Asbury Park Press from Asbury Park, New Jersey • Page 36

M0V1R TIMETABLE PKKSS CONFERENCE I'ajre CIO STAMP NEWS I'age C13 RKAY.M OF COINS I'aKe C15 Asbury Park Sunday Section ASBURY PARK, N.J., SUNDAY, JULY 25, 1971 CI Committee to Save Long Beach Releases Financial Statement t' press J-u -I-' ii ft? Jk I ft i ts'i J4 if I Mil -a mm mw 4 'i ROY F. GORSKI President ARCHIE C. ADAMS Treasurer Everybody 9s Pu a Happy Face tee. It seems only fair that i the committee should pass that report along to the public from which it solicits funds." Mr. Adams says now that, the statement issued to The Press will be reproduced and mailed to the membership.

Mr. Marcus says his main concern is that after he volunteered the use of his address and received some $6,000 in donations up to March of last year many people look to him for an accounting. "And I felt that those people who asked were entitled to an explanation," he says. The story of Mr. Marcus falling out with the committee after he was originally slated as one of the incorporators is confusing.

Marcus will say only that he was dropped by the committee, for reasons he does not know. Mr. Gorski says Mr. Marcus did not show up for an organization meeting and faded from the scene. EXACTLY what has the committee been doing with i the money? "We've been working up and down that island," declares Mr.

Gorski. In its latest newsletter to members, here's the list of activities in the past year: There were mailings to thousands of members and non-members. Legal counsel and expert were provided for citizens and groups appearing before local authorities on environmentally connected matters and for individuals. An expert was hired to study Flat Island, and others were paid to testify or that development matter. Court costs in a number of hearings and trials were paid.

A major water quality survey in the Barnegat Bay was commissioned. Photos were takea of the results of poor planning and land usage at a resort similar to Long Beach Island. A complete property owners' list was purchased. EXECUTIVE Committee members traveled to Treatoa, Washington, and other places to meet with officials. Hi The Figures LONG BEACH TOWNSHIP Here, In its entirety is the financial statement being issued by the Committee To Save Long Beach Island.

It covers the group's fiscal year from November 1969 to October 1970; officials say the current year's figures are expected to be similar: CASH RECEIPTS Contributions $15,666.50 Advances and loans from members of Executive Committee $800 Proceeds from a flea market sale $699.42 Interest on savings account $151 Additional contributions from members of Executive Committee $113,62 TOTAL RECEIPTS $17,234.06 DISBURSEMENTS Literature, stickers, and printing $2,512.07 Postage and office supplies $216.35 Advertising $313.22 Meeting expenses $214.59 Professional fees to experts and witnesses $4,128.75 notes Mr. Horowitz. "If there was an originator, he didn't get a trademark on it." "Every manufacturer claims to bt the first," Mr. Goldstein says. Researchers at the county and state libraries came up with the theory that the happy face button may have been an outgrowth of the "Good Guy Sweatshirts" given out several years ago by Radio Station WMCA.

The sweatshirts had wide grinning faces, with real-type eyes instead of the dots now on the buttons. Happy face greeting cards are popular In Steinbach's stationery department. The cards, which proclaim "Dirty Old Men Need Love, Too," "You Little Devil," or "Love Is You," are moving quickly, and Vogel's department store in Long Branch said their happy face cards were sold out. According to Miss Kay Hultz, Steinbach buyer, happy face articles have been in stock since April and are doing very well. "We are still getting new items in such as a rug that just arrived," "but it is still the buttons that we can't keep in stock." LONG BEACH TOWNSHIP The Committee to Save I)ng Beach Island, a nonprofit environmental group facing public pressure to disclose its finances, has released an accountant's report showing receipts of more than $17,000 during its first year of operation.

The statement, provided the Asbury Park Press is expected to quiet if not silence some of the public queries about how much the committee has collected and what it has been doing with the money. But at least one critic a former member remains unsatisfied. He contends it does not tell the entire story. "I'm satisfied with the figures," says Herman Marcus, one of the organizers of the committee, "but not with their interpretations." Mr. Marcus thinks the committee should detail exactly how it spent some $10,000 listed for legal and professional fees and printing.

The document covers only the committee's fiscal year running from November 1969 to October 1970, but does not explain who got the money. The group's treasurer, Archie C. Adams, a Glen Rock sales manager whose summer home is in the Dunes section here, says he can break down the figures anytime, to account for each penny. Mr. Adams and the committee's president, Roy F.

Gorski, a New York advertising executive who lives in Cedar Grove and owns a summer house on the same street as Mr. Adams, issued the financial statement at the request of The Press. At the same time, they confirmed that the committee has been contributing money to a legal battle waged privately by their Dunes neighbors, with the services of a lawyer who is a member of the committee. The committee has been facing criticism almost since the time it was established nearly two years ago. ON one occassion, says Mr.

Adams, it was called "the most dangerous organization on the island." The man who is generally considered to have said that, Mayor James J. Mancini, doesn't remember saying it, but he concedes he does feel that way. "You can never get anywhere when you just keep up animosity," said the mayor, who is also a builder, "and that's what they're doing. As far as I'm concerned, they're a detriment to the island." builders wish we'd go away," concedes Mr. Gorski.) The mayor is particularly disturbed over that Dunes lawsuit that the committee is supporting.

It is against the township and its planning board and has cost "thousands of dollars" in taxpayers' money to defend, the mayor says. Mr. Adams maintains the suit is entirely justified, to ASBURY PARK Want to put on a happy face? Just pin on a button, pull on a T-shirt, or slap on a bumper sticker. Happy faces, those delightful little faces with wide grins and small round eyes are pupping up all over. They are one of the gayest, simplest, and most infectious bits of graffiti to come along In years.

The happy face is making its mark In the business world, too. "We order our happy face articles from 17 different companies," says Marvin Goldstein, owner of La Plume and the Mockingbird, two Cookman avenue gift and card shops. "They come in everything imaginable. We carry more than 20 items." One manufacturer, Commonwealth Toy and Novelty Co. Inc.

of Brooklyn, reports that it has been making happy face pillows, dulls, bean bags, hand puppets, and even toilet seat covers since April. Retail prices range from $1.99 to $4.99, according to Rich-ii rd Horowitz, Commonwealth's vice president. "They are selling fantastically well," comments Miss Alice Arfin, a saleswoman there for the past 6 months. "I think person-ally it is because the timing Is right." Transcripts, stenotype records and document copies $706 Jl Jf" yi iw on 1 ii '71 Legal fees and court expenses $4,000 Repayment of loans and advances $300 TOTAL DISBURSEMENTS $12,390.98 Balance at end of period $4,893.07 but never a financial luminary) began in February. A Barnegat Light woman who donated last year asked in a letter to the local weekly newspaper, the Beach Haven Times, what the group was doing with the money it collected.

Mr. Marcus, whose address was mentioned because it was to his house the first donations were sent, said in a second letter that he too would like to see a financial statement. Mr. Gorski and Mr. Adams wTote letters of their own, outlining the committee's activities, but did not mention figures.

They say they have been reluctant to release figures because they did not want opposition forces to know their resources. Then Capt. George H. Grant, a retired sea captain who writes a column for the Times, began mentioning the dispute. IN his July 1 column, Capt.

Grant wrote, "The Committee does, it says, have a CPA. That CPA must make a detailed report to the commit A 7-YEAR OLD boy who had Just paid 70 cents for a smiley button at Steinbach was asked why he made the purchase. "Well, everyone seems to like them," he responded. "They're just nice to have." An Asbury Park psychiatrist, Dr. Avrohm Jacobson, sees the youngster's reasoning as rather typical.

"There is a certain appeal to buying something you know others are wearing, particularly a button such as this," he said. "When he recognizes someone else wearing one it gives him a sense of comradeship without demanding a handshake or verbal exchange. "Of course, the happy face has a different meaning for different people" added the psychiatrist who is a former president of both the N.J. Neuro-Psychiatric Association and the Monmouth County Medical Society. "I believe it is an offshoot of the peace symbols and little flower docals part of the happy folk setup.

AL SCHAEFER, sales manager of Paper Trends, New York, which makes 25 happy faces products, believes the smiley face first showed up as a form of identification at an Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) meeting seven years ago. However, several executives of the ADA, readied iu New York and in Washington, D.C., were unable to verify this. "But, they are popular down here, too," commented Leon Shull in the Washington headquarters. "My wife even wears one." No doubt about it. The craze is mushrooming.

Manufacturers all over the country arc turning out hundreds of items carrying the happy face, and local stores report that they can't keep the articles in stock. "Right now, we are sold out of several Hems like the potholders and candles," says Mr. Goldstein, who believes his store was the first in the area to carry the buttons more than a year ago. "A smile gives you an up, happy feeling. People want to feel up so they buy them," she cuntinues.

Have You Ever Tried Calling Your Friendly Supermarket? force the municipality to "play by the rules." THE SUIT, now in the appeals stage, is aimed at blocking a 96-house bayside development in the Dunes. Soon after the group was formed, the committee's Litigation Committee voted to give financial help to the nine plaintiffs, one of whom was John K. Dyer one of the committee's incorporators. Another of the incorporators, lawyer Thomas Grant Bernard, who also lives in the Dunes section, is attorney for the plaintiffs. Both Mr.

Gorski and Mr. Adams say the committee's primary interest in the case is as a test to force governing bodies to act in accordance with their own rules. They say the local planning board's approval of the 96-house subdivision was not in accordance. "There was more to this than stopping a builder," Mr. Adams insists.

THE public pressure for an accounting (the committee has Issued activities reports to its 3,200 member families "We have the headquarters listed, and if a woman calls here and says she left her pocket book in the store, we'll give her the manager's number there. We always do in the case of an emergency. And if it's a complaint about bad merchandise, we send the customer a refund." However, Mr. Rogers says most of the customer calls which average about six a day in his office deal with general matters, rather than particular gripes about one store. One of the general gripes, he concedes, is that store phones are unlisted.

While Mr. Rogers says he doesn't know of any pending changes in phone policy, a spokesman for Acme Markets says the phones for each store will be listed in the fall. "We want to hear from the customers," says George L. Beiswingcr, public relations director for Acme Markets at the business's headquarters in Philadelphia. "We want their complaints, their suggestions.

We felt we had no particular reason to have listed telephones, but because we've gotten numerous requests from the customers, we're going to start listing the individual stores in October." Mr. Bicswingcr says all the stores in the chain there "People go in for phases like tins, Just like the hula hoop craze," he said. "It'll pass." A TOMS RIVER dentist ordered a supply of happy face buttons to reward his patients when they have no cavities. "That's something to smile about," he explains. "Everyone in the office wears one, too." "Everyone likes to see a happy face.

That's why they are so popular," contends Mr. Goldstein, who is banking on their continued popularity. Advertisements were purchased to advise the public of important meetings and to inform members. 10,000 bumper stickers were printed and distributed. In the report, the committee said its books are opea for inspection at the office of its CPA.

But William B. Noke Jr. of Kohl, Maihack St Noke, the Summit accountants who compiled the summary issued last week, says he returned the books to Mr. Adams. Mr.

Gorski says the vast majority, of the committee's members are satisfied, and that the number of critics are few. He and Mr. Adams suspect that some of the criticism stems from developers who have enjoyed huge profits from building on the island. "There's no doubt about it," Mr. Adams says, "there are people who would like nothing better than to discredit number from Information last week, a reporter was advised by a man in the Union office, who refused to be identified in a news story, that he doesn't handle customer relations.

He told the caller to get in touch with the New York office. "The general policy of having phones in the stores went out in the 1930s when we stopped home delivery," says a public relations officer in New York who also asked not to be identified. "We feel the customer gets better service at the point of sale. I don't know whether any change in this policy is being contemplated. "There certainly should be some listing for a customer relations office," the spokesman contteae, "I'l have to check into tlie matter 4 Uw 1 Uceaa County phone books, ft rmwt have been an lnadvertant omission." The New Jersey division headquarters for Finast is in Englewood Cliffs.

Tlie public relations director tkire, Michael McCarthy, was on vacation last week, and 'an employe taking his place nald ho didn't know the store's policy on store telephone numbers. "We do handle complaints here," she said, "but I don't S- CALLING l'iieClX THE ORIGIN of the round faces, called "snuleys" by some, seems to be a mystery. Several manufacturers say they took their cue from the popularity of the buttons that begui appearing last year. "No one has an exclusive on the face," are eight Acmes in Monmouth County and six in Ocean County have pay telephones. Pay phones, he adds, can be listed in directories.

"We had the pay phones as a matter of control," he says. "A regular business phone is a big expense, especially when all the ordering is done in writing, and it wouldn't often be used for business purposes. If we had a business phone, we would experience a lot of unauthorized calls night employes having long distance conversations with their girl friends, and that sort of tlung." The Newark division and the Philadelphia headquarters of Acme both have customer relations departments which handle complaints and questions, Mr. Bicswingcr says. Stephen W.

Austin, a personnel and public relations employe in tlie Newark office, says most of tiie complaints from customers come by mail. The used to have a listing for a customer relations office in Newark. But that number no longer functions, a company spokesman explains, because the Newark office burned down last year. There is an ollice In Union. But niter digging that Press Special Report What do Howard Hughes and most of your local supermarket managers have in common? Probably very little, except that you can't reach either by telephone.

Foodtowns and Shop-Rites, some of which are individually owned, Pantry Prides, and small grocery stores are listed in the telephone directories in Monmouth and Ocean counties. But Finast, Acme, and have unlisted numbers. Grand Union, while itdoe.s not list the individual stores, does provide the phone number of its headquarters in East Patcrson where the store's consumer affairs and public relations offices are. Some disgruntled customers may think the secret numbers are to keep them from registering complaints or making inquiries. But officials from supermarket chains say that's not it at all.

"We have only one store in Hohokus that still delivers, and that store is listed," savs Floyd Rogers, public relations spokesman for Grand Union. "But in a self-service store where )U can't order, there's very little reason for the customer to call. :0 1.