rn Herald - Lantern - Dispatch 17 |uiy '85 ;

News Digest (From Page 4) Seniors On A Roll RIO GRANDE — The county Office on Aging is $125,807 richer as the result of a check for that amount presented last week by the state Division of Aging. The money, which is part of a larger grant of $379,000, will be used for meals and transportation for senior citizens. Phila. Man Charged NORTH WILDWOOD - City police arrested a Philadelphia man last Sunday and charged him with slashing a girl, 14. with a piece of glass. Edward Paul Iezzi, 25, was charged with the assault, which followed an altercation between Philadelphia and New York City residents. Is Peace Fatal? A SEA ISLE CITY - Nothing can be worse for tourism than to say a resort is quiet, has elderly citizens, and spends exorbitant amounts of money filling its beaches, according to officials here. "Nobody is in bed by 9:30 a.m.," said City Commissioner William VanArtsdalen, making an interesting claim for his municipality. VanArtsdalen took exception to Philadelphia Magazine calling his favorite town "Senile City." And the beach will cost $4 million, not $6 million VanArtsdalen said. Tax Change for O.C.? OCEAN CITY — A new proposal could reduce taxes for owners of lots which are part wetlands. Under the plan, submitted by tax assessor James Andrea, taxes would be eliminated on the percentage of the lots that falls outside the state's wetlands boundary. About 85 lots, most of them along West Avenue, would be affected. Two Arrested OCEAN CITY - Franklin Conklin, 18. of West Atlantic Boulevard, and a local juvenile were arrested last week for stealing two autos and a boat valued at $10,000, and for $3,500 worth of damage to boats at Lamont's Marina, 3rd Street, near the bay. One of the vehicles was stolen in Marmora, and the boat was found near the Longport toll bridge. Conklin, who was caught by the Coast Guard, was being held in county jail on $30,000 bail. Skier Recovering WILDWOOD CREST - Elizabeth Eszlari, 21, of Wildwood, who fell off a jet ski in Sunset Lake in Wildwood Crest last week, has regained consciousness, officials at Burdette Tomlin Memorial Hospital report. Eszlari, a veteran jet skier, was on the lake to help a 12-year-old boy celebrate his birthday. Mounted, Not Munched SCHELLENGER'S LANDING - Who would eat a 37-pound, 185-year-old lobster? If it's the one that a scallop fishing boat "Courageous" dredged up off Cape Cod over a week ago, the answer is no one. The shell of the crustacean, which has been donated to the Lobster House Fish Market here, is being prepared for mounting by Cape May Court House taxidermist Len Guthrie. More Power to Mayor ? TRENTON - Mayors of Avalon, Ocean City, and Wildwood could enjoy more power if Gov. Thomas H. Kean signs into law senate bill 1206. Its designed to clarify the balance of power between mayors an^city councils. However, some areas, such as responsibilities for paying bills, are still ambiguous. Also, many routine council functions, those done by resolution, would be replaced by ordinances that require public hearings and mayor approval.

Do You One Better VILLAS — Councilman Robert Conroy said Monday he's prepared to propose that Lower Township eliminate pay for members of all municipal boards. But Mayor Robert Fothergill asked him to wait until Solicitor Bruce Gorman is present. Seven health board members collect $1,000 each year; five MUA members draw $1 200 annually. Councilman Joseph Lonergan also proposed that ward councilmen reduce their $4,380 yearly salaries while Deputy Mayor Davis wanted board members who don't attend meetings "canned." (See "Mary Says ...") 3-1 For Cat Control VILLAS — "If China can keep people from having children, I think we can take a stand somewhere along the line," Cass Clark, president of the Animal Welfare Society (AWS), told Lower Township councilmen Monday during a hearing discussion of her propoosal that the township split with residents AWS fees to sterilize their cats. Council, however, voted 3-1 to finance that program at $1,250 a year. Councilman Robert Conroy dissented; Councilman David F. Brand Jr. was absent. Here We Go Again TOWN BANK — Testers recorded fecal coliform bacteria levels between 140-2,400 MPN (most probable number) in the Delaware Bay near Cox Hall Creek here last week. The week before, testers detected levels between 70-926 MPN on the state scale where 50 MPN is the maximum safe level. Still waiting Monday for results of a county Health Department test of human and animal waste bacteria in the water, Lower Manager James R. Stump, township MUA executive director, insisted that the MUA's Villas sewage plant, which discharged into the creek, was not responsible for the contamination.

County Union to 'Demonstrate'

(From Page 1) "I attempted to confirm the intent of his proposal," said Pepper. "He did not confirm to me that it meant what he said it meant. Until there is a clarification, we are not in a position to consider his proposal." "They're sitting back waiting for PERC (Public Employment Relations Commission) to force a contract on our people." said Williams. "And if that happens, both the freeholders and the county will pay for that over the next year. We'll have demonstrations at freeholder meetings, voice our opinions, we may go as far as paying our taxes the last day. or late There are a lot of legal avenues we can go " Williams said he has informational picketing signs ordered that read "Freeholders Are Unfair to Organized Labor" and "Freeholders Do Not Care for Union Workers and Voters." HE SAID HE intends to have protesters "march around the courthouse" within two weeks and "jam the freeholder meeting room" next week. The board meets next Tuesday afternoon. Williams and his negotiators took a pro posed three-year contract to the membership on May 24. It was defeated, 283-111. There has been only one meeting since, on June 7, with a state mediator present. Williams said Monday that pay increases are "the big thing. The Mosquito Commission got 6 percent into base pay. They offered us 4.97 percent and people in their eighth-step wouldn't get it into their base until the third year. An honest 5 percent might have flown. What are we, second-class citizens?" ABOUT 200 EMPLOYES have eight or more years service with the county and would have received the pay increase as a "bonus" the first two years rather than as an addition to their base pay. Williams said he was turned down in a request for a meeting with the freeholders and their negotiating team, which consists of Pepper and county Administrator Diane Rudolph.

He said he also has had no response to a list he sent Pepper of "problems" employes had with the county These were not negotiable items," he said, but things which Pepper said could be addressed separately "These people have retroactive money due them." said Williams. "We're not that far apart Any honest effort can settle this thing in one meeting." WILLIAMS PREVIOUSLY listed several other issues dividing the county and employes: grievance procedures, the uniform allowance for C»-est Haven employes, prescription co-pay, and grand fathering longevity, given for future employes, for current employes. While battling the county in contract negotiations, Williams also is fighting a rear-guard action with Sam Kelly, former Local 1983 business agent. Kelly has said he has enough signatures to lead county employes and 115 Wildwood employes into an "independent" labor group in North Jersey called Amalgamated Local 6. Kelly has filed signatures for the Wildwood representation election, but not the county. Williams said Monday that after telling Joseph Garlando of Local 6 about the local situation, "he apologized for getting into the damn thing and has promised to withdraw his petition." KELLY TOLD this newspaper Monday night that he has "heard of some matters that may complicate things," but did not know if Garlando was really going to withdraw the petition for a new election in Wildwood. p As for county employees, Kelly said he has enough signatures calling for a union representation election, but "with all the doubts that exist at the moment, I'm not willing to turn them over to anyone until I'm sure there is a firm commitment. "There is some doubt, unquestionably." he added. "If that petition is withdrawn, it appears once again that organized labor is doing what it can to thwart the desires of the membership."

County Will Buy Rio Grande Site

(From Page I) ($1.2 million) price," he added. Benzell said the developers never had a formal meeting with the freeholders after their first informal proposal last February "There were a couple informal meetings with no-shows," he said. VOLL SAID HE didn't know of the county's plans, revealed at its July 9 meeting, but had "heard rumors." "I talked toeach freeholder personally." said Voll, "and wanted to have lunch with them and Dr. Benzell. but no one showed up." "I informed Mike Voll of our decision previously." said Kilpatrick, "and the reasons for it. And he indicated to me he understood. I called him and told him what we were doing more than two weeks ago." "Kilpatrick did call me a couple weeks ago and said that was the direction they were going in," said Voll "Are they concerned about jobs and economic development? Why do they fight the business people that want to come in there and put people to work? That (Social Services) building is a hazard to the people that work there. It's a maze of cubes." Probing Fatal Fall ERMA — Astro Aerial Ads Inc. didn't violate any Federal Aviation Administration rules, FAA investigators concluded from their investigation of the fatal July 4 fall at the county airport of one of the company's employes. Keith Flanagan, 15, of Bargaintown. But state Labor and Industry Department officials are still probing whether the youth was employed in violation of state laws against minors working near power driven machinery. Tending an advertising banner, Flanagan was hauled aloft and fell 100 feet when his foot became entangled. He died July 9 in Atlantic City Medical Center.

THE COUNTY RENTS from Rio Bowling Lanes Inc., which has five principal stockholders Its 10-year lease expires in October and it is exercising its option to buy. The building has 22.000 square feet and the county has said it needs "at least 32,000 " The stockholders, according to records, are Mrs. Edna Ingersoll. A Keith Rasmussen and John DeFraticeso, all of Wildwood Crest, Dorothy Bradshaw of North Wildwood. and Mary Nazaruk of Lower Township. Harry Hand is its Realtor agent. When Benzell made his proposal in February, he had plans for a three-story building with 80,000 square feet of space He said the proposal would mean 350 to 400 jobs and pay taxes of "over $100,000." "Sprawling out is a waste of valuable property," said Benzell. "It makes more sense to go up." THE COUNTY, which intends t<racquire six adjacent acres and the American Cancer Society Building on Route 47, gave first reading July 9 to a bond ordinance providing for a $1.1 million borrowing to acquire the site. Second reading and adoption is scheduled next Tuesday afternoon. County sources said that in addition to a modular type unit, it also plans a new air circulating system. The building houses the 150-empioye county Welfare Department plus the state Division of Youth and Family Services i DYFS) with a staff of about 30. the county Adjuster. Office on Aging, Veterans' Bureau, Jersey Cape Homemakers, state Rental Assistance Program and an office for Cape Human ReWelfare officials said a new program for the medically needy is expected to require additional staffing. THE COUNTY originally intended to move Social Services to the present Crest Haven Nursing Home after its replacement is finished next year. But other expanding agencies and departments got in line for that space and it was ruled out. The county reportedly hopes to centralize all social services in a "one-stop shopping" center at Rio Grande. Voll released a three-page list of Middle Township property owned by the county and therefore tax-exempt. Many were small parcels of vacant ground in the Del Haven area. But the list also included the vo-teeh schools, assessed at $7.6 million; Crest II „ . inn kiaiMinnc iccdccoH I ahfiiil Q S Haven assessed at 9.5

million; the library complex in Court House, assessed at $1.5 million; the Old Court House, assessed at $1.3 million ; and the 4-H complex assessed at $650,000. The property list also includes numerous county parks, the Mosquito Commission, Bridge Commission. Chamber of Commerce. county museum, and MUA property assessed at $1.1 million. Local Police Force ( From Page 1 ) Thornton. "Go to your local officials and have them create a referendum," he said. "It gets to the point the residents are willing to accept the cost of police. That's what you favor Others, looking at the cost, may not." Each of the residents introduced himself and many gave details of individual pro^ blems, from trucks parking illegally on the highway while patronizing the new Wawa, to burying»cats and dogs hit by speakers. Pointing to the MUA landfill traffic, one woman asked if that also would be the location for a planned incinerator. "It's 90 percent probable it will be at the Woodbine landfill," said Thornton. "I can remember when you could drive deer through there," said Freeholder William E. Sturm Jr. "Now there's campgrounds in the north and east, growth. It's not going to get any better." McCarthy dismissed two residents suggestions — a weight limit and a "sleeping policeman (bump in the road)". "And enforcement will be a problem until you have a local (police) department," he said. "We can look into lower speed limits, but it won't do any good if it's not enforced." McCarthy said a long-range, "highpriced" solution for Dennisville would be a bypass of one-half to three-quarters of a mile along the Old Conrail Line. Thornton pointed out possible problems include cost, land acquisition, and the fact that this would involve wetlands. Sturm, saying something similar was proposed 20 years ago. offered "a word of caution. In the 60s, the environmentalists ate 'em alive."