Asbury Park Press from Asbury Park, New Jersey • Page 4

jtAGEA4 ASBURY PARK PRESS SATURDAY, OCT. 25, 1997 TP Caseload crunch outruns probation officer staffs '6yf ATRICIA A. MILLER JteMS RIVER BUREAU TOMS RIVER We're not safe $nd neither are you. the message Ocean County 'probation officers had for residents when they picketed yesterday in front of the Ocean County Courthouse on their lunch hour. Shorthanded and overloaded offi "When these people get probation, people think 'Oh, that means they are going to be Martinsen said.

"But when you have caseloads like hard to remember names." Ideally, an officer would see a client once a week, he said. Martinsen said "the majority of those on probation are being seen once a month." The case is much the same in Mon mouth County and around the state, said John A Smack, president of the Monmouth County Local 113. Monmouth workers routinely carry caseloads between 200 and 300 clients, he said. Ocean County has 83 probation officers, but could use at least 20 more, Martinsen said. Monmouth County has 60 officers and needs 40 more, said Smack.

Probation staffing problems are an "ongoing concern" with court administrators, said Robert G. Seidenstein, spokesman for the state Administrative Office of the Courts. "We told the state legislature's appropriations committee in the spring about our concerns in this area," Seidenstein said yesterday. "So we are not disagreeing with some of the points the officers have made." 4 charged in gasoline station robbery i I I v. 4 I I ini 1 -i-'tf rrr 1 i ft? Dogs to train on planes TWENTY CANINES in training to be seeing eye dogs will board a Continental Airlines plane at Newark Airport today to be introduced to airport sites and sounds.

The Monmouth County Chapter of the Seeing Eye Puppy Raisers is bringing their dogs to the plane, which will be at the airport for two hours for the club to use. Crew members have volunteered to pretend they are working on the plane so that the dogs can get used to sitting on the floor next to their owners and hearing plane noises. Fran Schults, a member of the club, asked Michael Venezia, Jr. of Venezia Travel, Red Bank, to help get a plane for them to practice on, and he contacted Continental Airlines. The puppy raisers club is a group of foster parents to puppies who will later be trained by The Seeing Eye of Morris-town to guide blind people.

Free tours scheduled SANDY HOOK: Park rangers will be leading free tours of Fort Hancock, an 18th century revolutionary war soldier camp and the Sandy Hook lighthouse starting at noon tomorrow. Historic buildings not open to the public will be included on the tours, a park spokeswoman said. The tours will be held until 4 p.m. Lighthouse tours will be from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

on a first-come, first served basis. A revolutionary war re-enactment group will also establish a small campsite at the foot of the lighthouse. Members of the 4th Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, will portray the Loyalist Regiment that was garrisoned on Sandy Hook. DARYL STONEStaff Photographer 9 Kimmy B. is one of the 40 beagles rescued from a Franklin Township laboratory and adopted this summer.

Beagles' new owners share a tale with a happy ending the head. The suspects then pushed the attendant into a restroom, and forced him to hand over all of the station's cash receipts, Brady said. The suspects fled on foot heading south on Route 35. The attendant told police he saw two other men follow the suspects on Route 35. Police would not say how much money was taken in the robbery.

The Eatontown Police Department's K-9 unit was called to the scene, and Patrolman John DiGio-vanni and his dog "Toga" responded. heavily damaged the garage portion of a house yesterday in the Image Estates development on Baird Road. An investigation showed the fire, reported about 2:05 p.m. by the homeowner, to be accidental and started in a lawn tractor, said township Fire Chief Ed Reed. There were no injuries.

The contents of the three-bay garage, including a car, were destroyed. The fire also damaged the roof of the attached living area of the two-story house and caused an apparent smoke condition inside the house, Reed said. Teen charged in stabbing LONG BRANCH: A long-standing dispute between two juveniles led to one being stabbed and the other beaten by the victim's friends Thursday night, police said. The incident took place at about 10:30 p.m. inside the Clifton Avenue apartment of a 15-year-old male, when a 16-year-old male from Eatontown stabbed him in the abdomen with a knife, Detective Lt.

Patrick Joyce said. The victim and the assailant, who were not identified by police because of their ages, were both taken to Jer cers are fighting a losing battle to keep up with caseloads, said Stuart Martinsen, representative for the Probation Association of New Jersey, Ocean County Local 106. "Our caseloads are skyrocketing," he said. "One officer here has 700 cases." The Ocean County contingent joined probation officers around the state to publicize their plight. Huntingdon's laboratory, triggering a PETA complaint to the U.S.

Department of Agriculture and a lawsuit by Huntingdon against PETA for illegally taping fellow employees and disseminating trade secrets. The beagles' plight became widely publicized. Huntingdon president Alan Staple has said the dogs had been given a test compound to strengthen bones for osteoporosis patients for a couple weeks when the safety trial, the last step before testing in humans, was canceled by the ding maker, Yama-nouchi Pharmaceutical Co. of Japan. After the lab decided to release the beagles, lab workers began spending a couple hours daily in July working to socialize the dogs.

In September, the dogs were given to the American Humane Association, which sent them to New Jersey shelters to be offered for adoption. Eight dogs were given to the Monmouth County SPCA shelter in Eatontown and six went to Jersey Shore Animal Center. volved Gober's conduct after he arrived to Washington in 1993. Gober denies the charges. A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Gober was accused of inappropriate sexual advances toward a woman attending a department event.

The department had exonerated Gober after two investigations one by political staff and one by career employees. The first inquiry, conducted by the woman who would later become Gober's wife, was the subject of intense criticism of lawmakers, several officials said. The White House decided to withdraw the nomination after the Senate committee overseeing it conducted its own investigation into allegations that surfaced in an FBI background check. The dog successfully tracked the suspects to a nearby motel, where all four were found in the same room. Arrested were Ryan German, 19, Red Bank; Alvin Jones, 21, and Rodney Green, 22, both of Tinton Falls; and Darryl Turner, 24, Eatontown.

Each was charged with robbery, assault, possession of cocaine and possession of under 50 grams of marijuana. Jones also was charged with illegal possession of a knife. They were taken to Monmouth County Jail, Freehold Township, in lieu of $10,000 bail, set by Municipal Court Judge Mark Apostolou. sey Shore Medical Center, Neptune. The victim was listed in fair condition while the assailant was treated and released Thursday night.

The assailant was charged with aggravated assault and illegal possession of a weapon, Joyce said. He also was wanted by Monmouth County authorities for a previous juvenile offense. Detectives Clarence Castle and James Mazza are investigating. 2 injured in collision AN OCEAN Township man and a Spotswood woman were hospitalized after a van and a car collided yesterday in East Brunswick, police said. Kenneth G.

Roberts, 37, told police the brakes on his Chevrolet van failed when he tried to stop at a red light around 4:15 p.m. The van collided with a Toyota Camry driven by Theresa J. Wasilcski, 60, police said. Wasileski was taken to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick with arm and back pain. Roberts was taken to the same hospital with back pain, police said.

Neither person's condition was immediately available last night. Police impounded the van and were preparing to test its brakes last night. reversed course and dropped his promise to link relations with China to its human rights record. "Change may not come as quickly as we would like," Clinton said yesterday. "But as our interests are long-term, so must our policies be." He By DAVID P.

WILLIS TOMS RIVER BUREAU BRICK TOWNSHIP It's a small, elite club. Only six founding members, all with four legs, all with tails. They're the Happy Endings Beagle Club of the Jersey Shore Animal Center six young dogs and their new owners who adopted them after the beagles were freed from a medical research facility. It's been a time of discovery for the young dogs since their adoption. Up until then, their lives were spent at Huntingdon Life Sciences in a laboratory in Franklin Township, Somerset County.

Dogs and new owners came together for a reunion and to be featured on the center's Comcast cable show. It's been a long road for the 40 beagles who came to the public's attention earlier this year. A member of the Norfolk, animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, secretly videotaped and documented mistreatment of research animals at By WAYNE PARRY COASTAL MONMOUTH BUREAU EATONTOWN Four men were arrested yesterday and charged in the robbery of a Route 35 gasoline station and assault of an employee there, police said. At about 3:17 a.m., two men approached the night attendant at the Eatontown Shell station, saying they wanted to buy cigars, Detective Lt. Jerome Brady said.

The men followed the attendant into the station office, where one grabbed him from behind and held him while the other punched the attendant in Police briefs Boat fire ruled arson RED BANK: A fire that destroyed a boat on the Navesink River was an arson, investigators said yesterday. The 12:15 p.m. Thursday blaze was on a 1988 Searay Amberjack docked behind the Bluffs development on Front Street, said Sgt. Daniel Cos-grove of the State Police. The fiberglass boat a 27-foot recreational cabin cruiser valued at $30,000 was engulfed in flames when the Red Bank Fire Department arrived.

Investigators have not yet determined whether an accelerant was used, Cosgrove said. He declined to release where the fire started. It took about 30 minutes to squelch the fire, and the department used foam to suffocate it, said Red Bank Fire Chief Robert Holiday Jr. No injuries in garage fire MILLSTONE TOWNSHIP: Fire -AT Associated Presi Hershel Gober After the committee investigation, officials say panel chairman Arlen Specter, insisted on a public hearing on the accusations. That prompted the White House to withdraw the nomination.

71 President rejects confrontational approach to U.S.-China relations Clinton withdraws vet affairs choice THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON The White House yesterday withdrew the nomination of President Clinton's longtime friend Hershel Gober for secretary of veterans affairs after lawmakers investigated allegations of sexual misconduct, The Associated Press learned. The White House released an exchange of letters between Gober and Clinton that did not mention the allegations. Gober wrote that he could best serve Clinton by remaining as deputy director of the department, and Clinton said he regretted Gober's decision. "Three officials, including a prominent Democrat involved in the nomination process, said the allegations in THE REV. AARON Worthy is not pastor of True Vine Baptist Church, Asbury Park.

His affiliation with that church was incorrect Wednesday in some editions of the Asbury Park Press. The Press corrects its mistakes and clarifies stories ungrudgingly. Call the following numbers weekdays: (732) 922-6000 or 1-800-822-9770. made clear that he would try to alter China's policy through reason and cooperation rather than by ultimatums. Jiang, who is Deng Xiaoping's chosen successor, will be the first Chinese leader to visit Washington in 12 years.

Lautetiberg Torricelli Democrat Democrat no NO Source; Roll Call Report Syndicate i 5 ill How your senators voted for the week of Oct 20, 1997 CAMPAIGN FINANCING. The Senate failed to end a Democratic filibuster designed to force Congress to vote on legislation that would bar unregulated "soft-money" from federal races and place other restraints on election funding. A yes vote was to end the filibuster. ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON Setting the stage for next week's summit, President Clinton rejected calls yesterday for a confrontational approach to China and argued that isolating the Chinese would be "unworkable, counterproductive and potentially dangerous." In a conciliatory speech, Clinton said he hoped next week's visit by President Jiang Zemin would chart a course "that is more positive and more stable and hopefully more productive than our relations have been for the last few years." U.S.-Chinese relations have been strained since the 1989 crackdown on democracy demonstrators near Tiananmen Square. And Clinton advocated a get-tough stance in 1992, when he accused then-President Bush of coddling China.

On taking office, Clinton CODES: House 20515, Senate 20510 Andrews LoBiondo Saxton Smith Roukema Pallone Franks Pascrell Rothman Payne FreSnghuysen Pappas Menendez flow your representatives voted I Ul I A J2m LJj lLJI I I i 1 L-T: 1 1 I Li3i 707 the Week Of Oct 20 1997 Democrat Republican Republican Republican Republican Democrat Republican Democrat Democrat Democrat Republican Republican Democrat 1st District 2nd Distnct 3rd Distnct 4th District 5th District 6th District 7th District 8th District 9th District 10th District 11th District 12th Distnct 13th District TTrtuLSSal it easier for people to get federal CO fJO YES NO NO NO NO YES YES YES NO NO YES NO urts to hear lawsuits claiming their property was illegally taken by a I ocal or state government. A yes vote was to pass the bill. 'EDUCATION The House passed a bill expanding Education Savings Accounts ES fin llf VCC VCC VCQ Hfl VCQ MO Mfl Mfl VCO VCC MH As) to cover elementary and secondary school epenses for public, IlU liVl ICO I CO ICO llU ICO llU llU IlU ICO ICO llU 0nvate, religious or home education. A yes vote was to approve the 'till. 60RNAN VS.

SANCHEZ The House defeated an attempt by Democrats to immediately end a VCQ Hfl Mf) Mfl Mfi VCO lf VCC VCC VCC Mfl llfl VCC special committee probe into election fraud charges arising from a 1 ICO IlU IlU IlU IlU ICO IlU ICO ICO I CO IlU IlU ICO 996 House race in California. A yes vote was to end the probe. i'-i Coract your legislator at the U.S. pltol CAPITOL OPERATOR: 202-224-321 ZIP.