4 billion in the area over the course of the year.

Library update
Pike County Public Library Branch executive director Ellen Schaffner looked back over the past year and talked about plans for 2014.

Schaffner said that since the library branch opened at the end of October, there had been 430 new cards issued and that their circulation was up 20 percent from the old branch. And in the first six weeks the book store, being run by the Friends of Pike County Public Library volunteers had raised $1302 through sales — compared to $4,000 raised from various book sales held by the Friends group in 2012 (100 percent of the proceeds of these sales go to the library). She told the supervisors that the community room was already being used to good effect by such groups as the Black Bear Film Festival (which held its film salon there during this year's festival), the Pinchot Institute, The Pike County Chamber of Commerce, the Milford Borough Council and the Youth Advocate Program.

Shaffner also said that in 2014 the library had plans to engage in an intense effort to reach out to constituents in the western part of the county. There are plans to meet with the supervisors from Lackawaxen, Palmyra, Greene and Blooming Grove, as well as working with Molly Rodgers, the executive director for the Wayne County Public Library.

Shaffner said that the State Librarian, Stacey Aldrich, would be meeting and working with the two directors from Pike and Wayne to help them work on a partnership that could become a model for other library systems throughout the state.

The library's executive director also said that Aldrich recognized the predicament county library systems are in since state funding had been cut. The state librarian suggested that a letter writing campaign be conducted by local residents to the state senators and representatives asking them that “the special Access reimbursement that used to be part of county reimbursement be reinstated.” this reimbursement program paid a library system a “small amount for each item that was circulated to an out-of-county resident.

The latter would help alleviate some of the financial “burdens” caused by residents of the western part of the county who choose to use the Wayne County library.

Schaffner also made a clarification to an article in the Nov. 21 edition of the Courier. Specifically she addressed a quote by Greeley resident Ed Eggenberger, who had criticized the money spent by the library system on the heating/cooling system in the old Lackawaxen branch. Schaffner pointed out that the branch was in a building not owned by the library system, and that the heating/cooling system was broken and not under their control. She stated that the building owners specifically told them not to touch the controls for the system, which was in need of repairs.

In other business
Compressor station — Alex Lotorto, local activist and resident, requested that the commissioners sign on as intervenors to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commissions open docket concerning Columbia Gas (NiSource) Eastside Expansion Project. Specifically, Lotorto wanted the commissioners to be able to review and comment on the proposed Milford compressor station replacement on Fire Tower Road scheduled to begin construction on Aug. 1, 2014. Commissioner Caridi later said that they had filed as intervenors as of Friday, Dec. 6. (See related story on page 1.)

Next meeting — The next, and final for 2013, meeting of the Pike County Commissioners is on Dec. 18 at 9 a.m. in the Pike County Administration Building in Milford.