While residents enjoy their barbecue and cold brews this holiday weekend, police throughout the region will be on the look out for impaired drivers.
Dave Everly, regional sobriety checkpoint coordinator for the North Central Regional DUI Enforcement Program, urged drivers to have a designated driver this weekend.
Checkpoints and roving patrol operations this weekend are part of the North Central Regional DUI Enforcement Program, which conducts DUI enforcement operations in 10 Counties: Berks, Carbon, Columbia, Monroe, Montour, Northumberland, Pike, Schuylkill, Snyder and Union.
BY LARRY DEKLINSKI
And Rachel CArta
ATLAS - A fire that ravaged an abandoned home behind West Saylor Street early Friday morning has been ruled suspicious.
The same building was reported to police just two days prior after a witness saw burn marks on the property.
The structure, located in an alley behind 118 W. Saylor St., caught fire at approximately 4:30 a.m. Friday.
Mount Carmel Township Chief of Police Brian Hollenbush, who is also the township fire marshal, called the fire "suspicious in nature."
MOUNT CARMEL - After a two-year hiatus, proper parking will be enforced in the business district thanks to a new parking enforcement officer hired by the borough.
Mount Carmel Borough Police Chief Brian Shurock has announced that William Spickler of Mount Carmel will begin patroling the streets beginning July 13. The chief said there had been no one to enforce the parking ordinances in the borough's business district since February 2007.
LYKENS TOWNSHIP - Ashley Nicole Aucker, 20, of Lebanon, was killed Thursday night in a motorcycle accident along Route 25 near Picnic Road in this Dauphin County township.
State police at Lykens reported Aucker, who was a passenger on a 2001 Suzuki Katana 600 motorcycle driven by Jason Thomas Blouch, 26, of Lebanon, was ejected from the cycle and pronounced dead at the scene of the 7:24 p.m. crash.
MOUNT CARMEL TOWNSHIP - A Habitat For Wildlife (HFW) member attempts to track down drivers of two ATVs who may have damaged the "Alaska" site near Excelsior.
On Thursday afternoon, two ATVs were spotted by Treasurer Dave Straub on a HFW access road off-limits to unauthorized motor vehicles. When the riders realized they were noticed by Straub, they quickly turned around and drove into a newly planted food plot designed to feed animal life.
MOUNT CARMEL - The color guard and flag detail of Post 2110, Veterans of Foreign Wars, performed a changing of the colors June 21 on the lawn of the Susquehanna Bank, Second and Oak streets.
The new flag is flown in honor of a World War II veteran, Harry Dormer.
Dormer was born in Centralia on Oct. 17, 1922, a son of Michael and Eileen Dormer. He attended Centralia schools.
He entered the U.S. Army on Jan. 12, 1943 at New Cumberland. He served as technician 4th grade, in Battery C, 475th Antiaircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion in the Philippine Islands as a heavy artillery mechanic.
Local man graduates Navy basic training
Navy Seaman Kevin J. Rooker, a grandson of John Wolfe, of Danville, recently completed U.S. Navy basic training at Recruit Training Command, Great Lakes, Ill. During the eight-week program, Rooker completed a variety of training, which included classroom study and practical instruction on naval customs, first aid, firefighting, water safety and survival and shipboard and aircraft safety. An emphasis was also placed on physical fitness. The capstone event of boot camp is "Battle Stations." This exercise gives recruits the skills and confidence they need to succeed in the fleet. "Battle Stations" is designed to galvanize the basic warrior attributes of sacrifice, dedication, teamwork and endurance in each recruit through the practical application of basic Navy skills and the core values of honor, courage and commitment.
