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May 29, 1985

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C'mon in; Water Tests 'Beautiful' CREST HAVEN — The county Health Department last week began its 13th annual summer season water monitoring program to guard the health and safety of county bathers. Forty-three ocean sites and 52 backbay sites will be sampled. Water samples will be taken Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and results will appear exclusively in this newspaper the following Wednesday. Because of early Memorial Day weekend deadline, only backbay results appear this week, on page 59. Health Officer Louis J. Lamanna said the first results were "all beautiful. •

DorU Word THE WINNER? — Let us know if you have a worse county example of sign pollution. This is the northeast corner of the intersection of Route 9 and 657 (Stone Harbor Boulevard). Slow readers have been known to sit through two green lights while reading the directions. DOT officials said the Tacony Palmyra Bridge sign "shouldn't be there" because signs shouldn't indicate anyplace more than 7-10 miles away. Permits are needed for signs in the state right-of-way, and the others are probably legal.

Few Local Races Set In Tuesday^ Primary By E. J. DUFFY

Sample ballots are being mailet next Tuesday's primary elections. Polls will be open 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. with .News—^ DigeSt Toffs, ones Turning Blue | COURT HOUSE — Observing that there are "signs of traffic congestion already," county Planning Director Elwood Jarmer said his department is "further defining" traffic patterns and population projections to support its proposal for Garden State Parkway (Route 444) overpasses at Crest Haven Road, Stone Harbor Boulevard and Shell Bay Avenue. Traffic surveys were taken last summer. "We haven't given up," Jarmer told the Planning Board last week. "But don't hold your breath," he added. Something New COURT HOUSE - Middle Township Sewerage Commission approved a new rate schedule May 21 based on water usage. Most of its 427 customers will see little change, but big users face big hikes. Only one person, Detty Deeney, attended the hearing. "I'm not sure it's completely equitable," she told the board, "but it's nice to have a policy." The previous board's policy reportedly depended upon "guesswork and common sense." Backbilling the County COURT HOUSE — As executive director of the Lower Township MUA, Township Manager James R. Stump handed county Solicitor Harry A. Delventhal Jr. wjth "a request for payment for (Page 61 Please)

ed today to 51,643 county voters for i. polling places for each municipal voting i district listed at the upper-left corner of the sample ballots. Republicans and Democrats in each of the county's 16 municipalities select their party candidates for governor, two state General Assembly seats, one county freeholder, two state party committee members and two county committee members. Democratic candidates appear in columns on the right side of the ballots with GOP contei. !"rs at left. VOTERS WITH NO PARTY affiliation can cast ballots in either party primary but, by doing so, are automatically registered thereafter as a member of the party they selected. Although the total number of voters was confirmed at 51,643 by the county Board of Elections last week, individual party and non-party totals for the county were still being calculated then from municipal voter totals. (Page 4 Please) A jmmL Dorit Word COUNTDOWN — Assistant county Treasurer Pamela Eaves of Cape May Court House and county Auditor Harry M. Scott of Ocean City discuss the upcoming inventory of the county's fixed assets.

A $2-Million Prize Colleges Bidding For Cape Students By JOE ZELNIK They're like two boxers preparing for a championship bout with a two-million dollar purse. Their training camps are closed while they get in shape and work on the tactics each hopes will result in a knockout punch. The foes: Atlantic Community College ( ACC) and Cumberland County College (CCC). The prize: a constantly increasing enrollment of oknni i nnn

about 1,000 Cape May County students. They pay tuition of $750 to $800 a semester and the county pays a chargeback of $31 a credit hour to CCC, $66 a credit hour to ACC. all of which adds up to about $2 million. THE GOAL: approval — first from the county, then from the state Department of Higher Education — to establish a branch campus. Most oddsmakers favor ACC because of its longer reach; it already has an extension campus, moving into expanded quarters in Rio Grande next month And it has a current enrollment edge of about 900 to 134 But a number of insiders warn that CCC could have a secret weapon in the form of two sites available for a potential campus THE COUNTY views all this in a less pugilistic fashion. It sees itself as a desirable object being wooed by two * suitors. "Let's stop courting." said Freeholder James S. Kiipatrick Jr.. liaison to the colleges, and get down to the proposal and the engagement and the marriage " Thus it's the suitor who must come up with a dowry, spelled out in a formal proposal due June 17. The proposals must give a description of "the facility to be utilized in Cape May (Page 4 Please) -inside...— EXCLUSIVE: First time ever, the King Nummy, Captain Fleece connection, page 62. TAURUS- Strong physical attractions; Virgo: Ask for that raise. Planetarily Speaking, page 63. WHAT happened to the drum? A moot question. Lou Rodia page 44. A CLUNKER with character and crickets. Joyride III, page 63.

Only Two With Colleges Cape May and Hunterdon counties have almost identical population totals of 90,000. They also share the distinction of being the only counties in the state without community colleges ■jj But they are not the state's smallest counties. Salem is smallest, with 66,000, and has its own community college. Warren has 85.000 and has a form of community college that provides for purchasing educational services from other colleges County (Republican) freeholders, criticized most election years by Democratic candidates, have said that the state Department of Higher Education ruled out a community college for Cape May County because its population is to small. "We never received a petition from the freeholders for a separate community college," Dr. Edward Goldberg, assistant chancellor for academic affairs, told this newspaper last week. "I CAN TELL YOU if we did," he said, "we would suggest exploring alternatives, as they are doing. And one of those, although we would not be overly encouraging, would be to explore the county college commission approach." That, he explained is "a college without walls," as Warren and Sussex (120,000) now have, and Hudson used to have until it converted to a regular community college. (Page 4 Please)

One, Two, Three, Four, Five...

COURT HOUSE — They'reVounting fixed assets at the county courthouse. And in every other building where county government is located. Likewise at every municipality, school district, and authority. A fixed asset in this case is anything that cost $300 or more and will last at least three years, according to Harry Scott, accountant with Ford, Scott and Associates of Ocean City. "IT'S A MASSIVE undertaking, and the deadline is Dec. 31," explained Scott. His firm is the largest certified public accounting firm which specializes in governmental accounting in the county. Its clients include the county, 10 municipalities, 8 or 10 school districts, the county Bridge Commission, Municipal Utilities Authority (MUA) and other local authorities.

It all stems from the federal government. Congress, "after talking about it for 10 years," Scott said, last year passed the Single Audit Act. affecting anyone that ex pects a nickel of federal money. Part of being satisfied with a single audit is an assurance that fixed assets are part of the local balance sheet. Scott said. THE DIVISION of Local Government Services of the state Department of Community Affairs passed the word down to local government. Cape May County, Scott said, will have each department prepare its inventory, under a system coordinated by the treasurer's office, and using criteria developed by that office and Scott. Everything from an electric typewriter to a three-story building will have to be (Page 24 Please)