New Jersey Nightly News; 07/21/1978

The New Jersey monthly. With the Baucus bill in Trenton and played in Newark. Good evening Clayton has the night off in the news tonight a nationwide postal strike was averted early this morning but there were pickets in Jersey City nevertheless federal officials arrested 13 illegal aliens in Bellville and a nightclub in Wall Township may be shut down after one of its customers was killed allegedly by three of its bouncers. Also tonight cold blood line profiles the bells of the bowl the baseball that is. And he'll outline the weekend sports schedule for us. And with New Jersey farmlands threatened by other kinds of land use We'll take a closer look at keeping the garden. In the Garden State. Chanting that their union sold them out. This event postal workers shut down a major postal facility in Jersey City today. But elsewhere we do Jersey and across the country mail deliveries were made pretty much as usual following a last minute agreement early

this morning between the Postal Service and its union. Reporter Jack comedy covered the events in Jersey City for us. This is the mail distribution center in Jersey City and most of the 16:00 pass through and point a schedule for the morning shift did not go into work right. 75 contractors you know are I think. Right now we are not. Workers here most of the mail handlers and clerks say the negotiated settlement in Washington won't work and they're hoping this job action in protest of what they call a union sellout will spread to other post offices around the country and the rest of the two families on this contract. Contract with anyone and the postal service is to a great extent to brainwash the public I shouldn't say brainwashed the public as to how great of a job

this is this is not a post of management people and high government officials are saying. That the wages resulting in increased and postal rates and that's not the case at all we invite anyone in the world to come into our insulation and look at the mail we're processing it's a factory and 80 percent of the mail is business mail and we're a cheap distribution network for big business and the rates that the people have to pay higher rates is to finance and subsidize these large corporations even for. Post Office security guards and Jersey City police guarded the worker's entrance for the largest postal facility in the world one that handles born in bulk mail for the New York metropolitan area and north Jersey. There are over 5000 postal workers here and the unhappy members of the local 300 were trying hard to keep up the momentum and keep workers off the job. Reports from the male members committee on her later in the day indicated the

job action was to bring all workers on the second floor. We're going back to their job in Jersey City officials at the Jersey City Center say at this hour things are returning to normal. And over 50 percent of the 1500 workers on the second shift reported to work and their union is now encouraging all of its members to go back to their jobs. On farms and factories on construction sites and restaurants. Illegal aliens are employed in New Jersey. The estimates of their number run into the hundreds of thousands of federal force here of only 17 men has the responsibility for finding arresting and deporting them. So I'm talking a company the immigration service is a legal status squat on a factory raid today in Bellville. The officers arrive to collect on land unannounced. It was a squat second raid on the Bilbo plastics factory in less than a month. The earlier rape resulted in the arrest of seven illegal aliens. Today that number

almost doubled. The first arrest came as the officers entered the plant driveway and confronted a car full of Haitian nationals. Quickly realize they'd rather be elsewhere. But a feeble attempt at a getaway was soon abandoned as the offices were closed off. The only point of exit. From there were to read among the workers almost as quickly as the offices. And while some of the aliens whom the immigration service calls undocumented escaped over fences. By the time the raid was over 13 men were arrested. Twelve of them are Haitians. One Mexican most of them surrendered without protest resigned to a fate that was not entirely unexpected. A man who identified himself only as a manager refused to appear on camera. He maintains however that he'd been unaware that the workers were in the country illegally and claimed they were paid at least the minimum wage up to sixty five an hour. This is where they work. And according to one of the officers conditions here are not unlike those found in many of the plants where illegal aliens are employed. But the officer admitted that today's raid doesn't

begin to touch the problem. About 400 arrests of illegal aliens are made in New Jersey monthly. But when judged against the estimate of more than 200000 aliens who are living and working here illegally the figures aren't good. But squad leader Bill Slattery said that with only 17 men to cover the entire state he can't do better. The 13 men arrested here will be questioned processed and probably charged if they are found to be illegal aliens. They'll be deported but the people who own factories like this one and who hire illegal aliens often as cheap and easily exploited labor are not subject to prosecution. In Bellville. I'm Sandra King. Texaco oil spent much of the day today denying a report that it had made the first oil strike on the ocean floor off New Jersey's coast. Texaco had previously said it found hydrocarbons at its well. Today the company began tests to see if the hydrocarbons are there in commercial quantity or oil and natural gas contain hydrocarbons but so

do other less valuable substances. Texaco repeated today that it will announce test results when they are complete. The New York firm that owns the Dunes Hotel in Las Vegas that's Continental connected corporation has bought Atlanta city's president motoric and plans to turn it into a casino. The company's chairman is Mara Shanker who was an attorney for Jimmy Hoffa and who's still involved with the teamster's central states pension fund which the FBI is investigating. It cost Nevada $100000 to conduct a background check on shaker when he took over the dunes. And it was the most expensive sex probe in Nevada history. A background check on top executives of Resorts International was completed long ago. But that's no guarantee the hotel will get a permanent gambling license. My power has that report. The question on the lips of casino Watchers is this is Resorts International doing such a lousy job running Atlantic City's first casino that it should be denied a

permanent gambling license or for all its mistakes just the pains of birth. Resorts open Memorial Day weekend with a temporary casino license. The license expires at the end of November. In the meantime company executives are supposed to be proving they're competent financially healthy and honest. So far resorts is having problems being competent and some even said yes. Being honest it's accused of violating rules about handling money 23 times. It gave free room and booze to a pair of purported mobsters. It can't keep the place clean and it had to pull cocktail waitresses off the casino floor because they didn't have the right licenses. John Laura died the chairman of the Casino Control Commission says the commission will consider all this when resort's comes up for a permanent license. He says the problems are growing pains. Commissioner Albert Merck isn't so forgiving. He agrees resort's deserves a few mistakes but without accusing anyone wonders if the casino has been honest as an example he said resorts testified it needed a $5 minimum bet at most

tables because the casino handle probably wouldn't be all that high. About 60 million dollars a year. Now looks like the betting could total three times that figure. Merck says one resorts appears for a permanent casino license the commission will have to examine the company's integrity. Resort's feels most of this criticism deftly its lawyer calls the infractions minor but he concedes we don't expect the benefit of the doubt forever. I'm Mike power. While the casino business is booming at the Jersey Shore things aren't as bright in the Poconos. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia says tourism at the beach is up 10 percent over last year. But the Poconos are suffering a 10 percent drop in business this summer. Casino gambling an excellent fishing conditions have helped to shore resorts and perhaps stolen some of the Poconos business. Officials in Ventnor market in long ports say they're feeling the casino boom too. The three communities near Atlantic City say new casino moguls are moving in to buy and build the biggest mansions around

some in the $500000 range. The owner of a walled township nightclub has been ordered by a judge to show cause why the club shouldn't be declared a public nuisance and permanently closed. The case arose out of an incident last week when one of the club's customers was killed allegedly by club employees. Greg Morrison has more. The woman and I quote one of the shore areas biggest is owned by stock. He wouldn't let us film inside and refused to talk about the incident in which three of his bouncers reportedly beat up a young man so badly that he died. The courts will decide who's guilty in that case but wrong township Mayor Robert Jenkins says there have been repeated complaints about the club. Nobody has the right to lay hands on somebody else and and I think is the mayor. And the members of the township committee agree that we have a responsibility to protect the patrons who go in there. The young people are entitled to go to a place where they can meet other people and enjoy themselves without fear of getting into trouble or being beat up.

That sentiment is echoed by a number of customers. I went there on Sunday after the incident and. I still. I STILL guy like you not about a thing is got to go right and balances it out to get a little malicious they just bump in time you know I talk about what they think like they own the place or people push it away don't say excuse me I'm not the go ahead if you know you we're going to get to you walk around your big man talk with the babes you know. You need to. Stuff. The Monmouth County prosecutor who's handling the investigation of the death at the Royal Manor so he's sort of similar cases in other parts of the state. He suggests that New Jersey may need a new law to regulate nightclub bouncers. I'm Greg Morrison reporting. In a moment Paul bottom line we can voice preview. Here's the New Jersey weather forecast for tonight. Hazy warm and humid with some patches of dense fog

along the coast. Low temperatures will be between 67 and 75 degrees. Tomorrow will be sunny hazy and humid again with possible showers in the afternoon. Inland the high temperatures will range from 90 to 95 degrees at the shore the highs will be about 80 and the water temperature will be about 70. Waves will run two to four feet and visibility will be three to five miles the average for Sunday more of the same. Graham in her second week of a source of modern dance in the western world. I miss the performance of the monthly green Dance Company performs spanning 26 years from seraphic dialogue to desire who are about to sing and including the great story ballet forever especially revive with this program once the legendary Martha Graham dance company on in performances that will crack. Don't miss something at night. I'm a New Jersey couple. Good evening. The best oarsmen in the country are in Camden right now for the national rowing championships

on the Cooper River. There are club and college teams from all over the U.S. some 900 participants and all the competition will continue all weekend long. Right now defending champion New York Athletic love looks like the team that beat New Jersey is not known as a big growing state. So why are the nationals being held here. Bill Hollenbeck is the vice president of the National oarsmen Association. One reason why it's actually here is that because there are very few places in the United States strangely enough that have a course that meets world standard and you must have a straight course of 2000 meters six lanes no current no bridges. Most of the other places we rode around have been some terrorists. They've got bridges over the course and for this reason and they have lack of uniform depth. And strangely enough you would think in this whole

country they would be a place and the Cooper River comes very close to being the best and fast pitch softball the women's state championship was decided earlier this week. The Budweiser bells flying out of Parsippany won that title. They're now on their way to Buffalo where the play for the regional championship. The Bills won the state fast page title in their very first year together. The team is coached by Jack Ma. He's the man for whom the bells toil. They're going to win this weekend's regional which would then put them in the national tournaments. Winning that would be the ultimate. Just how good are the bells. It's really amazing I've never coached girls before until this season and I was a little surprised at the ability of the girls that we have here in the Budweiser bells. Some of the plays they make I don't know that even they can do that because the bells really are some of the top players in the state. The senior team member is filling from first base and a working mother of two baskets for 15 years.

I enjoy the competition myself with the fast pitch I think it's exciting and you travel and you see a lot of different states and I really enjoy every weekend I'm just out there playing and playing like you said 15 years and I guess from myself I just don't know where to start. Hall The biggest difference I see coaching with a high school coach also coaching boys of a school and then coaching girls at this level. Is the enthusiasm and the fact that they want to do the best job that they can do. In men's slow pitch softball the New Jersey statesmen have decided to hang on to their number one gate attraction Joe Pepitone the Detroit Caesars offer to buy Pepitone a former Yankee for thirty thousand dollars but the statesman turned down the offer to day. So Joe Pepitone and his teammates will be at home this weekend for a couple of double headers against Chicago. Those games at Mercer County Park on both Saturday and Sunday 7:00 on Saturday night. The legendary Zedillo makes his debut as a New Jersey American. The Americans will be at

Rutgers Stadium against the Connecticut Yankees game time 7:30. And if you're looking for a road race there is the East Orange mini marathon coming up tomorrow morning. The 8 mile run begins at 10 o'clock in the morning from central and Harrison streets right in downtown East Orange That's an 8 mile are. And that's sports for tonight. Rebecca. Thankful. When is a politician too long a politician. Congressman Edward Patton in the midst of the Korea gate scandal is trying to win his ninth term representing central Jersey's 15th District. A comment on that now from Jerome Wilson the host of W when he 13 Dateline New Jersey and a contributing reporter on New Jersey nightly news. 72 year old Congressman Edward J Patton is in the middle of the Korea gate scandal. He is one of four congressmen who allegedly accepted contributions from Korean super lobbyist Tung sung part. Of course Patton should have retired years ago not because he is 72

mind you but because with close to two decades in the Congress he has simply been around too long. Pattern is illustrative of an unfortunate phenomena in this country. It is the hold on for dear life a school of politics. We call this unfortunate because public office and this was the concept of the founding fathers should very much be a temporary thing. This means that men and women from a large variety of a professions should take off for a few years to serve their government and after a brief stint returned to where they came from. But what we have instead in public office is people whose total careers are dedicated to getting re-elected. These people also begin to think that they are somehow indispensable to the jobs that they hold. Nonsense. What we need most is freshness not stagnation in government turnover rather than seniority. We also need an electorate that would say far more often than it does get out to hanging on elected officials. If that had been the case with Perth Amboy Edward Patton

would have left the political scene years ago. Find your own way. Keep an eye out for some of the best rompin stompin bluegrass music ever to hit from New Jersey. It's bluegrass at the town musical.

Family and special guest the green grass court. New Jersey. New Jersey prides itself on the Garden State but that reputation may be in jeopardy. Over the last 30 years the number of farms in New Jersey has been steadily decreasing. Many people fail to realize that agriculture remains one of New Jersey's largest industries. The tone and pace of life in this part of the state is very different. But it's a quality that may soon disappear. In 1945 there were nearly two and a half million acres of farmland in New Jersey. Today more than half of that land has been lost to residential and commercial development. Alarmed at this trend the state government began to work on the problem of farmland preservation. The state developed a complex program that would get

selected. Payment in return for guarantees. After a test in Burlington County that this concept could be applied. But five years after its inception the state preservation program is in trouble. State Senator Raymond Zane represents part of counties. He's been a leading critic of the state's farm lands program. Basically the initial concept was to set aside about a million acres across the state of New Jersey land in the farmland in perpetuity over a period of some 10 to 20 years the farmers would be compensated for their development rights and those lands would be set aside and. The project is voluntary. Yet I think only one of us was interested in it. They thought they were going to buy or acquire the rights to the 10000 acres. They have 600 800 for the same

plant and that's voluntary this next step. Is not voluntary at this point. They don't want that. William Dormans family has been farming in Glocester County for a hundred and ten years. He resents what he sees as government interference in the agricultural industry. I mean the formal form of people leave him alone let him do as he always did and. Just help him along a little bit steady giving so many regulations to me. Most of the time people inspecting all the time coming on your farm. Walking over your land inspecting is affecting that. And that. Is putting the farmer more out of business than anything in my opinion. The future of the state's farmland preservation program now rests with the governor unless Governor Brewer and signs legislation extending the life of the program. New Jersey's experiment with farm

preservation will come to an end tomorrow. Philip the lion has been New Jersey secretary of agriculture since 1956 He's been an outspoken advocate of farm land preservation. Secretary lively this program as I understand it gives the farmer state money and in return. He gives up. The right to sell the land for any development even though he can still work the land. How do you expect farmers to agree to that kind of limitation. Well the farmers in New Jersey call real estate. And if you want to stay in agriculture we've got to preserve that land because we're losing so much development. And also residential. Units. We think frankly that in the best interests of the state and the farmers in the long run that this land be set aside in perpetuity for primary preservation because once it's gone you can go to the supermarket and buy another square foot of it is our most precious natural non renewable resource. We get gas and oil over seas. We can get land.

This very day we have international waters on land. So therefore it's incumbent upon the garden state which has the largest segment of its economy represented by agriculture and the food industry. Three billion dollars towards it being 2 billion. We better now make our plans to save this land. And ironically the two states who have come down and copied our programme in toto Connecticut and Massachusetts they also probably getting 5 million dollars for the same purpose. We'll soon be buying the development easements and they will be rolling in the next few months while we are still struggling with our program. But Secretary this still doesn't answer my question I understand the importance of saving land for farming purposes. But farmers traditionally have been very independent people including myself including yourself and the whole point of having land that you're on is that you have the right to sell it as you choose. That's why we came up after a two year study of the blueprint commission which I chaired on the development where we pay the farmer the difference between the farm value and the

development that's going to develop. So you're actually paying him more money than he could get by selling his farm land. Now another farmer. Another farmer but not the development of it is YOU not me that you're out of his own right. OK well that brings me to another point. If the state then is paying off farmer more than he can get for his land by selling it to another farmer. Isn't that building in an inflation factor in the sale of land in this state. No because that Lancken only the farm it also gives the young farmer a chance of going to farming up until now he had to marry into it or inherit but if he can buy land at the agricultural value instead of the higher the development value land but it's an inflated agricultural value because. You are. Paying. Far more than he can get from another farmer so isn't that pushing the whole structural pricing of the land that we saw over and over again but the development is only paid once the rest of the life of that piece of land.

Do you think Governor Byrne is going to sign this bill allow this bill to. Pass into. Another. Term. It's one year extension isn't that we asked commercial or other department protection I myself appear before the committee. We asked for a year extension year extension expires tomorrow July 22nd and or Praful hoping that the governor will sign it because he is a strong proponent for preservation of quirks in the law which there he and his very fine counsel are looking at and I say pray every hope that he would sign. Thank you Secretary very much for being with us. Sad to be with you. Once again our top story. Postal operations are said to be getting back to normal in Jersey City following a one day strike by postal workers and immigration officials seize 13 illegal aliens in Bellville. And that's New Jersey Nightly News for this Friday. Thanks for being with us and have a nice weekend. New Jersey Nightly News is a joint presentation of New Jersey Public Television and

13 broadcast weeknights at 6:30 on Channel 13 and at 7:30 on New Jersey Public Television an updated edition is broadcast at 10:00 p.m. on New Jersey public television and at 7:00 the following morning on Channel 13 through the quarter.