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Sheriff's Officers Graduate

COURT HOUSE - Several officers from the County Sheriffs Depart men’, are recent graduates of law- enforcement academies, according to Sheriff Beech N. Fox Officers Shirley V-.

Neville of Lower Township and John W -Smith, 25, of Middle Township, graduated from an 11-week course at the Camden County Municipal Police Academy iQ/late November.

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For N.J. Bell, 1983 A Year of Change^

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For New Jersey Bell, 1983 was 3 year of change It was a Sear of extensive planning foi divestiture from its parent AT&T, and year of optimistic preparation for the future as part of the $£U Atlantic

Corp.

transmitting large volumes of data at high-speeds and also can be used for video

teleconferencing.

New Jersey Bell also began participation in a trial of another new network advancement called Circuit Switched Digital

'-During the fourth Capability <CSDC) at Mur-

quarter < 1983) New Jersey ray Hill.

Bell implemented an infprmation program for customers to acquaint them with new procedues for ordering, maintaining and paying for telephone service after divestiture. A special toll-free "We Can Help" number ... 800-555-5000 ... was activated and nearly 24.000 calls were handled by year’s end. Enhancement of New Jersey Bell’s primary resource — ^its local network — was a priority during 1983. To increase the capabilities and efficiendies of the network the company invested $547.!•

million.

IN MARCH, the company’s firjJ Number 5 Electronic Switching System (5ESS) - a stateof-ttie-art,, alf digital switching machine — was placed in

service.

Located in Cedar Knolls, the 5ESS is capable of providing any voice, data,. video or text transmission service. Applications include Information Age ser vices such as home banking and shopping, inforina- . tion retrieval, and data and video transmission. New Jersey Bell plans to install 5ESS machines this year / ( 1,984) in Tuckahoe, Rpbertsville and Palermo Nine Electronic Swit- ■ ching Systems (ESS) also were placed in service during 1983. These computerized switches speed call processing and provide Custom Calling Services for homes and businesses. Nearly 58 percent of New .‘•vJersey Bell’s three million customers were served by ESS offices by year’s end, including customers served by a new ESS in Giassboro> This year. New Jersey Bell plans to add 15 electronic switches to its local Network bringing the total number of. its customers . served by 5ESS or ESS service to about 66 percent. As 1983 ended. New Jersey Bell was also moving ahead with two new technologies to ennance the local network. The company's first “fiber subscriber loop carrier (Fiber SLC)” system was placed in service in Somerset. With Fiber SLC, lightguide cable is run from New Jersey Bell's central switching office directly to the customer's premises where the fiber is attached to electronic equipment that converts telephone signals from analog to digital. The system is capable of

CSDC enables computers to communicate.with each other at high speeds It permits customers to send nearly all business communications — -voice, graphics and data -- over conventional telephone lines and is considered a significant step toward a fully integrated voice and data -communications network ^ TO HELP residence customers control the cost of telephone service. New Jersey Bell introduced a moderate use local measured service pricing plan. With the plan, a . customer gets 75 message units per month Jor use in making local calls. When those message units are used, each additionahunit the customer uses costs 6.5 cents. A message unit is a local call of Five minutes or

less.

New Jersey Bell customers can now choose flat rate service at an average $7.15 per month, moderate use measured service at an average $5.54 per month, or low use measured service at an average $4.54 per month. To reduce expenses, New Jersey Bell continued its cost-containment program with the closing in September of one of three customer billing and accounting centers. A second center will* be closed this year and operations will be centralized in Cranford. Savings to date exceed $10 million. AS PART of the divestiture, New Jersey Bell transferred over 5,000 employees to AT&T companies. The company-hew employs some 23,000 people and has about 2.6 million residence customers and nearly 358,000 business customers. Network access lines in service at year's end totaled 3.97 million, up from 3.83 million a year earlier. The southern area, which includes Cape May County, grew by more than 12,000 access lines, bringing the total number of lines in service in the area to 537,000 by year’s end. On Jan. 1, New Jersey Bell became a subsidiary of Bell Atlantic a*kI joined Bell of Pennsylvania, the C&.P Telephonjr Companies, the Diamond State Telephone Comtoany and Bell Atlantic) Mobile Systems, Inc. Bell Atlantic serves New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia.

Officer Neville distinguished herself in this class by receiving the top two awards offered by the academy. She received the Academy Director's. Award for Professional Dedication as well as thePolice Training Commission Certificate of Merit. The certificate of merit award is for scholarship arid leadership, with the recipient being chosen by the class members. Officer Neville is a graduate of St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, Penns., has raised six children and been an employee of the Sheriff’s Department for over ten years. OFFICER SMITH graduated in the upper third of his class in all categories. He graduated from Camden High School in 1971, served six years in the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne and has -been a member of the Sheriff’s Department since January, 1979. Officers Harold L. Cooper, 25, of Middle Township, John A. Ridler, 23, of Avalon, Francis Jancsura, 24, of Lower Township, and Peter MacLaren, 40, of the Cape May area, all graduated from a four-week course at the New Jersey Correction •Academy in West Trenton. Officer Cooper graduated from the Correction Academy . with top honors, receiving the Academic Achievement Award after achieving the highest academic score ever in the history of the Academy. Cooper is married and has one child. He is attending Atlantic Community College full time and majoring in Corrections. He has been a member of -the Sheriff’s Department for nearly two

years.

Officer, Ridler, a former U.S. Marine and current member of th^ Marine Resreve, has been a member of the Sheriff’s Department for less than a year. He scored well in all phases of the Academy

program

Officer Jancsura is married and has three children. He achieved above average marks in all training subjects as an academy student He has been with the Sheriff's Department for over six months. Officer MacLaren is a 10-year resident of Cape May County, ‘previously having attended the Philadelphia College of Art for four years. MacLaren graduated in the upper half of his class and has been a member of the Sheriff’s Department for nearly two years

Ends Basic OCEAN CITY - Pvt. Robert E. Warrington, son of Norman and Marilyn Warrington of 601 Ocean Ave., has completed army basic training at Fort McClellan, Ala. He'is a 1960 graduate of Ocean City High School.

FRANCIS JANCSURA JOHN SMITH

News Digest (FYomPagel) council action followed by a month planning board rejection of Wawa’s . apr’ication to build one of its outlets at the site. N‘- April Fool's Gag

HAROLD COOPER

AVALON - Starting April 1, 5,000 borough customers will pay $15 more each quarter in utility fees for the first 15,000 gallons used and 45 cents more for every 1,000 gallons extra. Borough council adopted an ordinance last week, approving the 50 percent hike in utility fees to pay for more than $800,000 in improvements to the municipal sewage * treatment plant. S?e Below

OCEAN CITY — Resort police want a 10 percent pay hike, three more annual holidays and vacation days plus other benefits in their pending contract with the city and asked for binding arbitration last week. The city’s offering a 2.7 percent pay raise and wants to reduce vacation time, holidays and other benefits. With the city offer, the average offjcdr in the 54-member union would receive $27,400 as d 1985 salary, noted Mayor Jack Bittner.

See Above

OCEAN CITY — City council voted five-one with one abstention last week to increase the city solicitor’s and prosecutor’s retainers from $10,000 to $12,500 each year. The raises were not part of Mayor Jack Bittner's 1984 budget but he said he won’t try to block them. Solicitor Gerald Corcoran has not had a city raise in three years. He’s also looking for a $10 hourly rate hike from $65 to $75 next month.

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Committee will ask the state Board of Public Utilities to allow another cable television company to connect this village for service if Group W Cable TV won’t take on the chore, Committeeman Charles Leusner said last week. Township officials have met with representatives from two other cable outfits and were scheduled to discuss Goshen service with Group W’s district manager today.

Tags and Taxes

OCEAN CITY - Projected 1981 tax hikes will be cut in half if city council adopts an ordinance Feb. 10 that will increase seasonal beach tags $2 and weekly tags $1. Without the new tag fees, property owners could expect to pay $40460 more this year in taxes, officials said. As proposed, seasonal tags bought before June would jump from $3.50 to $5 and from $5.50 to $7 after June 1. Weekly tags would increase from $2 to $3.

Average Week

WILDWOOD - Police Chief Wilbur Ostrander found out that his brother, Mayor Earl Ostrander, cut his department budget when the chief discovered four officers stricken from the payroll. The mayor also omitted more than $25,000 in legal fees to cover his suits.against council from the overall budget though. Councilman Edward Herman filed a suit against the mayor last week and council voted to censure him for calling councilmen names.

Dangling Cable

GOSHEN — Middle Township

Con Artist Loose

THE WILDWOODS - Greater Wildwood Jaycees are not soliciting donations in connection with their Distinguished Service Awards or for any other projects. Dave Goldstein, Jaycees public relations director, advises Cape-"" residents to beware of anyone asking for money in the Jaycees' name. He warns other organizations to be on the lookout for con artists who might run a similar scam on them. Call 884-0666 for information. JVCM Trucker Hurt

ANGLESEA — Two drivers were injured Friday when their trucks collided on the Beach Creek Bridge at the Middle Township-North Wildwood border. Steven Pearson, 29, of North Wildwood was treated for minor injuries at Burdette Tomlin Memorial Hospital and released. Gerald Greene. 32, of North Cape May • was admitted to Shore Memorial Hospital in serious condition but was listed in satisfactory condition Saturday. OC Man Arrested

OCEAN CITY — Kenneth B. Gorman, 36, of Morning Side Road, faces 20 years in jail and $60,000 in fines if convicted of smuggling and possessing 18,000 pounds of marijuana brought into Pine island, S.C. in August, 1960. Indicted with 24 other people last May, Gorman is one of four dozen defendants wanted from two alleged drug rings. FBI agents arrested him in Atlantic City Friday.