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

no A lary Park Press Thursday, September 14, 1995 Ollll tv The Upper Chores library branch in "UV Lavallette may open in November. Pnnrt A teen-ager accused of attempted murder Vlllir1' may be tried as an adult. pjlimfi The county may buy five farms next year numsiCU to preserve land and a watershed. Rrifk The Brick Township High School band will lvK compete at the Miss America Pageant. Ballots boss GOP insider George R.

Gilmore'is named county Board of Elections chairman. B2 Town digest B2 Obituaries -B6 Legal ads -B7 II HI Iri Region A historian revisits America's decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan. 8 f. 1 Risden's Beach tax value won't go up; Point Pleasant Beach leaves it to county board to determine a fair assessment Police quietly look at death let them put theirs on," Anderson said. "We thought it was going to go to (the state) tax court." Appeals valued at $750,000 or more can be taken directly to state Superior Court, bypassing the county tax board.

The borough, at a hearing before the county tax board Tuesday, withdrew its appeal, which Anderson said would conserve borough resources for the state court appearance that seems imminent. The county tax board could decide to sustain, increase or decrease the assessment, Anderson said. Either party then would have up to 45 days to appeal to Superior Court. William R. Risden, president of Risden's Beach filed a tax appeal in April that sought to halve his property's assessment.

Anderson responded with an appeal, asking that the amount be increased to about $5 million. Risden did not return telephone calls yesterday, and his lawyer, Thomas Murphy, could not be reached for comment. Anderson has maintained that Risden's property taxes have been inappropriately low because the assessment appears to be based on the nature of the business. "The question to myself is: 'If it were to sell, would it sell as a he said. Standard procedure is to consider a property's "highest and best use" in determining its assessment, he said.

About one-third of Risden's property is used for bathhouses, where beachgoers change clothes and store belongings, and parking lots, which are less profitable than other boardwalk businesses, he said. Risden's property also includes five ocean-front lots assessed at about $1 million. The property's parking lots and bathhouses do not Please see Risden's, page B4 Coalition estalWishesE committees By BRUNO J. NAVARRO PRESS LAKEWOOD BUREAU POINT PLEASANT BEACH The borough has withdrawn its attempt to raise the assessment of the oceanfront property and bathhouses of Risden's Beach to $5 million, a tax official said yesterday. Now, the county Board of Taxation should decide by Oct.

12 on Risden's original appeal, which requested the property's assessment be lowered from $2.9 million to $1.4 million, borough Tax Assessor James Anderson said. "Instead of putting our appraisal on it, we is. ih VvrnWrir Wii -5 Point Pleasant police are trying to determine whether the weekend shooting death of a Bradley Beach man was accidental. By BOB MURA PRESS LAKEWOOD BUREAU POINT PLEASANT The circumstances surrounding the shooting death of a Bradley Beach man over the weekend remains a mystery, as borough police and county investigators continue their quiet probe into the matter. Officials in the Ocean County prosecutor's office still decline to discuss the details of Anthony Minutil-lo's death Saturday night, except to say that Lt.

Mark Woodfield and his major crimes unit are still investigating. Through Police and officials in the prosecutor's office have refused to disclose details about what happened Saturday night. out the week, borough police have been referring all inquiries about the case to the prosecutor's office. "It certainly does not appear to be a homicide," said John M. Doran, senior assistant prosecutor, yesterday.

I But investigators are still trying to determine whether Minutillo's death was accidental, he said. An autopsy conducted Sunday concluded that he died of a gunshot wound to the head, Doran said. But the "manner of death," whether it was an accident, suicide or whatever, could not be determined by the medical examiner, he said. The investigation by the prosecutor's office could continue into next week, Doran said. Minutillo, 36, a senior corrections officer at East Jersey State Prison, Woodbridge Township, was pronounced dead at 9:35 Saturday night at Jersey Shore Medical Center, Neptune, a hospital spokeswoman said Monday.

Borough police had found Minutillo with the gunshot wound about a half hour earlier, after someone called them to a Burnt Tavern Road residence where Minutillo had been Please see Death, page B4 Five-year-old Christian Clark (above) wears his father's favorite hat. His father, Dean Clark, drowned in Lake-wood's Lake Carasaljo July 30 while trying to rescue Christian and his other son, Kenneth, 3. Working to build a future Mother of 3 deals with spouse 's death i A By DENISE Dl STEPHAN PRESS LAKEWOOD BUREAU LAKEWOOD The Lakewood Community Coalition has established subcommittees, including one to mediate grievances between residents, and another that will try to quickly quell crises that may come up. Among the panels created last night is a mediation committee. The members "will choose, from among themselves, a subgroup that will serve as a "rapid response committee," that will be expected to quell any situations that could be verbally or physically damaging to the community, and then help to steer the people involved toward mediation.

The next coalition meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m., Oct. 25. The location may be the Lakewood Library, as it was last night, but that has yet to be finalized. The coalition is a group that, in July, merged from the Lakewood Coalition and the Lakewood Community Relations Council, both of which formed early in the summer. The two groups had originally formed in response to the unrest that surfaced here after a 4-year-old black girl was hit by a car driven by an Orthodox Jewish woman from Highland Park.

The girl, Jasmine Kirkland, had been left alone in an unlocked car by a family friend. She got out of the car, walked into Clifton Avenue and was struck by a car driven by Suzann Margolin, who was charged with careless driving. A column in yesterday's editions of the As-bury Park Press incorrectly stated that the driver was not charged. Some members of Jasmine Kirk-land's family, and The mediation unit will help settle grievances, and the rapid response unit will quell potentially damaging situations. many other black residents, held protest marches to oppose what they said was preferential treatment of the driver because she is Orthodox.

Since then, some residents formed a group called African-Americans In Action, which has gone on to explore many local issues, including local housing policies and the educational and recreational needs of local children. Many of those attending the meeting last night, members of white, black; Hispanic and Jewish segments of the community, have gone to meetings of the two original groups. However, there were a few new faces, including Rabbi Milton Menashe Dershowitz, Forest Avenue. Dershowitz, a member of the local clergy association, said he had decided to come to a coalition meeting because he believes it is the goal of any religious person to see people live in harmony. "I'm a concerned citizen," said Dershowitz, a retired mental health chaplain.

"I was very much concerned about the accident that happened, and I thought the problems that developed afterward got out of hand. I think a lot should be done to educate the children and the public so we can live together harmoniously." Dershowitz said he looked forward to the meetings when the members will be done with the organizational tasks and can talk about problems they feel exist in Lakewood. "They're not talking about hard and fast problems yet, I would like to give my input into that," said Dershowitz, one of the few Orthodox rabbis at the meeting. George Millan, president of United His-panics, with an office at 306 Main urged the group to move into discussing meaty issues. ti.

"Let's get the show on the road, because a lot of people are getting fed up," he said. fife TIM MC CARTHYPnti Staff Photographer "I wait on that back step every night for him to come home, and the longer I wait, the more angry I get," said Clark, 23, sitting in the living room of her small, neatly-kept house here with her children. "My kids have to grow up without a father because of some stupid accident," she said, holding her 8-month-old daughter, Lori, on her lap, and running her fingers gently through Lori's golden hair. "I just don't understand it." Clark says she appreciates the donations of food, money, children's clothing and toys that have come from church groups, friends and strangers. She says she hopes someone in the area will help her family find another place to live because her landlord wants to sell Please see Clark, pageB3 "You can't just go to a private businessman and say 'You're he do you do with the garbage then? Truck it to Iowa, at a lot more than $70 a ton?" Hesse submitted an application to the DEP last year for a new 63-acre dumping cell at the facility.

He also wants permission to raise the height of the dump area from 135 feet to 165 feet. Residents who purchased expensive homes in new developments along White-sville Road in Dover Township over the past several years said they had no idea the landfill was so close to their homes. "Why did Dover Township allow homes to be built so close to the landfill?" one woman asked. "Had I known that, believe me, I wouldn't have bought in Dover "We'll request that of Dover Township," Bartlett said. Bartlett and Avery said they would forward all the questions from last night's session to the DEP.

Landfill's neighbors protest dump's plan to expand By DENISE Dl STEPHAN PRESS LAKEWOOD BUREAU BEACHWOOD Jill Clark waits every night for her husband to come home from work and help her take care of their three young children. But Dean Clark, who would have been 30 years old on Sept. 22, is not coming home. He drowned July 30 after jumping from an inflatable boat into Lakewood's Lake Carasaljo to try to rescue his son, who had fallen into the lake. Her sons, Christian, 5, and Kenneth, 3, may have drowned too if they had not been saved by several young men who happened to be nearby.

Dean Clark is not coming home. Jill's head knows that. But her heart has been unable to accept it. fill into its solid waste management plan in the mid-1980s after county residents said a resounding 'no' to a trash-burning incinerator. The state also ordered the Southern Ocean Landfill in Waretown closed because it was in the Pinelands, Bart- lett said.

"It was the full intent of the people of Ocean County to use that landfill into the next century," Bartlett said. Many residents asked why the landfill couldn't be located in another area of the county. "Is there another place to put the landfill?" Bartlett said. "The simple answer is no. All of Ocean County is either in the Pinelands, where you cannot put landfills, and the rest is in CAFRA (Coastal Areas Facilities Review Act)." TIM MC CARTHYPreii Staff Photojrapher Jill Clark (above) holds her 8-month-old daughter, Lori.

visory committee, county Planner Alan W. Avery county administrator Steven L. Pollock, and Ernest J. Kuhlwein assistant solid waste management director. Although Stephen Reid, the public affairs coordinator for Ocean County Landfill said Tuesday that he would be at the meeting, he did not attend.

Landfill owner Charles J. Hesse III had said that he would be unable to attend because of Residents who homes in new past several years idea the landfill was homes. purchased expensive developments over the said they had no so close to their By PATRICIA A. MILLER PRESS TOMS RIVER BUREAU TOMS RIVER A number of angry residents who live near the Ocean County Landfill left no doubt last night about what they feel the landfill's status should be in the near future: closed. One man even suggested that the county investigate the possibility of locating the landfill at Fort Dix, far away from anyone's home.

"Donate Fort Dix to Mr. Hesse (landfill owner Charles J. Hesse III) and let him build landfill Disneyland," he said. About 80 residents, primarily from Dover and Manchester townships, attended a meeting chaired by Freeholder John C. Bartlett Jr.

to voice their concerns about odors and noise coming from the privately-owned landfill off Route 70 in Manchester Township. Anger was directed mostly at Bartlett, who serves as liaison to the county solid waste ad work commitments. "I'm deeply disappointed no representatives of the Ocean County Health Department, the DEP or the Ocean County Landfill are at this meeting," said Jack Moriarty, a Dover resident who led a petition drive to entreat the DEP not to grant the landfill's application for an expansion permit. The county wrote the Ocean County Land-.