Pageta

The Herald and The Lantern

Wednesday, October 29,1980

Interviews with Town & VolT

( From Page 35 ) Burdette Tomlin Hospital staff social workers then- with regard to this, and fhpy just knocked their heads against the witJI trying to get senior citizens into nursing homes (the Medicade-type I m speaking of now < The facts simply are these We have thr ee tenths of our population in ( ape May (‘Minty is senior citizens, and we have to do the best w« ran to make their life as comfortable for them as possible As well, of course, .is the other seven-tenths of the population

problems and help out the community. I think the senior citizens should be taken care of After they’ve worked so hard to make this country as great as it is today I know there's a need for more beds and more nursing homes in Cape May County. I don’t feel that that's the answer I don't feel that they should be placed in nursing homes just to die I feel that we need some more reasonable, decent, affordable senior citizen housing in Cape May County. And that's one field that I’m very interested in. in going after to seek as much

‘We re going to spend about a quarter-billion dollars before this [County MUA] is over and I feel that we could save a lot of tax dollars.' t -Michael Voll

MR. VOLL: The first thing I have to tell you is that some day I'm going to be a senior citizen, and I know there is not better education than experience and tM*ing street-wise These people have gone thru life and have such amounts of knowledge that we could utilize in proper manners in the different fields, and I think they should have.an active part in government, as far as advisement And. we should provide them with jobs if they're capable of doing it If they would like to do some work, I % think we should provide the jobs for them Because I feel that if a senior citizen stays active, he’s going to live longer and won't lit’trapped in the house I feel I would encourage the senior citizens to get involved with the local ^orms of government Be active on the zoning board, this, that and the other 'Because, they've been there for so many years and they know the development far more than a younger fellow. They could help them out They could be such a great tool to society. I would encourage them to get involved with the government programs, involved on the school boards. Senior citizens have asked me why don't they ever want as around the school board. I said. I think it's a great idea.' Especially if somebody's retired in the educational field They know the problems. They have the insights Say they may have been a teacher all their life. Now might be the opportunity * for them to be on the administration level because they worked there, they know where tty*j>roblems were and they could maybe groom out these

funds as we can for senior citizens. Keep them active. I don’t think they should be ignored Q. Speaking of health care and educational systems, do you believe they are adequate in our county, or could they stand improving? Kxplain. MR. TOWN: I've received criticism of Burdette Tomlin Hospital. But it’s funny. In your travels, it seems that each community you go to. they always think the community across the river has a better hospital or betteor health care facility. I'm not in a position to judge the quality of care there. I received word from authoritative individuals that it's very good at Burdette Tomlin Hospital, and I've also, as I've indicated, received criticism. I do think that we don't have enough hospitals irfCape May County. We had one in Sea Isle City up until the mid-60s or so when it closed down, and we only have one now I’ve read a recent study by, I think, Princeton University which indicated we're going to have a dire shortage of doctors in Cape May County within the next 10 or 15 years. This is something we have to address ourselves to right away. What's wrong with the county going out and trying to recruit young doctors; going out and trying to recruit nurses? And what's wrong with trying to put some dollars together, some people together, and some resources together to plant the seed to build some additional health facilities in Cape May County? In the educational area, I think you're referring to higher education — college or junior colielge because I think our elementary and high school programs and

our vocational school are certainly more than adequate for our needs here. I don't really see a need for a college at this time. We could look into using the vocational school as the beginnings of a junior college We've got an excellent facility out there that's very large, has lots of room in it, lots of classrooms. We have two four-year colleges very near by. Stockton State College and Glassboro State College, plus a number of junior colleges. It shouldn't be too difficult to staff the beginnings of a junior college. Then, if the need is there down the road, if we see it clearly, then we can build our own junior college. But at this time, I think, spending very lightly and more in an experimental stage than in a full-grown stage would be most appropriate. MR. VOLL: As far as health care and education, there's always room for improvement. I think some of the facilities we have do a fine job Again, like I pointed out, as far as health care, Charlie (Town) and I were over to Burdette Tomlin Hospital last week and they said, 'Our job would be so much easier if we had places to place some of these people in nursing homes.' And we need more doctors in this area, more specialists. We shouldn't have to run out of town to Atlantic City or Philadelphia to have specialized services done by professionals, doctors. I think this is an area that a doctor would want to live in; it’s a beautiful area. And I think there's plenty of business for the different types of doctors. Education. I feel that it's about time we start getting into a junior college, a community-type college in this area. Personally, myself, I commuted while working a fulltime job, back and forth to Cumberland County College three of four days a week.

The whole issue has to be reasonable. MR. VOLL: I think anyone in the political field today — I don’t care what they are: Democrat, Republican, Independent — does get offended when the bureaucrats try to shove things down our throats here in Cape May County. After so many years of local planning and zoning and laying out your own community, your own backyard — people get insulted; they don’t like state and federal government to come into their backyard and tell them just what they're going to do and how they're going to lay things out. I feel that there’s an effort needed here, a good rapport, with the local, county, state and federal officials to get togethci and make things more reasonable so that people can bear this. The way things are written up right now — like the Pinelaods and the Dune and Shore Protection Act — it’s just not reasonable. They're just shoving it down our throats, and it's just going to hurt people too much; it's going to be like a domino effect. It’ll start right off with the building supplier, the contractor; right on down to the local barber and the policeman. It's really going to hurt us in this area. But, of course, I'm very conscious on the environment and conservation. You know, I’m all for that. ,1 have a young, little boy, and I want to make sure that everything’s clean when he gets to my age. But things have to be more reasonable. Q. What is the greatest problem facing ' Cape May County today, and what's being done about it? MR. TOWN: The greatest problem facing Cape May County today is the amount of money that’s being spent to treat sewage. The Municipalities

‘Let’s face it, some people who live and work

at the shore during the summer have no in-

tentions of working during the winter.’

—Charles Town

Authority — composed oftive men that the Republican Board of Freeholders have appointed — has, to date, spent about $39 million. They have incurred liabilities in excess of $90 million.

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rCAPE MM COUNTY SWINGS^ AND LOAN ASSOCIATION

Serving All Cape May County

Q. There has been a hue and cry for Home Rule in dealing with regulations protecting Pinelands and Shorefront. How can Home Rule be relied upon to establish adequate shorefront protetion and buildiAg regulations when the record indicates an Inability to separate local governments to deal with the problem? And given the fact that massive outside government disaster aid has been necessary, shouldn't state and federal governments have some *say in the regulation process? Besides, doesn't Home Rule lack technological/technological expertise in

?uch matters?

MR. TOWN: In this particular area, the key to this whole area is reasonableness. I was very strongly against both the Pinefends Act and the Dune and Shore Protection Act as originally proposed. Sometimes I get the notion that Big Brother up in Trenton and down in Washington, D C. believes that us poor folk down in Cape May County ... are completely unable to take care of themselves, and are completely unwilling to be reasonable. So they, in turn, try to enact totally unreasonable legislation on us. Yes, it's true, we have to coordinate our efforts. That’s the reason we have a united staffs instead of 50 individual countries in the United Sates. But the state has to approach each one of these problems with some degree of reasonableness. My family was the third family to move into Sea Isle City ba „k before the turn of the century, and 1 was in Sea Isle City during the '62 storm. You know during the '62 storm, we moved back in Sea Isle City a full lot from the ocean. That is to say, most of the nomes along

Now, this is being forced down our throats by the federal arm of the government — the Environmental Protection Agency — and the state arm — the Dept, of Environmental Protection from New Jersey. But the commissioners on the MUA here in Cape May County seem all too willing to accept almost any decree that comes down. I feel very strongly, here in Cape May County we’ve got to look to some alternative answers to solve our sewage problem. We've got to keep the environment clear and clean, and we’ve got to find better ways to do it then spending a quarter of a billion dollars — which is the total budget as it stands right now for this (Cape May County MUA) project. MR. VOLL: The greatest problem that we have presently is the Cape May County Municipal Utilities Authority. I have never in my years seen so much money, I feel, being wasted for surveys, plans, studies, this that and the other — and no physical product coming forth. We're going to spend about a quarterbillion dollars before this is over and I feel that we could save a lot of tax dollars. I think that there’s other alternatives as far as upgrading, maybe, some of the on-site treatment. Q. If you could go door-to-door, what would you most want to say to the voter in

Farmland’s very valuable to people. And they keep chopping away and chopping away. And before you know it, there’s not going to be anyfarms. Michael von

3301 Atlantic Aye IB99 B*y*.no*r »i1 5tZ Washington St 40 Sooth Shoic n«l

W3 744/ 886 ?Z73 884 84.1*. 198 4yx>

Cape Ma, Oh W.Klwood

YOUR SAVINGS INSUREt) TO $100,000.

the beachfront in Sea Isle City were seriously damaged, and we decided: Well, it's dear the ocean want to take that land. And we moved back. We did not try to reconstruct everything where it was And the (U.S. Army) Corps of Engineers was involved in this kind of thing (EPA wasn't that active then). There was no opposition — I'll say little opposition — in Sea Isle City. We areas clear thinking as the next guy: If the ocean wants to come in, it’s going to cogie in. There's not too much we can do about it. The Home Rule notion is supportable but there has, of course, to be state or federal coordination, whichever the situation might ml! fnr But it has to be reasonable.

30 seconds about Charles Town/Michael Voll? o MR. TOWN: 'Charles Town has prepared himself for a job as a freeholder in Cape May County by keeping on top of the issues, by returning to school to get a degree in business administration (received this past May), and — most of all — wants to be your freeholder in Cape May County for the next three years MR. VOLL: 'Michael Voll would bring to the freeholder board new direction that is needed to get the county back on the right track. I’m a young, dedicated, ambitious man who strives for fair and honest county government. I love helping people, and I want to serve you as a county freeholder — and repr