4 Herald - lantern - Dispatch 24 July '85

News

Digest ( From Page 1 ) week but the physician predicted legal victory when the appeal was first announced. Reval Doubles Upper TUCKAHOE — Revaluation of 7,000 to 7.500 Upper Township properties nearly doubles their total assessments from $172,232,705. But property owners overall will probably pay the same taxes next year, when the revaluation takes affect, as they do now, according to a spokesman for Appraisal Survey Inc.. the township's Mount Laurel revaluation firm. This year, however, property owners saw their tax rate jump from $1.I5-$1.68 on each $100 of assessed value, or another $232 on a $42,200 home Headed For Court NORTH WILDWOOD - Raymond Diamond. 33 of W. 21st Street faces an Aug. 12 hearing in Margate Municipal Court on charges that he threatened police officers and their families with death after he was taken into custody late Thursday for throwing food at a cabbie and using abusive language. He was released on his own recognizance Friday morning. 2 Rapes in a Week OCEAN CITY — Resort police say the man who raped a woman. 36. in her firstfloor Wesley Avenue apartment earlyFriday morning may be the same

assailant who raped a woman, 27. in his first-floor Central Avenue apartment around 4 a.m July 16. Both victims were blindfolded and attacked at knifepoint but uninjured. Police are also investigating any connection between those rapes and the 10: 10 p.m rape of a Wesley Avenue woman. 27. on April 24. Two I\ew in Blue? VILLAS — Councilmen in Lower Township voted 3-0. with Joseph Lonergan abstaining and David F. Brahd Jr absent, to apply for $28,065.81 in state matching funds to hire two police officers By a 2-1 vote, with Robert Conroy dissenting and Mayor Robert Fothergill abstaining, council made those hirings contingent upon continued state funding, and delayed them until Lt. Charles Thornton retires in January. State money will pay for a new officer which the township will ••match" by hiring Thornton's replacement. Suicidal Man Saved SCHELLENGER'S LANDING - Police report that a Burlington Township man. 33. plunged 55 feet into the Cape MayCanal from a bridge here around 10 a.m. last Wednesday, escaping death or injury in missing a passing boat by only 100 feet. Drunk and carrying a knife, the man intended to kill himself in the leap, police said, and was bitter about his failure. Rescued by a pleasure craft, the man was taken to South Jdrsey Marina and then to Burdette Tomlin Memorial Hospital. No charges have been filed against him. Lower Township Lt. Charles Thornton confirmed Monday. (Page 58 Please)

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(From Page l) for 40 years who would like to be connected. who were denied by the old board." said Karaso. "There is a lady on Romney Place who paid a sewer bill for eight years — she thought she had it — until her septic system overflowed. " "If someone else applies." said DeVico, "we will face the exact same situation." She seconded Karaso's motion which member Thomas H. Mills also voted for. Heck and Killian voted no and the application was rejected. 3-2. Stokes thanked the commission for its consideration and Karaso told him, "I've never dealt with a more patient individual." INTERVIEWED after the hearing. Stokes said he will "explore my right of appeal." This was the third application the commission has received since it took office Jan. 30. In February, it okayed one from restaurateur Vincent Mustico who was buying, through Repici, a five-bedroom home at 113 S. Main St., and intended a 36seat restaurant. But the commission added a number of conditions, including a separate septic system for kitchen waste. Mustico never went ahead. Last month the commission approved the application of Mrs. Joyce Hoffman. She is converting a three-bedroom house to two. one-bedroom apartments and the sewage flow should be reduced. A PHILADELPHIA resident. Stokes said he has vacationed in Wildwood Crest for 34 years. He said he was aware of the district's sewage problems and carried a stack of Cape May County Heralds with him, referring occasionally to its articles on plant capacity and commission dealings. He also indicated he was aware of last fall's grand jury presentment criticizing the previous sewage commission. "I know you're in a fishbowl," said Stokes, "and I feel more or less an innocent victim, swimming around in a fishbowl with you." "You're caught in the middle," Heck . agreed. The history of the subdivision is that the previous commission, after years of refusing to grant sewer extension applicaitons, gave approval on Sept. 1, 1963, to Romney East Associates for a 19-lot subdivision. THE FIRM INCLUDES Repici, of ! Avalon Real Estate's Court House office; 1 Realtors William H. Tozour Jr. and David j J. Kerr of Avalon Real Estate's Avalon office; Avalon masonry contractory Marino Cosenza, and Realtor Roger J. Soens of Soens and Moore in Avalon. Soens told this newspaper in April 1984 that he and Cosenza originally owned most of the land that is now Romney East, but couldn't build planned apartment or condas. They brought in the other principals, Soens said, in a joint venture to get the project moving. About to be replaced by a newly-elected commission in January, the lame-duck commission apparently approved eight permits to connect. Stokes was not one of them. DeVico told this newspaper that the commission has no record of those approvals except for deposit slips showing their $100 hookup fees were paid. SHE SAID THOSE permits included one to Phillip Charles, dated Jan. 14. Charles physically moved his house from North Main Street to Crest Road and did not add to the district's sewage flow. The other seven permits included two to Cosenzo, one each to Tozour and Soens, one to David or Barbara Kerr, and one each to Pam Bond and Joseph Rich. DeVico said the commission has "no record of approval" for Repici's home that she knows of. but it does have "an application from him dated Aug. 9, 1984. that says 'approved.' " THE COMMISSION'S problems are twofold: it has been told Romney East is outside its boundaries, and its plant is at its capacity of 100.000 gallons a day Plant engineer Walt Turnier reported last week that the plant averaged 106.000 gallons a day in May and 108.000 in June. Meter breakdowns have made early July's figures unreliable, Turnier added. Stokes' $100 hookup fee was dated Jan. 26. but by the time it arrived there was a new boaad struggling with old problems and establishing new procedures. "At that time we didn't even have an application (form)," DeVico told him. "We were informed at our last session that an extension in this section was probably illegal." said Heck. "Illegal is not quite on the money," said Commission Solicitor Carmen Alvarez. "It

power to go beyond its jurisdictional limits. Permits have been granted in that area. You may be acting with an authority you don't have the authority to do. You may not have the power to do anything more than's been done." Karaso said that granting Stokes permission would "set a precedent." I understand your position, " said Stokes. "But I feel I've been lulled into a false sense of security." "Would a septic tank mess up your plans?" asked Mills, "is the lot big enough?" STOKES. WHO EARLIER identified himself as "an excavating contractor for 37 years who has filled out thousands of (sewer) applications," said his lot was "about a quarter-acre" and a septic "would be impossible in any jurisdiction I've ever worked." "What about homes on adjacent lots?" asked Commission engineer Charles Kona. "I've seen Repici's being constructed one lot away," said Stokes. "He's connected." "There are septic systems on that street," said Killian. "I paid $25,000 for a fully improved lot," said Stokes, "and if I had thought I would have to have a septic system, I wouldn't have spent that kind of money." STOKES SAID he has been paying taxes on a property assessment of $18,000. "We are not involved with the township or what it is using to set the rates for tax purposes." replied Alvarez. Stokes, pointing out that the sewer lateral is laid to his curb line, said, "I'm not asking for a sewer connection. I'm asking for a hookup. « "Did the seller tell you you had sewer available?" asked Karaso. "Positively," said Stokes. "I think you'd better talk to your seller," said Kona. "I'm looking for consideration as a hardship case," said Stokes. "I am an innocent victim." "I understand that," said Karaso. "Maybe the developer, who might already have a permit, might be predisposed to exchange a permit." "IS THIS the last lot?" asked Mills. "No," said Alvarez. "There are 13 more. This could conceivably come up 13 more times." "If the 13 lots were sold and told they have sewer," said Heck. "Mr. Stokes purchased under the assumption he could hook up." "A lot of other people, too," said DeVico. "Repici probably told them. too. How could he tell you it was sewered when it wasn't?" she asked Stokes. "I'd been looking for a lot for a long time," said Stokes. "If I have to go back and have a percolator test, I guess I'll have to do that. But under the circumstances, you're not really setting precedent. I'm almost 'grandfathered'." "I THINK WE have to draw a conclusion based on the findings," said Karaso, which he listed as follows: • The subdivision is "an extension beyond the jurisdictional boundaries of the commission. • The engineering report indicates that the sewage flow (from Stokes' house) would be 400 gallons a day. • We are now under a (state DEP) sewer extension warning (for being at least 80 percent of capacity). • We are under a capacity assurance program (for the same reason). • The lot has city water and is of a size adaptable for septic. • And the applicant believed he was sewered. The vote followed. DURING THE hearing. Stokes asked the commission, ''Do you have a moratorium?" "Not precisely," said Karaso, "but we do have a sewer extension warning." After the vote and Stokes' departure. Heck commented, "If every applicant who comes in is going to be denied, in effect we have a moratorium. We might as well declare it. The whole thing isn't, setting very well with me." "It's very difficult to say no' to someone who ... "began Alvarez. "Is being jerked around," interjected Heck. After discusisng the potential problem of other similar applications from Romney East, the commission asked Alvarez to draft a resolution that specifies permits cannot be transferable and must be used in 12 months. It would not be retroactive, they said, and the Romney East lot owners who already have approved connections would i not be affected.