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Herald & Lantern 7 March '84

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Lighthouse Future Up in Air

CAPE MAY POINT - U S Coas* Guard officials will formally decide in a month or so which of two organizations will lease the historic lighthouse here. Informally, however, the Co>ast Guard is leaning toward a Point committee, formed under the local taxpayers' association, and away from Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts in Cape May “We are inclined toYespect the needs of ihe community where the light is,” explained Capt Donald H. Ramsden, comptroller of the Third Coast Guard District, which operates the deteriorating 125-year-old lighthouse only to house aircraft navigatiohal beacons “We haven’t seen the Cape May Point Taxpayers’ Association proposal — Uie joint proposal of the J^-oups down there,” he said Friday. “(Bull if the folks in Cape May Point want to maintain the light as something nice to look at! that's a viable proposal” “THAT S THE SUBSTANCE of our proposal.” WalUr Sachs, president of the taxpayers’ association, confirmed “We’re looking at it as a passive type of thing. Oiir proposal was mainly to maintain the ex- - terior. since the interior wouldn’t be' used " In October, Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts announced its offer to* lease the lighthouse, as a tourist attraction and memorial to lost seamen. To restore and maintain the structure, though, MAC proposed to open the tower and charge admission to visitors.

9 at 72.5, 69:8, 64.5, and 56.4. according to La manna THE TESTING WAS done by the Compliance Section of the state Department of Environmental Protection. Lamanna said. “I imagine because of the controversy generated ” The Herald and Lantern -last month reported that tests in March of 1983 at three points in the borough s water supply system showed sodium levels of 57.4. 58.2 and 58.4. Ira DiUyn, Stone Harbor superintendent of public works, was the source for that

d^ta.

A DEP official.saidSlone Harbor received a “spot check 1 ^ because it has a "history of slightly high-level sodiums Stone Harbor’s water also was tested by the county Health Department last week, along with Cape May, Wildwood Crest, North W’ildwood, Avalon and Ocean City. Those samples are being analyzed by the laboratory at Stockton State College and results are expected this week. Lamanna * said he has set an "in-house” deadline of March 13 for preparing a report to the

tested municipalities.

He said he moved ahead on the Stone Harbor alert without awaiting the county's results because ‘•’we have to rely on DEP; we’re not going to wait for our overall

study"

A PLANNING DEPARTMENT report given to its board on Feb 21 contained no data from Stone Harbor. Lamanna said at the time that “Apparently Stone / Harbor doesn't keep records too far back”. Lamanna said he wants his reports of next week "to generate widespread publicity” and. in that regard, he said Herald-Lantern articles over the last several weeks on salt water intrusion “worked in our favor.”

Wary of more tourist through their sihall community; members of the Cape May Point Civic Club, which represents 52 of the borough's 250 permanent residents, voted unanimously in November to oppose MAC’S proposal When the Coast Guard received “several letters of concern” about MAC'S plat. , Ramsden has said, it decided to advertise for other lease proposals as well. “We had-MAC’S prior to the time we went public," he added Ramsden should also have received by Friday the joint lease proposal submitted by The Point taxpayers’ association, said Sachs. "It was due by the 25th (of February ) and we mailed it«the 21st.” THE POINT PROPOSAL was posted both certified and regular mail, he added, and the certified mail receipt has already been returned from the Hurd Coast Guard District headquarters in New York Although The Point lease proposal was submitted over the taxpayers' association signature, Sachs noted that the committee that drafted it “very broadly represents the community”. Besides himself, the proposal committee, he said, includes the president of the borough fire department, members of .the county historical and Audubon societies, the borough environmental commission, and Poinl Mayor Frank S. Rutherford Jr. Now that it's established, Sach added, the committee intends to expand its membership to include individuals from other parts of the county.

regulations calls sodium-restrictive diets “essential in treating congestive cardiac failure, hypertension, renal disease, cirrhosis of the liver, toxemias of .pregnancy and Meniere’s disease. y "When the sodium content (dfwinking water) exceeds 20 mg/1, the‘physician usj, take this into account to modify the et or prescribe that distilled water be used,”*says, the appendix. “WATER UTILITIES that distribute water that exceeds 20 mg/1 must inform physicians of the sodium content of the water so that the health of consumers can be protected." the appendix concludes. Lamanna said last week’s tests will not solely determine the need for other medical alerts, but will be included with “a lot of the data we’ve accumulated in the last few weeks. “These tests will determine if we have to make followup runs,” he said. “Remember, we’re not budgeted to do this. It’s costing us money.” Stockton is charging the county $5 per test, a discount from its normal $8 rate. The county should be able to do its own sodium testing this spring after the county budget is approved and a piece of equipment costing $2,217 can be obtained. THE COUNTY Planning Department is preparing a report "on the long-term trends and effects of salt water intrusion,” according to Director Elwood Jarmer. He said he hopes it will be completed in several months. The county Health Department has reported that the salt water line is creeping inland and “sodium levels are climbing at an alarming rate”. The Health and Planning departments, with;joint responsibility for water quality monitoring, have called sodium “the most crucial problem” and salt water instrusion “our main pollution' concern.”

During it* January meeting. MAC’S boarc expressed a strong consensus that its interest in the lighthouse ‘‘is purely of a preservation nature,” Michael Zucker man, MAC director, reported then. “Our goal,” he had added, “is to try to set up a public meeting with the taxpayers’ association and the civic club.” That goal wasn't met before the Point organizations formed their proposal committee, draft separate plans to restore the lighthouse and keep tourists at viewing distance. "Do you still intend.to open it up for tourism? " Zuckerman was asked after the January MAC meeting. “That’s still integral with our proposal.” he had replied, linking admission charges for ighthouse visitors to the estimated $40,000 needed to restore it. "The only way, as we see it, to preserve it, would be to open it up to tourists.” “This particular light is not habitable and we don’t have the money to make it habitable," noted Ramsden. summarizing the Coast Guard's interest in leasing the structure to a group that would restore and preserve it.

Lies and Poetry (From Page 1) writing," adds Bean, who has taught Expository Writing and Rhetoric and Composition at Stockton State College, where her husband, Ralph, serves as a math proessor. “In school, kids are not asked to write," she explains. “They’re asked to answer questions in work books. And teachers don’t have time to give writing assignments — and now, with computers — God knows what happens. They leave high school and never know how to write ... and, sometimes, they’re bright kids,' Bean sighs. Referring to poetry in America, she notes: “Most people’s preconception is that it’s something dead or it’s really boring or it's something abstract... “Most people don't read contemporary American poets now,” she continues “This is what I would like to eventually get ac"oss, so I read to them (students) contemporary American poets and South American poets. “There isn’t any place for poetry in America now days,” Bean complains. Contrasting its status here with her homeland, she adds, “In Greece, the people know their national poets and their works are put to music that people sing in the streets. “Some cultures are more communicative in that way. “I don’t know how many (local) kids are exposed to (poet Walt) Whitman. Bean mused. “Hiey know the name — from the bridge. "IF YOU LIKE IT (poetry) yourself, all you have to do is read it,” she says. “Expose them (students) to the rich metaphoric language. "Kids read text books and they read magazines and watch television ... they’re informational but they don’t feed your emotions, your psyche." Poetry, on the other hand, is “an emotional, an intellectual development" to Bean. She became a Poet in the Classroom in 1979 after serving as head teacher in Atlantic County New School, the private school she opened in 1972. With a full scholarship to the University of Athens, the former Manya Passantonopoulos left her native city in 1959 for the University of Pittsburgh, where she earned a bachelor of arts in English Literature. "I came here as a college student and got hitched,” she recalls with a smile. Bean was graduated from the University of Maryland with a master’s degree in Comparative Literature in 1963. She took education courses at the University of Tennessee and received a New Jersey certificate to teach English K-12 after additional courses at Stockton. Kenneth Koch’s book, Wishe*. Lies and t>reams: Teaching Children to Write Poetry (Vantage>, stirred her interest in the state Council for the Arts’ traveling poet program. Koch’s work serves as Bean’s bible in her unorthodox approach to teaching poetry through lies. But the four-day Poet in the Classroom visit is much too short to suit her. “You really can’t do that much,” Bean concludes. “You just get them into it on the fourth day and then you leave.”

Salty Water (From Page 1) *

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News Digest(From Page 1) hashish into the U.S. Coast Guardsmen boarded the 150-tan British freighter 60 miles off Cape May in November, seizing the cargo and confiscating the vessel. The four seamen expected to split $1 million for the illegal delivery. They pleaded guilty as charged Jan. 3.

1 Killed, 1 Hurt O OCEAN VIEW --Joyce H. Smith, 44, of Manahawkin was killed and James Roff, 52, of Avalon injured early Thursday night when their vehicles crashed head on near mile post 17.9 of the southbound Garden State Parkway here; Smith was driving north. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Roff was treated at Burdette Tomlin Memorial Hospital. Court House, for minor head injuries.

Cops Cuff 3 WILDWOOD - Middle Township Police arrested three East Roberts Avenue men west of the George Redding 4 Bridge pn Rio Grande Boulevard after an ‘alleged drug deal last Wednesday night. Pedro L. Nieves Moya, 21, was being held in lieu of $250,000 bail on charges (rf distributing heroin. Louis R. Lopez Aguilar. 27. and Luis P. Rodriguez, 29, were being held for $50,000 on charges of conspiracy to distribute a controlled dangerous substance.

O.C. Man Indicted OCEAN CITY — County grand jurors have indicted Mario Shockley, 23, for the Dec. 22 slaying of his estranged wife, Charlene, in the As bury Avenue apartment she shared with her five children. Hie children were sleeping when Shockley allegedly stabbed his wife in the neck with a large folding knife. Shockley was forbidden from seeing his wife by a January, 1983 court order He has been indicted for aggravated manslaughter. Juvenile Panels (From Page 1) and Mrs. Anthony DeVico and Frank Ross of Cape May Court House, Carol Seliger of Avalon, and Mr. and Mrs. James Blackmore of Green Creek. The Middle County Committee will cover Rio Grande, Middle Township, Stone Harbor, Avalon and Dennis Township, Craig said. A Lower Cape May County Committee, which had been in operation from January 1981 to April 1983, was reorganized last month and ha^ its first meeting Feb. 28. New members Michael Logsdon of Cape May and Brian Close of West Cape May join prior members Mr. and Mrs. Irv Posternock of Wildwood Crest, Jack Moran of Erma, Barbara Fontaine of Villas, Deborah Hanson Of Fishing Creek and Edward Callihan of North Cape May, Craig said The Lower County Committee heard four juvenile cases, Craig said. Lower County includes Lower Township, the Cape May area and the Wildwoods. Juveniles charged with minor offenses such as misdemeanors, underage drinking, possession of under 25 grams of marijuana, neighborhood disputes, etc., may volunteer to appear before a Juvenile Conference Committee if they are first offenders. The committees are considered an extension of the courts, but they can’t put juveniles in correctional institutions or on probation. They can require them to attend drug or alcohol screening sessions and counseling, perform community work, make restitution, write letters of apology, etc. t , Craig is still forming an Upper Cape May County Committee to serve Upper Township. Sea Isle City and Ocean City. And he is considering a fourth committee to serve Woodbine and possibly Smith Dennis. He asked persons interested in serving to contact him at 465-9350. Committee members must be 18 and older and interested in working with juveniles. “This will afford people who are concerned about the supposed increase in juvenile delinquency an opportunity to become involved," be said.