3 Herald & Lantern 19 December '84 ...

County Ups Ash's Pay To $81,000 COURT HOUSE — County Freeholders have raised the annual salary of county Counsel Albert M. Ash by $12,000 to $81,000 a year. *# , They made the increase retroactive to Jan. 1 of this year, which amounts to a. $12,000 bonus. Ash, who was 70 in September, is slated to retire early next year. As a veteran with 20 years of government service, he presumably will retire at 50 per cent of his last salary. Thus the raise also means his government pension will be $40,500 a year instead of $34,500. Ash's pay hike reportedly was discussed and agreed upon at a private session of the freeholders on Saturday, Dec. 8. At that time, there was either a unanimous vote in favor, according to Freeholder Director Anthony E. Catanoso, or "a consensus was reached," according to Freeholder Gerald M. Thornton. THE MINUTES of that meeting were not available and Diane E. Rudolph, deputy cleric of the Boaofi of Freeholders, did not return Herald-Lantern phone inquiries as to when that meeting was advertised. The retroactive $12,000 pay hike described as a "salar\adjustment," was in an eight-page artery resolution the freeholders okaye\unanimously on Dec. 11. Catanoso said the Ocean City attorney ( Page 54 Please ) News— ~ nippct Weeks U I 1 Top Stories Better Not Pout NORTH POLE — Herald-Lantern reporters on the scene found Santa's elves working overtime as jolly old St. Nicholas checked his list of good boys and girls for the final time. His arrival in Cape May County is estimated for the early hours of Dec. 25. S. Claus Gets Break VILLAS — Lower Township Mayor Robert Fothergill issued a holiday proclamation Monday to "promote this season of love, understanding and kindness" and to give Saint Nick a financial break when he lands here next week. "Be it further resolved," said the mayor "»that the mercantile license, requested by one, Mr. Santa Claus of the North Pole, is hereby waived, allowing the additional time needed to fill the stockings of all township tots." i How About A Raise? • CAPE MAY — City Council Monday night backed off adoption of a salary ordinance that would have doubled its own pay from $3,000 to $6,000 a year for Mayor Arthur Blomvkvest, Adrian Capehart and Harry Gilbert while giving 86 city workers a 5 percent raise for 1985. City Manager Fred Coldren told complaining taxpayers that the raises are "reasonable," that he and the council (Page 54 Please) —Early Deadlines— If you've got ads or news for next week's Herald-Lantern, put down this paper and bead for our office. Today is the deadline for the Dec. 26 issue. And next Wednesday, Dec. 26, is the deadline for the Jan. 2 issue. The Herald-Lantern office at 106 N. Main St. in Court House will be closed Dec. 24-25 and Dec. 31-Jan. 2.

Director To Be Named

'Village' Given to County

Dr. and Mrs. Joseph Salvatore in Front of 'Old Grange1 Dori' Ward

There Goes Another Town Hall Solution

By E. J. DUFFY COLD SPRING — Lower Township wasn't offered a gift of Historic Cold Spring Village but Township Manager James R. Stump said he wouldn't want it anyway. "We don't have the tax base," he said last week. Stump, however, had been trying to interest Dr. Joseph Savatore, former village owner, into moving the old Town Hall to

the village, at least partially at township expense. The hall is located just south of the village on Seashore Road. Mayor Robert Fothergill confirmed last month that both Salvatore and Edward J. Campbell, superintendent of Lower Township elementary schools, were interested in taking the 1897 fire-damaged hall. The district administration building is just south of the hall. ( Page 52 Please >

Pierre Almost Honored

COURT HOUSE - Rierre Payette, fired in October, almost got honored in December. Cape May County's 68-year-old former tourist promotion person in Montreal has had his ups and downs with ^county government. He started in a part-time job 20 years ago, went full time in 1978, and almost got canned in 1983. His contract was listed on the freeholder agenda in January, but never brought up. At that time, Freeholder Director Anthony Catanoso said Payette "doesn't like to take orders." The freeholders dangled horn on a month-to-month basis in '83, but have him

a one-year contract this January, at $11,896 a year, and Louis A Rodia Jr., assistant director for public affairs, said Payette was "doing a fantastic job for the kind of money we're paying him." BUT IN A VISIT to the county in September, Payette allegedly fondled a female county employe who didn't want to be fondled. The freeholders in October not only canceled his contract effective Dec 31, but instructed him "not to perform any additional services for the County of Cape May." Last month the freeholders hired a Canadian woman. Mireille Brien, to do the (Page 52 Please)

Views Differ On Profits, Tax Status liy JOE ZELNIK COLD SPRING — Joseph and Patricia Anne Salvatore gave away their "family dream" last week Salvatore, a Wildwood native who lives and practices medicine in Tenafly, Bergen • County, and his wife deeded to the county ' the 15-acre Historic Cold Spring Village I with 15 restored structures that make up "a typical South Jersey farm village from | the 18th and 19th centuries." They retained the adjacent house and 11 acres which they use as a summer home. I The Salvatores began their his tone preservation project 11 years ago, and opened it as a tourist attraction in May of 1981. But at the close of their '83 season, their manager Rom Nardi, left, they cancelled their external public relations contract, and the family tried to do all the work themselves this year. Knowledgeable sources said they were "tirelessly involved," seven days a week, until the project "became burdensome." THE COUNTY NEWS release announcing the gift said it was worth $1 million dollars. But the assesstfe valuation is $297,300. A knowledgeable source said the $1 million value was low, because of the historic value of the buildings and their artifacts. Lower Township Assessor Sandra J. Sharpley said "I've seen no evidence it's irreplaceable historically, for property tax purposes." James S. Cafiero, the Salvatores" attorney, said they were "having it appraised. The historical significance may have value beyond brick and mortar." There also was disagreement about the village's future tax status. Property taxes totaled $3,578 this year, according to • Sharpley FREEHOLDER Gerald M. Thornton, who was involved in the negotiations and announced the gift, said the county was liable for the first year's taxes, because of the timing of the gift, but it would be taxexempt thereafter. Sharpley said county-owned land would be tax-exempt, but buildings leased out for crafts "sounds taxable" as a commercial use. Finally, Thornton said the village "made money" in 1984, but knowledgeable sources disagreed. Thornton, for example, said in his news release that "current lease holders" would continue their crafts ( Page 54 Please )

Glenwood Avenue Bridge Oorit Word

Bridge Use Limited

By JOE ZELNIK WEST WILDWOOD - Mayor Carl O'Hala didn't like the way he learned the only route into his borough — the Glenwood Avenue bridge over Sunset Lake — was closed to vehicles over 10 tons. It came with a 11 p.m. phone call Dec. 10 from his "subordinate," Police Chief James Bradway, O'Hala said. The chief had been called by Freeholder William E. Sturm Jr. after he heard that trucks with at least twice that weight were carrying fill into the borough from MUA (Municipal Utilities Authority) sewer line excavations in the Wildwoods. "That was ill-thought, at best," O'Hala told the freeholders, "for city officials to find out late at night they'd be shut down that morning. I'd like to see that corrected. Come to us elected officials." BUT IF THE METHOD of delivering the message was improper, the message itself was disastrous: a 10-ton limit closed off the island from fire engines, school and senior citizen buses, fuel oil delivery trucks, trash collection trucks, cement trucks, etc. O'Hala, in office only six months, said he

*• was "beleaguered by citizens, contractors, the few business people we have." He made "an impassioned plea" for sfife^action. "This is ludicrous," he said. -^e want to, and will, abide by the law, but m there any way to upgrade the bridge? We can't shut ( Page 54 Please L&X , — On the Cover Doris Ward's front pa$srpicture shows a portion of the li^Jfianger scene slated for the front Idta of the Tabernacle United Methodist Church in Erma Sunday night from 6:30 to 7 30 and 8 to 8:30. Wise Man Bill Cloer kneels before iKe® and Marti Warrington and theifcyeer-old son, Kenneth Jon, portrayfo Mary, Joseph and the Christ Cii|d Crest Community Church at Crtite Road and Pacific Avenue in ^Vildwood Crest also will have a liVte nativity from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Sunday