Asbury Park Press from Asbury Park, New Jersey • Page 11

Asbury Park Press Monday, August 31, 1998 Contact us! Lead the way Altar servers head procession from St. Augustine's Episcopal Church. B3 Historical vignette B2 Television BS Classified B6 To discuss a local story or suggest a topic, please contact Patricia McDaniel: 3601 Highway 66, Box 1550, Neptune, NJ 07754-1551 (732) 922-6000, Ext. 4300 fax: (732) 922-4818 SECTION IMMMii! Ml A clean slate in every classroom Cockfight probe 2nd man is facing animal charges mm I flu New Colts Neck High School ready for a year fall of firsts By HARRIET RYAN FREEHOLD BUREAU COLTS NECK Today is the last day Colts Neck High School will be perfect. By tomorrow afternoon, back-to-school shoes will have scuffed some of the shine off the floors.

Book spines will be cracked, erasers chalky, cafeteria chairs sticky. But tomorrow, the end of physical perfection at the brand-new high school will mark the beginning of what many of the building staff are calling the most exciting time in their careers. "We are very spoiled. Very," said special education teacher Linda Kurtewan, pointing out her desktop computer and the room divider that will make teaching small groups easier. The Freehold Regional High School District's sixth high school is a state-of-the art building that will draw 380 freshmen and sophomores this year from throughout the district and be staffed by 30 teachers handpicked from hundreds of applicants.

"I really feel like I won something," Kurtewan said. Sure, the beautiful facilities are nice, but Kurtewan and others said the real reason they were walking the pristine halls grinning like Cheshire cats had much more to do with the potential learning environment for students than with the matching color scheme. "It's a clean slate. Entirely. There's no politics, no favoritism.

The people that they picked are going to be staff leaders rather than just sit behind a desk. They want to get involved," See School, Page B3 By STEPHANIE HOO FREEHOLD BUREAU FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP A second man was charged yesterday with mistreating animals kept at a farm here, including roosters that may have been bred for illegal cock-fighting, police said. Victor Perez, 46, a tenant at 183 Jackson Mills Road, where the animals were kept, turned himself in at police headquarters yesterday morning when he found out authorities were looking for him, said Township Police Lt. Kingsley Davison. Perez was charged under the state's animal statute and released, Davison said.

He was the second person arrested in the case. The first, Ernesto Hernandez of Elizabeth, also was released on his own recognizance, police said. I I DARYL STONEStaff Photographer Colts Neck High School (left) opens its doors for the first time with R. Wayne McChesney (above) in the principal's office. i Vn -'ii' HrtmnMi'M Manalapan residents ask for traffic light Authorities on Thursday found hundreds of animals, apparently unattended for days, at the 300-acre farm on Jackson Mills Road.

Police had been responding to reports of loose cattle and called in the New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. SPCA officials say some of the roosters were raised as cockfight-ers. In addition to the more than 200 chickens found at the farm, there also were a number of cattle, about 20 horses and a pit bull terrier. Officials said the animals had not been properly fed, and one horse appeared to have injured itself trying to escape its barbed-wire corral in search of food. Owners of some of the animals took their animals from the farm on Friday.

But the cockfighting roosters were to be killed yesterday, since they have no agricultural use and are too violent to be kept as pets, Charles Gerofsky, chief officer of the New Jersey SPCA, said on Saturday. At the farm, SPCA officers also found a ring that they say was used for cockfighting which is illegal a refrigerator loaded with beer and soda and a sophisticated stereo system. Gerofsky said the cockfights drew fans from northern New Jersey and the New York area. Up to $20,000 in bets could change hands in a night, he said. i BOB BIELKSUfl Photographer Gillespie of Tinton Falls was designated the poster child for the Red Bank Elks Lodge 233 in 1956.

i Elks help man give of himself By DENNIS GRAHAM STAFF WRITER I ijtED BANK Thomas Gillespie may be disabled, but that doesn't stop him from keeping active in the community. tor the past seven years, Gillespie, Tinton Falls, has volunteered his time for others as a member of the Red Bank Elks Loflge 233, which allocates most of its funds to charities that senve mentally and physically handicapped individuals. Gillespie, 46, has had cerebral palsy since he was a child, and endured countless operations to improve his condition. He! walks with crutches, and is wiping to lend a hand to anyone in i need of a lift because he knpws what it's like when every dajr can be a struggle. il know how hard it is some-tinjes for people who are handicapped, and I am able to relate to what they have to go through," Gillespie.

"That is why I try todo whatever I can to help thorn." i Gillespie is a full-time supply teohnician at Fort Monmouth, but still believes that it is his dujy to serve the lodge wherever he (is needed, i This devotion to the Elks dates to 1956, when he was named the lodge's poster child, designating hh)i as the representative of the Elks' charitable causes. After re-. cewing that honor, Gillespie that one day he wanted to bean Elk. i tl told my mother when I was a little boy that I wanted to be an Elk," he stated. "I had no idea wh the Elks were or exactly what they did, but I knew I wanted to be one." Over the years, Gillespie has participated in many of the lodge's activities.

He sells tickets forj the annual charity ball, which is held in honor of the locjge poster child, acts as the photographer at the Christmas party held for the Arc, makes fodd baskets for the elderly on Thanksgiving, assists with preparing the food for the lodge's Frjday night dinners, and regu-lanly visits the patients at a Veterans Administration hospital. I like helping people," he said. "It makes me feel good by making someone else's life a litpe better. But that's the way I am. I have always been a giving person.

If another person was in need of something and I had it, I would give it to them because I felt that it was the right thing to do. And I'll continue to bejthere for others until the day comes when I can no longer walk." illespie also has coordinated blood drives for the lodge with the Central Jersey Blood Center in; Shrewsbury, during the last three years. Recently, he donated his 200th pint of blood. I give blood because the blood bank is always in need of extra blood, so donating blood can be considered a lifesaving device." Gillespie's hard work and dedication does not go unrecognized by-Iris peers. james Harris, a friend of 30 years and fellow Elk, said of Gillespie: "He is a great person and we are all amazed at how much he does for people.

He is Jiandicapped and works, but still finds the time to serve the lodge and continue to meet with the veterans. "I think we can all learn something from him." fered a blinking light with a button, but drivers and members of a synagogue across Union Hill Road rejected it. She and others said a fully functioning light is needed. "We have been working to get this light installed for years," Schaffer said. Residents who live in Covered Bridge have difficulty turning left in or out of the community.

"When we go to the synagogue on Saturdays, we will wait a good 15 minutes to cross the street," Feldman said. Police traffic safety officer Ken Gibson said yesterday the high volume of traffic on Union Hill Road does make it difficult for drivers to turn left and for pedestrians to cross the street at the intersection. The speed limit on that section of Union Hill Road is 35 mph, he added. In the last four years, Gibson said, there were four accidents at the intersection and another eight in the vicinity of the intersection. But Feldman said many people who have fender benders there don't report the accidents.

By ERIN A. JORDAN CORRESPONDENT MANALAPAN The Township Committee has been presented with 340 letters asking for a traffic light at an intersection near the Covered Bridge community. Residents have asked that a fully functioning traffic light be installed at the intersection of Wild Turkey Way and Union Hill Road. Mayor James S. Gray said he understands the concerns of residents in the area.

"We want to do what is right and proper," he said. Gray said the committee received a letter from the state Department of Transportation approving the installation of a fully functioning traffic light at that intersection. Gray said the committee would consider the proposal for a light during 1999 budget talks. Gert Feldman, a resident of Covered Bridge along with fellow resident Lillian Schaffer, presented the committee with the letters at the committee's meeting Wednesday night. Feldman said the township of Colts Neck enjoys lowest crime rate This tnwn ranks 48th fit 3 irx rpnnrtPti rrinifir-r i ft I crimes per 1 ,000 residents in tftunty highest fl' Win, lltfTiA 48 lowest); 207th of Z16 in state for Police I officers now: 4 In 1996: i Population 9,146 Median age: 34.5 4 suburba0 towns (1 6 lowest) sii rr "'V COLTS NECK NotwJhe township's Median' rlenartmnnt was creator! in By HARRIET RYAN FREEHOLD BUREAU COLTS NECK Talking about crime in this township is like talking about fat in celery: There's not much to say.

1984, but no detailed crime rate information available from the i FBI until 1990. household income: $86,450 Median household income rank in county: 2nd of 53 Crime solve rate: Violent: 62.5 Nonviolent: 8.7 Rank in county: 39th of 48 Arrests involving juveniles: Violent: 20.0 Nonviolent: 50.0 The township has the lowest crime rate in the county and one of the lowest in the state. Last year, there were four violent crimes all ag-gravated assaults and 99 nonviolent crimes, mostly for its expansive estates and newer developments of huge homes. The limited commercial development in the township doesn't include restaurants where alcohol is served or large shopping centers, which contribute to crime rates in other towns, Sauter said. The lavish homes in the town might seem an obvious target for thieves, but such burglaries are fairly rare, Sauter said.

The chief credits the sophisticated alarm systems many residents have installed. In fact, those high-tech alarms account for more calls to the police station than anything else. Already this year, the 16 officers in the department have responded to 555 false alarms in the township. When there is crime, officers have noticed a trend toward younger perpetrators. "What we've seen in the past year or so is more and more juvenile involvement (in crime)," said Sauter.

See Crime, PageB3 io-- --Njj-T. i''-" 5 rirm 5-r- 1 1 1 1 1 '90 '91 '92 '93 '94 '95 '96 YEAR SOURCE: FBI Uniform Crime Reports, Claritas local police Staff graphic Sauter thefts. Chief Kevin Sauter said there are a variety of factors for the low crime rate, including the township's wealth. Colts Neck has the second-highest median household income in the county, and is known.