Herald & Lantern 4 lanuary '84

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News Digest (From Page 1) for an open-air facility instead of a found Dec. 19 was identified Thursday as proper, enclosed Station. that of Cape May’s Nicholas J. Hober, 24. Remains of a leg, that washed up in Dies in Fire Margate Dec. 18, were not identified. Besides Hober, crewman Michael Ewing, 26, and Frederick Fisher, 19, were lost in MIDDLE TOWNSHIP — 83-year-old the January shipwreck. May Meyer died Dec. 26 when flames destroyed her mobile home in the Garden

Lake Mobile Home Park Meyer, who used a walker to get about, reported the fire to the telephone company at about 8 a.m., but failed to glee her exact location. A second call from neighbors pinpointed the blaze, but Meyer was apparently dead before police got to the scene at 8:25. Killed in Crash

. ESTELL MANOR - Irene Heap, 62, of E. Hand Avenue, Wildwood, was killed last Wednesday morning when her car skidded on icy Cape May Avenue here and crashed into a utility pole. She was pronounced dead in Newcomb Hospital, Vineland. Heavy rains and plunging temperatures combined Wednesday causing hazardous driving conditions that resulted in scores of other area accidents. Beached Whale

CAPE MAY — Smithsonian Institute staffers laid first claim to a rare True’s beaked whale that washed ashore on the Congress Street beach last week. An autopsy should reveal the cause of the . 12-foot, l^OtKpound mammal’s death, but initijii signs did not indicate human involvement ,

Remains Identified LONGPORT - Nearly a year after the “Christmas Ann” sank seven miles off Brigantine, the remains of one of its crew washed up on the beach here. A skull

Sues City OCEAN CITY — George Lafferty, who retired this fall after 22 years a^ lifeguard captain, is suing the cP, for $19,000 in compensatory time. The city says he was supposed to take the time off. He says he has 157 days coming.

Latest Plan OCEAN CITY — As bury Avenue should be upgraded during the next three years, according to a three-year community development plan prepared by the city’s Downtown Economic Development Committee. The time is ripe, the study said, because more people are settling in the area year-round. It also called for a revolving loan fund for business expansion, upgraded parking, and expanded advertising and promotion.

Liberty ‘Top-heavy’ » NEW YORK — Converting the 87-foot fishing vessel “Liberty” for scalloping made her top-heavy, Scott Moffatt, 34, chief engineer of the Cape May-based ship told a Coast Guard board of inquiry last month. Heavy booms, winches and steel plates were fitted on board the “Liberty” for scalloping, but no sea trials were conducted to test its seaworthiness before it capsized Dec. 12 at Manasquam Inlet Moffatt testified. Two crewmen died after the mishap; two Cape May County men are missing and presumed dead.

Mrs. Willis Named County Administrator-

(From Page 1) handling constituent problems, attending meetings freeholders can’t make, etc. The clerk-administrator position was a “long-term suggestion” of the county's recently-completed “Management Improvement Program.” It recommended “a person who is in charge of administrative duties in the county government while having no policy-making powers..." Spelled out the freeholder resolution are 14 “duties” for the new clerk/administrator, most of them “subject to the approval of the Board of Chosen Freeholders.” THE LANGUAGE of the resolution is similar to that which created a clerk-ad-ministrator in Burlington County in 1968. Charles T. Juliana has held that post since 1976 and was paid $45,780 in 1983. Burlington County has a population of 362,542 compared to Cape May County's 84,229. Cape May County freeholders intended to create the new post and appoint Mrs. Willis to it last Nov. 9. It was stricken from the agenda, however, ~nd never came to a formal vote, because of freeholder dissension. The most vocal opposition at that time came from Freeholder William E. Sturm Jr. who had urged the post during his fall reelecdon campaign. But Sturm said the day after the election that he felt the appointment was “premature” because the county still had no administrative code. “You don’t appoint first and figure out later what you're going to do, the kind of person you’re looking for,” he said. STURM'S OBJECTIONS apparently were satisfied because the rewritten resolution, approved unanimously last week, directed the new clerk/administrator to “develop an appropriate Procedural Code and Personnel Policy...on or before July 15.” The only freeholder pushing for the new position Nov. 9 was Gerald M. Thornton. “We’ve been talking about this for about three years,” he had said. “One of the reasons the freeholders asked for an efficiency study was so that we’d have some documentation and foundation to do those things we were considering...” But Freeholder Ralph W. Evans said at

that time that he was “against an administrator, so to speak.” And Freeholder James S. Kilpatrick Jr. said he didn’t want to “rush into anything. “It accomplishes nothing to create it if everything the administrator does has to be approved by the freeholders,” he said. BUT THE DUTIES spelled out in last week’s resolution give the clerk/administrator only a few duties not “subject to the approval of the board.” Those include attending all freeholder meetings, with the right to discuss, but not vote; recommending any measures she deems necessary ; supervising county personnel; recommending personnel policies ; and recommending to the board in all administrative bearings. *■ Mrs. Willis, 65, is a county native, born and reared in Court House where she still lives. She graduated from Middle Township High School in 1935 and the Temple University secretarial school in 1942. She came to county government from the Cape May County Savings and Loan in 1966 as a senior clerk bookkeeper, became ‘deputy clerk to the freeholders in 1976 and clerk in 1977. She has two sons and a daughter. Mrs. Rudolph, 3f, was born and reared in Camden. She has worked for the county since 1976, starting as an election clerk and being appointed deputy county clerk in 1978. She and her husband, Arthur, have six children, aged 13 to 20. They live in Ocean Oty where Mrs. Rudolph is president pPMhe Women’s Republican Club. She hlso is a former county Republican committ^ewoman. Mrs. Brittingham, 36, is'a native of North Wildwood and graduated from Middle Township High School inJ 1965. She graduated from the Gddey Beafcom School of Business in Wilmington, Dd., in 1967. She came to county gov eminent in 1974 as secretary to Judge Natjian Staller. When fie retired in 1982, sbe-was appointed secretary to the visiting judge. When that position was abolished in 1982, she became a judical clerk-coordinator and a supervisor in the Superior Court Chancery Division, Matrimonial. She and her husband, Charles, have one son, Michael, 14. They live in Dennis Township.

38 Years of Service Altiery Honored Upon Retirement

DIAMOND BEACH - Raymond J. Altiery of Erma was honored Friday with the Commandant’s Distinguished Career Sendee Award in retirement ceremonies at the U.S. Coast Guard Electronics Engineering Center, Lower Township. He is a senior chief electronics technician at the center, which tests long-range aids to navigational equipment. Among highlights of the day, Altiery inspected the troops and was honored at a luncheon at the Lobster House in Cape May. He received his award from Adm. Alfred Manning, chief of Control and Command at the Coast Guard headquarters in Washington, D.C. ALTIERY. 56. retired yesterday after 11 years at the center. He has combined civilian-military service of almost 38 years. He was in the Air Force from 1945 to 19<9, in the Coast Guard from 1949 to 1967, and a civilian with the Coast Guard since 1967. But Altiery isn’t really retiring. He said be has six jbb applications at Hudson, Fla., where he and his wife, Sophie, are moving. “I’ve got to work to survive," be said, “mentally and economically.” ALTIERY ALSO has hobbies of amateur

radio and skin diving. . - Married in 1955, Mr. and ^'rs. AKiery have two sons, Raymond, 25, of Lewis town. Pa., and Thomas, 24, of Villas, and a daughter, Angela, 20, of Wildwood.

Doris Won}

HONORED — Raymond Altiery, right, receives award from Capt. William H. Hayes Jr., com a lading officer at the U.S. Coast Guard Electronics Engineering

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