Dimock benefit raises funds for families

BY PAT FARNELLI

Organizers of a community fundraiser benefiting three families thanked the Dimock Township supervisors with a letter, which was read at the township meeting Monday night. The fundraiser, held by the Dimock Community Church in the township building on Sunday, Oct. 6, raised more than $12,000 for the DeWitt family and the families of Elk Lake students Brooke Arnold and Jenny Van Etten.

According to church member Patsy Gesford, the church wanted to raise funds for these families as they have experienced serious medical problems, accidents, and other hardships.

“We were very thankful for the use of the township building, because our church and parking lot were too small,” Gesford said. A basket raffle and pie auction brought in the most money, all donated by members of the community, and DJ Tom Caines provided music.

Terri Way of the Springville Dimock baseball league spoke to a petition she brought to the meeting, concerning the team’s intention to switch leagues so that the kids would be able to play against more local teams.

“We are in the same league with Clifford, Brooklyn and Harford, and we would rather switch to a league with other Elk Lake students,” she said.
“The Susquehanna League includes Rush, Auburn, and Choconut teams, two of which are nearby and within the same school district.”

Way said that it is difficult, when kids are getting off school buses at nearly 4 p.m., to get to away games in Clifford and Harford on time.

Chairman Matt Neenan said that there was a folder of gas well permits available for public view, but that none of them were for properties within the township.

One visitor noticed that the township’s boom mower, used to chop down brush and sapling trees along the roads, is left at work sites overnight rather than being stored in the township building. He worried that the weighty mower could be knocked down and a passerby could be injured. The supervisors assured him that the boom locks in place when the motor is turned off, with little danger of movement.