‘There’s a Lot of Good People in This World’

By JOE ZELNIK VILLAS — It looks like Frances Regan will get her wheelchair ramp. _ The widow, 85 tomorrow, had her right ' leg amputated below the knee this summer. She was promised a ramp two months ago by the Volunteers and Resources Division of the Cape May County Welfare Department. But when a $1,200 cost estimate came, the division couldn’t afford it. A story in last week’s Herald and Lantern detailed Regan’s plight, and the phones started ringing at Volunteers and Resources. Marianne Sheik, division director, said Monday she has liad five pledges totaling $125, another pledge of “up to $500, ’’ and an offer from someone associated with the Lower Township Rescue Squad to head a fund drive* But most important, Jack Bowman, one of the principals of Bayside Village, a Villas development company, has said he will contribute the material and labor if the design can be modified. Sheik already had an offer to do the work from West Cape May carpenter Bill

Peace Vigil Some shoppers at Cape May’s Washington Street Mall candlelight walk joined in a peace vigil with members of the Jersey Cape Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament last Friday night. The candlelight walk, with participating stores serving treats, will be repeated tomorrow night.

Dwyer. “There's a lot of good people in this world,” said Regan, upon hearing of the public response. “Everyone’s been very nice,” she said. “I appreciate it. I’m sending a Christmas card to Marianne Sheik." TTie ramp design is difficult because of the small front ysu-d and state requirements on the angle of decline. Sheik

and Bowman were to have met yesterday and she will take his plans to a local building inspector for approval this week, she said. - Sheik also is slated to discuss the fund drive with the rescue squad volunteer tomorrow. Goal would be help for any persons in Lower Township who needs either wheelchair ramps or railings. . “I know there are other people who need

a ramp or railing,” Sheik said. The problem of providing a ramp for Regan came to light last week when her childhdbd friend in North Cape May called the Herald and Lantern. She asked not to be identified but she is 75 and has been in a wheelchair for 3-4 years. She got a ramp last summer and can get out, but she couldn’t get into Regan’s house to visit. That should change in a few weeks.

Vol. 19 No. 50 ms Wwow. Gkp. Ati rifto. rw*fv.d

December 14, 1983

NewsDigest

Week’s Top Stories

Freeholders Control Purse Strings

Commission to Study Vo-Tech

If You Fail Once... COURT HOUSE — Cape May County Freeholders were slated to consider a 25 percent pay hike, from $12,000 a year to $15,000, at their regular meeting last night, too late for Herald-Lantern deadline. The director’s salary would go from $13,000 to $17,000. They made the same proposal last year, a public outcry resulted, and the board decided budget limitations made it impossible. They haven’t had a raise in four years, their last one being $1,000 a year in 1980. Show Cause OCEAN CITY — Mayor Jack Bittner was ordered last week to appear at 10 a.m. Dec. 19 before Superior Court Judge Steven Perskie and show why he shouldn’t be held in contempt of court for blocking a $16,000 payment to lawyer Robert Fleming. The attorney represented the city police and fire chiefs during a suit filed by Bittner. A court settlement called for the mayor to cooperate in paying the lawyers legal bills by Nov. 15. Burning Desire VILLAS — Township committee unanimously approved os first reading Monday night Ordinance 83-40 which, if adopted after a Dec. 28 public hearing, will create a six-member township Incinerator Authority. That authority will be charged with further study of a proposal to convert the magnesite plant at Sunset Beach into a township-operated trash incinerator and resource recovery depot. (Page 4 Please) inside... i fate « red tape ignacot. P>|e FLORENCE HEAL suggest, dettctng cookies to ioag *wSrtER*V*SHING vis the priced wort hi Un Rada's “Ootdoon” column. Page St.

CREST HAVEN — A 22-member study commission has been appointed to explore adding a full-time academic-vocational high school program at the Vocational-

Technical School District.

This would be in addition to the district’s

current shared-time program.

Vo-Tech Supt. Wilbur J. Kistler Jr. said the commission, which he will chair, will try for its first meeting before Christmas. The earliest such a program could start,

he has said, would be the fall of 1985

DESPITE KISTLER’S earlierexpressed concern that local school districts might fear the potential loss of enrollment, Herald-Lantern telephone interviews with the four public school prin-

cipals found little opposition.

Middle Township High School Principal John McVey, however, did say he had “great difficulty believing that it’s going to

be financially feasible.”

Decision on adding a full-time academicvocational program will be made by the vo-tech school board, a five-member board appointed by the county’s Superior Court. But the purse strings for such a program are controlled by the Board of Freeholders, which this year is paying 64

percent of the vo-tech budget.

LAST MONTH’S “management improvement” study of county government made two “suggestions” for vo-tech: a call for a curriculum “consistent with the needs of the county,” and for an “investigation” of the reasons that the

judiciary appoints the vo-tech board.

Freeholder James S. Kilpatrick Jr., liasion to the Vo-Tech District and member of its new study commission, said the county is “apparently unique throughout the state” in having judges appoint that board. “In my opinion, we would be serving the people of the county better if the Board of Freeholders appointed that board, as it does the Special Services school board,” he said. He Said the county pays about 17.5

percent of the district’s budget.

Kilpatrick said that, although the votech school board can decide on a new pro-' gram, “we do have the ultimate determination as to the amount of money we

would contribute.”

Kilpatrick said he had “no preconceived notions” on the full-time academicvocation program proposal. And Kistler said the commission “has no bias and no ‘yes’ people. It will simply recommend vocational education alternatives.” STUDENTS FROM McVey’s Middle

Township High make up more than 40 percent of the vo-tech’s 683 shared-time enrollment. It is sending 278 students. Lower Cape May Regional sends 194,' Wildwood 90, and Ocean City 78, Kistler said. McVey said he had “seen the (full-time) concept work very successfully in .NorthJersey.” But he envisioned problems with cost, students, and parents. “A comprehensive high school is a major undertaking,” he said, including “everything from science labs, computer labs, teachers in English, Social Studies, etc." He echoed Kistier’s concerns about a cocurricular (athletics, band, etc.) program. McVey said this currently runs 1-3 percent of a school budget and he felt youths might “be reticent to go^c a school without athletic teams.” Kistler had suggested “it would be nice if they could still play sports, etc.‘at their hometown school.” McVey said he thought it would “be difficult coming back to the home school to participate. If you go, you go,” he said. ‘ HE ALSO SAID parents might be reluctant to have their children in a full-time (Page 4 Please)

State Maps: A ‘Quick Hit’ for County

Ten thousand official state highway maps are among the earliest results of the six-week “management improvement” study of government in Cape May County. Louis A. Rodio Jr., assistant director of public affairs for the county, had told its study team he was “never able to get enough maps to meet the demand.” Before the management report was even written, Jack Salvesen of the state Office of Management and Budget, who coordinated the study, got in touch with the state tourism director. The 10,000 maps the department got “through normal channels” was quickly doubled. The study had said that the county “could use 150,000 and is able to get only 10,000 now.” “IT’S PROBABLY one of the most

popular pieces of literature we get requests for at travel shows,” said Rodia. "We’re very happy to have them because most of the states we have to compete with have maps.” ^ The county takes its travel show to 20 cities as far south as Maryland, as far north as Canada, and as far west as Ohio. The maps were one of several of what Salvesen called .“quick hits” among the report’s 67 recommendations. Another was the assignment of numbers to some county departments and agencies to speed mail sorting, be said: The study said this could save one hour a day, eliminate overtime and improve service. AMONG OTHER recommendations that appear easy: • Simplify insurance forms so employes can complete them without help from the

Personnel Department. • Prepare a personnel information (Page 4 Please) r Early Deadlines —j Early deadlines will be necessary for the Herald-Lantern Christmas and New Year’s editions. Advertising and news must be received by 5 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 22, for the Dec. 28 issue and by Thursday, Dec. 29, for the Jan. 4 issue. The Herald-Lantern office at 106 N. Main St., Court House, will be closed Monday and Tuesday of both weeks, Dec. 26 and 27, and Jan. 2 and 3.