Herald & Lantern 22 February '84

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News Digest

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date for ground breaking of the new library is still pending however. The grant will be used to reduce the expected $805,000 building cost, Kilpatrick said. Everlon For Sale ERMA — Everlon Fabrics Corp., once Cape May County's largest private employer with a payroll as high as 400, is down to 30-40 workers and has its 195,000-square-foot plant at the county airport complex for sale. Bill Sherman, executive vice president, told the HeraldLantern yesterday that the firm "does not plan on closing, although you never can tell." He said one option would be to sell the plantr, then lease space from the owner. Sherman blamed the 1982-83 "business downturn" and “high overhead" in terms of energy and local taxes for the firms problems. He said labor and county officials have been "very cooperative.” Everlon produces fabric for curtains. *

Bucks for Books PETERSBURG — State Department of Education officials have approved a $260,000 grant for construction of the Upper Township*branch of the county library, County Freeholder James S. Kilpatrick Jr. has told his colleagues. A Green Thumb? CREST HAVEN - Cape May County Facilities and Services (used to be Buildings and Grounds) Director Harry A. Kehr hopes to build a 25- by 100-foot greenhouse near the maintenance building so the county can grow its own plants and shrubs. "We feel we can do it less expensive than commercially,” said Kehr. The proposed 1984 county budget allocates $3,500 for the greenhouse. No Blood Test? COURT HOUSE - It just got very difficult for non-Cape May County resident to get county reimbursement for attending an out-of-county two-year college. Freeholders have adopted a policy requiring applicants for reimbursement to do so prior to the last day of registration and to provide a county voter registration card, state driver's license with a county address, and an affidavit swearing to local residency, backed up by an income tax return Freeholder Gerald M. Thorton sai(J that the freeholders would serve as a "board of appeals" if anyone has y "mitigating circumstances" for lacking any of those documents. Jobs Available RIO GRANDE —-Cape May County’s Jobs Training Partnership Act has more than 20 on-the-job-training (OJT) positions open, paying $4 an hour and up, according to Director Nan Mavromates. She said positions are open for cooks, diesel mechanic, clerk, secretary, bookkeeper, electrician, and cabinet maker trainee. For further information, call 886-0975. tAvalon Budget AVALON — Borough Council will hold a public hearing at 9:30 a m. March 15 on its proposed $4.6-million 1984 budget. That's a $316,679 increase over last year. Tax comparisons are difficult because the borough tax rates are estimated to drop from 77 cents per hundred dollars of assessed valuation to 33 cents, according to Mayor Rachel Sloan, but the borough had a reassessment last year that tripled most AVs.

Budget Delayed COURT HOUSE - Cape May County .Freeholders will hold the public hearing on their 1984 $35.7-millibn budget at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 28, but wpn't adopt it the same day. the way they usually do. Clerk/Administrator Kathryn A. Willis said at least two changes have to be made — an additional $14,700 for Facilities and Services and a $23,000 hike to fund another investigator in the Prosecutor’s Office. That will delay final

adofltwn at least 10 days, she said. j Before the latest new position, the

\ Prosecutor’s budget showed a 41 percent

increaseA-

Clammers Rescued WILDWOOD - Capt John Wheaton aboard Elizabeth II out of Otten's Harbor rescued Capt. Thbmas Haas and two crewmen of the Hi Gail from a life raft. Sunday after the 65-foot clammer's bilge pump failed and the vessel flooded about 55 miles southeast of its home port here and sank around noon. Rubber survival suits protected the men from the 48-degree water until Wheaton came to their aid. Besides Haas of Cape May. Norman Ramlo of Cape May and Jeff Curdt of Court House were rescued.

Holding Firm CAPE MAY — Cape May County still wants $145,000 for 210 Broadway, the three-story frame house seized during a fall, 1982 drug raid. No bidders showed up last month at the auction of the 77-year-old city house but Kathryn A.. Willis, clerk/administrator, will try again at 2 p.m. March 7. County freeholders decided to pay off the $49,342 mortgage on the property last week. * Crash Injures 3 OCEAN CITY — Resort resident Elsie Clements was admitted to Shore Memorial Hospital seriously injured after a late morning collision Sunday along the 2900 block of Bay Avenue. Her car was northbound when it crossed in the southbound lane and crashed head-on into a Pennsylvania family's car. Joyce McBride of Holland, Pa., was admitted with a broken jaw and facial injuries. Her husband, Robert, was treated for facial cuts. Jason McBride, eight-months-old, escaped injury thanks to his restraint

Lower Man Killed NORTH CAPE MAY - Richard Beesley, 83, of Haverford Avenue was pronounced dead on arrival at the Mainland Division of Atlantic City Medical Center, Pomona, Feb 14, after his car collided with a truck at the intersection of Routes 40 and 50 in Hamilton Township, Atlantic County. The truck driver. James Farrell. 25, of Mays Landing, was not reported injured by police who are investigating the mishap.

Nursing Home-

(From Page 1) we have the room. It would be a good ratable (or the municipality and serve a good purpose.” According to Mayer, the state Health Department says the county has 508 longterm care beds and needs another 328. Thus Hospicomm has received the necessary Health Department “certificate of need.” COURT HOUSE CONVALESCENT Center would include “an adult medical day-care center," Mayer said. Ibis would have a capacity of 27 patients and offer supervision, physical .therapy, recreational therapy, social services, hot meals, etc. "on a 9-5 basis for people who can be taken care of by their family at home after 5. We are going to try to keep elderly patients out of the institution atmosphere," he said\ The three-story building would include 41,000 square feet, two elevators in a central core, and masonry-bearing wall. MAYER SAID the entire project will cost $4 million, with $3 million going for construction, the remainder for equipment and purchase of the 2.5 acres on Magnolia Drive. Mayer pointed out that the state requires that 35 percent of the residents be' Medicaid, which be termed a "breakeven" payment. Hospicomm also has nursing homes in Linden and Berkeley Heights.

More Middle Sewage?(From Page 1) Asked about the additional flow, he said, ‘‘We have no way of knowing. The onlyway to tell is to check their winter intake which we haven't checked in a couple months." He said he “guestimated" the Jamesway Shopping Center would add * 6.000 to 8.000 gallons And he said the proposed nursing home would ad4 "less than 10.000 gallons.” YISTENZO SAID the key to the plant s capacity is the fact that the “K & E" plant (Keuffel and Essen in Court House closed about five years ago, and it had used about 60.000 gallons a day “At that time we were overloaded," he said. "There was no moratorium on more sewage, but the plant was putting out raw sewage because it wasn't run right.” Some of the sewage flow numbers seem to be vague. Vistenzo said he “feels" the plant is now receiving 50,000 to 60,000 gallons, but a flow meter than records it was not working for some months and has only recently been repaired. He said he intends to connect an electronic flow meter to compare the numbers. Vistenzo also said that "We might get a higher flow if there is a continual hard rain, but that is strictly water.” Vistenzo also said that DEP has licensed the plant for a 300,000-gallon capacity. “I don’t ask questions.” he laughed. "It could be a typographical error." THE COUNTY HEALTH Department seems to have taken all positions on the

issue.

A recommendation that the Jamesway Shopping Center connect to the plant came in a June 28, 1983, letter to the authority from health inspector Charles A. Adelizzi who wrote that “the time is ripe to hook into municipal sewage. " '“Contingent on plant capacity," added Clay Sutton, the Health Department’s environmental program administrator, in a

recent interview.

In an earlier interview, Sutton said he was “very concerned" about the sewage treatment plant and its capacity and "a little frustrated" that the Health Department "couldn’t stop additional hookups." In a later interview, Sutton cited some water samples from Crooked Creek, into which the plant discharges its effluent. They were high in fecal coliform from human waste. They were taken last year and Sutton said they were “not of concern; this kind of thing happens at a little local plant. These numbers are not alarming." But in an Oct. 20, 1983 letter to Edward F. Pain, Stone Harbor administrative assistant, county Health Officer Louis J. Lemanna wrote that "We share your major concern about the discharge of inadequately treated sewage into Cgpe May County ^tetets from Stone Harbor Manor. Scotch Bhoom and from the overloaded Middle Township Sewerage Treatment Plant discharging into Crooked Creek." THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT S mixed feelings apparently are the result of dif-

ficult choices.

"The hospital didn’t need a permit," pointed out Sutton. "It was the same pipe. : so it was covered by the old permit." As for the Jamesway Shopping Center, Vo-Tech Turnaround?-

(From Page 1)

school.”

Kistler said that "some factors adversely affected our enrollment this year. I think we have overcome some of those things. We’ve broadened some programs

Sutton said it has “an ongoing problem of overflowing sewage. There is too much sewage for the ground to hold. It comes to the surface Then they have to pump it out "We don’t want to solve one problem and create another," said Sutton. “What’s better. a pond of sewage behind the Jamesway, or additional gallons to a plant which may not make much difference?" Sutton said the county Health Department “started monitoring Crooked Creek last summer We took three or four sampling runs and found some very high coliform levels. But you can’t base anything on three or four samples." Sutton said DEP sets a maximum fecal coliform level of 250 MPN (most probable number) and those 1983 tests showed these results: April 26, 1,600; June 28, "grfeated than 2,400," the highest that can be measured; July 5, ^greater than 2,400;"

and July 20, 280.

SUTTON NOTED that the June 28 and July 5 readings were "the Fourth of July weekend when there would be a big flow.” Sutton also called the proposed Jamesway hookup “fairly minor. The major proposal is for the nursing home. " Vistenzo conceded “a lot of people are asking about the plants capacity, but I don’t know why. We have to dear our act

with everyone.

“We have to maintain minim urns in suspended solids and fecal coliform,” he said. "We meet our minimum pretty much for the type of plant we have and how old it is. It may look terrible to most people, but it does run pretty efficiently. We’re pretty good; not 100 percent, but we’re way under what we’re supposed to be. "That’s noty the Taj Mahah over there,” he said of the plant, “but we’re not doing any harm anywhere’s near compared to other places. I don’t feel we’re polluting things any more than any system in New

Jersey.”

DIFFERENT OPINIONS about the sewage treatment plant’s effluent could result from the fact that Vistenzo sees test results from a pipe at the rear of the plant and Suttort has been testing Crooked Creek. The effluent reportedly could pass a test at the pipe, but break up in the creek

and test differently.

“Avalon can show good pipe results," commented Sutton, “but have a polluted

bay."

He has said that “all shore area treatment plants are antiquated and overloaded." And the county's environmental health program plan calls “point discharges from municipal treatment plants” the “major sources of pollution (in

the county)."

The Cape May County Environmental Council, a nine-member advisory group, recently scheduled a meetflfc at the Middle Township Sewage Treatment plant because of concerns about the proposed new hookups. Only two of its members, chairman Stephen Patrick and Larry

Newbold, showed up.

Vistenzo was there, accompanied by Walter Turnier, the licensed plant operator, and A1 Herman, engineer for the Middle Township and the authority. The three-member authority includes Vistenzo, John M. Ludlam, and Leroy Wescott whose wife, Helen, is secretary. Attorney John L. Ludlam is its solicitor.

- — not sure we’re going tu ic^cn dzc (pupils),” he said. "I’m not altogether confident." "YOU MUST BE sincere?" asked Thornton. "Absolutely," said Kistler, who pointed out that the district has added a position of “public information and enrollment counselor." It’s held by Joseph Ostrowski Thornton pointed out that the per-pupii cost in the proposed budget is $4,400 and "could be greater if you don’t reach your projected enrollment.’’ He did not note that, with enrollment down to 468, the per-pupil cost this year is $5,412. 7 “If we don’t have sufficient numbers (of pupils),” KisUer said, “we won’t offer that program. But if we cut out a program that s an educational opportunity that no longer exists in Cape May County ’’ THORNTON ASKED KisUer the perpupil cost in the county for "regular hieh schools.” ^

"I’m not in a posifion to say” said KisUer, “but vocational is more expensive by nature of its class size and cost of

equipment."

KisUer pointed out that a study committee is probing "vocational school alternatives" and will have a report this spring. He has previously suggested the possibility of a "comprehensive" vocaUonaltechnical school with a full-time academic and vocational program by as early as the

fall of 1985.

“I am not sure a comprehensive vocaUonal school is the most feasible thing to do,” he said last week, “but an adult high school is an imperaUve, an alternative for kids who don’t meet with success in their home schools, something different than the GED (General Educational Development) which is a second-class certificate. “I think A FULL-TIME school should certainly be looked into,” said Thornton. KisUer also pointed out that the vocational district has had programs under federal CETA (Comprehensive Employment and Training Act) and PIC (Private Industry Council), but “right now has zero

students”.

He said the district has made proposals for programs under the Jobs Training Parternship Act. which replaced PIC.