During a groundbreaking ceremony for the Center for Jewish Life, held Sunday in Kingston, attendees mingle in a sukkah, or shelter made from natural materials. (Sean McKeag | Times Leader)
https://www.mydallaspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/web1_JewishCenter.jpg.optimal.jpgDuring a groundbreaking ceremony for the Center for Jewish Life, held Sunday in Kingston, attendees mingle in a sukkah, or shelter made from natural materials. (Sean McKeag | Times Leader)

Diamonds to advocates of the area’s emerging Center for Jewish Life. The Kingston complex, for which a ceremonial groundbreaking was held earlier this week, will serve as a central gathering spot for multiple faith-based groups currently housed at separate Wyoming Valley locations. If successful, the endeavor might inspire Jewish populations elsewhere in the nation to pool resources, plus serve as a model locally for what can be achieved through cooperation.

Coal to Stanley Strelish, suspended boss of the Luzerne County Transportation Authority. He pleaded guilty this week to five felonies and was sentenced to five years probation for his role in the “ghost rider” scandal, which involved inflating bus passenger figures so the authority received more money in state aid. Apparently none of the involved arithmetic magicians directly profited from the scheme. Yet no one has offered more than a schoolboy’s everybody-else-was-doing-it defense. How pathetic. If the LCTA board has any integrity, its members will vote to remove Strelish from the organization, ensuring he makes like a ghost and vanishes.

Diamonds to Brian Matyjevich, coordinator of a community-enhancing project called “Arts on Fire: Pittston City.” His aim: Pay artists to beautify the streetscape by using as their “canvas” some of the city’s nearly 100 fire hydrants. Themes will be selected to match the fire plugs’ surroundings. For instance, a hydrant near the fire headquarters already features brilliant flames. Other designs might take on the flavor of the city’s annual Tomato Festival. Inspired by similar projects in Philadelphia and elsewhere, the hydrant-painting concept requires local support. To donate, visit www.gofundme.com/arts-on-fire or email Matyjevich at grandjeep96@live.com.

Coal to Jim Post, purchasing director at the Wilkes-Barre Area School District. He allegedly violated the district’s technology policy by using a district email account to send a message encouraging people to attend a campaign fundraiser. The event, it should be noted, benefited Louis Elmy, the school board president who is running for city council and who also is Post’s brother-in-law. And so it goes.

Diamonds to Hanover Area high school seniors Daelyn Mynes and Heather Evans for organizing a cleanup on Oct. 4 along Earth Conservancy Drive in Hanover Township. The road leads to fields used by Hanover Area Youth Soccer and the Hanover Area Mini-Hawks as well as to the Sugar Notch Recreational Hiking Trail. Crews recently removed overgrown brush and trees that were taking over the road, exposing an unsightly scene: plastic bottles, food and candy wrappers and other debris. Mynes and Evans mustered volunteers who cleaned the two mile-long road and the parking area for the hiking trail, filling 12 extra-large garbage bags.