^ Herald - Lantern - Dispatch 2 October '85

County Eateries Lack Chefs

( From Page 1 ) out Grant said that was because she lacked "the minimum working capital required to survive." Gift told this newspaper she decided the restaurant was "more than I could manage She also cited a recent automobile accident. GIFT HAS 30 YEARS experience as,a. waitress and cook and most recently work-i ed at Barry's Grill in Villas. The specifications for that lease required the successful bidder to supply all equipment and furniture and pay for water, sewer, and electrical service, but not for heal and air-conditioning. The county received no bids Sept. 23 for the Grange— restaurant although Grant called that "a very attractive deal." It of fered a two-year contract with a two year option. "You get the building, a large inventory of equipment, have no exterior maintenance, no parking lot maintenance, a small upstairs banquet room, just come in and run the restaurant." said Grant BI T TIIK MINIMl'M bid price was $15, (MX), which was double what previous tenants Mr. and Mrs. Charles Miles have been paying under a contract they had with the village's previous owners. Mr. and Mrs Joseph Salvatore They donated it to the county last December Mrs. Miles said $15,000 was "an outrageous amount of money." Her husband said they were serving 200 to :$00 lunches a day. subleased the dinner operation (for half- the $7,500 rent) to Natalie Dorosz. and still lost money Miles said he had $3.500-a-month expenses at the Grange, which included the rent, the liability and fire insurance, the utilities ("it costs a fortune to heat") and property taxes, an expense he said he could not understand He said he provided the freezers and cash register. "I IM)N"T KNOW why they're asking such a price." said Miles. "The past owners lost money on it too They should help the people who want to get into here." The Miles live in North Wildwood where they have started managing the 24-unit Commodore Motel/Condominium The dinner operation was handled by Natalie Dorosz also of North Wildwood. Asked why she didn't bid the new lease, she called it "a little too high." but declin ed to discuss whether it was a profitable operation The Mileses compared Historic Cold Spring Village, for which they have a high regard, with Wheaton Village in Cumberland County "WK WERE APPROACHED in April by Wheaton Village." said Mrs Miles "They 'wanted us to manage their restaurant, plus an ice cream parlor-bakery with no rent They said. 'We realize how tough it is to get started We just want our people to be able to get a nice meal at a decent price ' Mrs Miles said they asked Freeholder Herbert Frederick, who is responsible for Cold Spring Village, if they could get out of their contract I

"He said. 'I'll see you in court,' " said 'Mrs. Miles. Their contract with the Salvatores, taken over by the county, expired last Sunday. But the Salvatores had let them stay open until mid-October in the past. Miles said, and so they had booked a number of bus tours. _.j SPECIFICALLY, eight buses from Sandcrest Tours in Wildwood Crest were - -due on Monday with about 400 people, he said. "We had permission other years to stay open." said Miles, "and we kept asking all season long. They kept holding off until Sept 25 when they came to us and told us / we're out." (That was two days after the Mileses failed to bid on a new contract.) Miles called the tour agency and was told he'd have to compensate it "for their lime to change plans." MILES APPEALED to C. Joseph Montemurro. executive director of the village, who. Miles said, "said we could stay open if we extended the lease for one month at $1,500." "I said that wasn't fair." said Mrs. Miles. "I only want one day and I'll pay a day's rent. He told us he's in it to make money for the county, he said, what does the county get out of it? I'm not in this to see that you make a profit.' Mrs Miles said they wanted to talk to a . freeholder, but "Montemurro told me I could only talk to him. He said. "You're talking to the man that can do anything. Take it for the whole month for $1 .500 or no tours on Monday.' Instead. Mrs Miles called FreeholderDirector Gerald M. Thornton. "I told him the whole story and he said he'd try." IT WAS FRIDAY now. the tourists were 72 hours away, the hurricane was 18 I hours away, and this newspaper collecting information for this story, also was calling the disaster-minded freeholders for a final decision. I Montemurro came to the Mileses. she said, chided them for calling Thornton, and said Frederick said. "You're out." Frederick called the Mileses shortly afterward and. according to Mrs Miles, was "very accommodating. He said he'd have to check with their solicitor." Minutes later they received another call from Frederick and were given the day's extension with no mention of additional rent. I The Mileses were concerned that the i village not receive any negative publicity, i but also equally concerned that county operation is not what it should be. "We have had a good reputation and we want to keep it." said Miles. "The food is good The people who run the shops are > fantastic people , "In three years." he said, "we built it I from nothing. We started booking tours and giving 'em luncji and built a rapport with tour agencies. The restaurant draws r people. f "They need somebody village-oriented down there." he concluded.

"Landing Strip" at county airport. Erma

y J| I • *9 "Old Grange" at Historic Cold Spring Village Dor" Word

Gloria 'Eyes' County —

i From Page 1 ) businesses were damaged and dozens of homes had a foot of water. Many beaches suffered severe erosion, and scores of trees and utility poles were downed. The 199-foot communications tower atop Burdette Tomlin Memorial Hospital in Cape May House was bent in half, and a fire damaged a handful of Wildwood cottages. But no one died. In fact, a baby was born. DORK IE LAUFMAN of Cape May went into labor Thursday night as she and her husband. Wilmer. were evacuating. Wilmer Berlin Laufman 5th was born at Burdette at 1:43 a.m. Friday, about four hours before the ocean breached Cape May's seawell. The siren announcing that breakthrough — a rare, but not unheard-of sound — came at 6 a.m., moments before daybreak The flooding continued through high tide at 7:40 and eased at about 8:30. As usual, the area from the city's northeasterly point at Poverty Beach south to Convention Hall was hardest hit. Much of the dunes at South Cape Meadows also went At Reeds Beach in Middle Township, a little-affected home owner surveyed toppled bayfront houses on each side of him and said a three-foot higher elevation made the difference against the pounding bay. THE COUNTY'S Office of Emergency Management had recommended evacuation of the barrier islands and low-lying areas at about 4 p.m. Thursday It was made mandatory at 9:30. An estimated 20.000 residents fled, about 7.500 to 49 county-organized shelters in schools, firehalls. etc. Some went to their own inland havens where, ironically, many experienced higher winds and more rain than in the county Hundreds stayed behind, violating the orders, risking arrest and their lives. All lucked out. AT ABOUT io Friday morning. Emergency Management, live on local radio stations, whooped that the eye of the hurricane had passed without serious effect and the danger was over. Coordinator Lyndon Simmerman was thankful, he said, that this had turned out to be the county's largest "exercise" rather than worst emergency Ironically. Gloria's strongest winds came an hour later, the backlash of the counterclockwise winds that were stronger than its first effort Coming out of

the northwest, they did the most inland damage. FOR SOME. Gloria was a joke on Thursday, prompting hurricane parties. But. interrupted by evacuation orders, the laughter faded. There was nothing funny for the first sunlight hours Friday as news reports described the slow progress of the "catastropic" storm that was thought to be on a path that would bring devastation. For most, the festive air was back by Friday evening. Throughout the danger, residents and rescuers alike had. with few exceptions (looters made off with some liquor at the storm-ravaged Montreal in Cape May), behaved admirably. Police, fireman, rescue squads, volunteers, all pitched in and pulled together. Nursing homes accepted 16 homebound, bedridden persons indentified by the county's visiting nurses' association. BUT ONCE the danger had passed, of course Monday-morning quarterbacks have to their say: • The storm had been exaggerated, causing unnecessary precautions including moving belongings to higher floors. • The mandatory evacuation should have come sooner so residents wouldn't have been fleeing in darkness and a downpour • The Garden State tollbooths shouldn't have charged people for the privilege of fleeing a hurricane. This obstacle added to the miles-long lines of traffic. ON THE OTHER HAND. Ocean Drive tolltakers were permitted to flee for their lives and that, combined with electrical failures, resulted in 48 hours of free crossings on those bridges. The county Bridge Commission reportedly will survive. By Saturday morning, the sound of county and city cleanup crews in the background. Cape May vacationers were applying suntan lotions as they headed to pools at the unscathed Ocean Drive motels On beaches to the north, in Stone Harbor. Avalon. Sea Isle City. Strathmere. Ocean City. <the Wildwoods were spared) many of the "No Trespassing on Dunes" signs were unnecessary. No dunes. Surfers were already in the water. Persons with metal detectors were at work, but disappointed at poor results And hundreds of Mexico-bound Monarch butterflies were back on the beaches Where had they found refuge from Gloria? i

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