^ ' COUNTY ^ Doylirttown. Pa.

Vol. 21 No. 21 ^iM®"n» s*owo». Corp ah right, rm^d May 22, 1985 ??£?££ ZZ1™ ££ ZZSS """-"•*

:"' ' ' ; ■• ' J • • • •.'•■■■' (■■ Former Dem. Doing Well With GOP * -

A Different Life for Joe Tracy

By JACK SMYTH CAPE MAY — Ten years ago in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, he was a Democrat serving on the county Board of Commissioners. Today he is president of the powerful Cape May Republican Club, and holds a county job. He is C. Joseph Tracy, a city resident who is reluctant to talk about his shift of political allegiance, or his rise in the councils of the local GOP. "I'd prefer not having anything done," Tracy told this paper when it approached him for an interview. "I'm in private life now. I'm no longer in public life."

Tracy did say that he has been living in the city for a few years, and bought a house last year. He first registered in the county Jan. 16, 1984, as a Republican. "ITS A DIFFERENT life here, and it takes getting used to," was as much as he would say. County payroll records show that Tracy was hired on April 27, 1984, and makes $10,622 as a clerk-typist in the Consumer Affairs Department. That will be increased, retroactive to Jan. 1, as soon as a new union contract, scheduled for a ratification vote Friday, is approved. Tracy is a member of the team that negotiated that contract for Local 1983 of the International Brotherhood of Painters

and Allied Trades, which represents the bulk of county employes numbering about 750. And he was appointed president of that local about two months ago. TRACY'S WIFE. Marie, is deputy treasurer and deputy tax collector for the city, and his son, Joseph, A., is assistant director of the city's Department of Civic Affairs. Mrs. Tracy's salary is $16,537. Her son is paid $11,500. Tracy was born to a toolmaker at Philadelphia's Frankford Arsenal and his wife in the tough, blue-collar neighborhood of Tacony in the city's Lower Northeast. (Page 73 Please)

C. JOSEPH TRACY »7S photo courtesy of The Doily Intelligencer.

NewSjy----Digest Topfstoriej"' Sampling Starts CREST HAVEN - The county Health Department began its 1965 water monitoring program Monday, sampling the ocean, bay, and treatment plants in order to guarantee the health and safety of county bathers. Clay C. Sutton Jr., environmental program administrator, said results should be in by Friday and this newspaper will begin next week the first of its weekly water quality reports Outdoor Drinking? STONE HARBOR — Borough Council was slated to consider last night a request by Samrus II Corp., owner of Touche, new restaurant at the Shelter Haven Motel, to gffmit sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages on the restaurant's outside deck. William Schaffer, former president of the borough's Republican Club, told this newspaper he would present a petition in opposition with 28 signatures of persons "from the immediate neighborhood of Shelter Haven basin." Better and Better AVALON — You say you want to know the progress on this borough's "one-real-estate-sign-per-property issue? Mayor Rachel Sloan said this week that "we have improved by 80 or 90 percent." The problem continues to be property owners who have given more than one Realtor permission to erect signs, requiring a Solomon-like decision. The mayor said the Department of Inspections last week called the 11 (of a total of 14) Realtors who still have violations to remind them of the law, which took effect April 1. Sloan also said she'd written Realtors to "thank them for their cooperation — so far." No News Is Good News OCEAN CITY — When a man bites a dog, that's news. Likewise when the county MUA (Municipal Utilities Authority) wastewater treatment plant (Page 73 Please) •

Downs Freeholder Candidate

By E.J. DUFFY GREEN CREEK - Middle Township businessman Rodney J. Downs is offering himself as a write-in candidate for freeholder in the Democratic primary June 4. The freeholder space will be empty on the party's ballot because no Democrat filed as an official candidate. * I

Downs, who ran unsuccessfully for freeholder last year, told Middle Township > Democrats last week he'll try for the 100 [ write-in votes needed to qualify him as party standard-bearer in the fall general election * against incumbent Republican Freeholder i James S. Kilfiatrick Jr. The owner of Rod's Seafood and Take-Out Service here said Friday he'll present himself as a write-in candidate to the county party leadership tomorrow. "I CAN'T SEE leaving that ticket blank," said Downs, 66. "I think it's a disgrace to the Democratic Party to let that ticket lay blank." A Republican for 25 years, he turned Democrat in 1963 to oppose incumbent Patricia Peterson's reelection to Middle Township Committee; she lost to James Alexis. Last year. Downs and former Lower Township Mayor Peggie Bieberbach ran (Page 73 please) I

— Early Deadlines — COURT HOUSE — Early deadlines will be necessary for next week's issue, because of the Memorial Day holiday May 27. News for the May 29 issue must be received by 5 p.m. today, May 22; display and classified advertising by noon tomorrow. May 23.

< HI ' Doris Word DEDICATED -*• VFW Commander Albert Di Lorenzo of Post 6257 in Belleplain is overcome by emotion drring ceremony last Saturday dedicating a monument to deceased servicemen and a proposed park to the commander, a life member since 1946. At right, Sr. Vice Commander John B. Jones. See story, page 26. County Upholds Lowering Flag for Local Officials

By JOE ZELNIK The county will continue to fiy flags at half-staff when local officials die, and Freeholder-Director Gerald M. Thornton will make the decision.

Those policies were decided by the board last week after Harry E. (Skip) Kehr and Freeholder Ralph W. Evans asked for "guidance" on the policy. Evans said he had had "complaints it not just be done foranybody." "From whom?" ^sked Thornton. "The president of the Stone Harbor American Legion Auxiliary," responded Kehr.

"What was their rationale?" asked Thornton. "That it shouldn't be done except on Memorial Day or for someone of national renown," said Evans. "They say the county flag can be, the American flag can't." "IT'S BEEN A traditional custom in this > county on certain occasions," said Republican Thornton. "I find it difficult to believe we'd be criticized, and specifically me, for flying our flags at half-mast for Frank Murphy." Dennis Township Mayor Frank L. Murphy. a Democrat, died May 9 and was buried May 13. Evans told this newspaper that besides Murphy, he also had received a complaint when the flags were lowered for Undersheriff James W. Parker in Febuary. A LEGION AUXILIARY spokesperson, asking not to be identified, told this newspaper Monday that the organization's (Page 73 Please)

County Contract Vote Fri. By JOE ZELNIK COURT HOUSE - Members of Local 1983, International Brotherhood of Painters and Allied Trades, AFL-CIO, the county government's largest union, will vote Friday on a three-year contract .proposal. V balloting will take place at the union office on Main Street from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. County and union officials refused to discuss the proposal and business agent Kenneth Childers declined even to say whether he was recommending approval. On the key issue of wages, each range and step is different based on this formula : - In 1985, each person at the eighth (and top) step would receive a 2 percent increase plus $350. In 1986, the figures would be 2 percent plus $550. And in 1987. the figures would be 2 percent plus $750. The hikes the first two years would not be added to the employes' base pay. The increase the third year would be. Each employe has been told exactly whal the wage proposal would mean to him. sources told this newspaper. The increases appear to total from 15 to 18 percent over the three-year term of the proposed contract The proposed contract contains two con- * cessions the county requested : an increase ( Page 73 Please > - inside STUDENTS teach freeholders something. Page 3. WILLIAMS dump popular with politicians. Page 6. JOHN FOGERTY comes back.' Sounds, Page 45. 'PLENTY of salads. Florence Heal, Page 30. CONTESTS: Skill; luck and the fish decide. Lou Rodio, Page 52. THE BRIDGE: Open and already complaints. Page 18. THE SAME BRIDGE, in verse by Owen Murphy. Page 20.