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Herald - lantern - Dispatch 22 May '85

JZ V Plenty of Upsets Two New Mayors: McHale and McCall

News Notes from — Middle Township Alan Morris

By E.J. DUFFY Michael J McHale took over as Sea Isle City mayor and 'Francis J McCall as mayor of Wiidwood Crest during reorganization meetings yesterday Both candidates and their running mates won commission seats by two-one margins in the non-partisan elections last week when upseats were the rule rather than the exception Voters dumped incumbents in four of five county municipalities Avalon Council President Jeannette Glazier won reelection as the only incumbent running for three seats in a field of seven candidates. Mayor Jack Vasser Jr was reelected to his West Cape May commission seat but fellow incumbent Lewis K. Feger lost to one of three other candidates. Wiidwood voters reelected Councilmen Walter Cottman and John Harden but replaced Council President Charles Kuski with Karen. VOTERS REJECTED HAI.F of the dozen incumbents running in the five municipalities where 16 seats were contested by 34 candidates Portrayed as pro-development in a borough where public sentiment is against it. incumbent Wiidwood Crest Mayor John PiMtalone went down in defeat with his running mates. Commissioner Charles Guhr wd Dr. Harvey Strair. They collected 735. 723 and 561 votes, respectively With 1.296 votes, incumbent McCall was the top Crest vote-getter followed by his ' running mate. Robert Young, with 1.202 and independent George Derfham at 963 According to the reorganization plan approved yesterday, McCall will serve as mayor and commissioner of Public Works, Denham as head of Public Safety and Young of finance. MctlAI.E. MEANWHILE, will he£d Public Safety in Sea Isle while one running mate. James Iannone, oversees Public Works and Recreation and the other, incumbent William VanArtsdalen. heads Revenue and Finance * The three victors joined forces a week before the election when candidates Robert Taylor dropped out of the race and threw them his support With the top three ballot slots. McHale. Iannone and VanArtsdalen finished in that order with 1.175. 1.076 and 1.057 votes, respectively, to 548 for ousted Mayor Dominic C. Raffa. 451 for William Kehner. h city commissioner unseated by VanArtsdalen in 1981. and 440 for ousted Commissioner J. Alan Gansert. An unprecident^80 percent of Sea Isle's 2.341 registered voters went to the polls, including s'ome 500 newcomers to the voting list. "We pulled maybe 60 percent." Ian- ^ none said for his winning ticket. He and fellow commissioners decided during yesterday's reorganization to replace city Solicitor Michael Testa with resort lawyer Dennis Quinn and Prosecutor Jeffery April with resort attorneyRaymond Batten. Ianhone's campaign treasurer and Democratic candidate for ( the state Assembly seat' held by former Wiidwood Mayor Guy F. Wuziani. .1 OTHER GOVERNMENT changes will probably be announced later. One of them. Iannone confirmed, will be in commissioner salaries. He and VanArtsdalen will collect $9,000 a year and McHale $10,000 VanArtsdalen refused to accept a $2,000 raise, from $6,000 to $8f000. last year so each member of the former commission collected a different salary — $15,000 for Raffa. $8,000 for Gansert. Although the election was non-partisan, it nevertheless changed the political makeup of the government from a Republican-dominated commission of Raffa and Gansert to an all-Democratic body. Iannone served three years as countyDemocratic chairman and twice ran as party candidate for county freeholder A 24-year commission veteran. Raffa switched from Democrat to Republican several years ago. So did Freeholder William E. Sturm LISTENING TO THE election returns during a break in the freeholders' meeting last week. Sturn called Raffa s defeat "the end of an era " "He. literally, took a bath." said Iannone Sea Isle voters, he said, overwhelmingly decided "enough is enough is enough ."

Unlike Sea Isle and Wiidwood Crest, A va Ion's government doesn't reorganize until July when Glazier will automatically step down as president of the five-member borough council ; it has decided no one will serve.consecutive presidential terms. Associating herself with senior citizens and opponents of development. Glazier , 72. a retired school teacher and Democrat, finished second with 404 votes in the sevencandidate field for three at-large seats (Councilmen James Busha and Raymond S Gray Jr did not stand for reelection: >'. Daniel W Hildreth III finished first with 405 votes, winning one of the vacated seats, while his running mate. Charles H. Curtis, won the oth^r with 385 votes. Their running mate. Joseph Del Vescio, finished fourth at ' 371 votes followed by Charles Krout (349) Walter P. Murphy (279) and John P. Bretherton (264) WHEN WILDWOODS five member council reorganizes July 1. the first elected women in 50 years will be on board — Karen Dougherty and Elaine Vignola Actually. Dougherty's already aboard. She was sworn in last week because she ran for Mayor Victor DiSylvester's unexpired council term against Council President Charles Kuski (He represents the Third Ward but decided to seek DiSylvester's former at-large seat rather than the ward slot.). Kuski lost to Dougherty 770-721. DiSylvester backed Kuski while former Council President and current Councilman-at-Large Edward Herman supported Dougherty and Vignola A school board member unseated in last month's election. Vignola staged a comeback to elective office by defeating former Convention Hall chairman Michael Gentile 287-249 for Kuski's Third Ward slot ^ Curtis A. Miller, who was defeated as a challenger in last month's school board election, has asked for a recount in the Second Ward contest. With only machine votes counted, he was leading incumbent Walter Cottman. But absentee ballots gave Cottman a four-vote victory. 169-165. Challenger Fred Wager finished third with 155 votes and Joseph Gaines came in last at 150. John Harden, who was appointed to fill DiSylvester's former council seal until the election, ran for and won the First Ward seat being vacated by Larry Snyder. With 226 votes, Harden outdistanced Elaine Billirts at 190 and George Young with 103 WEST CAPE MAY Mayor John Vasser Jr won reelection to borough commission with 264 votes but finished second after Marvin Morrell Jr.. 37. a social work supervisor for the county Welfare Board With 351 votes. Morrell bumped incumbent Lewis K Feger from his seat Feger finished fourth with 147 votes followed by challenger Raymond Allen with 95 It was Morrell's third try for the job Making his first try for elective office. Edward C Reeves, 32. replaces his father. Leroy, on- the commission The commissioner and former mayor decided against reelection. His son finished third with 207 votes. Morrell and Vasser both wanted to be mayor going into the new commissions work session Friday but they reached a compromise, the younger Reeves reported Sunday. Vasser remains mayor and head of Public Works white Morrell heads Public Safety and Reeves oversees Revenue and Finance, he said. No other government changes were made. Reeves confirmed Burning Book SWAINTON -r County MUA chairman William Band told Concerned Citizens of Woodbine officers last week that the authority will review the state Public Advocate's 1984 report on incinerator pollutants The MUA favors locating an incinerator at, its Woodbine landfill and the Citizens are concerned about what incineration would do to the local environment Theodore O'Neill. MUA solid waste manager, said the Public Advocate's report has been rebutted byfederal and state environmental officials as well as scientists.

It may not be a feature in Ripley's, but it certainly should be in the "Who would have thought" column. The elections in both Wiidwood and Wiidwood Crest produced some surprising revelations. The ousting of incumbents Charles Kuski in Wiidwood and John Panlalone and Charles Guhr in the Crest seem to indicate that something is stirring on the Island. Years ago. I had a discussion with a local, respected professional who stated that the early 80 s would produce some "interesting" political races on Five Mile Beach It seems that he was watching the ever-in-creasing influx of young newcomers to our shores and felt that the power base of the existing political structures would begin to weaken. HE OBVIOUSLY was correct as we see fresh, new candidates on the move Wiidwood may now boast of having two councilwomen as seated officials. Karen Dougherty and Elaine Vignola. both newcomers to municipal elected office. One-term incumbent Walter Cottman seems to be returning to represent the second ward in Wiidwood (depending on the recount). John Harden. DiSylvester fiU-in and newcomer, will be officially seated to represent the third ward. In Wiidwood Crest, it looks as though one-term incumbent Frank McCall will assume the mayorial duties, and newcomers George Denham and Bob Young will occupy the other two commissioner's seats. OUT OF POLITICS and into the ppol ! The Wiidwood Crest Swim Team. The Dolphins, will be holding (tryoutsVfor their summer 'swim schedule If your child is interestedly joining this very active organization, please give coach Dave Hart a call at 522-0084 for formation on signups and try -out appointments. The days selected for tryouts are Thursday and Saturday at the Wiidwood Crest Pool on New JerseyAvenue at Pittsburgh. Don't forget, if you are interested, call ahead to arrange a tryout appointment AND. ..SPEAKING of sports The T-Ball registra tions went very well The Leagues are organized for the first game of the season, schedule for June l This year. 120 children between the ages of 6 and 8 will take the field and will represent eight teams This year's team sponsors are: Topaz Motel. Casiello Construction. H.N. Hand Realty. Calloway Realty. Shout. Stokes Laundry. Stardust Motel, and the Bal Harbour Motor Inn. If you have never seen a T-Ball game, visit the League Field any Sunday in June or July Games are played 1 p.m to 7 p.m. and it is a real treat watching the youngsters learn fundamental baseball THE SPORTS section of the column just wouldn't be complete without mentioning the sign ups for the Five Mile Beach "Beach Volley- k ball Leagues" Playing in

the sand on the beach in Diamond Beach, the league is enjoying its third season this summer. If you have a team and would like to compete, the cost is $100 registration per team for the season. All games are played on Mondays with the season beginning July 8. Further information may be obtained bVs calling Jim Ridgeway at 522-0541. The 2nd of June kicks off the official basketball season for the Wiidwood Aces. If you are planning to attend any of the professional team's home games in "Wiidwood Convention Hall, why not try to win a ticket 'for yourself? The Wiidwood Aces are sponsoring a foul shooting contest at Fox Park on Saturday at "high noon". Anyone making a successful foul shot will be given a complimentary ticket to an "Aces" game. Stop in and give it a try! The Wiidwood Aces basketball team will be present to greet the crowd and sign autographs I NOTICED the other day that Tropea's Pharmacy is now officially The Crest Pharmacy. The long-time Crest business family, the Tropeas. haye sold their pharmacy ^to Bob Drewnowski from Court House. The new owner has been spending many an hour Vrucing up" the place and efforts certainly are evident. All seems set for a very active summer season and all wish Drewnowski the best of luck in the yearround operation of the Crest Pharmacy. RECENTLY, while doing research on an historical piece about Margaret Mace. 1 came upon a newspaper dated May 11. 1950 If you are interested. 1950 wasflfe year that the announcement ) of the closing of Mace's Hospital was announced to the community The hospital. located at- 25th and Atlantic, had served our Island for 35 years before its closing in 1950. What made the paper more than usually interesting were the other headlines. North Wiidwood was getting ready for a grand auto show in which all Island dealers would be displaying their newest models. This weekend the auto dealers are doing the same thing in Rio Grande! Warren Runyan. former Crest mayor, represented the newly active CresyTaxpayers' Association as he addressed the commission on the need for new zoning laws. Mayor Way agreed with the representative of the group and said that the planning board had been addressing the issue for the past six months and that he and the other commissioners felt that a workable zoni ing revision was at hand. Mayor Way called for conI tinued input from the resi- ; dents. Certainly sounds . familiar, doesn't it? THE ABANDONMENT of rail service to the "Shore" happened just a few years ago However, back in 1950 the shareholders of the • railway and the chairman of the board. Afton Heywood. i * felt that the rail service

should be dropped as the "Jersey seashore operations are a drain on the company finances". That's exactly the same argument they used 32 years later! Also headlining the paper in 1950 was the announcement that the world's most modern supermarket was coming to Wiidwood. A&P made its mark in the" news with the "finest A&P yet devised" to be built at 134 E. Wiidwood Avenue. Boasting of self-service meat, poultry. and fish counters, they store had eight check-outs to "speed the housewife's tour". NOT TO BE OUTDONE. Acme markets were readying the grand opening of their new "fully modern" facility at Maple and Pacific Avenue. The town wps getting ready for the dedication of the George Redding Bridge North Wiidwood was discussing street paving and the City of Wiidwood was officially erecting a 75-foot flag pore which would be used in flag raising ceremonies "for many, many years to come". The massing pole, topped with a large gold leaf ball, was said to be seen from all parts of Five Mile Beach. Located at Schellenger and the Beach, the flag pole was ■ designed as a landmark where everybody would say "I'll meet you at the flag pole on the beach. Quite honestly. I couldn't tell you where the flag pole is now. Perhaps it's there! I do know that I am going to look the next time I am on the Boardwalk. WHILE MUCH of the news has remained the same with only the faces changing, it is certainly apparent that prices have changed One Boardwalk area shop offered Breyer's Ice Cream at $1 for a halfgallon Now. that won't even buy you an ice cream cone Haircuts at Jerry's at 3102 Pacific Ave. were only $1.50, and Caldwell's, after 49 years of "honorable business". was calling it "quits" in the Wildwoods Their diamond watches with 17 jewels and set in solid 14 kt. gold, were going for $33 You could even pick up a spinet piano at Keating's, 3906 Pacific Ave., for $395.00 WHILE I HAVE men tioned that the trains are^ gone from the Wildwoods Don't forget that they are returning Saturday at Wiidwood Convention Hall. The Lionel Operating Train Society ts hosting its annual train show this Saturday. There will be dozens of displays and some "serious" competition. Many booths will be set up to market train-related merchandise and many door prizes are being offered. Plan to attend. It should be an enjoyable afternoon. Contact Mike Kane at (215) 463-0115 for further information. See Coupon For 50$ OFF On Classified Page