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Public Water Line Slated 3 Court House Wells Polluted

By JOE ZELNIK COURT- HOUSE - The County Health Department has warned three East Pacific Avenue residents to stop drinking and bathing with their private well water because of high concentrations of trichloroethylene, a highly toxic chemical. The County Democratic Clubhouse, Edmund B. Webb and Dr. S. M. Chaudhry were alerted in hand-delivered messages Christmas Eve, according to Middle Township Committee member Charles M. County Health Officer Louis J Lamanna said the chemical is present in measures as high as 3,700 and 6,600 parts per billion (ppb) and "under 100 is acceptable.

Leusner said the New Jersey Water Company will extend the public water line, which runs on Route 9 and Colonial Avenue, down East Pacific and adjacent Valley Road "as quickly as possible." He said the job should start by next week and could be completed "in seven to 10 days." NEIGHBORS COMPLAINED that they only learned of the problem last week, even though the Health Department was alerted by some persons before Thanksgiving. "Obviously we've known about this situation," siad Leusner, "but we don't want to yell fire in a crowded theater. We don't want to alarm anybody needlessly." Leusner said one hope, that of George

Spalding, was tested and found to have no problem. He said the three affected wells were "about 35 feet deep" and the Spalding well was "apparently deeper." TOWNSHIP OFFICIALS met with Health Department members, New Jersey Water Company officials and a freeholder representative on Dec. 27, Leusner said, and agreed to extend the water line. He said county Environmental Program Administrator Clay C. Sutton Jr. advised them that money would be available under the "Spill Fund Legislation Act" to finance the line. Sutton declined to dicuss the problem, and referred questions to Freeholder Gerald M. Thornton who did not return (Page 16 Please)

Doris Ward

TOY DISPLAY — Cape May County Art League executive secretary Rosanne Merrick of Burleigh holds a hand-carved fire truck by Carl Abrams of Washington, D.C.. whose toy display will be at the League's Carriage House Gallery on Washington Street in Cape May through Saturday.

News The Digest Week's Top Stories Modern Miracle STONE HARBOR MANOR - Did you ever hear a bridge talking? Well, we did. If you call the stale DOT (Department of Transportation) office at the Great Channel (96th Street) Bridge and no one s in, a recording answers, "This is the Great Channel Bridge... " '

Bridge Gains; A.H. Loses COURT HOUSE - A.H. Lichtenstein, the county's consulting engineer on the talking (see above) Channel Bridge project, brought the freeholders some good news and some bad news Dec. 20. Citing good weather, he said that "a tremendous amount of progress" has been made and the job is a bit ahead of schedule (see below). But he'd been spending extra time on the project, he said, and would like some extra money. The freeholders told Lichtenstein, who was hired for $167,000 and recently collected an additional $25,000 from the county after a "friendly" lawsuit, that he wouldn't be paid because he didn't ask them first. He told them he didn't like to talk to people like freeholders and their lawyers. Look for Lichtenstein to eat the overtime, or file a (less friendly) lawsuit. Second Opinion STONE HARBOR MANOR - Bob Hovick, state DOP (Department of Transportation) resident engineer of the Great Channel Bridge project, doesn't exactly agree with the progress report of A.H. Lichtenstein (above). Hovick told the Herald-Lantern the job is "20 percent behind schedule, but catching up quickly." Hovick said that "if everything goes 100 percent, we've got a good shot at making the April 19 deadline." Contractor Raymond International (Page 17 Please) inside... A 12-year-old washing machine EXPIRES. Libby Demp forrest, page 31. A 9-year-old car LIVES on. joe Zelnik, page 30.

Margaret Folger at Marshallville Bridge.

The Mill Creek Bridge: Love It AND Leave It

MARSHALLVILLE - A narrow, little bridge built in 1901 crosses Mill Creek on Marshallville Road. Folks here like the bridge, but not occasional truckers and firemen, who curse it. The county wants to tear it down, but that won't be easy because local historians say it used to be a covered bridge and they'd like the structure restored, maybe even covered again. Marshall ville doesn't have many people, not even a post office, but "as far as around here is concerned, nobody wants a big, modern bridge," says Margaret Folger, a descenctetnt of the man who started the town Mrs. Folger lives near the old bndge, in a house Randal Marshall built in 1818 at

Woodbine and Marshallville roads. RANDAL MARSHALL built the whole community out of virgin timberland. He built one of the original glass factories in America here in 1814 that operated into the 1850s," said Mrs. Folger. "He built small houses along the (Tuckahoe) river for the workers, built a store and a tavern." With that history, Mrs. Folger, other townspeople, and the Historic Preservation Society of Upper Township would like to have Marshallville declared a historic district by the state. If that happens before a new bridge is built, the county engineers say they will have difficulty with the project. They want to start work as soon as possible. (Page 16 Please)

Barnabas House Fills the Void

by JOHN DONOHUE WILDWOOD — All kinds of street people come to a storefront mission at 436 W. Garfield Ave. Some ask for help and get it Others may demand room service and find out they are barking up the wrong tree. "We're not a flophouse," said Rev. Daniel Ricketts, 39, who started the mission four years ago in a poor part of town. Mr. Ricketts is a no-nonsense, National Guard chaplain, a family mamand former pastor of Central Bible Church in Wildwood. He's worked with drug addicts, abused women and children, you name it. But the mission is also home to his own wife and their four children. Rev. Dan, as the street people call him, doesn't put up with any shenanigans, not at the Barnabas House.

The mission offers meals, counseling, and a place to sleep for transients, some of whom show their gratitude by walking off with towels and washcloths. SOME EVEN FIND a more permanent home at the mission, performing duties around the place, but they're also expected to get a regular job outside and help pay something towards their room, board, and counseling. "We're an extended family," Mr. Ricketts said "We help people who ask us for help, and who need help in an emergency, but we're not going to take in roomers and boarders who think they can do what they want." And on that basis, "We've been able to help several hundred families here in

Wildwood over the last years," he added. The words come calmly and firmly from the soft-spoken but muscular Mr. Ricketts who says he is up-front at the outset with people seeking help, letting them know what the Barnabas House is all about, and what the house rulers are. "SOME PEOPLE walk away angry with that," be said, because they come in with the wrong attitude in the first place. "There are two erroneous assumptions (in this kind of work). One is that you can help people who don't want to be helped, and that the state is competent to do it. Those are both erroneous assumptions. Various state agencies assume that we (Page 16 Please)

Blomkvest: 'We Need Help Now' , It was like a rerun of an old, old movie. There was Cape May Mayor Arthur Blomkvest. "back with our hands out, as he put it, to ask for county aid in replacing the piped portion of Cape Island Creek. And there was the Board of Freeholders, quiet, with the exception of William E. Sturm Jr.. as prisoners of war. The problem: 2,000 feet of 60-inch corrugated iron pipe so badly deteriorated that residents of the low-lying Fow Tract near Sunset Boulevard are flooded after heavy rains. Sturm had made the mistake of going an April 25 meeting on the ??? and saying, "I will put on the table that it be done as a county project." The crowd, which included the mayors of Cape May, Cape May Point, West Cape May and Lower Township, "applauded, according to the minutes of that meeting Sturm had prefaced that remark with two others: " First, that it would be "presumptive of me to speak on behalf of the entire Board of Freeholders." Second, he might be "sorry" for what he was going to say. If Sturm could predict horse races as well as he did those two views, he'd be a rich man. Three freeholders have left him out on a limb on the proposal, while Cape May keeps reminding him of what he said. (Page 16 Please)

Doris Ward

COUNSELING — Barnabas House founder Rev. Daniel Ricketts counsels Karen Mundy of Morristown, Pa.