Herald t, Lantern 22 August '84 63 i *-» •

Don't Go Thirsty to Sunset Beach

(From Page 1) of City Manager Fred Coktren. Last week Hume appeared before the freeholders again, pleading for a solution to the watei shortage. They directed Louis J. La manna, count) health officer, to request a state Health Department inspection of the site this week to determine if water could be sup plied because of a potential health hazard "As long as those portable toilets are there," said La manna, "I don't know what they (state health inspectors) can do, aside from helping Mr. Hume in getting a well-drilling permit." "It's a local problem," Lamanna added, noting earlier, "There really isn't anything the (county) Health Department can do right now." Hume has been considering the possibility of drilling for water but he's wary because some bayfront wells have been contaminated by salt (see related story). Lamanna said the state might help him expedite a well-drilling permit but Hume is under no obligation to supply the site With fresh water. Since the tourist attraction "benefits the whole area," Lamanna 'reasoned, "maybe the communities down there could get together" and come up with a mutually agreeable solution to the problem. * LOWER TOWNSHIP "HAS THE obliga tion to get him potable water in there," argued Freeholder Gerald Thornton. The municipality issued Hume a mercantile license and he's entitled to some township assistance in return, Thornton maintained. "Gerry Thorton can go scratch his hat," countered Lower Mayor Robert Fothergill. "It's our turf but it's their water system — Cape May's. "The City of Cape May is jerking everybody around," he grumbled. "They just flat-out tell us they can't spare the personnel to turn the meter on. If Thornton's Health Department is willing to declare the site a health hazard, Fothergill said he's more than willing to get water down there by hook or by crook. "I don't know if I should just send the road department down there and turn the water on," he added, stressing that Hume is "willing to pay in advance for two years for his water system."

Bank Change

( From Page 1 ) receive more services, including trusts, brokerage and credit cards." New Jersey National has VISA and Master cards, she said. So far this year, in actions affecting Cape May County banking customers: # First Jersey National acquired 21 of1 fices of Guarantee Bank, including nine in Cape May County. # First National Bank of Tom's River bought three of the Guarantee branch offices plus one First Jersey office in Cape May Court House.. And it just opened a branch in Wiidwood Crest. # Midlantic Banks Inc. of Edison acquired six Union Trust Company offices in the county and also made a number of unsuccessful efforts to acquire, or merge with, First National of Tom's River. That one is still a live issue as Midlantic last week received permission from the Federal Reserve Board to buy as much as 25 percent of First National's stock. First National had opposed that as having "significantly adverse competitive effects in the Cape May banking area." After last week's Federal Reserve deci- " sion, however, First National said it was "deeply disappointed" and "... reviewing alternative responses, including the possibility of litigation, in order to serve the best interests of our stockholders, customers and employes." s . Finally, First National Stite Bank erf South Jersey last week beegme Fidelity Bank, N.A./South as part of a "corporate reorganization." Through all the confusion, there is one certainty: a lot of people will be getting new checkbooks with new bank names. 4

MAYBE NEXT YEAR - The problem, above, thousands of tourists at Sunset Beach, but no water. The partial solution, at right, portable toilets. The peeved, far right, giftshop owner Marvin Hume who can't seemyto get drinking water from the county, €ape\May, Lower Township, or anybody ebe.^ Hume complained that Coldren is using him as leverage to gain water-related concessions from The Point and Lower Township while Sunset Beach visitors suffer. "NO," COLDREN RESPONDED, "we just don't have the authority to extend our water service." When Point officials allowed Hume to connect with the borough's Sunset Beach hydrant, Coldren said, that approval was subject to authorization from Cape May, the water supplier. Hume decided to connect to the hydrant without the authorization, Coldren added. Nevertheless, Hume contends that Coldren told him the connection might be approved if Lower Township favorably settled a dispute with Cape May over water service to the township's Schellenger's Landing section that adjoins the city's northern docks. "He's using me as a pawn," Hume said of Coldren, "and I said to him, 'Mr. Coldren, isn't that a legal point between you and Lower?' " "That's not really accurate ...," the city manager said of Hume's contention that Coldren linked approval of the Sunset Beach pipeline to a Schellenger's Landing concession from Lower. Coldren confirmed that he discussed the dispute with Hume, adding that "we're certainly not" trying to intimidate him. In Schellenger's Landing, Coldren said, the dispute centers on who's responsible for maintaining water pipes — Cape May or Lower. The city supplies the water, Coldren added, but doesn't own the pipes Lower insists that either the city or Schellenger's Landing property owners are responsible for maintaining them, the manager continued, and the matter is being decided by the state Board of Public Utilities (BPU). THAT'S NOT THE WHOLE BALL of wax, though, according to Hume. "Having spent more than an hour with Mr. Coldren on June 21 ..., I left with the impression that I will be used as a pawn to blackmail both Lower Township and the Borough of Cape May Point," Hume wrote township officials June 25. In a June 24 letter to Coldren, Hume summarized their June 21 meeting: "You gave me to understand that you are sending out a letter to Lower Township, indicating that they must be responsible to impose some sort of tax liens on those of the 60 to 65 (township water) hookups that do not pay their water bills (to Cape May). "You (Coldren) gave me to understand that you are sending out a letter to the Borough of Cape May Point that, as a requirement of their permitting water to come to me, they must review an agreement on the amount they pay on their bulk water rates — that you people are going to push the price up on this." "If he is stuck in a dispute with Lower and Cape May, then shame on them," said Thornton. "I can assure you, we need some kind of restroom facilities out there," he added. "The only thing we're concerned about is having rest room facilities ... (but) we (county officials) can't legally supply Mr. Hume with water." THE COUNTY IS SUPPLYING Sunset Beach with two portable toilets at a monthly cost of $108. Hume asked for them in April but last week wrote Thornton: "The portable units at the best are but a temporary stop-gap. Vandalism, and feces droppings inside make for continuous derogatory comments (from tourists) and, with a top historical area such as this, it just should not have occurred." "If we got the water hook-up we wouldn't need the porta johns," Hume told the

Herald and Lantern, since water could be then supplied the two rest rooms in his gift shop. The well be's proposed to drill "was going to be to flush the (gift shop) toilets, " he explained. Lamanna said Hume could also use well water to connect faucets in them for washing even if the salt content is high. But, Hume asked, "What if somebody drinks it and sues me?" He's been buying bottled water, be said, so visitors can take medication etc., and hauling water from his nearest neighbor to clean the rest room toilets. "ITS A REGISTERED HISTORICAL AREA." he complained, repeating the arguments he originally made to the freeholders in an April 3 letter: "Besides allowing all traffic on Sunset Boulevard (County Route 606) ... to turn around on and park on our parking lot, we also furnish restroom facilities at our ex pense," the gift shop owner noted. "The state, county, newspapers, towns and campsites advertise or write of the concrete ship and the collecting of "Cape May Diamonds," Hume stressed. "Only a small percentage of people who visit here and use our free facilities and parking patronize our business "The public cannot continue to use the outdoors here to relieve themselves as they have been doing since our water supply was lost," Hume wrote "The need is immediate and urgent, " he i added. "On Sunday, April 1, we had 40 to 50 '

requests for rest room facilities and had two accidents by small children. ' ' ^ On June 25, Hume wrote Lower Township officials that, "Both males and females are relieving tlMmselves outside and Mr. Coldren told me I should stop them. He did not say how to stop them. Potable water is desperately needed as well as restrooms." Even with the portable toilets, the situation hadn't improved much by Monday morning when Hume told The Herald and Lantern: "I just, 10 minutes ago, cleaned up one erf the porta-potties that was overturned. I don't want to tell you what a mess that was." ALTHOUGH HUME OWNS THE SHOP'S parking lot, he has rented the land where the shop was built from HarbisonWalker Refractories which closed its 40-year-old magnesite plant at Sunset Beach last September. The plant supplied the shop with water and, as Coldren sees it, Harbison- Walker is still obliged to do so "If they were a public utility, I would agree with Fred, "said Doug Ziemba chief of Service Availability in the BPU's Water and Sewer Division. Since it isn't., Ziemba adoed, "we would have no jurisdiction " He speculated, however, that HarbisonWalker might be obliged to continue water service to the gift shop accoro.ng to the terms of Hume s lease agreement with th* * plant. Larry Hume, Marvin's son and shop* manager, said he's "pretty sure" the lease doesn't include provisions for continued water service He said he "wouldn't ex pect" Harbison- Walker to supply water anyway, since the plant has closed and electrical pumps there have been disconnected The simplest solution to the Sunset beach water hassle lies in the Coldren s hands, Marvin Hume maintained. "All we need is for one man to bef realistic," be said, "and realize he's hurting the whole area

Thornton, Fothergill Spar Over Potable Water Point

COURT HOUSE - There's no fresh water supply at Sunset Beach, according to Freeholder Gerald Thornton, who wants to know how Lower Township intends to operate an industrial park there without it. t Lower Township Mayor Robert Fothergill has been bickering with the county Municipal Utilities Authority, arguing that the municipality could save taxpayers' money, create jobs and gain tax ratables if the township could operate an incinerator-powered industrial park at Harbison- Walker Refractories' magnesite plant that closed last fall. Trash from the township and surrounding communities and sludge from the MUA's sewage treatment plant nearby could be burned there, allowing local municipalities to avoid expensive hauls to the new county landfill in Woodbine while extending its life expectancy, Fothergill reasoned, and the ash could be used to cover trash there. THE INCINERATOR COULD also generate steam to power businesses at the 123-acre site, Fothergill has argued, which in turn would provide jobs and taxable properties for the township and county. Nevertheless, the MUA, which is also considering the magnesite plant as one of several incinerator sites, contends that it alone has a franchise on solid waste in the county. But is there potable water? Marvin Hume, owner of the Sunset Bead) Gift Shop, told the freeholders last week that his business had been supplied with water from the magnesite plant until

it closed in September Harbison-Walker is Hume's landlord The water it supplied tested at 220 PPM (partfc per million) of sodium, though, Hume noted Fifty PPM is the staterecommended maximum level for sodium in water Water from another Sunset Beach source, Hume said, tested at 505 PPM Given the bayfront's salt water intrusion problem, Thornton wondered aloud how LoweeTownship officials propose to supply businesses in the sought-after industrial park with fresh water. He told his colleagues that he has posed that question to one township official who told him she Was — unaware that a potable water problem existed at the magnesite plant. "I was shocked," said Thornton. "How can you put an incinerator there?" "That's hogwash," Fothergill responded. He said he didn't recall the exact information on the magnesite plant's water supply but does remember that the plant manager told him "there's a fantastic supply of fresh water down there." Two wells are located on the HarbisonWalker property, the mayor added, plus a water tank in excellent condition. "There's a four-inch well," he continued, "that's providing 60,000 gallons a miftute." A more-than-ample water supply would be available if the site were transformed into an industrial park, Fothergill insisted. "I don't know where he's coming from," he said of Thornton.