^ 2 Herald & lantern 21 November '84

GOP Club Boots Davis

By E.J. DUFFY COURT HOUSE - Lower Township Deputy Mayor Joseph Davis is no longer a member of the Cape May County Men's Republican Club. John M. (Jack,) Moran, its president and former deputy mayor of Lower, figuratively broke Davis' sword and stripped him of his GOP buttons. Moran announced last week, that club members voted to drum Davis from their ranks. a "The ouster action took place at a regularly scheduled meeting when members alleged and documented that Mr. Davis had violated club tylaws during the recent general election hy failing to

support the regular Republican Organization candidates and by openly backing opposition candidates," Moran wrote in a Nov. 14 press release. "The evidence presented was a letter to the editor, written by Davis, which appeared in the Oct. 24 editions of the Cape May County (Herald and Lower Township Lantern)," Moran, director of the county Veterans' Bureau, explained. "IN THAT LETTER," he continued, "Davis endorsed Democratic candidates for positions of chosen freeholder and sheriff. He further suggested that residents '(get) rid of (Chosen Freeholder) Gerald Thornton, in particular."' Davis, a charter member of the club,

wasn't the only Republican to buck the county GOP organization recently, Moran conceded, adding "I don't think there are any (other) people, who are (club) members, who bolted." "It was called for, you just can't buck the organization," argued club member Michael Stubbs, who asked fellow members to dump Davis. Stubbs is the son of Samuel M. Stubbs, a GOP committeeman in Lower who beat Davis in last year's Republican primary for a seat on the previous township governing body, but lost in the general election to former Lower Mayor Peggie Bieberbach. Davis won his seat on Lower's council in May when his running mate, Robert Fothergill, defeated Stubbs in a three-way mayoralty race. MICHAEL STUBBS tried to get the club to dump Davis in June. "I made the motion, I guess this was around the primary time, and we tabled it," the younger Stubbs recalled. He reintroduced the motion Nov. 8, based on Davis' letter to the editor, and "it was a unanimous vote." About 20-25 members voted, Stubbs said. He said he wants "to get rid of cancerous growth" in the GOP club. "I think Davis was the biggest thorn," Stubbs reflected, because Davis is an elected official. "The way politics is handled in the county, particularly the Cape May County Republican Club, I'm glad not to be a member of it," Davis said of his dismissal last week. "I still am an independentthinking Republican and no one will dictate to me how to vote. "That is why I supported the nonpartisan form of government in Lower Township," he added. "Even though Mr. Thornton ridiculed the terminology of a non-partisan election, he was proven wrong by the voters who rejected the straight Republican ticket in Lower Township — this in spice of the three to one Republican registration (edge)... "When the club was organized a few years' back," Davis continued, it actually

^ H i| al IHH "M JOHN M. MORAN

m ( JOSEPH DAVIS

was a fine Jfrganization but has deteriorated into a 'Yes' club for the (county) Republican Organization." DAVIS CONSIDERS himself a staunch Republican despite the dismissal. He has been a card-carrying contributor to the party's presidential and Congressional campaign committees. The deputy mayor, however, has also belonged to one of at least two rival GOP factions in Lower. He and two former campaign aides were sued for libel last year by two GOP committee members after a letter criticizing thAn appeared over Davis' name during his 1983 primary bhttle against Samuel Stubbs. Freeholder Thorton serves as regular GOP leader in Lower. He supported Stubbs in 1983 and fielded a slate of Republican candidates during the Lower council elections in May; one won. Thorton replaced Maurice Catarcio as Lower's Republican chairman in the fall of 1982. Until then, Moran was on the outs with the township's regular Republican organization. • Under Catarcio, it backed Moran's rival in the 1982 primary for his seat on the township governing body; the rival lost in the general election that fall. In the meantime, Moran bolted Lower's regular GOP. During the 1983 GOP primary, Davis faulted Stubbs for holding a part-time county job and accurately predicted that Thornton would promote Moran from an $11,000 job as a county mail carrier to the $18,554 position as Veterans' Bureau director.

News Digest (From Page 1) know he voted against Mayor Anthony Catanoso's appointment of outgoing Council President Timothy O'Leary as assistant Public Works superintendent. The job is expected to pay between $19,000-$28,000 but council officially votes on creating it this Tuesday. If the vote on O'Leary's appointment is any indication, council will approve the hew post 4-Mvith O'Leary abstaining and Vinci dissenting. One Thing Or Other WILDWOOD - Mayor Earl Ostrander, Fighting a petition to recall him from office, said that some of the petition signatures are phony for the Dec. 11

Chief Wister Dougherty blamed on faulty systems. It's gotten to the point in some buildings that when the alarm goes off, nobody pays any attention to it. The tenants, that is. All Down Hill CAPE MAY — Despite a gasoline crisis, beach erosion, a sewer hookup ban, inflation and recession, the city did okay when it came to national recognition and economic growth in the last six years. Maybe too good, the local planning board said last week. Now all the city needs to keep things from getting out of hand is to worry about the water supply, the residential areas, the summer traffic, building a new fishing pier, and finding a place to park.

election. Superior Court Judge Philip Gruccio was asked to halt the recall election, but he declined, saying the vote count can always be challenged afterwards. The judge did agree to hear the mayor's argument for an injunction. That matter comes up next Wednesday. Indicted for Arson VILLAS — William Headrick, 25, of Evergreen Avenue is free on bail after county grand jurors indicted him last week for the Aug. 11 arson of the Whale House tavern on Bayshore Road. The bar had been closed since December when another suspicious fire damaged the building. See Below OCEAN CITY — The sole cable television company serving the town is jacking its basic rates a bundle. Residences now paying $6.75 a month will be paying $11.50 a month. Owners of commercial rooms currently paying $1.50 a month will be charged $5.10. For (hat, you don't even get the Walt Disney and Playboy stations. They're extra. Tne company, Cableentertainment, 7th Street and Bay Avenue, also serves parts of Upper and Dennis townships. See Above NORTH WILDWOOD - Group W Cable, serving Middle, Lower Township the Wildwoods and the Cape Mays, is raising its TV viewer rates. Basic service now costing $6.75 a month will go up to $8 a month. Rental establishments currently paying $1.50 a month will be charged $2.75 a month. Where's The Fire ? • CAPE MAY — There were only eight false fire alarms in the city last year, but already 40 so far this year which Fire

Nothing To It OCEAN CITY — Police say two men, in one weekend, broke into about 50 automobiles, taking jewelry and cash before they were caught. Actually, the capers were pulled off with ease. None of the cars were locked by their owners. Arrested Nov. 9, the suspects were identified as Richard Kalin of Asbury Avenue, and a Bay Avenue juvenile, 17, whose name was withheld. CiU-Rate Trash CAPE MAY — Residents might have to pay only half as much as they do now to get their trash collected if the city bids the work out on a franchise-contract basis. As it is, residents have to make their own arrangements with private trash haulers. Three operate in the city, but if all the business went to just one, 1 City Manager Fred Coldren, said last week, there would be better service, ) maybe evep side and rear-yard pickups. Truck on Ballot COURT HOUSE - Voters in Middle Township's Fire District 1 will go to the polls Monday to decide a bond issue for $310,000 to buy a 100-foot aerial ladder truck. Polling place for the special election is at the fire hall, 10 S. Boyd St. Voting hours are between 2 and 9 p.m. New Planner Named OCEAN CITY — John Gideonse, 50, an 11-year resort resident, becomes the city's new planner Dec. 3, Mayor Jack bittner told city council last week. An Atlantic City planner for 17 years, Gideonse will be paid $32,000 a year, $5,000-$6,000 more annually than Steven Gabriel, former senior environmental planner, collected before his position was cut from the 1964 municipal budget.

Competing, and Looking for Students

(From Page 1) Atlantic billed the county $949,787 for the summer and fall semesters of 1983 and spring semester of 1984. This fall, it estimates a $467,956 chargeback, compared to $433,672 last fall. If that 8 percent increase holds throughout /the school year, it alone will top the [million-dollar mark, without including Cumberland. THE STATE CHANGED the chargeback formula this year to take into account that some courses (liberal arts, for example) cost less than others (computer science, for example). The state-required chargeback is supposed to match the home county's contribution to the college so that the out-of-county student can pay the same tuition as in-county students. Cumberland has 85 Cape May County students at its Vineland main campus and another 51 in three classes in the county, two at the Woodbine Developmental Center and one at the county vo-tech school at Crest Haven. The latter is a "first" and, Cumberland hopes, the beginning of a closer relationship with the county and vo-tech. Some 15-20 Burdette Tomlin Memorial Hospital employes are taking a three-credit course in introductory psychology at vo-tech Tuesday nights. NEXT SEMESTER? "That's being discussed with the hospital and vo-tech, said Dr. Thomas Henry, dean of development at Cumberland. "There's going to be a gradual change," said Henry. "We will start offering additional programs at vo-tech." Equally enamored with the vo-tech school is Atlantic's Dr. Kenneth Yowell, vice president of academic and student affairs. He said he foresees "joint programs" with vo-tech in the fields of hotel management, culinary arts and child care." Henry said Cumberland will offer seven job-related tuition-free courses at Woodbine next semester />be federal government pays their cp&Li&said, because "it perceives a -aeea for persons trained in certain pecupations." J ) 7 ATLANTIC HAS abpuf 367 Gape May County-students at itsferttensiorycenter in the Middle Township school anrtex in Court . House^ also has 71 ittud^its at the U.S.

Coast Guard Training Center in Cape May, 62 at the vo-tech school, 25 at the Franklin Street School in Cape May, 88 at Lower Cape May Regional High School, and 42 at the Upper Township Middle School, according to Joe Rossi of its Office of Information Services. Yowell said he expects it to be possible for Cape May County students to "take all their courses for a degree" in the county starting next Fall. He amended that to add, "for a basic liberal arts degree," and conceded a problem finding "laboratories to conduct lab « science courses. "Anyplace we can find a classroom, we'll hold a class, "'said Yowell. "But the primary effort at this point is to locate a single facility suitable to our purpose of establishing a bonafide extension center in Cape May CounQ^ JThat, means, he said, space for offices /and/^a reasonable number of ( /THE GOAL, HE SAID is to have a location and an in-county degree program "up and running by the fall of 1985." He said Dr. Thomas Chelius of Cape May, chairman of academic support services for Atlantic, is in charge of finding a location. "The current facility is very inadequate," said Yowell, who said current plans are to rent or lease a new site, but, the college "is not opposed to looking for a permanent home down the road. That would depend on what kind of relationship Cape May County can establish with the college. "A lot will depend on the cooperation from the county," Yowell said. "If their interest and involvement is very limited, then our presence will be limited. We are asking for some commitment to us. We are willing to invest time, effort, people, to maintain an educational prescence in Cape May County if they are willing to cooperate and work with us. "We're not going to spend a lot of time and effort if we feel like they're kicking us in the shins," Yowell added. The race to a branch campus could be crucial to the loser. If the state recognizes a branch campus, one with comprehensive educational services including admissions, counseling, etc., the county could refuse to pay chargebacks to students for taking courses elsewhere if they were offered at the local branch.