Herald & Lantern 6 |uly '83

16 .

siurpie Slowed Bayfronl Written Off 1

WILDWOOD - In a 3-2 decision, the Planning Board ruled Iasi week that Southland Corp. must seek a zoning variar^ce before building a 7-11 store at Pine and New Jersey avenues . Neighborhood residents have vowed to continue their fight against Southland's construction plan Fugitive Agents COURT HOUSE Mitchell DcRisio, 56, and his daughtes. Susan, 30. were charged last week with swindling nearly $27,000 in insurance premiums from 33 people during the past five years Operating here as the Mitchell DcRisio Agency on Heritage Drive, the team is

still at large

(From Page 1) that get anything done down here (in Cape May County) are the people with money.'' If he lived in Stone Harbor or Avalon. Perry says, his one phone call to complain, would "have 14 people down here” looking over the beach He resents the fact that thousands and thoasands of tons of sand are dumped on the Atlantic Coast beaches while little is done to protect the bayshore When he moved to Kimbles Beach 13 years ago. Perry had been paying $84 a year in property taxes Now he pays $600 and notes that he and other villagers don't get tax breaks for their lack of service from the federal, state and local governments Mill delivery just started a few weeks

ago; until recently. Perry says, villagers had to cart their trash to and collect their mail from Route 47. Until five years ago, when Kimbles Beach Road was first repaired, those mail and trash runs were adventures in automotive and driver stamina; front-end damage was an annual expectation, he adds. THE 'VILLAGERS want some beach protection for thfeir ever-escalating taxes but don’t reaUv expect to get it, Perry concedes. *- m “Kimbles B||ch — who the hell are you?” he asks, phrasing what he takes as the probable response from the average bureaucrat bothered by his gripes “They thought it was a disease for awhile." "Pretty much that whole area has been written off because of its low economic value,'' Steward Tweed, county marine agent, says of federal government views on bayfronl areas like Kimbles Beach which are flanked by undevelopable stretches of wetlands “1 don’t think there's anything long-term planned for that "They're not calling it political clot or writing people off." he says of government officials “They're calling it cost-benefit ratio. "The bayside people are going to suffer, regardless of their political clot because of the cost-benefit ratio." Tweed, a former baysider. observes "The federal government wants to see cost benefit " ACCORDING TO THAT FORMULA, if the rost of protecting Kimbles Beach might exceed the probable benefit, the work won't get done "That's basically right," says David Rutherford, principal county planner, agreeing with Tweed's contention that the bayfronl has been written off. "I don't think there are any plans for any points along the bayfronl None of these areas are classified as that severe..." Besides cost-effectiveness, a determina lion on the severity of beach erosion supposedly governs where the state and Army Corps of Engineers will attempt to protect beaches and how — with dunes, dune grass planting and sand fences or by building jetties, groins etc., Rutherford explains. (The corps, he said, is basically responsible for long-term beach protection planning while the state is responsible for implementing those plans.) The severity of beach erosion is plotted on maps in The New Jersey Shore Protection Plan of October, 1981, Rutherford noted, and marked on a scale of one (critically eroding) to five (building) According to the erosion map. the beach in Villas, Lower Township, is regarded as the most severely eroded along the county bayfronl The Villas beach is considered significantly eroded (number two) but the beaches on either side, up and down the bayshore, are only considered moderately eroded (number three), like Kimbles Beach. PERRY AND KURTZ would dispute that classification Rutherford faults other classifications on the map, so the two villagers would be in good company. "They show the Diamond Beach areas as moderate." Rutherford notes, referring to researchers from Dames and Moore, a consulting firm which wrote the '81 plan. "That's building (number five) if anything." South Cape May is marked as moderate, the planner added, "but nobody in Cape May County would agree with that It’s critical." Nevertheless, many of the seaside beaches are accurately considered to be critically eroding — most of Cape May, all of Sea Isle City, Strathmere, Stone Harbor; most of Ocean City and the north end of Avalon. Only the Wildwoods and a few isolated locations are collecting rather than losing sand Still, the state and local governments have spent more than $4 million alone over the past 20 years to protect sparselypopulated Whale Beach and countycontrolled Ocean Drive that runs behind the dunes between Strathmere and Sea Isle Washed away twice during recent off season storms, the dunes there were twice rebuilt; several jetties were just constructed to minimize future storm damage

THERE ARE probably fewer year- round residents living along Ocean Drive at Whale Beach than there are off Kimbles Beach Road The erosion may be more severe at Whale Beach, wllich rates several jetties and dune reconstruction but. the way Kurtz and Perry figure, the erosion at Kimbles Beach is severe enough

to warrant one jetty at least and enough sand on the beachfront embankment to protect their homes and families from the onslaught of the next heavy storm. ’-‘I think it’s going to require our people to take a look at it,” concedes county Freeholder James Kilpatrick. “There has to be some looking at the bayside area.. we owe them an obligation of protection." Catanoso (From Page 1) upstate New York, both currently involved in both economic development and airport management. The sources said no county residents currently are in the running for the job The Kelly-Catanoso antagonisms developed in the last few years and. freeholders believed, hindered the county's economic development efforts Each blamed the other for lack Of progress in bringing new industry to the airport complex The freeholder decision in January, to which Catanoso acquiesced, was an effort to solve that problem It removed Kelly’s key complaint, and. sources said, gave Kelly an ultimatum to produce tenants.. „ EARLY THIS YEAR, Kelly moved from his former office at the airport surrounded by Catanoso departments — the airport manager and the Private Industry Council - to large quarters on the third floor of the airport terminal building He appeared ensconed in the position and did. in fact, begin filling the industrial park with tenants Much of it appeared to be done without Catanoso's cooperation. Numerous roadblocks developed for example, to the Container Decoratirg Co. project. Kelly's biggest effort Catanoso was quoted privately as saying that "hell would freeze over" before the plant located at the airport County Solicitor Albert M Ash, a Catanoso appointee, raised frequent technical objections to the leases Kelly was developing. BUT THE CIVIL WAR came to an end with Kelly's suspension, the result of his trying to get a consulting fee from a private investment group for a friend who advised him on securing financing for the Container firm. Dorothy G. Mack, chairman of the Economic Development Commission, said returning it to Catanoso's direction "doesn’t make any difference to me. Mr. Catanoso always did a good job." The commission last met in May It doesn't meet in the summer and isn’t. scheduled to gather again until September The freeholders indicated they hope the naming of an airport manager-economic development director is just a few weeks away Pay Hikes (From Page I) the Policeman's Benevolent Association representing 58 correctional officers in the sheriff's department That award from a state arbitrator amounted to 7.16 percent for 1982, 5.7 per cent for 1983, and 3.26 percent for the first three months of 1984, according to the county Fox said the freeholders elect to pay his undersheriffs 75 percent of what he makes, even though legislation enacted last year permits the freeholders to pay 90 percent. Fox. who was president of the New Jersey Sheriff’s Association last year when it worked for the legislation increasing undersheriff pay, said his under sheriffs were “in a very unique and unfair position." NEITHER FIOC'C'A. with the county since July. 1981, nor Hunter, with the county since January, 1977, qualifies for' longevity pay Hunter makes an additional $1,500 a year for the Temporary" position of chief clerk, according to county payroll records Fox was reelected in 1981 to his fifth, three-year term The freeholders pay Fox, Surrogate W Robert Hentges and County Clerk Angela F. Pulvino identical $32,500 salaries The freeholders pay Treasurer Philip A Matalucci and clerk of the board Kathryn A Willis identical $32,000 salaries The freeholders, in part-time positions, make $12,000 a year They proposed a 25 percent increase in their salaries to $15,000 early this year, but changed their minds after a public outcry and they said, a closer look at the ’83 budget

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