Drug House: No Takers CAPE MAY — Perhaps the leaky/basement and lack of third-floor hedt had something to do with it — the county didn’t receive any bids on 201 Broadway last week. Cape May County freeholders now must decide whether to lower the minimum acceptable bid from $145,000 or negotiate the sale, Kathryn A.. Willis, county, administrator, said when no one appeared at (Page 21 Please)

Record Surplus Cut County Tax

• . Doris Ward POWER TO THE COUNTY — The Cap^ May County Health Department aad state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) signed contracts last week giving the county new responsibilities in environmental matters. Left to right. Louis J. La manna, county public health coordinator; Clay Sutton, principal environmental planner; Donald Graham, DEP deputy commissioner ; and Freeholder Gerald M. Thornton.

News—^ Digest ^Stories Cape Mourns Marine COURT HOUSE — Flags fly at half mast today to mark the death in combat of Lance Cpl. George Dramis, 19, eldest son of Middle township police Sgt. James Dramis and his wife, Loretta, of Court House. George Dramis was killed and two other Marines wounded during a firelight Monday with Druse militiamen ,at the .Beirut airport, Lebanon. His immediate family includes Marine Pvt. Robert Dramis, sisters Nancy, Dana, Suzette and Jaimee. His grandmother, Beatrice Dramis, aunt and uncle, Linda and Dave Dunbar, are also local residents.

Nanavati Running

COURT HOUSE - Dr. Suketu Nanavati filed as a Friends of Burdette candidate Monday for the Feb. 28 election of Burdette Tomlin Memorial Hospital board of governors. The cardiologist, who has asked for a delay in action on a suit to block his dismissal from the hospital, will run with a slate of Friends candidates who face seven board incumbents. Rio RMh

COURT HOUSE - Based on Middle Township police reports of "a rash of burglaries” in the Rio Grande area, Crime Stoppers chairman William Belles yesterday urged persons with any information to call 465-2800. Callers can remain anonymous; rewards are paid for information leading to arrest and conviction, he said. Burglaries reportedly have occurred at several homes, businesses, and the Grace Gospel Chapel. Developer Appeals

CAPE MAY - PRB Enterprises of Pennsylvania, developers of Wawa convenience stores, is appealing Superior Court Judge John Callinan’s ruling that city council and city planners did not act in bad faith when they rezoned a Pittsburgh Avenue tract to prohibit commercial development there. The 1962 (Page 20 Please)

Home for

Ready by By JOE ZELNIK RIO GRANDE — The Association for Retarded Citizens (ARC) made settlement last Friday on a home at 9 Secluded Lane and expects to move in six mildly retarded male adults by March 1. The four-bedroom home was purchased from JOhn and Donna Jo Marsden for $125,000. He is a builder and she is a real estate broker. The house was sold by Resort Realty of Villas. AJtC's plans to buy the house brought protests from some neighbors last December and State Assemblyman Guy R Muziani had asked the state Department of Human Services to check the price Steven Wade, a neighbor at 12 Secluded Lane who had been called a spokesman of the opponents, declined comment this week. MUZIANI SAID he came into the case because he’d been told a home was available for $80,000, but he said he now

Retarded March 1 “The commissioner got back to me,” be said, “and told me the house for $80,000 would require $42,000 in additional renovations and the house for $125,000 would require $8,000 and they would be better off with the Marsden's." A daily newspaper from Atlantic City had reported in December that the ARC attempt to purchase the home had been blocked by neighbors.and Muziani. “There was never any backing out as far as we’re concerned,” said Kay D’Amico, ARC group home project director. “There was a lot-of effort to have it shot down, all under the guise of financial objections. But that was a smokescreen I think “ONLY A FEW NEIGHBORS were strongly opposed,” she said. "We’ve had a very good feedback from neighbors at other group homes and I hope we’ll’have the same out there. It was not the whole neighborhood against us; just two or three stirring everything up.” ARC has operated group homes for mentally retarded adultsTn Goshen since June 1980, she said, and in Erma •since June 1962. * ^ Last summer it intended a group home for seven retarded men in Baywood Park, Lower Township. Some residents objected and ARC backed out, citing poor drainage. D’Amico said the six residents, aged 20 to 50, will come from a group home in Dorothy, Atlantic County, that “went out of business" and is bring operated by ARC. Three of the six have families m Cape May County, she said. Four will be attending the sheltered workshop at Jersey Cape Diagnostic Training and Opportunity Center in Crest Haven and two will be attending the state's adult activities center in Court House. “I KNOW THESE PEOPLE and know tint they're not i threat to the c«araunity," abe said. “I will talk with anybody to explain our pnfram. I win take them in end let than see whet we’re dong I hope (PafeZIPleeae)

Another Reduction Seen in *85

By JOE ZELNIK COURT HOUSE — Cape May County finished 1983 with a record $5.3 million surplus, but plans to use less than 59 percent of it — $3.15 million — in this year's budget • It will carry $2.2 million of (hat surplus into 1965. The surplus is the main reason the county was able to cut taxes this year, and also expects to cut taxes again next year, county officials said. The Board of Freeholders hiked this year’s budget by $2.7 million over last year, from $33 million to $35.7. But it cut taxes by a half-cent per $100 of assessed valuation. By comparison, the county ended 1962 with a $3 million surplus and used 75 pfer cent of it — $2 4 million — in the 1983 budget. FREEHOLDER WILLIAM E. STURM JR., who is director of revenue, finance and public works, said the county, had it chosen to spend the 1963 surplus this year, could have cut taxes by 34 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, "but next year there’d be an abominable increase. “We could be heroes this year, but not have that surplus next year," he said. The county is saving 41 percent of that record surplus — $2.2 million — Sturm said, “to cushion the impact of new debt service" in 1985. The county expects to float a $13-14 million bond issue in 1965 to pay for construction of a new Crest Haven Nursing Home and expansion ot facilities at the coufity courthouse. That construction should start late this year, Sturm said But County Auditor Harry Scott said the construction should not have an impact on the county’s 1985 budget. He said it would be financed temporarily with bond anticipation notes currently costing about 64 percent and that money could be invested at rates currently running about 94 percent. Thus the borrowing would have a “minimal effect in 1965,’' he said SCOTT SAID the higher-percent-than-usual of the larger-than-normal surplus is being carried over “to further decrease the tax rate in 1965. If tire used that money, this year, it would guarantee a tax increase in 1965. "We don't just plan for one year," he said, “we plan far ahead." The record 1963 surplus of $5.3 million was the result largely, Sturm said, of “unanticipated revenues. " Had the county anticipated those revenues, last year’s tax increase of .9 of a cent per $100 of assessed valuation would have been unnecessary. STURM RELEASED a memo from the office of Treasurer Philip A Matalucci which listed 21 items called “miscellaneous revenues not anticipated 1983.” They totaled just over $2 million. The largest was $596,148 from the state to pay for incarcerating state prisoners in the county prison. Sturm said the county knew the state would be using the prison, but could not estimate what the state would pay. / , Warden William Fisher said the program began in 197M0, but the state decided last year to pay counties retroactive for prisoners-held more than 15 days. Fisher said the county has received $805,677 since that began. The county (Page2lPleaae)

feels the purchase “sounds logics! "

9 Sedaded Lane Will Be Grdap Home far Retarded.