New Jersey Nightly News; New Jersey Nightly News Episode from 06/24/1979

In. New Jersey. With Jack Kennedy in Trenton. That evening in the NEWSNIGHT the great gas line up got worse today. And will it get better soon. That depends on who you ask. We'll also have reports on how people are getting around without gas and without cars. In sports Bill Perry has cosmos soccer and some track and field replays and we'll take a closer look tonight at the Meadowlands. A proposal to build a huge shopping mall there. Was a relatively quiet Sunday in New Jersey. Not many people were taking Sunday draws and those who did venture out while many of them spent their leisure time just waiting for miles and miles and for hours and hours. They lined up at the few gas stations that were open. The Energy Department estimated that only 10 percent of the stations in the state were open. Maybe less. And there's no immediate relief in sight

with officials clamoring for answers. All the while traffic thinned out today on most major roads including the New Jersey Turnpike the lack of gas has motorists and gas station dealers looking for a way to channel their frustrations. Dealers are threatening to shut down later this week but most in New Jersey are not expected to go along with that shutdown at least not yet. State officials in the meantime of appeal to Washington for help. Some are saying we can expect another two weeks of this. But Governor Byrne tends to dispute those predictions. And as the month draws to a close on a Sunday television program in New York today the governor said the month of July looks brighter for the state. Some of the companies are pessimistic about July. I think most of them are optimistic that within a couple of weeks that things ought to get better with respect to gasoline in the in the July period. And then from then on the governor added the next fuel shortage will come with a change of seasons when heating oil will become scarce.

Somebody tapped a gas pipeline in Woodbridge and it wasn't discovered until it burst open last night about fifteen hundred gallons of precious super premium fuel leaked out enough to cause the police to evacuate a dozen families overnight. Police were worried that a stray spark might touch off an explosion. It didn't. But the incident did touch off an investigation. Woodbridge police say that a surreptitious lawn was connected to a gasoline beater pipe rented by Shell Oil. Police say it's practically impossible to determine if any gasoline had been tapped before last night's rupture. Shell says no it wasn't. In fact Shell claims of the fifteen hundred gallons that spilled out last night some 13 hundred gallons were recovered. Woodbridge police haven't made any arrests but they say they're looking into it further. It was a day for alternatives. One motorist dumped their beloved cars in favor of other forms of transportation but as Phelps Hawkins reports that exodus is causing even more problems.

There. Are frequent answer. Take the train. But it's hordes of displaced motorists descend on train stations like the one in Trenton today. Amtrak is having trouble handling the mall. No ma'am don't say anything about it. Just last month Amtrak workers had to tell 750000 travelers there was no room on the train drainers today on The New York Washington corridor were jam packed. Most surprising to Amtrak officials is that some longer roads especially in the West are handling more passengers than during World War II. Dream travel was most popular. Now the only problem is getting to and from the train. Walking is a possibility though doubtful as a major option. More popular are taxis between trains at the traveland station today. Cabbie Joe Adams waited for a customer even though he might have to refuse to take the fare. Turned down a lot of good jobs because we don't have gas would turn on a lot of good jobs. You know

just in jobs because you get cod because if you've got a tank of gas you can work here in a city like maybe eight hours a tank of gas. But if you take one job you know like out of town or something that's set up through a special arrangement with Governor burns. So we have stations were open today but the lines were long as at this station in Trenton the station received two taker's. Today and was hoping to keep pumping until 9 o'clock tonight. People spend all those hours in the gas lines I wonder if the anger and frustration lapses into memories of better days. The smiling face of the man with the star the ease of stopping by at the corner gas station to put a tiger in your tank. But where is the answer man. When we really need him the answer increasingly falls into the laps of individual citizens like yesterday. Officials in Seaside Heights showed up at the beach in Ocean County College the more traditional use of power.

Was meant to dramatize the plight of seaside communities whose livelihood depends on tourists being able to get gas so they can get to the shore in Trenton. I'm told. There are still other ways of coping. Reporter Ridge Wells found one driver who gets incredible gas mileage. This is the French maid Renault. It seats four people and can squeeze into tight parking spaces. However it has no engine no spark plugs no carburetor and most of all no gas tank. This car runs on electricity and every night the owner plugs the car into the side of his house to be recharged. Doug were and his wife and another partner Cathy Polumbo owned a flower shop in Paramus and used the electric car for delivery. During the last oil embargo I slept on gas lines to try and get gas to run my new business. We had just purchased the first flower shop from our in-laws and the first business problem we were confronted with was trying to get gasoline to

make deliveries. We're totally service oriented business and if we can't get out the make the livery we don't have a business name so the car is actually just plugging in the garage at night so that you can be ready to go in the morning and you don't have to wait on line for an hour and a half or two hours after a meandering drive through the suburban streets of Paramus. Werner took the car out on the highway and with four people in all the television gear the car maintained 50 miles an hour with no problem. Doug Werner's wife says people call the flower shop and ask that their orders be delivered and the electric car and there's a continuous flow of curiosity seekers. We stop by to gawk at the vehicle. There are a lot of advantages to this car but there are some drawbacks. If you go to a service station and ask the attendant can check the battery. You might get a dirty look. There are six batteries here under the hood and another 10 behind the back seat and the batteries have to be recharged every 50 miles.

All 16 batteries have to be replaced every year and at today's prices that cost about $700. But if that doesn't bother you Doug Werner says he's going to open an electric car dealership in Bergen County next month and he'll sell you one of these cars for seventy five hundred dollars in Paramus. I'm already well even as motorists fuming in gas lines for hours. New Jersey's largest utility public service electric and gas must continue to burn millions of gallons of precious oil. The company would like to change that and begin using natural gas which company officials say would save more than 40 million dollars a year. But the utility is having trouble getting clearance for that change over from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. That agency reportedly has a three month backlog and applications and the Department of Energy must give its approval too. So in the meantime the utility continues to burn up to 300 million gallons of foreign oil to generate electricity each year while it waits for a federal green light. Officials in the Colorado state prison system have

decided to back off the idea of a prison visitation program for young offenders similar to the one depicted in the award winning documentary scared straight. Scared Straight. You may remember was filmed in Rahway state prison and showed how the New Jersey visitation program worked. How hardened inmates toll kids in trouble about the grim facts of life in prison. The film won an Academy Award by a Rutgers criminal justice professor. Some of that joy out of the celebrations when he released a study purporting to show that more than 40 percent of those kids still committed crimes even after being scared. Both inmates and prison officials questioned the accuracy of that report but it apparently is scared Colorado prison officials into dropping plans for a similar program. Their police report they've seized the largest marijuana haul ever in New Jersey. It happened in Wildwood in a midnight raid on the night before last. About 40 tons of pot were confiscated and police and federal agents rounded up 12 suspects none of them from New Jersey Wildwood police became suspicious when they noticed some unusual activity

off a fishing dog near exit 4 on the Garden State Parkway. The cool spring returns today. No rain but a few clouds and a slight chills spread throughout the state tonight. Blanket weather returns with unseasonably cool temperatures in the upper 40s to mid 50s tomorrow expect mostly sunny skies and mild temperatures once again there is little or no chance of rain in the north. Temperatures will be from the low to mid 70s. A little cooler in the south and along the shore. The outlook for Tuesday there and cool weather will stay with us. On. This. Feud. This week. I Clodius.

This soon three years this week most Masterpiece Theater. That's Monday at 9:00 on New Jersey Public Television. Will you bring as good news or Cosmo's as when Cosmo's got one today. Jack thank you very much. The cosmos is getting off the schneid today after two straight defeats the cosmos returned to Giants Stadium and beat New England one to nothing. The cosmos are now 13 up and four down Ricky Davis scored his first North American Soccer League goal to give the cosmos the win the goal coming in the second half of the assists to Francisco Marino and more leverage. The shutout went to Cosmo's goal. David vs. in his first NASL start. Davison burst which are a couple of American players playing with ometer contracts one to nothing the cosmos beating going on and here's the replay of the only goal. Yesterday's first New Jersey Olympic Track Classic at Rutgers stadium attracted many of the world's best

performers. What a track meet. The highlight was the dual in the mile run. Villanova's Don Page and New Zealand's World Record holder John Walker were expected to battle. They did. Page is wearing number one and that should tell you oh God here's the start of the race. Former Princeton standout Craig Masback takes the early lead and Craig finished third with a time of three fifty five seven. After three laps gun rap coming up a guy by the name of Steve Lacy will have the lead there is how much he has it by. But then New Zealand's John Walker takes the lead. Walker 349 four in 1975. That's the world record. Page passes Lacey then page will get Walker with his sensational kick Paige beach the world record holder page 3:56 2 which is best until yesterday's 350. We were all very happy. Their main goal and I came here this meeting was to win. I didn't care if we ran for 10 350. How the John Walker. One in the world record holder.

Can it means so much more to beat John Walker. And I am very pleased to run my personal best recently for a disappointment. Yesterday was barely Dickenson's Franklin Jacobs the only cleared seven feet in a high jump from 1 7 to Mike Tubby won the pole vault 18 feet three quarter inches. He tried for 18 Aten three quarters of Heidy two months ago that didn't qualify as a world record because the board blew off before the hype could be remeasured Paul bloodline. Talked with Tullie. Well you know doing it before and having it not ratified it gives me confidence that I've been in that area you know the high 18:8 the quarters. I had a good attempt at it today my third attempt and you know I think I'm capable of doing again. You know I can say I am but I'm going to wait and see in the future. Our daughter still has a future. The veteran through the discus 204 feet and six inches he came in second or Schwartz won it 2 0 4 8 just two inches. Al goes back a while 1960 other won the gold medal with 2:12 and this year in fact in New Jersey at the beginning of the year through 2:19. Some seven feet over my best done my job.

I'll take my best anything next Saturday night at 8 in New Jersey Public Television will present a full recap of the track meet will run for an hour and a half or trackpads. It's a must see. Again it starts at 8:00 next Saturday night on JPT. Baseball today the Phillies beat Montreal 5 2. Montreal had been exposing the Phils as a troubled team beat an eight straight before today with the Phillies when Yankees big 1 8 2 Mets 1 6 2 over St. Louis. The NBA draft will be held tomorrow and Eddie Jordan is still in New Jersey net. Rumor has it that fast Eddie would go to Boston with a draft choice or two for Bob McAdoo after the draft. You can expect a lot of NBA wheeling and dealing but he wants to stay in that he wouldn't want to be part of any deal. I really don't you know this is my back yard so I don't really want to be traded to Boston. But then again I have no say in it. And if that happens then I have to go along with it. I had a break from Cleveland to come back here so I hope I'm here for a while. With the draft coming up where do you feel that you have to improve himself grow. We've got the eighth pick for millwork and we have 11. So you're talking about getting getting spun off.

Tell you J.B. stays where he is after the Knicks and Detroit we may get into the backdoor last season. At the time of the playoffs you and Williams don't quite know how to go about 40 minutes Boynton's Simpson weren't giving it too much off the bench that had to be tackled. Well I'll tell you I loved it know was when I got traded. I loved the play and I'm glad that Kevin got to play and I thought OK we've got another point guard out there that can play 42 minutes and really be happy about it we really do. But I think we may go somewhere in the draft as a point guard. You never know. You have to expect the unexpected in the draft which was so I really don't hope we get to go you know I would play a lot. New Jersey nightly news will be at the Nats draft headquarters tomorrow and Paul bloodline will have a full report for you tomorrow evening right here. In tennis today top seeded Steve Segal won the New Jersey men's singles championship. The 30 year old single beat 16 year old Ron Ercan 7 5 and 7 6 and at Pocono and auto racing AJ boy wins that Pocono 500 Jack. That's it. Thank you Bill. Officials of the Horry Christian movement are trying to get into the Meadowlands sports

complex because they think they should be allowed to recruit converts and collect donations inside those arenas in East Rutherford. Officials at the Meadowlands say no. So the two sides are ready to do battle in the courtroom. The case is scheduled to begin in Newark district court on July 10th. Not everyone is a loser in these times of double digit inflation. Take the case of many local governments. The National Census Bureau reports that the income of local governments is growing much faster than their spending. Revenues are up nearly 75 percent. Most of that coming from increased property taxes. But spending is up only 63 percent and municipal debt grew by less than 40 percent. What that means is still uncertain but there is a dramatic growth area in one particular specialty It comes in financial administration where more money is being spent to manage those tax dollars. In. The debate over nuclear power is nation wide especially since the Three Mile Island

accident this spring. Is nuclear power safe. Are we getting all the information we need to make an informed decision. Join me as we take a close look at nuclear power through the eyes of people working in the industry we call our program. Do I look like I want to die. And you can see it on this PBS station. Don't miss it. Monday at 10:00 on New Jersey Public Television. Shopping in the Meadowlands it could become a reality in the next few years. The Hackensack Meadowlands development commission has begun formal hearings on a proposal for a major new shopping mall right next to Giants Stadium. Bergen County developer S.J. sizzle man is behind the idea. And tonight we take a closer look again at the plan. Producer Bill Honore Hoffer and Clayton bond examine the pros and cons of shopping mall construction in the Meadowlands. Here's their report. For decades the Hackensack Meadowlands were viewed as little more than a nuisance a breeding ground for mosquitoes and a convenient place to dump area garbage. But all that's changed

the metal and sports complex is probably the most dramatic example of the changes that are taking place in this area over the last 10 years. The complex is part of an overall Meadowlands master plan first conceived in 1968. That year the stage assumed jurisdiction over all development within the borders of a 32 square mile development district the Hackensack Meadowlands development commission a state agency was given the authority to administer the masterplan. Nothing is built in the Meadowlands district without the commission's approval. Parts industries took the lead in Meadowlands development. Their common code project was the first major housing development ever built in the Midlands arts followed that with a large industrial park a new hospital plus a hotel an office complex in a fact building a new city in the Meadowlands. But a proposal by Hearts to build a multimillion dollar retail shopping centre has generated a good deal of opposition as well as competition. Patricia Ch'ien is executive director of the Hackensack Meadowlands development commission at the current moment.

The commission is evaluating in public hearing a request for a result of a portion of land. And your option to her ownership by heart. No one has the worry track. Included in that the specific request is that yes the fund 273 acres if you will be resumed to allow the development of a shopping centre with a regional in a community where hearts proposes building a shopping centre in Hudson County on a site that straddles the New Jersey Turnpike a location that Hard's believes offers a definite competitive advantage. Our proposal has been aired before the public forum at the age in DC for the last four months and I think we've set forth a case that is virtually impeccable. We've demonstrated that this site can handle a shopping centre. We've demonstrated that in fact there is economic interest from four department stores who have committed to us for this

development and we've demonstrated that the demand and the need exists in Hudson County for such a development. But not everyone is happy about the Hard's proposal for one thing the land of hearts wants to use is not zoned for a shopping mall the Meadowlands master plan calls for the so-called downtown of the district to be located along Barry's Creek in East Rutherford a firm called Bergen County Associates owns that property. It too has unveiled plans to build a major Meadowlands development one that incorporates a shopping mall view office buildings and extensive residential construction adjacent to Giants Stadium in East Rutherford area which we call Iberis Creek center presenting and will shortly commence public hearings before a development board which is like an on the commission for a general plan in accordance with zoning that includes a shopping center.

There's no room to think in terms of other developers taking it down and moving it downtown where an urban area where we're surrounded by New York and I can see Jersey City Patterson New York City the imbalances of widening the mistakes of planning are to be corrected here woven together and not for sessional in spite of or very serious on our benefit but for the benefit of the people of this region of this district. What self-serving people say to sell their own projects is not to be compared with the truth validity of the integrity of every speech. Early this year a third hopeful Squitieri associates of Hackensack entered the fray. They too proposed to build a shopping mall plus residential and office buildings along the Rutherford East Rutherford border. The third alternate proposal that is before us is somewhat akin to the first that before it could be considered by hand of an interim board or to be on the table as a proposal

to require resolving in this instance several zones residential and satellite would have to be eliminated to allow for the shopping center. We feel we feel we have the best site and so far as traffic is concerned we will take the majority of our traffic from the extension of Route 17 which we plan to construct with approximately 30 percent of the traffic from the route through the south service road. In any case we are the only development that will not overtax Route 3. And at this time I think we all know that the carrying capacity of around 3 is at its maximum. Some people like Nat Shapiro the president of the West New York Chamber of Commerce don't like any of these proposals. SHAPIRO runs a dress shop on Burgen line Avenue one of Hudson county's chief

shopping districts extending from West New York south through Union City into Jersey City Vergon line Avenue is unique. We are the last remaining urban retail area of any size in the state of New Jersey. If a wall is created less than a half mile away the cost is liberally within seven or eight blocks. This wall will utterly destroy the area not only wipe out one town or two towns it will destroy the whole Hudson County area. Opposition to the proposed Meadowlands shopping malls is not limited to Hudson County. Essex County executive Peter Shapiro has taken a very strong anti mmol position. Essex County gets hurt and gets hurt. Bloomfield gets hurt not only gets bailable gets hurt but clearly gets hurt. Some of the things that make very nice are some things that lend the character and the quality of life to their neighborhood the older residential shopping areas where you can walk to the areas where senior citizens can shop. We don't own a car where children can shop and can't drive or handicapped can shop. Those areas are

going to start to are already in decline. We are going to be severely hurt by something like this. Environmentalists argue that any additional cars and trucks will slow traffic in the Meadowlands district to a crawl especially during rush hour and on days when events take place at the Meadowlands Sports Complex shopping mall. Opponents received encouragement recently when an in-house study prepared for the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development was leaked to the press. In part the study claimed that areas like Burgin line Avenue as well as towns in southern Bergen County would lose business if a Meadowlands shopping mall were to be built. Not surprisingly representatives of each of the three companies proposing mall construction disagree vigorously with that conclusion. Governor Brendan Byrne has emerged as a key figure in this controversy. The man everyone wants on his side. Lewis Cayden was one of Brendan Burns closest advisers during the governor's first term in office. Now Haden's the legal council for Bergen County associates Henry Luthor was Brendan Burns campaign manager in 1977. Now represents

Squitieri associates. Jersey City Mayor Tommy Smith is a powerful force in New Jersey politics and Smith argues that if a shopping centre is built it should be located in Hudson County. The position parts industries find it very easy to accept even staunch opponents like Peter Shapiro look to the governor for support. It will probably take months for the development commission to come up with a final decision on the shopping mall. But whatever that decision it will have a lasting impact on all of northern New Jersey for years to come. You can look for these items in the news tomorrow. Public Service Electric and Gas officials will be sitting down with municipal leaders from lower alwayz creek and anti-nuclear activists and the topic will be safeguards at the Salem one power plant. Those groups want assurances from BSE and JI that it can prevent an accident at Salem like the one of three mile island earlier this year. The Senate and the assembly will be in session and South Jersey businessmen union leaders and veterans will hold the same Fort Dix rally in Mount Laurel.

And finally the blue big blue marble tournament gets off the ground and while we're by the sea I suspect if you haven't started practice yet you may be too late and our weather forecast sounds more like spring and summer cool temperatures and clouds are being forecast for tonight and tomorrow and Tuesday. And that's the Sunday edition of New Jersey nightly news for Bill Perry and the entire staff on Jack Kennedy. And the best wish we could bring you may your gas tank. Be careful for the entire week. Here. In. New Jersey. Nightly News has a joint presentation of New Jersey Public Television and w any

13. During the week the program is broadcast at 6:30 on Channel 13 and at 7:30 on New Jersey public television. There's a repeat broadcast at 10:00 p.m. on New Jersey public television and at 7:00 the following morning on Channel 13. Portions pre-recording