New Jersey Nightly News; 02/16/1981

Down down down. Tragic. Sharon Stone. What do you think of battle is brewing over public service electric and gas companies record breaking rate request in sports the Nats hit off season hard Pa. and has the highlights. And we'll take a closer look at The Singer Company Elizabeth. For hundreds of workers are losing their jobs public service electric and gas company isn't about to get the largest rate increase ever granted in New Jersey without a fight. That's what the state's public advocate had to say today. CNG the largest utility company in New Jersey which filed a record five hundred thirty six million dollar. Request last Friday. Tom Stewart has the story. 1.8 million residential customers got expect to pay almost 21 percent more for electricity and seven and a half percent more for gas by the end of the year unless the State Board of Public Utilities scales down that unprecedented proposal. Today public advocate Stanley Brand says that's precisely what he has in mind will quit school through

Turkey. Filing and will be presenting expert testimony will get that. Applications close scrutiny is are you ever given any and I really don't expect you're going to get that much I never have in the past when we've had to you know knock down drag out fight about it and we will. Probably ship today at PFC Energy spokesman said. No one's telling us anything new when they say customers are mad about this but we don't have much choice. The utility places most of the blame for the unequal rate request on double digit inflation and higher interest rates plus the cost of the imported oil used to generate electricity. Part of the revenue from that height would go toward putting more nuclear power reactors online according to long range plans half of the utilities power will be nuclear generated PFC Energy spokesman claim the company has held off on the rate hike as long as possible. But the public advocate intends to make them hold off just a little bit longer. But that seems like an awfully large interest to me.

Even if justified in going to so many people stated that no way that we're going to be in deep trouble over the weekend PSEG announced another plan that would cost customers more money requesting to fuel adjustment increases for later this year. The public advocates office promptly countered with a promise to fight that proposal to you. In the words of one staff member the utilities do the same thing every time they throw out these enormous figures and we get the scale down in Trenton I'm Tom Stewart. A series of public hearings assessing the role of state government in energy conservation got underway today but overshadowing future plans for conservation was the threat of President Reagan's attack on the economy Wednesday night. Hawkins has the story. He said it was a hearing of the state assembly's energy conservation subcommittee chaired by Assemblyman Joel Stockman of Trenton. But the presence of Senator Bill Bradley highlighted the consensus that federal state cooperation is necessary for conservation to work as the main witness state energy chief Joel Jacobs and launched

an attack on Reagan administration policies. I don't believe government should be off the back of the people I think the government is supporting the people. They believe that government is the only sector which is able to protect consumers against fraud. Jacobson told the committee that oil price decontrol is clearly not working. He pointed to increases of 10 cents a gallon in the 18 days since decontrol with the threat of 10 cents more in the near future. It will be necessary for every homeowner to take out his furnace from the cellar put on the front lawn. And Tie a yellow ribbon around it. People you know are going to be able to pay the price. Senator Bradley flashed a summary of budget cuts to be presented by the president Wednesday night it was prepared by Reagan's Management and Budget director David Stockman. And it suggests that state energy conservation efforts have been unsuccessful. And so no longer deserve federal support. When I'm faced with this. Budget. Speech on Wednesday night. Turn the strategy. Or try to.

Restore. Some. Federal dollars. Many advice you give me as to which programs actually fight. Hardest. For. I think that you will. Ever. Hear. Empirical data. To indicate these conclusions are inaccurate. And Jacobson had ammunition for Bradley to use in Washington. He reported the New Jersey energy conservation programs in 1980 saved a total of 77 trillion which translates into energy dollar savings of six hundred twenty five million dollars. What that means is. For every dollar which the government is giving my department operate we have saved the consumers an injury and the $130. That is a pretty good interest may be true but I would suggest you take salutatory. Even better the excellent there will be three more public hearings in this series in March April and May. I'm vocal and commuter rail service in New Jersey also may be jeopardized

by federal budget cuts. New Jersey Congressman James Florio said today he's learned President Reagan's budget includes large cutbacks in commuter rail lines especially those in North Jersey and the New York area. Florio is scheduled to chair a congressional hearing on a commuter service tomorrow in New York. Among those testifying at the hearing will be New Jersey's transportation commissioner Louis Gamba seen it have a scene he says he'll propose that a new public corporation takeover Conrail commuter service and he said the plan would provide for an orderly transfer of con rails commuter lines which are scheduled to be phased out soon. The Federal Aviation Administration has decided to spend three and a half million dollars to repave its airstrip and come on up while the 10000 foot runway is being worked on. Private operators will have to find other airfields to use the New Jersey Air National Guard also uses the Atlantic county facility and it will transfer its aircraft to McGuire Air Force Base for the next five months. Arson is now suspected as the cause of the weekend fire at a Camden County rest home in the

past seven months. Sixty two people died at facilities for the elderly and handicapped or other stray. But while there were no deaths or injuries this time there are renewed pleas for additional safety precautions to sing a slaughterhouse for. The fire broke out it was confined to this upstairs bedroom and started around 6 o'clock Friday night. Four residents lived here. One of them suspected of having deliberately set the blaze with a match. Officials think an unidentified woman in her 30s just released from a mental institution was responsible. Another resident who asked not to be photographed was the first to detect the fire from her nearby room. I see smoke coming from the pit the back of the bed. Smoke I see smoke in the hole a chill went down with the lights and smoke they have come from the other room. So I came downstairs. The 59 residents here at the time were quickly evacuated by employees who had regularly conducted fire drills and were well acquainted with all exits. Being a residential health care facility Evelyn acres is controlled by the state health department. The two story home licensed in

1958 was a violation of fire codes. Their working heat sensors in every room and closet smoke detectors in the hallways sprinklers are not required in structures less than three stories high. Owners say the smoke detectors in particular helped greatly but that the incident could have been prevented altogether if there had been some in the bedroom as well. But smoke you can just blow a small amount from a cigarette and the detector will activate. But with the sprinkler it has to be a certain degree of heat the same as it is with the heat detectors for it to go off and it can cause more damage. I feel that if you do good but in addition to improve safety precautions what's also needed official say is stricter screening of the people allowed to live in these facilities. In Winslow Township I'm Susan these last. Tomorrow our hearing is scheduled on the first boarding home in the state shutdown under new fire safety regulations. The Department of Community Affairs which now controls boarding homes called St. Jude's boarding home in Asbury Park a health hazard because it lacks important

fire safety equipment. A four story wood frame structure is now required to have sprinklers and smoke detectors on the trains and buses were running on a holiday schedule today it was a heavy day for airline travel. In fact airline traffic has increased nearly 14 percent at New York's international airport in the last year. In addition to setting passenger revenue records this year. Airport officials say they may have finally solved the problem of jet noise over New York's Ironbound section. Rush Wells reports. Twenty seven thousand people live in New York City's. Order Ironbound section day and night they're bombarded by the sound of jet airplanes on their final approach to Newark Airport in December. Airport controllers instituted an experimental flight pattern. To detour the planes away from the densely populated Ironbound section. The Federal Aviation Administration installed a $250000 localizer system that electronically guides planes in via the New Jersey Turnpike rather than the residential or the FAA. The Jersey Department of

Transportation and the Port Authority all support the new approach. Local politicians have nothing but praise for the new system and officials predict the complaints about noise will soon vanish. That's when local state and federal officials say. They say the new landing equipment a new approach patterns have drastically reduced noise but people in the Ironbound section. Say that just isn't so. They have a notion of them I don't always know where it is because I say just save all baloney here and they keep calling law. And same same as always a slow change. No. It's all the same all baloney. Time. May come and salt added tears not mine what can I say. I can hear my wife talk to me. I can't watch television. Not a lot I don't. Think it. Makes another strikeout in. Newark Airport say the system only works during ideal weather in a dense fog or heavy rain. Pilots have to go back to the old system. Today the weather bureau reported 12

mile visibility but pilots seem to be using the old system anyway. Now Ironbound residents say they'll be at the airport on Saturday asking passengers to boycott the airlines that refuse to comply. In Newark. I'm rich well. Today George Washington's birthday is celebrated. Actually it's when Congress said it should be celebrated. George won't be 249 until Sunday but many people have the day off and participated in a costume is American as well. Cherry Pie Queenie has the story. This is the Princeton battlefield that marks a turning point in the fortunes of the revolutionary army and General George Washington. Washington went on to win the war the presidency and a place in history. Today the nation honors his birthday and nearby people are celebrating it in a very typical fashion. Somewhere in there people are observing in their own way. Two hundred and forty nine birthday of the nation's founding fathers. So are these people.

For better or worse. Nearly everyone has come to know his birthday as a big sales day and no longer is there a simple cherry pie theme to it all. George if you could see for yourself what they're putting on sale in your honor. About a disco jogging suit. Good taste. What about a color TV model of your Ford George over here about a computer missile game. What's a computer. That's the good news George about your birthday celebrations. There is some bad news. You know that doll you threw across the Potomac. Even you couldn't make this one go very far today. At Quaker bridge mall celebrating George Washington's birthday. I'm Jim acquainted. And now here is the weather forecast cloudy tonight with a chance of some rain temperatures will be in the mid to upper 30s. Cloudy tomorrow with another chance of rain. Temperatures will be in the low to mid 50s. And the outlook for Wednesday partly sunny.

Now. Delivery drivers for the Patterson new newspaper stayed off the job today despite a federal court's back to work order. Much of Saturday's edition was not delivered after drivers walked off the job. They've been joined by members of the topographer and Pressman Jr. A spokesman for the Paterson new said new drivers have been hired and the paper will continue to print both

its morning and afternoon editions at the trying times a day drivers were back on the job they had been ordering a strike by mail room employees. The Singer Company one of the oldest and largest employers in Elizabeth is closing down its sewing operations there. The move will cost hundreds of jobs. Despite the last thing officials say the Elizabeth plant will stay open for industrial sewing and replacement parts. And tonight a closer look producer Carl Sears and Phelps Hawkins assess their loss and what is being done to save those jobs analysts. Singer can't sell enough US made sewing machines so eight hundred fifty employees must go. Five hundred of these layoffs since October. Three hundred fifty more jobless by late March. The deep cutbacks aren't singers. Oldest plant located in the local union leader Joseph singer workers there hang on a thread. We want. That.

That. We. All. Know. And. Say. Hey. Thanks. These factory workers live in. Or near Elizabeth. Where singer is a major taxpayer. They have been a very good corporate citizen. They have been a good employer. They have been a good taxpayer to the city of Elizabeth. It will be a tremendous loss to our city if we are to lose them as a readable producer. Our school system our great public school system will suffer. Our police department

our fire department and all the other agencies that provide vital services will suffer as a result of this loss. Should it have been laid off in October. Stanley Park says there are skilled jobs at other companies but they are far from home and low pay. There's a lot of exploitation I believe. Abortion. It's that skilled and they try to get the maximum out of them and say let's play. A Game 7 0 0 0 jobs. A lot of places but it's at that stage. I went through. That my way up to. The top. Great. Isaac singer pioneered mass production of a practical home sewing machine the great factory opened in Elizabeth back in 1873. From there the singer company built a superior American machine that became a worldwide standard. Today singer also produces diversified products like military radar systems power tools and furniture. The company reported a thirty eight million dollar profit

last year despite a forty six million dollar loss in North American and European sewing operations. Serious overcapacity foreign competition and a persistent decline in home sewing in the U.S. have plagued singer in recent years. Last October the company said it would stop making home sewing machines in Elizabeth. Corporate relations director Carrie Jarvis says singer is studying. We have consultants that have been brought in to look at. The plant site and make recommendations with regard to whether we should consolidate everything into perhaps one building. Sell the rest of it. Raise the rest of it. Start an industrial park in the space try the people or sell it to someone in the space that those are options that we're considering right now. Again to cut down the cost structure. Not everyone would agree that the market for sewing machines is depressed or that women don't have the time or interest to so that you know basis for success on quality fabrics good machines and personal instruction.

My. Type of business is the time that we teach all the time and in our teaching we find that way to prepare the student and get the student ready to go. And in doing that she learns what type of machine she wants and we carry the Swedish machine Viking sewing machine. And we find that machine does things that we hope it will do on every fabric size of every. Level. On the. Trip I find that very sensible. So therefore we don't have the problems that others. Are. As for the Elizabeth employees they'd settle for a piece of the action on the company's defense contracts. Back in World War Two the government and singer were pouring money into this facility and the plant was humming. But now there's a different kind of problem. Singer has some big government contracts but not for sewing machines so there is little government work going on here in Elizabeth. Unlike singers care fund division and Little Falls which specializes in super

sophisticated electronics gear that could not be made in Elizabeth without a major retooling and retraining. Senator Harrison Williams and other politicians are looking at government help to revitalize the Elizabeth plant. The thing that I mentioned I will do soon is. Ray Donovan is Secretary of Labor introduced this situation to him and tell him. In my judgment it's a classic. For. Governmental response. Rather than see. A great workforce go down and out of work. Let's work together to find ways to keep them. Employed. On the production line and contributing. But we're not yet in a position where we would. Want to be able to launch into any. Brain areas where players settle down to a core group of businesses and trying to make those businesses run cost efficiently and effectively to be the best in the industries in which we participate.

What would it take to keep those jobs in a list of Cerberus a new investment. Government incentives and worker retraining are needed but so far top level companies government and union officials have yet to find a practical answer. I'm still talking just last week Secretary of Labor Ray Donovan said he had spoken with New Jersey senators and Congressman Matt Ronaldo about the situation and Elizabeth Donovan says he is anxious to see what the possibilities are but so far the situation looks bleak. Now. Sitting in for Bill Perry here is Pat's calendar SPORTS TONIGHT.

Thank you Carol. The New Jersey Nets a bit a season high with three wins in a row and they've done it in exciting fashion to win 134 132 over Golden State after trailing by 16 points with five minutes left in the third quarter was a homecoming king for former Never nard King was apparently put personal problems behind it. The final period number 30 can put the Warriors ahead 115 a 1 0 7. But the nets went on a tear 9 straight poise. Five of those from Cliff Robinson. Robinson did it all to the dismay of al Attles and put his club up 116 a 115 7:16 left. What with the Nets game be without 35 points from white Newland like Nestle to one 24 21. KING You almost became Annette again last summer gave the Warriors THE LEAD one twenty five to one twenty four on the jumper but the man with the hot hand Cliff Robinson wanted to shot and that's one up one 26 one 25 and never trailed rookie guard Darwyn Cooke hit two key jumpers to put the nets ahead after Golden State had twice tied the game twice. But again it was

Bernard King finished with 30 secs. He tied it at 132 with the jumper in a crowd. The defense by nu and Chan Vanbrugh ticked off. Fittingly Robinson scored the winning points here at 15 in the fourth quarter. Thirty six for the game as they say the clock 22 seconds left. The Warriors played for the win with a three point try by Joey Hassett new impressions Hassett he misses. And Lucas knows the rebound and that's when it won 34 to 130 to three straight wins for head coach Bob McKinnon. And apparently according to the fans seeing wasn't believing. And might have missed you will be out for the season he undergoes elbow surgery next Monday in college ball Seton Hall us another close in the Georgetown 58 to 56 pirates drop to 8 and 13 to an 8 in the Big East where they've lost five ball games by a total of 11 points. Likers meanwhile continued his rollercoaster ride losing West Virginia seventy three to sixty seven times called his 13 11 and eastern eight point play sport A disappointing. Excuse me 6 and 5 1. That's good for fifth place ruckus is at home tonight against Long Island

University this weekend Princeton moved into sole possession of first place in the Ivy League when previously undefeated Harvard lost to Penn and into the Tigers 70 to 48 for them to Coach Frank MCLAUGHLIN It was a lost weekend. Fans are Jadwin though were treated to an office display by the Tigers. Steve Mills a dozen from the floor in the first half. Harvard's long range specialist Tom Mannix bomb for 14 also in the first half Princeton's Craig Robinson was hot. He had 10. And windmills coming up takes the feed from Neil Crystal. The Tigers equipped the way thirty eight to thirty at the half scoring in oppressing 62 percent from the field. Randy Melville it again might 20 14 in the second half and Picross defense held the Crips without a field goal for 12 minutes before Monro tryout ends the drought. The final score Princeton 72 48. So smile Pete. Meanwhile Bob the cat was shaking his head to St. Peter's drive to 14 and 8 with a loss to Iona at home in the 15 Steve birdlet Iowan with 24 the peacocks got 17 from William Brown number 30. Santa jumped out to a 27 23 lead at the half. Number 34 James

Green chipped in for 14 points for the peacocks but it was I own a 57 a 45 over St Peter's St Peters can still make the playoffs with three games left but it won't be easy for two cats club. Finally. Aspiring baseball players in Morris County were treated to some tips from a few pro baseball players which so filled a member of the Minnesota Twins in a Morris point's resident. Put on a clinic to benefit the rehabilitation center for the handicapped in Morris County. So Phil brought a lot until Bear of the pirates the Mets rate burst and teammate s'elp a charity so I guess it's time to start thinking about baseball once again. And finally in a battle of the BBC middleweights it was Bale's Moustafa Hampshire over Curtis Parker in a split decision yesterday in Atlantic City. That's more scary. Thank you for that. And once again our top story State Public Advocate Stanley Venessa announced today he plans to fight PSN TNG over its request for a rate hike. For five hundred thirty six million dollars. Say that you Commissioner Joel Jacobson blasted the federal government's attitude today at the first of a series of public hearings on the state's role in energy conservation

and Transportation Commissioner Lewis Gamba Sr. is pushing for the creation of a new public company to take over Conrail commuter services. Finally tonight Atlantic City casino is in trouble. Indeed according to a deed to property on which the new model in school will be built. The site cannot be used as a piggery. Bone boiling establishment or a slaughterhouse nor can it offer casino gambling nor sell drinks. But officials for the new Taco Tropicana Casino are not worried. They say some may consider any casino a slaughterhouse but they do not intend to get into the piggery business. They do intend to boil bones in their kitchens presumably with some meat on them as well as sell some drinks along with the gambling. Company officials say they are ignoring the 1891 Deane's provisions arguing they are unenforceable. Present day Atlantic City. That's the news for Pascal and I'm Karen Stone goodnight for the New Jersey nightly news. Now. Now. Now.

Thousands that were thousands and thousands. Thousands of them. Was a of. Thousands. Now. Thousand now thousands. Thousands

of presentation of New Jersey Public Television. Thanks. Thanks.