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Editor’s note: This editorial has been updated from a previous version to remove a paragraph implying that a fatal crash that occurred Tuesday at South River and Market Streets was a hit-and-run. According to officials, the driver in that incident remained at the scene and cooperated with police. We regret the error.
Diamonds to James and Peter Baut for arranging an open house for the public to see progress on restoration of Car 790. The doors to the family’s eponymous The Baut Studios will welcome those interested from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 21, in Swoyersville, courtesy of the sons of the late Conrad Baut. Conrad and the late Rev. James Wert were the force behind the effort to save what is believed to be the last Wilkes-Barre trolley in existence, and James and Peter have been carrying on the effort. At the event, “Greater Wyoming Valley Trolleys” author Dr. Harrison Wick and other members of nonprofit Anthracite Trolleys organization will do a presentation on the car’s history, the Wilkes-Barre trolley system, the almost Herculean effort it took to extract Car 790 from a summer cottage it had become part of, and the restoration. If you’ve got some time Saturday, consider heading out to the Main Street studio. And while there, consider donating to the effort, which is expected to cost about $300,000.
Diamonds to the Forty Fort Cemetery Association for the clever idea of holding a “Run Through History,” both literally and figuratively. The event had nearly 400 participants pass thousands of gravesites on the way to the finish line in the cemetery, with choices of 5K and 10K runs, a 1.5 mile walk, and just a good old tour of the historic cemetery as well as the historic meeting house. Proceeds will help cover costs of maintenance of the grounds and restoration of some markers. Those who participated hopefully got a sense of the many important people who found their final resting place there, including the Swetlands, Denisons and former state Gov. Henry Hoyt. “A lot of local movers and shakers are buried here,” Luzerne County Historical Society Secretary Jennifer Ochman rightly noted. This should be the first of many annual such events, and we hope all are at least as successful as the inaugural run.
Coal to Scranton resident Eduardo Caban, who pleaded guilty to strangling a kitten to death inside his estranged wife’s residence in Pittston. The tale takes on some macabre irony because, according to the criminal complaint, he went to the home to sign divorce papers and decided to commit the gruesome act on an innocent animal while she was in another room, then put the corpse under the couch. Nothing justifies this pointless violence.