62 Herald - Lantern - Dispatch 18 June '86

■r - * V A w wfify AaB V|^b V 1 Mourrrn Coylr BATHING BEAUTIES — Winners in the Miss Seafood Festival Bathing Suit Contest are. from left. Julie Comber of ('ape May. second runner-up: Linda 'liable of Villas, first runner-up; and Miss Seafood. Donna Wilson of Villas. The event was held in Cape May Convention Hall during the fourth annual Seafood Festival Saturday.

Burdette Starting New Expansion

COURT HOUSE - "Pardon Us While We Work to Serve You Better" signs are l?ack up at Burdette Tomlin. Construction crews are moving walls to create a new clinic area which will in turn make way for a new ambulatory surgery center. The medical records area is also being reorganized and enlarged. "Because the building and rebuilding here is a direct response to the changing and growing needs of the community." said William H. Waldron III. president, "the process is ongoing." The new clinic, designed to be attractive as well as efficient, will go into service this month. The ambulatory surgery center will open in July USAGE OF the present same day surgery unit at Burdette has grown by almost 100 percent during just the past two years. According to Waldron. the rapid increase reflects a national trend. "Most patients like the convenience of ambulatory surgery." he reports, "and procedures done this way save health care dollars." Burdette's n£w Ambulatory Surgery Center will off an atmosphere more like a doctor's office than a hospital. As soon as the construction project is completed, the community will be invited to tour the facility. Planning for the - opening is now underway. CHANGES IN the medical records department will provide a more efficient environment for physicians and records experts to carry out their expanding responsibilities for the documentation necessary in today's health care field. "Hard hats are pretty much a permanent part of the scene here," says Waldron. "Progress

demands change and that usually involves adjusting our facilities along with our services. rlALSECLRi^j #1 tin Q. MY MOTHER is over 80 and gets Social Security benefits. Recently she's been ill. I really think she should come to live with me. but she's afraid to because she thinks her Social Security might be reduced if she doesn't live alone. Is she correct? A. No. Your mother's Social Security benefits will not be affected in any way if she moves in with you. Your mother seems to have confused Social Security with SSI, which is a program based on financial need. If your mother does move, please make sure that she notifies Social Security of the change of address. Q. MY THREE children have been getting Social Security survivors' benefits since my wife's death. If I remarry, will the benefits continue or stop? A. Your remarriage will have no effect on your children's benefits. If you are receiving benefits only because you are caring for your children, these will end when you remarry. Q. I've lo6t my Medicare card. What should I do? A You should call or visit a Social Security office right away and ask for a replacement. It will be provided free of charge. Remember to carry your card with you whenever you leave the house.

Will Create Sewage Department

By GREGG LAWSON COURT HOUSE - Middle Township Committee ended more than 12 months of controversy June 5 by deciding the future of the township's sewerage service. In a surprise move, committee unanimously voted to create a township Sewage Department and leave the existing sewer districts. No. 1 (Court House) and No. 3 (Avalon Manor) intact for the time being. The Department would control unsewered parts of the township and be answerable to committee. While the construction of a collector system proceeds in those areas, the existing districts would continue to provide service to their customers until a township wide MUA could be created. The ordinance establishing the ' department was passed on first reading June 5 and is scheduled for second reading and final approval at 10 a.m. today. UNSEWERED AREAS of the township would be designated ' ' s e 1 f - liquidating assessment districts." meaning that individuals who will benefit from sewage service will pay for construction of a collector system, not the entire township. Once that work is completed. the MUA would be created to oversee the entire township. After months of debate, committee reached a compromise agreement based largely on a recommendation by Committeeman Charles M. "Chuck"* Leusner. Leusner said the decision "was the most controversial thing we've had in committee in the last five years. THE COMPLEXITY of this was just intense." Leusner told this newspaper. "Everybody had an idea of what we should have done. ''We were debating amongst ourselves (committee) as to which way to go." he added. Committee had been expected to abolish both existing districts in favor of an MUA. but reportedly felt there was not enough time. The township is scheduled to connect to the county's MUA's Seven Mile Beach/Middle Region treatment plant in 1987 and parts of the township, including Del Haven and Rio Grande, are slated to tie into the Wildwood/Lower treatment plant in 1988. LEUSNER SAID the organization of a township MUA would be "too time consuming. ! "I don't believe they'd meet the deadline." I Leusner said at the June 5 meeting. "If we appoint seven, nine, or whatever the legal body would be. we would , have new faces again." agreed Mayor Michael J. Voll. "They would have to B educate themselves, seek funding and have an t engineer and an attorney." e Voll said the township a successfully applied for *■ $3.5 million in grants and loans to sewer Rio Grande r from Farmers Home Adr ministration, and that the creation of an MUA would

jeopardize that funding. | "FARMERS HOME has already told me, 'you can : kiss Rio Grande good- I bye,* " Voll said. "The i MUA would have to make the application; the (existing) application would be thrown out. "We'd be another six or nine months behind." he said. Leusner proposed creating a township "utility" to oversee sewering parts of the township and leaving the existing districts in place. Later, in six or seven years, he estimated, the township could create an MUA. Voll's estimate was two to three years. "I'M OF THE OPINION we should put together a package where we retain (sewer districts) No. 1 and No. 3 and create a utility for all areas that have to be sewered." Leusner said. "I feel Sewer District No. 1 can handle their own upgrade and I understand that Sewer District No. 3 has already obtained funding for their (sewer system) project." Commissioner Jules Kornberger of District No. 3 told this newspaper his district has received $24,440 from the federal Environmental Protection Agency and $2,600 from the state Department of Environmental Protection. "I feel these three entities can serve their own needs best through this transitional period," Leusner said. "Somewhere down the road... we should have either an appointed or elected body to serve as a buffer between the township and the people." 1 That body, committee agreed, should include a resident from Avalon Manor. Rio Grande, the Del Haven/Green Creek area. Court House and one "member at large." MORE THAN 50 people attended the June 5 committee meeting, most coming in support of District No. 1. Dissolution of the fivemember ( now four because of a resignation). 17-month-old commission has been a politically sensitive issue. One audience member carried a 60- name petition in favor of retaining the present commissioners. The commission, elected in January 1985 after a Grand Jury Presentment criticized the business practices of the former three-member board, has been waiting over a year for committee's decision. In the meantime, its members said, it has postponed applications for funding and needed system improvements because it has been living month-to-month. Voll conceded that the township had delayed its decision on the sewage jurisdiction problem until after last November's election, in which Leusner was easily reelected. Since then, he told this newspaper, committee's workload has delayed the decision. "WE HAD TO DO more investigation," Voll said. "Frankly, the workload is so heavy in the township right now. there is just so much going on. ! "Each committeeman had to make his own int vestigation and we wanted I to make sure we made a

good, considerate decision." he added. "There is so much work load, it is hard sometimes to get things done in an expedient manner." "The (county) MUA has had this thing on the books for a number of years. Why in the devil hasn't something been done in this area about getting the lines laid?" asked Warren Bernard of Court House at the June meeting. "Somebody's been dragging their feet and it's time to get on the road to recovery." "That's what we're trying to do right now," Voll said. COMMITTEE ASSURED residents that only those receiving the service will pay for it. "I don't want the average taxpayer from Goshen or another unsewered area to think they're going to have to pay for the cost," Voll said. Township Engineer A1 Herman estimated that annua I sewage costs for newly-connected customers will run between $200 and $250 and an initial hook-up fee would cost $500. The average rate in Court House now is $76 per year. Committee Solicitor Bruce Gorman said the present ordinance only authorizes the creation of a sewage department, and that future ordinances would define the selfliquidating areas. "ALL YOU'RE DOING tonight is creating a framework for the township to move forward." Gorman said. "Sewered areas would be determined at a later time by the enactment of another ordinance creating an assessing district in each area that would be affected. "In my opinion, we should have one soon in Del Haven and. shortly after that, in Rio Grande." he added Voll said an engineering study estimated it would cost $3 5 million to sewer Rio Grande and $2.3 million to sewer Del Haven. The ordinance only covers areas outside the existing sewer districts. Gorman noted. VOLL SAID the department's budget will be "selfcontained." coming from grants and loans and fees from future sewage customers Right now. he said, the department will be made up of current township employes. "The department would be. basically, our in-house talent; we have an engineer, an attorney and a grants coordinator, Kathy Meers," Voll said. "Basically, at this time, we won't have to hire any new employes." Although the ordinance specifies the department will have a department head, one has yet to be named. The township has been advertising for a director of sewer and water facilities. Albert Karaso. chairman of District No. 1 and Howard Blood, chairman of District No. 3, both were in favor of committee's decision. KARASO SAID his district has the authority to transmit sewage from one location to another, and an agreement could be reach-

ed whereby other area's flows would pass through District One's collector lines. "I'm sure that could be a workable arrangement," Karaso said. "We feel our progress has been considerable and that we don't need any assistance at this time." said Blood. "We've had no problem getting funding for our sewer work. "I like the idea that an organization can be developed and each district can have a representative." he added. "I think that will work very well." "ONCE EVERYTHING is laid out in the township, we go with one body, the MUA, and everybody is represented," Voll said. Voll said District No. 1, which is sewered, and District No. 3. which isn't, will get funding for their projects from user's fees and grants and loans. "They can make applications as a sewer district and we agreed to work with them to make it as feasible as possible," Voll said. "They might have to apply, but we can co-sign."

Computer Crime Law Broadened WASHINGTON, D C. - The House of Representatives has approved legislation sponsored by Congressman Bill Hughes (D-NJ) designed to strengthen and expand the federal laws against computer crime. Hughes said the legislation will help the law enforcement community keep pace with one of the nation's fastest growing categories of crime — illegal trespassing into computerized data files. He pointed out that computer-related crimes are costing business and consumers millions of dollars a year, and pose increasing threats to personal privacy and even our national security. "DURING THE past four years, the House Subcommittee on Crime has conducted a thorough examination of this problem," said Huges, who chairs the panel. "It is apparent that computer technology — with all its benefits to society — has also brought with it a new breed of criminal; the technologically sophisticated felon who breaks into computerized data files. Two years ago. Congress enacted the first federal law ever written against computer crime and credit card fraud. That law, authored by Hughes, made it a felony for anyone to gain unauthorized access to classified information in government computers. Hughes said the new legislation takes that law one step farther by expanding the coverage to include the illegal interstate entry into private computers, and increasing the penalties for those who break into computers in which there is a unique federal interest.