Mrs. Willis Named County Administrator

COURT HOUSE — The Cape May Coon ty Board of Freeholders has created the position, of clerk/Administrator and appointed board clerk Kathryn A. Willis to a three-year term. Mrs. Willis, who has said she expects to retire next summer, took over the new responsibilities Jan. 1 and will be paid $38,500 a year. Her current salary is $32,000 but she presumbly would have received at least a 6.4 percent annual raise this month. The' freeholders also filed a vacant deputy clerk erf the board of freeholders position by appointing plane Rudolph. She is currently deputy county clerk. The promotion increases her pay $3,125 from $24,375 to $27,500. She also would have received an annual raise in January.

The deputy county clerk salary is set at 75 percent of the salary of the elected county clerk, Angela Pul vino, who is paid $32,000. Mrs. Rudolph’s vacancy will be filled by Doris Brittingham whose salary will be almost doubled, from $12,401 to $24,375. FINALLY, the freeholders approved the hiring of an administrative secretary to the director of the board and set a salary of $15,000. Mrs. Willis said the person has not been selected, but probably will be a new hire not currently on the county payroll who will do secretarial work for. all five freeholders. ' Other sources said the new person has been discussed, may be a male, and would be mere of an administrative assistant, (Page 21 Please)

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• Dorif Ward PROMOTED — Diane Rudolph, Kathryn Willis and Doris Brittingham, left to right, have received county government promotions. See story at left.

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CAPE MAY COUNTY

Vol. 20 No. 1 ' <1tu Smwov* C«*p. AM rifhtt

January 4, 1984

Don’t Kid West Wildwood’s Mayor He’d Rather Fight Than Swim

By JOE ZELNIK

Don’t joke about “Wet” Wildwood to West Wildwood Mayor Herbert (Chuck) Frederick. He’s been hearing about that borough’s tidal problems all his life, and fighting what he considers its unfair

reputation.

“Did you swim in?” fellow pupils would

ask when he showed up at the Margaret Mace Elementary School in North

Wildwood .

“We can kid ourselves," he said, “but

don’t let an outsider do it.”

The other three Wildwoods — Wildwood, North Wildwood and Wildwood Crest — are on the ocean and may look down their noses at their tiny neighbor. They might be

surprised to learn that West Wildwood sometimes looks down its nose at them. Frederick calls his home town "a suburb of Wildwood, away frofn the bonkey-tonk." “we’re the Little guy of the Wildwoods,” he said. “They pick on us. But we have only two or three problem tides a year. For us to experience flooding

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News-

The

Digest Runneth Over

Week's

top Stories

CAPE MAY - Operation Fireside broke all records this year, coming up with about 100 families to host close to 300 U.S. Coast Guard Training Center recruits for Chris tm ^dinner. Coordinator Gertrude Reiss of the county Red‘Cross said this is about twice the number of last year.

Bar Backs Off

COURT HOUSE - Lawyers who don’t want to sue? It happened with the Cape May County Bar Association which now says it’s satisfied with county plans to expand the courthouse and won’t follow up on its lawsuit calling those plans y "piecemeal, stop-gap policies."

State Underprices? OCEAN CITY — In August, the state Department of Community Affairs said the city could save $200,000 in 1984 by building a trash transfer station. Now the county Municipal Utilities Authority says the state figure was low because it was (Page 21 Please) Sturiri: Pay Hike Overdue

By EJ.DUFFY s COURT HOUSE - “Anybody who would take a look at it would say it’s justified," County Freeholder William E. Sturm Jr. said of the proposed 25 percent increase in freeholder salaries. The Board of Chosen Freeholders will hold a public hearing on the pay increase proposal next Tuesday .at 8 p.m. Sturm plans to present figures then to show that be and his four colleagues are overdue for a raise. “The freeholder job is not a full-time position and does not warrant full-time pay,” countered county Democratic Party chairman James lannooe, who opposed any freeholder pay hike during his campaign last fall for a seat on the board. His running mate, Georgette Bond Shirley, criticized ^he Republican board for proposing a salary raise beyond the five percent increase county workers received last year. “What is wrong with the same five percent?” she asked in a December press

As proposed, the freeholder pay raise would hike from $12,000 to $15,000, the annual salary paid Sturm. Freeholders RalptyEvans, Gerald Thornton and James Kilpatrick Freeholder Director Anthony (Page 8 Please)