34 Herald & Lantern 17 October '84

The Freeholder Race

Bieberbach

Another example, she charged, is the county 's apparent willingness to share the estimated $300,000 to $500,000 cost of replacing the piped portion of Cape Island Creek in (Republican) Cape May with Cape May. Cape May Point. West Cape May and Lower Township. "Cape May is mandated to do this ' work." she said. "Why should the county or the others'' " SHE ALSO CHARGED that admission to the county home at Crest Haven depends on "who you are. You can circumvent the waiting list." Bieberbach credited "constant Democratic candidate complaints" with leading to the grand jury investigation of the MUA and this year's indictments of seven persons, still to be brought to trial. "It's still an issue," she said. "Look at

how much they spent in Ocean City and Cape May for new sewage treatment plants and they still have odors. Why wasn't it done right? The more the MUA spends, the more they spend to fix up. Something .is definitely wrong. The first thing I would do is try to get an unbiased engineer and find out what." Her voter appeal includes a pitch to serve as a "watchdog" on the currently all-Republican board. She never attended one of its meetings, she said. "GETTING ELECTED is getting behind closed doors." she said The freeholders meet secretly almost every week on legal or personnel matters, they say. "You'd be surprised at how much goes on behind closed doors that can be stopped," she said. "Things you can stop from taking place because they hear your stand." As an example , she said Lower Township Committee had planned to purchase for $5 million-$6 million privatelyowned Diamond Beach beaches and establish beach tags. "Lower would have had to maintain the beaches, have insurance, hire lifeguards," she said. "How would it have benefited the citizens of Lower Township? They had two closed meetings and it was quashed. "t Bieberbach said the county Needs more proper planning and controls on growth because of problems to do with the environment and with both the quality and availability of drinking water CitiTig salt water intrustion. she said, "we are going to be without water, or the unhealthiest people in all of South Jersey. We have a very serious problem with the 1

type of water we're drinking and ,the availability of it." THE COUNTY HEALTH Department has reported excessive sodium in drinking water in Cape May. Avalon and Stone Harbor. It also reportedly has found serious sodium problems in private wells in Lower Township, but county Health Officer Louis Lamanna last week told the Herald and Lantern this was "raw data" that would not be released until it was evaluated and a report sent to the freeholders. "Despite this (problem)," Bieberbach said, "building progresses. They talk about ratables, but motels and condos use even more water. They talk about water » conservation, but it's unfair to ask yearround residents to conserve year-round so tourists can let it run or fill their pools. You don't conserve water when you're on vacation." She suggested the county study "a desalination plant. We are surrounded by billions of gallons of salt water. It would _ save over the years. If we have to pipe it in, we would have to go way up to as far as Dennis or Upper Township." The same "mass building" is affecting the environment, she said. A "green belt" being proposed by the Lower Township Environmental Commission should be "extended to all of the county to preserve for future generations." It would include trails for walking and biking. TRANSPORTATION is another area where the county should do more, she said "Many of us must drive a car to go to work or get a loaf of bread," she said. "Let them expand Fare Free, get a better schedule, make everyone aware it's for everyone." i

"Triple A (Keystone Automobile Club in Burleigh, where she is office manager), got a questionnaire (from the county) asking when we would ride (Fare Free)," she said. "Three or four of us would have utilized it, but we never heard a word. I was raised in the city where we could walk a couple blocks (to public transportation) and go anywhere we wanted. They say it's getting like a city down here..." Lack of transportation, she said, is one of the reasons for a lack of year-round jobs. "We have to attract more industry," she said, "and keep our future generations here. Job opportunities are not here. A large percent of our children graduate from high school, take a summer job, and live on unemployment in the winter. It's not a healthy environment." Her solution, she said, includes tax in-

'You're supposed to be a freeholder for all the people of the county...'

1 centives and a more aggressive "advertis- [ ing" program. "Go to them and say, 'You should see what we have here.' " i OTHER ISSUES touched on the HeraldLantern interview : t Taxes are too high and taxpayers "not I getting the most for their tax dollar." Beach renourishment is necessary, "but not year after year. There must be a permanent solution." . Incineration and recycling are preferable to landfills! but mandatoryrecycling only after an education program i of year-round and summer residents that > could take 2-3 years. I A community college could be establish- > ed at the vo-tech school. "When the taxi payers see where their dollars are going and benefit from it, they won't complain. They only complain when the dollars go where they can't see." Social services should be expanded, I especially senior citizen programs, but Bieberbach offered no specifics. She said she would have to study the question of a centralized dispatch for ■ police and fire. SHE SAID THE COUNTY should hire a professional administrator (it currently has a clerk/administrator), and claimed Freeholder Gerald M. Thornton, a candidate for reelection, favored that in Lower Township, where he is Republican leader, but not at the county level. •'Why?" she asked. Bieberbach said she would wage "no personal attacks; I run for an office, not

'We have to attract more industry and keep our future generations here ... ' — — e r

against a person. I've been subjected to personal attacks, but I never answer them. I got good advice years ago when I first started: after I read an article, I write a letter, read it over and over and over, then rip it up and throw it away." Bieberbach said her campaign strategy will be "public contact : to meet as many people as possible." She acknowledged a shortage of campaign funds, but said "Everybody knows the Democrats are poor; I don't think it matters. We're outspent in every election." This will be a "team effort," she said, for the sheriff and two freeholder vacancies. MARGARET MARY (Peggie) Bieberbach, 52, was born in Philadelpia, one of four children of Margaret Mary Cassidy and Enos Sharp less, whose ancestors came on the Mayflower She was reared in Philadelphia and graduated in 1949 from John W. Hallahan Catholic Girls High School She came to the county as a permanent resident in 1965. She was a member of the Lower Cape May Regional Board of Education from March, 1976, to December, 1977, leaving to take the township committee post. She belongs to the Moose and has held a number of offices in the local VFW Auxiliary. Bieberbach was widowed last December after the death of her husband, Royce, from whom she was separated, in a boating accident. She has three children the youngest 26, and four grandchildren.

Downs nothing with." He said the MUA already has "made Si1? million on new tipping fees" and wonders "what they're doing with it?" As Downs sees it, the MUA has spent so much money that "it could lay almost en > i .i •

'There's no such thing as unemployment. It's laziness •...' .

enough pipeline to give sewage (service) to people that don't have it now." Downs said his own trash collection cost has doubled, which he blames on the current system of "loading it on a truck, taking it to a transfer station, unloading it, loading it on another truck and hauling it to the (new) landfill." Tie conceded this election "is going to be hard, I know that, but I think this is the year we can do it. Everybody hates the MU^and we're against it. "The "freeholders are supposed to be a watchdog over the MUA," he said. "People seem to be discouraged with the freeholders." DOWNS ALSO CITED several segments of the population he would "do anything for:" senior citizens, the fishing industry', and tourism. He offered no specifics. "I get $192 a month Social Security," he said ( not having paid in for a time when he was self-employed). "If I had bad health and couldn't work, how would I survive? "I would do anything for senior citizens, to help them get along better. But I don't know what could be done. I will study on it." , Downs does not belong to -any local senior citizen organizations. He said he doesn't have time. v HE WORKS SEVEN DAYS a week; six <

'If they took these grants and gave 'em to the municipalities and let them do it, they'd save millions of dollars ...'

of them operating his retail seafood establishment at Norburys Landing Road and Route 47; the other one (Tuesday) doing the book work and "running around." It's a 15-hour day, he said, from 5 or 6 in the morning to 7 or 8 at night. He hasn't taken a vacation in a dozen years, except when he turned 65 and had to "retire" briefly to satisfy Social Security requirements. He found doing nothihg "the longest time I ever spent in my life. "I won't retire until they bury me," said Downs, adding that, if elected, he might just open the store on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and devote the remainder of his time to freeholder As a small businessman. Downs' keypeeve is with the Health Department — state, not county. - "I WONT LET a state man in my place," he said. "They're arrogant. They tell you they want something. I'd do it and two months later they tell you to take it out." I Downs said he'd like to see "better relations between county and since health departments." He appeared disinterested in recycling. "1 don't thing they're making money on it,", he said. And he opposed centralize dispatch for fire and police. "Most firemen think it would be a botched up mess," he said. The usual Democratic issue — a community cbllege — doesn't seem to be vital to Downs. He said "it would be good if we didn't have to finance it." FOR A CANDIDATE looking to beat the incumbeat party, Downs doesn't seem especialy dissatisfied with county government. uuicui.

He's jiever attended a freeholder meeting.! He sail the county tax rate is "not too high." Social Services is "doing a good job, althoughjmaybe I'd increase it a little." He said the county could use some "year-rojind industry," but feels "there's __ no such thing as unemployment. It's laziness. There's work around. There's a lot of places you can find work. I took the best I coald get; I didn't hold out because I didn't want to do this or that ..." Downs started working when he was six, picking stawberries to help pay for his school clothes. One of eight children (five brothers, two sisters), be lived with his grandparents on a 10-acre produce farm in Newport, about 10 miles southwest of MillvilieJ

HE LEFT SCHOOL after the eighth grade to work farm jobs, then as a helper on a truck, eventually as a truck driver for Express (now out of business) between Bridgeton and Millville. He did that for about 13 years, driving a tractor-trailer

and transporting mostly glassware in seven states. He had a Rod's Seafood in Millville for about five years, from 1945 to 1950, then came to Cape May where he worked on clam boats for about three years. That was followed by a three-year partnership in the wholesale seafood business in Wild wood, a seafood market in Anglesea for one summer, and then the move to Green Creek and opening of Rod's Seafood in 1957. Elizabeth, his wife of 38 years, died in October of 1981. They had no children. Downs registered as a Democrat when he was 21, but became a Republican when he opened Rod's. "They told me you couldn't survive in this county unless you registered Republican," he said. HE WAS A "REPUBLICAN for Leusner (Charles)," a Democrat elected to Middle Township Committee in 1982. And last year Pat Peterson brought out the Democrat in Downs as he wrote his poem and changed his affiliation. But Downs never ran for anything except the Middle District 3 fire commissioner, a nonpartisan post he's held since 1979, and for Democratic committeeman this spring. He has been a treasurer of the Green Creek Fire Co. for 26 years, is a charter

1 member of the township Crime Stoppers I and is a member of Middle's Mayor's Advisory Council.! He was talkihg with his friend, Middle i Mayor Michael Voll, at the Democratic Club in Middle this summer when he heard that "apparent!^ the slate was going to be left open <with\just Peggie Bieberbach running for freeholder and no one for the second vacancy orfor sheriff). Voll suggested Downs run. \ "I said I don't have bnough education," said Downs. "Mike said, 'You've got good cominahsetise.' " Voll took Downs*-niiqe to then-county Democratic chairman James Iannone who advanced it to municipal leaders, who approved. DOWNS SAID he and Bieberbach will "run as a team," something Democrats have not always done since the two top vote-getters among four candidates will be elected. According to Samuel DeVico, county Democratic chairman, the party will be lucky to have $5,000 for the entire slate Downs expects it to go for "bumper . stickers and handbills." And there's always the anti-MUA poem of course. - ' Let's see: what rvmps m-iih Ugrina:,<i

Bundl ^ Up PLEASANYVILLF. — Crotomers of - El<*^sy»aH»n^og 6,-9.5 oext year iMie stole Bureau oFPubli^ Utilities SpU) approves AE's request Fri#|y for a S49 5 miUiou rate increase. It's l&sed on actual and projected costs jnd tt-cAlId not raise : cmnpany profits, ajfkE spSesman said. . The BPU approvedal tu.ifillion hike in s base rates last fallVpdiiau million 1 mcrease for energy adjustment in February, but turned do*j> AE's request for a $38.6 million base raVhjke during the summer \ ' \ . 1