New Jersey Nightly News; New Jersey Nightly News Episode from 01/04/1979 7:30 pm

A New Jersey Landmark is gone tonight. What sailors used to call the sand castle by the sea. The. New Jersey Nightly News of the. World. It was Rebecca suable in Trenton and Clayton Vaughn in Newark. Good evening Rebecca Zobel is off this evening I'm Clayton Vaughn. Atlantic City's casino gambling was advanced today with the demolition of the Blenheim tower. But the cost was the end of an era on the Jersey Shore. We'll have a report a second out by police in the city of Orange may be over the police were evidently protesting layoffs of city workers and another threatened strike by a grave diggers in northern New Jersey was averted today when the union president went on a hunger strike instead. In sports Paul Budde line we'll have highlights of the Nats lost to Houston last night and many highlights because it was the sixth Nats loss in a row. And on a closer look we'll go sailing on Delaware

Bay with a man who may be among the last of a dying breed. The New Jersey oyster man. It took only 10 and a half seconds and 400 pounds of precisely placed dynamite to do today what developers and preservationists have been squabbling over for months. The destruction of a landmark Atlantic City hotel the blood of Mariam Russell has the story. This is the obituary of a building and an era. The building blew up at 10:00 this morning. It was 73 and the state had diagnosed it as falling apart. Jack pull the dynamite trigger. He made it sound like a mercy killing. It's like the man this one is a guillotine he doesn't condemn the man but he gets it over quick. It's a whole lot better than counting whether it was economically and physically unsound beautiful building at a distance but in horrible shape so that mourners were

also on the scene. People like Emily Clifton who was born and raised in Atlantic City and who remembers the elegance of the blend. If you could imagine people on the Prairie or enrolling chairs working anyone being gay you know it's you know it's something that you'll never see again. The blend was built in 1906 when the city was still young and that from tourist dollars a family of Philadelphia lawyers plunked down more than a million dollars to build the Morse fantasy of reinforced concrete. Construction was supervised from time to time by Thomas Edison. The hotel remained its elegant eccentric self through changes in fashion and lifestyle. War and depression. But when hard times hit Atlanta city in the 60s not even brilliant post cards could lure enough tourists in. When it was all over today the blending was no more than a pile of rubble and millions of

particles of dust. To make your eyes tear and the city's new home casinos was no more than a promise here with just a few steel girders in the foreground for Ballys proposed gambling hall. Now they'll have a better investment I guess. I don't gamble but a lot of people do and get a better return on their money so I'm not sad at all. In Atlantic City I'm Mary MRO So another threatened walkout by a New York metropolitan area grave diggers was averted today when the union president instead went on a hunger strike. A strike would affect 12 cemeteries here in northern New Jersey. The president of the grave diggers local Sam Queens also went on a hunger strike in 1973. Mediators set up a new negotiating sessions after last night's broke down again on the issue of wages. A police sickout in the city of Orange may be over with the forest back up to full strength for tonight's shift. The blue flu developed in orange the first of the week when 80 city

workers including the policeman were laid off. Jeffrey Hall reports. The patrolmen who are laid off represent about 9 percent of the Orange City police force since the terminations went into effect on New Year's Day. Approximately 20 percent of the remaining officers called in sick higher ranking Orange police officers face possible demotions to fill the patrol vacancies created by their laid off colleagues. But the police layoffs amount to a fraction of the total number of city workers laid off. Those layoffs were caused by a cutback in federal aid. Oranges budget problems are further complicated because most city workers one salary increases in recent contract negotiations. So far the layoffs haven't affected any services. Orange Mayor Carmen Capone says he's optimistic the city can help itself out and restore the jobs without any help from Washington or Trenton. I've proposed already that that we raise some extra

revenue by imposing a sure use charge in increasing our water rates which would give me approximately $900000 police director Sandy Weinstein says his men don't really think the mayor's plan will succeed. Weinstein says he doesn't tolerate men calling in sick when they're healthy. He says he understands the cops frustration because they have lost 10 men at this point and it is already another 15 slips of going out to the additional officers. That's a significant impact not only on the members of the department but also in the community. Those officers are concerned. Angry more and they're frustrated because of the loss of their jobs as human beings. Director Weinstein has been sending out a police surgeon since the sickout began to see who might have been feigning illness possibly as a result of that effort. Officers on tonight's four to midnight shift reported to work full strength. The police sickout in Orange may be over. I'm Jeffrey Hall.

President Carter is said to be considering restoration of some of the federal anti-recession money that was cut off at the first of the year. New Jersey share under the old plan was more than 25 million dollars. The new proposal contains almost 8 million for cities in the state. Senator Harrison Williams says Carter's change of heart will make a significant difference in getting the reduced program through Congress. Meanwhile Newark Mayor Kenneth Gibson says he's been talking with Vice President Mondale trying to get some of the anti recession money restored emphasizing what the cuts have done to basic city services in Newark. The seriousness of the situation also underlined this afternoon when a meeting the mayor had scheduled with school union presidents didn't come off. Jack Connor day reports. The mayor was ready to give the party the three important guests declined the invitation. Harold graves president of the Newark teachers union called the mayors meeting a publicity event. Instead she met this afternoon with police union leader Thomas apostle MATO. Grave said she and other union presidents representing cafeteria workers and support

personnel are like security guards and custodial workers affected by the layoffs. I can already see the handwriting on the wall in Newark. We don't need the mayor to brief us on that. I mean that's not something you call a meeting for I would say that if they called a meeting to discuss alternatives. If they call the meeting to rescind and review certain developments. That's that's an immediate agenda and an agenda of substance. But this to tell us what's happening. We already know that. The mayor says it's his attempt to keep the lines of communication open between the city and school union leaders. We have throughout this the situation been accused of not meeting with the unions. We are not going to solve any of our problems by not talking to each other. And my approach always is to to sit down and talk even if we don't agree we can't communicate with press releases and press statements.

The meeting is too little and too late according to the union presidents who refused to show up here today. But that may not really upset the mayor and school officials because it puts the unions in a bad light. The mayor is ready to talk and the unions aren't. So the open chairs here tell the story. The rift between the Gibson administration and the school union seems to be growing and the unions say they want some action to restore some of the jobs of the nearly 1000 workers facing layoffs until the mayor has that news. The chairs will be empty in Newark. I'm Jack comedy. Peter Shapiro the New Essex county executive said today that he is trying to avoid layoffs of county employees despite recent cutbacks in those federal aid programs but you're also had some layoffs may eventually be necessary empathizing with the city of New York which has been forced to make layoffs because of recent cuts in federal support. Shapiro said they had a taping of Channel 13 Dateline New Jersey. He's not sure either the county or Newark can overcome dependence on the federal government.

Simple for us to be self-sufficient I suppose in the abstract the problem is we've had a federal government which really has not had a very very rational attitude towards the aid would you give as it's almost as though they are pushing narcotics to us. We get hooked on and then we take them away all the stuff they give you fix it federal money you get adjusted to it. Your system is good just to do it your budget making is adjusted to it and then one day you've lost it and you take them cold turkey. This is exactly what's happening today this is which is what's been forced down our throats to a certain extent in the county as well. Complete broadcast of Shapiro's appearance on Dateline New Jersey will be seen this coming Sunday evening at 6:30 on Channel 13 New Brunswick has received a federal grant of more than six million dollars to develop its downtown business district. The money to be used to buy and prepare a site for a 300 room hotel conference center they own also has some new federal money one point three million dollars to help residents there repay loans which will be

used to rehabilitate dwellings and they own is made down a former head of a government sponsored food program in New Brunswick has been charged with conspiring to obtain one hundred sixty one thousand dollars in federal money under false pretenses. He's Moses Williams used to be the director of the executor the executive director rather of must. That's minorities united to save themselves a must program was aimed at helping poor people cut costs by buying in quantity and butchering their own meat. But it turned into a discount store that served college students among others and local authorities closed it up last May. Well you might as charged now with embezzling money to pay salaries wrongfully taking money for his own salary and forcing workers to pay him kickbacks. Those boarding home abuses revealed last June in a weeklong series of hearings are still having legislative repercussions. A Senate committee met today and present on proposals to require licensing of all boarding homes and to raise penalties for operators who violate minimum state standards. However at today's session some of the lawmakers on the committee called for stiffer enforcement of the laws already on

the books before any new laws are enacted. I question the representatives of the three departments that are involved Health Human Services and community affairs. All of them think this bill is a is in the right direction none of them have budgeted any money for this bill although they admit it is going to cost three million dollars in the first year and within a few years could go to 15 or 16 million dollars and I I just think that that we've got to take a hard look and make sure we have to go that way. It may be that with modifications of the bill tailoring part of it or maybe an entirely different approach we can solve the real problem that exists without getting ourselves in a more layers of government because I'm not so sure that that solves the problem. State Assembly Republicans today announced their fifty point legislative program for the year. The list topped by a constitutional amendment for a citizen initiative and referendum that's the tax cutting Proposition 13 got on the ballot out in California. Other highlights of the GOP program a 25 million dollar bond issued to finance repair of storm damage along the coast. A public accounting of the governor's annual $35000

expense account and creation of a State Transit Authority to coordinate rail bus and auto transportation greyhounds plan to provide New York Atlantic City bus services run into opposition from two New Jersey subsidized bus lines transport of New Jersey and Lincoln transit. The argument is that D-N.J. and Lincoln might need even higher subsidies from the state if they lose riders to Greyhound. It may not be all that much bus traffic anyway of New York Lottery officials have taken at their word. They announced today a new instant lottery called slot machine and said quote There is no need for New Yorkers to go to Atlantic City to play the slot machines. Several persons including a local policeman say they saw an unidentified flying object last night hovering over Barnegat Bay in Brick Township. The object described as round with lights around it. The sighting lasted some 40 minutes although no aviation agencies confirmed it by either visual sighting or radar. The brick patrolman who spotted it said it looked like a balloon with lots of lights around it and said it was quote The weirdest thing I ever

saw. Patrolmen also asked not to be identified. Here is the weather forecast for New Jersey. It's pretty much of a repeat of the past few days. Tonight there will be clear skies continued very cold temperatures with a light northwesterly winds. Low temperatures in the north will be from 10 above into the teens. Lows in the south may get down to zero tomorrow. Some clouds will begin moving in across the state and it will still be cold. The highs tomorrow should range from the lower to the middle 20s and the outlook for Saturday. Continued cold but with the possibility of some light snow mixed with rain. Oh. This job I thought was drunk was tricked by the street goes in. I mean there was Tom this one's a lady who just doesn't want to have been upset. I mean. This is just I cannot possibly allow you to wait in my

office. Right now. But you didn't tell seem so what you going to do. I'm a coming down the stairs kicking and screaming. Watch it Friday at 9:00 on New Jersey Public Television. Now here's Paul Budde line and Dryden and the third is the sports ball. Thank you played in the New Jersey Nets have now lost six games in a row. That streak remained alive last night in Houston the final score the rockets won 27 the nets won 22 with head coach Kevin locker He's serving a three game suspension for pushing a referee assistant coach Dave wall was in charge last night. He had the nets in contention through most of the game down the stretch. John Williamson kept it close for the Nets but he fouled out with a minute and a half remaining and that was it. Williamson finishing with 23 points. For the rockets Rudy Tomjanovich bombed away from the outside for 17 points while Moses Malone trashed the office of boards for 27 on this play Malone's elbow got in the way of the rim. But the big gun was Roselle native Rick

Perry this 22 footer gave Rick 28 points and sealed the win in the final minute. One twenty seven one twenty two. Tonight the Nets play in New Orleans as their road trip continues. And in college ball Rutgers is in Southern California right now where they'll play UCLA on Saturday although no longer a dynasty UCLA is still a magic name in college basketball. This is Rutgers biggest game in years. Don't everyone know that. Yesterday afternoon Rutgers coach Tom Young presided over the team's final practice session before leaving for Los Angeles is Scarlet Knights are of course very much up for Saturday's game. After all the meeting with the sixth ranked UCLA couldn't come at a better time. For one thing UCLA is in the middle of a heavy conference schedule maybe they'll overlook the Scarlet Knights. And more than that Rutgers is coming off that astounding win in the holiday festival tournaments in Madison Square Garden. The Scarlet Knights first beat St. John's in the opening round and then came back in the finals to defeat Ohio State in this prep for

overtime thriller all of which proved that the team's confidence a few hundred percent. In that holiday festival number 20 James Bailey took command for the first time this season. It's going 26 points against St. Johns 31 against Ohio State. James Bailey of course is the key for Rutgers in any game although we certainly won't intimidate UCLA. Verily they will be intimidated by anybody we have including Jim really because they play against the best the last 10 years and I think they're used to going against the best so it's a good it's a good bargain for GM it's a good bargain for us but we're not intimidation that's. Sure. UCLA and Rutgers have met once before just about three years ago in March of 1976 in the Philadelphia spectrum. In that consolation game of the NC double a national tournament Rutgers they had with the Bruins until the final 10 minutes. And UCLA pulled away to win it by 14 1 0 6 the 92 the final score. Saturday's rematch in Pauley Pavilion is

very important to Rutgers. Not only because it's a chance to play at powerhouse but also because it marks Rutgers first appearance on national television in almost three years and a coach can tell you that means plenty financially as rewarding. It's good for your recruiting program Heba you play a respectable and we think we should do that. So it can't doing the good for the game but it's not good with records it has to feel it can only help and we know it's almost impossible to go out and beat them. But if we play well enough they have a so-so game will be in good shape. That's Rutgers at UCLA on Saturday and college ball tonight at Seton Hall at home against the red men of St. Johns. That game televised on New Jersey public television beginning at 8:00 the scene for the weekend looks good all the way around Vernon Valley Great Gorge in fact good to excellent Hidden Valley good Craig near is very good ski mountain good with a 10 to 16 and space. And also today Oakland Raiders coach John Madden resigned because of an ulcer

problem and that sports played like a ball. Congressman Frank Thompson of New Jersey has come up with his annual New Year's prediction list in his continuing campaign to inject a little humor into one area where he says it's really needed government. Thompson's list for those year includes predictions that the city of Cleveland will be saved from bankruptcy by annexation to Amarillo Texas fired Ohio State football coach Woody Hayes will arrange boxing matches with one Saudi Arabian oil official to Mohammed Ali or three Edi Amin. And the California governor Jerry Brown will marry singer Linda Ronstadt and they'll open a head shop in Berkeley. If you know you'll be an out of the way.

I'm down time for me. Except that it's not much of a good idea. To say nothing. I'll try that I'm Bill Bixby. Join me for action adventure on Dominic and I third once upon a classic season here I'm going to. Watch Dominic Friday at 6 and Saturday at 6:30. A few years ago the honester trade in New Jersey was dying. But now the Delaware Bay oyster beds the state's richest are making a comeback. It's good news for most of the 60 men who sail from the docks of Port Norris every morning. One of them has been waiting 40 years for a bumper crop. Just when he's about to get his way it's time for a fan Anderson to retire. Reporter Mike Powers spent a day with an oyster boat captain who was the last of his breed. It's 5:00 in the morning in time to show off. But Captain Fenton Anderson doesn't have a crew. When his men finally do show up there almost an hour late. But a few minutes later captain and crew sail by moonlight down the Morris river

into the Delaware Bay. Then on their way home. Just. In the galley. Anderson's crew members come to life over coffee and cards. They'll make 40 dollars apiece culling oysters today and a few of them will lose some of it before the sun is up. Then. It takes a full hour to sail to the area where the oysters are by then it's light enough to see that this is going to be a rough morning on the bay. Fenton Anderson has been making this trip for 40 years even before it gets light he consumes every bend and shallow in the river. Anderson leases 11 acres of Bay bottom from the state. He transplants young oysters from other locations in the spring and harvest them in the fall and winter. The day begins at dawn when crewman throw the dredges over the side and wait for them to scoop up their catch.

Oysterman and marine scientists predict this year's oyster harvest will be the best in 20 years. It was Jersey's oyster crop was almost wiped out in the 1960s by a germ called a mass X. And in the early 70s by a snail like pest called an oyster drill that poisons the shellfish. But this year boy Stroman expect a bumper crop of 2 million pounds. That's still a far cry from the heyday of New Jersey oystering 1919 when fishermen found 20 million pounds. Something's in the oyster business haven't changed much since those days in the early 1900s. Things like Fenton Anderson's boat and the size of its crew 10 min. The crew sourced the oysters from the broken shells piles the good oysters on deck and shovels the shelves back into the FE. That's the way New Jersey oysterman operated in the last century. Benton Anderson is the only one who hasn't changed his ways. He still uses men instead of machines to sort out the

oysters. Everyone else has an automatic sorter which needs two men not 10 to operate. Anderson says he's too close to retirement to change to the new ways but he says he has other reasons to. Get a poor product. There was machine gun ownership years. In fact under your dear. But that's just the way it is the way the industry is going. That's the way it has to be. When Anderson started out in the oyster business as a teenager the boats didn't leave port Norris harbor powered by big diesel engines. They glided out under sail pushed by the wind and then my final mission and their grandfathers and that it was a natural thing for me to do. First been it's been good to me. I don't think that resists really resist resist change by thinking of Russia so the interests of business carried on the way it was forty five years ago and rugged individualists. Luther Jeffries invented a lot of the equipment that is now modernizing the oyster

industry and he's head of the Delaware Bay oyster Men's Association. Jeffrey says the bay fleet may no longer have 600 boats like it did back in the 1920s. But the business isn't dying either. The 60 boats some of them last year and I suppose that they have those people or even in the orchard business last year or 10 years ago I'm sorry. I still think there's a lot of people who are interested in telling him there's a future and Jeffrey says the Delaware Bay oyster beds now yield only 2 percent of what they could if predators like the oyster drill were controlled and new equipment was installed on the oyster fleet and they were sure business we've tended to plan one year ahead. Just one year time I think this was wrong I think we got to plan maybe 10 years ahead I think some years from now that we'll have developed a natural potential of our bay. Right I think we're out of time is better spent doing that than growing would factories laboratories tykes or what have you.

On a good day. Benton Anderson unload 500 bushels of oysters today wasn't bad because three hundred sixty six. But Fenton Anderson's only fashioned hand sorting method pays dividends in the end. He sells his oysters the minute he gets back to the dock to a Long Island wholesaler. He gets $11 a bushel and that's about a dollar more than anyone else gets. Anderson says people in the oyster business operate on trust no receipt change hands on the dock and the captain says he's never been cheated in 40 years. Donna Steve Anderson says he's prospered on never expecting too much and never quitting early. I'm not an optimist but by the same token a pessimist couldn't operate in this business. I can't see a thing with a rosy. Picture. Never heaven that read Don't

overestimate anything I do. Fenton Anderson's optimism and pessimism often run together like that. He's optimistic about the days he has left in the business. He's pessimistic about the technology he sees taking it over. It's a distinction so fine only one type of person is ever in a position to make it. The person who is the last of his colleagues. Once again our top stories after standing for 72 years in a blighted City landmark the blossom hotel tower was blasted into history today with dynamite a new hotel casino to go up on the site and another threatened walkout by grave diggers in the New York metropolitan area which would have affected 12 cemeteries are in northern New Jersey was averted today when the union president instead went on a hunger strike. And that's the news because although this is quite good night for the New Jersey tonight. Yeah.