4 Herald - Lantern - Dispatch 22 January '86

' m J The Wildwoods • ^ * y t =. x M ^ Thomas Parsons V 0 1 1 88,-0,3! 1

As just about everything in Wildwood is secopdguessed and Monday morning quarterbacked, the recent bureaucratic revelations concerning tax increases and Convention Hall's fee to the local school districts have had everybody voicing an opinion. The new budget for the City of Wildwood indicates a lZTSv. percent increase from thex previous budget of $9,622,327. Translating . percentages to dollars, the new budget reflects in"creased expenditures of $1,182,000. Fortunately, tax collec tions were up last year and the required "reserve for uncollected taxes" provided some saving for the taxpayers. This reduction, along with several other changes, reduced the taxgenerated burden by $238,354. TIIK BOTTOM I.INE from the administrative side is a $10,565,883 municipal budget. That's exactly $943,646 over last year's, .a 9.8 percent increase. If you are a Wildwood homeowner, the projected increase will add 23 cents to every $100 of your property value A typical $65,000 home will find $150 added to the annual tax charge. However. CityCouncil has yet to review, alter, and in all probability decrease the budget THE SECOND most talked about subject was not so much a matter of concern but certainly one of comment. This was Convention Hall's decision to charge Wildwood High School and/or Wildwood Catholic for the use of the hall for the traditional basketball clash. This certainly caused a furor. One thing you should try not to do is • - mess" with the local schools, and if you must do so. by all means . avoid anything negative concerning the sports programs. It is an area that is sure to generate plenty of comment. Tnis item certainly has. UNDER A NEW pro gram implemented by the Parking Authority, nobody gets a "free lunch" and

* that includes the local school districts, which have for the past few years used the hall to accommodate the 1,000-plus basketball fans who regularly attend the Island clash. This year the Board of Education will have to pay $700 for the evening's use of the Convention Hall facility. The board voted 3 to 2 to do exactly that, but public sentiment still hasn't settled. Many seem to understand the rationale behind the user fee. After all. you don't startup, heat, and light a 15.000-square-foot building for "peanuts". However, just as many people think that the commercial users should pay more so that, on occasion, local events such as the basketball classic would be spared the user charge. The only major impact from the controversy that 1 can see is the public relations setback for the Parking Authority. TUESDAY. FIVE MII.E Beach boasted of having 538 establishments with rooms for rent. By Wednesday the count was 537. The difference was the Ranch House Motel in North Wildwood. which was leveled by a suspicious earlymorning blaze. Purchased by Joachim Konides in early April, the motel was on 10th Avenue. North Wildwood. The fire represented one of the few "motel" fires that we have seen along Five Mile Beach. Rooming houses seem to burn with a degree of regularity, at least one a year, but I can't remember a typical motel fire in many years. Another Island-related fire occurred this week with the suspicous incineration' of the Harbor Furniture Outlet's warehouse along North Wildwood Boulevard. This fire was particularly distressing for owner Bill Nichols, as it is the second such fire in as many years. In August. 1983, the Nichols' main showroom and warehouse was totally destroyed in a raging fire. This latest fire could not _ have come at a more inop-

portune time as Nichols and his wife were just beginning to stock-pile much of their summer needs to service Five Mile Beach's lodging industry. MANY FIVE MILE Beach residents are members of Cape Island Masonic Lodge, Cold Spring. Ernie Utsch. owner of Utsch's Marina, and Jim Collins, keeper of the Barcelona Motel, have each received a Grand Lodge appointment to commence in April. Utsch has been appointed District Deputy Grand Master for the 24th Masonic District, which encompasses Cape May County. Collins has been appointed Grand Chaplain for the 24th Masonic District. Both men have served as Worshipful Master of Cape Island Lodge WILDWOOD CREST just may see a heated school board election very soon. Rumor has several factions linirfg up their players to vie for the seats occupied by Stanley Gage and Peggy Lewis. Several issues are already surfacing. The shutdown of Philip Baker School and the addition of a new wing at Crest Memorial School is one of the issues being discussed. The other issue sure to surface is the present and past boards' failure to attend Wildwood Board of Education meetings. While the shut-down of Crest Memorial seems to be a foregone conclusion, there is a group which wishes to save the structure and scrap the addition to Crest Memorial. The issue regarding Crest attendance at Wildwood Board meetings will also produce a bit of discussion. Wildwood Crest, West Wildwood. and North Wildwood are all considered "sending districts" by the Wildwood Board. This simply means that the sister communities, which do not have a secondary school system, utilize the Wildwood High School and are required to pay a per pupil tuition fee for sending

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INCUMBENT WINNTERS — I BP AT Local 1983 President Fred Decollewaert, right, congratulates fellow winners after Jan. 9 union election. Business Manager C. Joseph Tracy, center, and Vice President Larry Celiucci joined Decollewaert for a brief meeting at the old courthouse after the election.

the students to Wildwood High School. THE CATCH IS that the sendmg school districts have no vote or influence upon the curriculm or direction of WHS. This has always bothered the sen-

ding districts, but obviously never enough to consider a move to consolidate. However, the Wildwood Board has tendered a standing invitation for the "other" boards to send representatives to each Wildwood meeting.

North Wildwood has responded and has missed only one meeting in three years. The Wildwood Crest School Board has yet to attend. This has created an issue which will become more hotly discussed as the weeks pass.

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Dor i« Word STONE HARBOR SOLUTION — Stone Harbor has prohibited skateboarding on borough streets and sidewalks, but built a ramp as an alternative. Matthew Sellers, 16. right, poses at a 96th Street warning sign, and gives encouragement, far left, to skateboarder Shaun Girgan. 16. Looking on. Bill Romberger, 15.

The Half Pipe Contrast: S. Harbor vs. Cape May

By JACK SMYTH

CAPE MAY — Skateboards have been like an unwelcome relative in this city for three-and-a-half months. They wouldn't go away, and nobody seemed to know what to do about them. On Monday, City Council followed through on its original intention and approved an ordinance prohibiting the use of the boards on city streets, sidewalks, malls and parking lots. And Mayor Arthur Blomkvest said a plan to build a ramp and set aside an area where the boards could be used legally is dead because of the reported high cost of obtaining insurance. But Blomkvest did leave open the possibility that Council could approve a resolution permitting skateboarding on the beachfront promenade from December through April. CITY COUNCIL first declared its intention to pass a law banning the boards early last October. The proposal drew protests from teens who use the boards for both transportation and fun, and their parents. A special meeting was held between City Manager Fred Coldren and the skateboard enthusiasts where emotions ran high and angry words were exchanged. In an attempt to blunt some of the criticism, the city agreed to build a "half pipe," or special ramps where the boards could be used legally But the ramp proposal ran aground when Council was told that the cost of liability insurance would be exorbitant. The news brought further criticism from skateboarders and their parents A LITTLE OVER 12 miles away as the crow flies in the resort community of Stone Harbor, the problem of how to deal with skateboards was handled in a much different manner. Stone Harbor's Borough Council outlawed the boards over four years ago after recognizing the annoyance they were to pedestrians and the safety problem they presented on streets. But late last summer, a sufficient number of the ramps had appeared in various parts of the borough to draw official attention. In addition, youngsters asked borough officials for increased recreational activities. In response, borough council built a special facility for skateboarders at 97th Street

and First Avenue. Consisting of two "quarter pipes," it is located at a municipal recreation complex that includes tennis and shuffleboard courts. Matthew Sellers, 16, a 10th grade student at Middle Township High School, and a borough resident, drew up the plans for the ramps. They were built at a cost of about $600 in materials (mostly wood), plus labor provided by borough employes. AND. UNLIKE CAPE MAY. borough officials did not run into any problem with insurance. "We discussed it with our insurance people, and they have no qualms there," said Edwin F. Pain, administrative assistant to the Mayor and Borough Council. "Our carriers have no objection." In Cape May, on Jan. 13. a different picture emerged. "You tell an underwriter that you have a skateboard ramp, and it could seriously jeopardize the entire insurance program for the city, if it is forced on them," Charles E. Pessagno, president of National Associates Inc., told City Council. Barbara Weigand, vice president of National Associates, estimated that skateboard insurance would cost "upwards of $50,000." National Associates places the city's insurance. STONE HARBOR Borough Councilman Robert J. Boyer, who played a leading role in the construction of that community's ramps, confirmed that liability coverage had not been a problem. "We made sure; we checked with our insurance carriers first," said Boyer Boyer said the borough "does not assume liability in a direct sense, which means if they are fooling around and not using it properly, we're not going to assume liability." Both ramps are lettered "Use At Your Own Risk." and can be used at any time. The bQrough charges no fees, and there is no supervision. Boyer conceded that should the insurance carriers "decide not to carry us, we'd have to discontinue the ramps." Boyer and Pain said there have been no reports of skateboarders being injured using the ramps which were erected in November. In discussions in Cape May, representatives of National Associates said a high incidence of injuries to youths using ramps is part of the reason for the high cost of insurance.