18 Herald & Lantern 17 October '84

Clark, Seniors Continue Attack

By JOE ZELNIK COURT HOUSE — Name three words no Cape May County political candidate wants to hear three weeks before the election. "Irate senior citizens." But Freeholder Gerald M. Thornton, seeking reelection Nov. 6, has them on his hands and the questions still to be determined include how many there are and whether they'll try to hurt him at the polls. For the second consecutive month, a contingent of persons who use the Airport Senior Center in Erma came to the freeholder meeting last week to complain that their favorite arts, and crafts leader, Cass Clark of North Cape May, had been harassed into quitting ^ug 14 by center manager Jo Anne Dionneof Rio Grande. For the second consecutive month, Thornton said Clark walked off her job and he had no intention of taking her back or of transferring Dionne. , LAST WEEK, though, the 20 seniors had two new complaints : Clark had been turned down for unemployment, and they felt the freeholders were muzzling them. In the latter charge, the group was present for 7 p.m. caucus, but Thornton wasn't. So the freeholders did other i business and finally reconvened at 8:12 with Thornton present. . James S. Kilpatrick Jr., presiding in the • absence of Anthony Catanoso, said he < would give them 15 minutes to talk. i "It's not fair to limit us," said one man. i "We waited for an hour and a half." i

Kilpatrick let the group talk, and Thornton respond, until 8:30, then gaveled the caucus closed. Since it was to be followed by a regular meeting, Clark asked if they would be permitted to talk in the public participation at the end of that session. Kilpatrick said yes. THE FREEHOLDERS convened at 8 : 40, finished their business at 9, and the seniors resumed Kilpatrick gave them until 9:15. They leit talking about polls picket lines. Clark said the county had opposed her request for unemployment even though her husband has "a heart and hearing problem." "Cape May County didn't deny your unemployment," said Thornton. "The state did." Thornton said the county had simply answered honestly when asked if Clark had been laid off or quit. "I would have had a stroke if I hadn't quit," said Clark. SINCE LAST week's meeting, an appeals examiner for the state Labor Department has upheld the original ruling that Clark did not qualify for benefits because she left work "voluntarily without good cause." Although some of the seniors made personal charges against Dionne, including saying her arrival on the job was "like a dark cloud over the whole room," Thornton and Kilpatrick refused to debate the saying it was a personnel matter, was unfair to Dionne "who isn't present to

a defend hdrself," and would eventually be e settled in "in litigation." r Clark charged the freeholders were usr ing that word "to scare off the seniors. If yo«%ve got a lawyer," she said, "who will t represent these seniors?". "YOU ARE MAKING charges against i, the county," said Thornton. "The county s never had a solicitor. You appealed. The county was summoned to an appeal. You have placed us in defensive litigation." r Lower Township Councilman Joseph i Lonergan asked Margaret L. Spencer, I assistant executive director of the Department on Aging, what qualification were rer quired for the site manager post. ; Spencer said they varied, but included

"education and experience." Clark asked if Dionne had a civil service appointment. "The test hasn't been given yet," said Spencer. "She serves provisionally, until the test is given," said Freeholder William E Sturm Jr. "I THINK a test has been given (since Dionne took the job Jan. 1)," said Clark "Yes, there have been some tests," Spencer corrected herself. "But it's ordinarily six to eight months between applying and taking the test." "We'd like to see the qualifications," said Clark. "I can look them up," said Spencer.

Ceramics at Millman?

By E. J. DUFFY VILLAS — Lower Township Deputy Mayor Joseph Davis confirmed Monday that he and Councilman Joseph Lonergan will pay the cost of installing ceramic kilns at the township-owned Joseph Millman Community Center.

Their decision to foot the $60 estimated cost followed a dispute at council's Oct. 1 work session. Councilman David F. Brand Jr. complained then that he found out about an impending ceramics program at Millman when he followed up a reporter's question about it Councilman Robert Conroy questioned the need for a township ceramics program since the county offers one at its Airport Senior Center in Erma. "... if there's a need for it, we should provide it," said Mayor Robert Fothergill. "Well, I certainly think there is," said Davis. NEEDED OR NOT, said Lonergan, seniors from the airport center complain that they were practically put out of it. "Something's wrong" in Erma, he added, and the seniors are "not comfortable" with the program there If the seniors are not enjoying themselves at the airport ceramics program, he asked, what purpose does it serve? "Then there's a need for it Conroy conceded, yielding the floor to Cass Clark of North Cape May who walked away from her job as ceramics instructor at the airport center (see related story). "These people needed a place to go," she „ said, referring to the ceramic students at the airport center. "I volunteered my time (at Millman) and offered to donate a kiln. I think the township should provide a place for them (the ceramic students from the airport)." '"Hie thing is," Conroy observed, "if there was a problem with the county ... we should straighten up the program (at the airport) ..." He said he doesn't want to see Clark's voluntary position at Millman upgraded to a paid post in the future. CONROY SAID HE would "much rather" see problems rectified with the county over the airport senior center than see the township start its own ceramics program at Millman. Davis contended that the problem can not be rectified; Fothergill suggested the township manager study the situation and report to council. Brand asked his colleagues *f they thought he should hear about an impending ceramics program at Millman through a reporter. "I got the same call," replied Fothergill. "1 knew nothing about it." He added, however, that councilmen can't expect the manager to "call each and every one of us" about daily township operations. "They're always changing up there," Davis said of Millman programs. He and Lonergan were instrumental in implementing the ceramics program there after Clark left her airport job. Council voted unanimously to direct the manager to review the matter (

.News — ^ — Digest (From Page 1) MUA, Pinelands Commission and Brotman to make the MUA pay for their land. The homeowners have decided not to appeal Brotman's decision but accept the MUA offer instead. 2 Weeks and $240,000 SEA ISLE CITY — City commissioners approved more than $900,000 in bonds to fix the Central Avenue sewer line but another $240,000 will be needed to repair the 90 year-old system. Work began after the line collapsed in July but delays were caused when the contractor, Foundations and Structures of Tuckahoe. found unmarked utility lines and because a pumping station took longer to build than expected. Repairs are supposed to be completed in two weeks. Loses Appeal TUCKAHOE — Committeeman Leonard Migliaccio lost his appeal Friday of Superior Court Judge John Calhnan's August ruling that an absentee ballot, which gave Migliaccio an 894-893 vote edge over George Betts in the GOP primary recount, was invalid. That decision tied the vote between Migliaccio and Betts. allowing regular Republicans , to select the GOP candidate last month. | They picked Betts. , Something of Substance 1 SEA ISLE CITY — Construction of a ' stone wall parallel to Whale Beach will begin late next spring if state Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Robert Hughey gives the final go-ahead for the storm protection proposal. He told a local delegation last week that he'd assign engineers to study the idea. Hughey also supports the county t stand that beach protection money should be linked to building' bans in low-lying areas — like Whale Beach. r

[ Adieu, Pierre Payette

j ( From Page 1 ) told that he was through by a reporter He thought for a moment, then answered in English: "I don't give a damn." PAYETTE AND CATANOSO met I almost 20 years ago at a sportsmen's show > where Catanoso was working a booth I publicizing county tourism. Former newsman Payette suggested he work for the county arid the deal was made. At first it was a part-time arrangement ' from his home; then a full-time job from a downtown office, rented irfl978. In those ■ years, Payette said he sent hundreds of thousands of Canadiaife to vacation in 1 Cape May County, 545 miles away. The French-Canadian influence on county tourism, especially the Wild woods, was considerable. Some restaurants printed French menus and, as Payette put it in an interview in the Herald and Lantern last year, "Some days you could walk on the I beach and hear only French spoken ' ' BUT THERE WERE problems and, when the freeholders reorganized in January 1983, renewal of Payette's contract was conspicuously absent from their agenda. Catanoso said that was because "He's doing thing I wasn't very happy with. He doesn't like to take orders. After we settle our differences and he learns to take orders... " , Payette was left working for $11,180 a year on a month-to-month basis until August of 1983 when the freeholders gave him a contract through Dec. 31. In January of this year, a one-year contract moved through smoothly and Payette even got a 6.4 percent raise to $11,896 a year. "HE'S DOING A fantastic job for the kind of money we're paying him," commented Louis A. Rodia Jr., assistant director for public affairs. Payette and the county's Canadian tourist promotion office moved to the Drumi$ond Building, a prominent downtown address. A two-foot high. 24-foot long lighted sign over the main entrance proclaims "Cape May County New Jersey." County officials went to Montreal in May to celebrate the new office. But 1984 was not an especially good year ^/tor Canadian tourism. Rodia gave a

number of reasons, stressing that Payette was responsible for none of them : • THE EXCHANGE RATE. At one point, Payette said, it was 34.5 percent, meaning that Canadians were getting 65 cents American for their dollar. With that in mind, Payette said last week, "I've been telling the hotel-motel associations for years to lower their rates, "which, he said, average $80 a night. • Whether. "We get a lot of impulse Canadians who come in July," said Rodia "they got the cold (water) and rainy weather reports and went elsewhere." • Canadian government "pressure," Rodia said, for Canadians to vacation in Canada and bolster their own economy. •COMPETITION It's "new and sophisticated," said Rodia, and comes from such places as Ocean City, Md., and Virginia Beach. •A 9 percent Canadian tax on U.S. travel material flowing over the border. The county tried to counter that by mailing responses to potential Canadian tourist inquiries from here, but, Rodia said, mail delivery would take anywhere from a month to six months. "If there was anything critical," said Rodia, the county resorted to mailing to a post office on the U.S. side of the border across from Montreal and Payette picked it up. DESPITE ALL THAT. Rodia said, the season went "extremely well. Pierre is like a one-man band up there." And Cqpada remains "a prime market area" for the county. Payette, 68, made his fatal mistake last month on a visit to the county when he allegedly fondled a female county employe. Complaints followed and the decision was made to let Payette go. Rodia and freeholders said a decision on replacing him will be up to "whoever heads Public Affairs" in January after Catanoso retires from the board. "We're restructuring our whole ape p roach to tourist promotion in Canada," said Rodia. "We're looking at something more clerical than promotional, a lot more detail work." Said Payette: "I told Tony a few years back, jokingly, when you leave, I'll leave too."

County Mailing Called Political

< From Page 1 ) Aging, according to its executive director William C. Sheva. The county's postage meter that serves the county adjuster. Department on Aging and Veterans' Bureau, aU in the Social Services Building in Rio Grande, was used. THE LETTER to veterans used a bulk mailing permit, which cost about $30 and went out, unsealed, for 17 cents postage apiece, or about $935. The letter to senior citizens was sealed apparently erroneously and went out with a i 17-cent postage, then was returned for three additional cents. That would have cost about $960. The letter from Thornton to "fellow veterans" was on a half-sheet of paper with the Veterans Bureau letterhead and included a four-page pamphlet describing the veterans' bureau and veteran? interment. THE LETTER from Thornton to senior citizens began: "Dear County Resident: Our county has experienced growth and prosperity in recent years. You, the senior citizens of Cape May County have contributed greatly to this process Your steadfast interest in your local communities and, the county itself, has been the inspiration for the many services wh.^ of Cape Mr makes

available to the older residents, through' the Office of Aging and other County Departments." , It described a number of programs for senior citizens and also pointed out that "Because of the importance of these services to you, the Board of Chosen Freeholders has passed a resolution upgrading this office to be called the "Cape May County Department of Aging. " We will continue to serve your needs and concerns, with enthusiasm." Bieberbach-said she was "very surprised 'to see the letters signed by Thornton rather than Veterans' Bureau director John M. Moran and Department of Aging Executive Director Sheva. "I happen to be the director of Healtn and Human Services," said Thornton, and I've been involved with the senior citizens and veterans for eight years. We are required to do outreach to p^pje and the easiest way'is by mail. It cuts out the expense of having social workers go doorto«ioor. 'I don't hear her criticizing congressional newsletters from Hughes and Bradley and Lautenberg," he added. . ,wan* their constituents to be ininformed1"1 Want ^ residents **