Asbury Park Press from Asbury Park, New Jersey • Page 13

iv, ncDfAcimf b- i Asbury Park PressFriday, January 31, 1986 D3 Colts Neck high school site chosen M'l 1 safety inspections of township buildings. George Handzo, township administrator, said since the state mandated the Uniform Fire Safety Code program last year, the township is responsible for setting up a local agency. The inspector must be certified by the state and would be responsible for making annual checks of motels, hotels, gasoline stations, apartment buildings and other structures. in the regional district, is being considered. A referendum on the project is expected to be held later this year.

If the project is approved by district voters, it would take about three years to construct the new high school, Crespy said. In 1978, a referendum to build a high school in the township was defeated by a 7-to-l margin. In other matters, the committee discussed establishing a local enforcement agency to make routine fire other schools in the district," Caponegro said. Upon the recommendation of H. Victor Crespy, superintendent of the Freehold Regional High School district, the committee will look into the purchase of about 70 acres of the 1 30-acre site.

Crespy was instrumental in finding a site, Caponegro said. A $33 million project, which would include construction of a new high school in Colts Neck, as well as additions to three other high schools Hazlet burglaries linked Press Freehold Bureau COLTS NECK TOW NSHIP A site for construction of a high school in the township was announced by the Township Committee last night. Mayor Michael A. Caponegro said a lot at the southeast corner of Route 537 and Five Points Road, owned by Anthony Abbatiello, was chosen from five other sites in the township. "It (the property) was chosen because of its location in relation to the Flume installed; renovations remain Press Neptune Bureau THE DEAL LAKE Hume has been installed, and the only work that remains involves renovations to the gate that opens and closes the flume, according to the chairman of the Deal Lake Commission.

Chairman Donald Mayer, Asbury Park, said workers completed installing the flume last week. The gate is closed, so the lake has since filled up from the recent heavy rains. "They did a hell of a good job," Mayer said of the contractor, Hansel-man Galloway Township. The company must still repair the gatehouse, and repave Ocean Avenue, which was torn up during the project, Mayer said, adding he believed work has been stopped temporarily because of the cold. Workers had torn out the old, deteriorated flume and replaced it with a 4-by-8-foot rectangular structure.

The flume, which runs under Ocean Avenue near the Loch Arbour-Asbury Park boundary, permits excess fresh water to flow into the Ocean, while preventing salt water from entering the lake. coaches, umpires and board members. FREEHOLD Members and guests of the Freehold Retirease Club will meet for a Valentine party at 12:30 p.m. Monday at the First Presbyterian Church education building, BrinkerhofT Avenue. MATAW AN The Women's Club of Matawan will meet for a luncheon and Club Achievement Day, in which members will display paintings and crafts made this season, at 11:30 a.m.

Monday at the clubhouse, 199 Jackson St. WALL TOWNSHIP The Shore Swingers Square Dance Club will have its regular square and round dance at 8 p.m. Monday at the Allenwood School, Al-lenwood-Lakewood Road, the Allenwood section. The caller will be Al Kaisler, Neptune, with round dancing cued by Ellen Fury, Toms River. ALL TOWNSHIP Free materials for the annual valentine decorating contest, open to township youngsters in kindergarten through grade 5, are available from 9 a.m.

to 1 p.m. and 2 to 4 p.m. Monday at the Wall Recreation Office, Route 35 and Old Mill Road. Entries will be judged at the recreation office on Feb. 9, and awards will presented at 11 a.m.

Feb. 15 at the Wall Township Library. Organizations interested in submitting items for the Community column may obtain a free copy of the Asbury Park Press publicity guide, "How to Write a Press Release," by sending the name and address of the organization to Community, Panorama Desk, Asbury Park Press, 3601 Highway 66, Box 1550, Neptune, N.J. 07754-1551. MANALAP4N TOWNSHIP The Parks and Recreation office will have soccer, football and cheerlcading registration from 10 a.m.

to 2 p.m. tomorrow in the Pine Brook School. FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP A free financial planning seminar will be sponsored by Dean Witter Reynolds Inc. at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow at Van's Freehold Inn.

The seminar will cover a range of investment areas, including tax-advantaged income and public programs that provide deductions for federal income tax and offer potential for capital appreciation. FREEHOLD TOW NSHIP The township Woman's Club will meet at 8 p.m. Monday in Grace Lutheran Church, Park Avenue, Freehold, with guest speaker Helen Gehm discussing "Potpourri." FREEHOLD The Woman's Club of Freehold will meet at noon Wednesday at the club house, 87 South St. Lillian Gibson, chairman of the arts department, will have a "Mini Achievement Day" program. Members are asked to bring in crafts, needlework, art and baked goods they have made the past year.

These items will be used as entries in the Fifth District Achievement Day on March 3. Hostess for the meeting will be Annette Horstman, assisted by Mary Ellen Steele, Rose Green-man, Helen Matthews, Elizabeth Witbeck, Edna Storrer, Laurinda Hendrickson and Karen Towne. MANALAPAN TOWNSHIP The Manalapan Little League board of directors will have a public meeting at 8 p.m. Monday in the courtroom of the municipal building. Final registration for this season will be at the meeting.

Volunteers are needed to be managers, I I Furnace check may reveal ills: police Aberdeen, Press Red Bank Bureau ABERDEEN TOWNSHIP Police believe a rash of burglaries reported in the Strathmore section last week may be connected to burglaries in Hazlet Township. Three homes in the Strathmore development, near the entrance to the Garden State Parkway, were reported burglarized last Thursday evening after homeowners found their front doors kicked in and an undetermined amount of cash and jewelry stolen. The development borders the Raritan section of Hazlet Township, where a series of burglaries are under investigation. More than 30 burglaries have been reported in various sections of Hazlet Township since October. In most of those cases, police said the burglars entered the houses between 9 a.m.

and 5 p.m. while the owners were at work, shattered side or rear windows to gain entry, and then stole cash, jewelry and some video and stereo equipment. Township police believe the burglaries may be connected be ported 60 people died from carbon monoxide poisoning from malfunctioning gas-fired furnaces in 1980, the most recent year statistics were compiled. Police and representatives of New Jersey Natural Gas Co. who investigated at the Hallam house believe the carbon monoxide leaked because of the poor condition of the flue pipes.

Had the heating system been professionally inspected on a regular basis, it's unlikely the corroded pipe would have gone unnoticed, Lt. John J. McCabe said. McCabe said he was surprised Mrs. Hallam did not have the system inspected after the extensive publicity the Judge family tragedy received, especially since many public officials urged homeowners to have their furnaces inspected every year.

"I was very surprised," he said. "I would have thought most people throughout the state, and even the country, would have paid attention to what happened to the Judges." The most recent incident is prompting Hazlet Township officials to consider formally warning residents of the danger of carbon monoxide poisoning and the importance of proper furnace care. One item that could have helped alert Mrs. Hallam to the carbon monoxide level in the house is a carbon monoxide detector, McCabe said. Ronald Medford, of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, agrees.

He said the commission would like to require a detector in homes and is researching available models. At least one model, which operates like a smoke detector, is avail- mi mr I- FT it 4 til ll MM I Mill fCiif XM W. IT cause of the method in which the homes were entered and the type of property that was taken. A house on the 100 block of Andover Lane was reported broken into sometime between Jan. 23 and Saturday after the side door was found kicked in.

The owner of the house told police he recently bought the house and was in the process of moving in. Nothing was reported stolen from the house. A neighbor told police she heard a lot of banging and the kitchen lights flickering during the evening Jan. 23, but never called police. Between 1:15 p.m.

and 7:30 p.m. Thursday an Aden Place home was broken into after the burglars kicked in the front door and an undetermined amount of cash and jewelry was reported stolen. In the third burglary, the front door was kicked in at a house on the first block of Ayrmont Lane and an undetermined amount of cash and jewelry also was reported stolen. Detective Sgt. Joseph Booket said although it was uncertain what able to the public now.

Like the smoke detector, it issues an 85-deci-bel alarm if it detects enough carbon monoxide and other heater-related gases in the air. The Wood Stove, Ocean Township, carries the device, which is called a gas sniffer. According to Thomas Smith, one of the owners of the business, the device has not been a big seller, even immediately after the Judge family died last year. "I really don't know why it doesn't sell that well," he said. "We sell about 50 a year.

We ran an ad after the Judge family died, but we got no response. We even went to one of the meetings they had in Hazlet." The township Safety Advisory Committee held community meetings on the importance of furnace maintenance after the Judge deaths last year. "I have one over my coal stove," Smith said, "and it goes off whenever I leave the damper shut." The device, a small plastic box plugged into a wall outlet, has been on the market about five years, he said. It is made by Revco Products, a California-based company, and the literature that accompanies the detector says it has been independently tested in research laboratories, Smith said. "As far as I know, it's the only one on the market now," he said.

It sells for $59.95 at the Wood Stove. A check with several heating companies in northern Monmouth County, including Sears in Middle-town Township, indicated the detector was not available. Most of those polled were not familiar with the device. times the burglaries happened police believe the homes were broken into in the late afternoon and early evening hours. Booket suggested that residents record serial numbers of all valuable appliances such as televisions, stereo and video equipment, and radar detectors and to store all jewelry in safe deposit boxes.

In addition to the house burglaries, police still are investigating a series of car break-ins after 11 cars, most of which were parked in condominium complexes along Routes 34 and 35, were burglarized sometime between Jan. 16 and early in the morning Jan. 22, Booket said. Most of those cars were broken into sometime between midnight and 3:30 a.m. to "expensive cars with high-grade stereo systems ranging in value from $800 to $1,500," Booket said.

Several of the cars had burglar alarm systems, but in each case a side window was shattered and the burglar climbed through the window to avoid sounding the alarm. Probe hurt employees, lawyer says By KIRK MOORE Press Toms River Bureau TOMS RIVER The federal government has unfairly cast a bad image on most employees of three automobile dealerships with its investigation of an alleged cocaine ring here, a lawyer for one defendant said yesterday. Federal prosecutors have obtained indictments against fewer than 20 employees of the Towne Country dealerships on Route 37 here, but have hurt the reputations of more than 200 "law-abiding citizens" who also work for Towne Country, said Dominic F. Amorosa, a South Orange lawyer representing Towne Country president Bruce Rossmeyer. Police and federal agents split into teams Wednesday morning to arrest 13 men indicted by a federal grand jury, which charged that they conspired with Adolph "Butch" Carbone, Toms River, to distribute cocaine.

U.S. Attorney Thomas W. Greel-ish said this week's indictments came out of the continuing investigation that resulted in 40 arrests last October. Twelve of the newly charged defendants are present or former employees of Towne Country, where law enforcement officials allege cocaine dealing created a drug culture involving dealership workers. Defendants brought before U.S.

District Court Judge Anne E. Thompson have entered pleas of not guilty and been released on personal recognizance bonds ranging up to $25,000, according to spokesmen at the district court clerk's office. Greelish praised the work of the police departments in Dover and Brick townships and the Ocean County prosecutor's office. However, Amorosa said authorities should not be proud of the federal government's case. "There are 240 decent, law-abiding people who work at Towne Country Chevrolet, Towne Country Lincoln-Mercury and Towne Country Imports," Amorosa said.

"I believe 17 people, including Rossmeyer, from Towne and Country have been charged," Amorosa said. 2 hunted in theft at service station Press Staff Report FREEHOLD Police are searching for two white males in connection with an armed robbery of about $400 from the Getty Service Station on South Street last night. Lt. William Egerton said the two men stopped at the station just before 10 p.m. and asked the attendant, Herbert Calhoun, here, for the key to the men's room.

While Calhoun was getting the key, one of the men pulled out a handgun. The men then tied up Calhoun in the back room of the service station and left with the cash in an older model small white car, Egerton said. Egerton said police were notified by an anonymous phone call. The only description police have of the men is that they were both white and one man was about 5 foot 6 inches tall and 195 pounds, and the other man had a mustache, Egerton said. Patrolman Steve Cicero is investigating.

i Asbury Park Press CHILDREN'S BOOKS DONATED Peggy Bilella of Wall Township, president of the GFWC Manasquan-Wall junior Women's Club, reads to her 2-year-old daughter, Dana Lynn, from "Angelina Ballerina," a book donated to the Wall Public Library in Dana's name. Members of the women's club donated approximately 20 children's books to the library, located at 2100 Route 35, Wall Township. Poisoning from furnace failures accounts for few deaths in state i Mrs. Hallam did not have the system inspected after the extensive publicity the Judge family tragedy received, especially since many public officials urged homeowners to have their furnaces professionally inspected every year. "1 was verv surmised.

1 would i have thought most people throughout the state and even the countrv would have paid attention to what happened to the Judges," McCabe said. Hallam said his mother and father had been preoccupied with his father's 1 illness during the past year. He said-each family and each household has its own way of doing things. "No one was at fault except that the thing was old," Hallam said. "It happened to break down at this time." He said the family had hired a contractor to install a new system and he hoped it would be installed, and the gas turned on, by today.

Asked about the similarity between what happened at his mother's house and what happened to the Judge family, Hallam "We just think it was an odd occurrence." McCabe said that while the incidents were similar in that they both happened with forced hot air heating systems, the causes of the problem were different. The Judge tragedy was caused by a furnace panel that was ajar, investigators said. Another difference is that the Hallam house still had the original system, while the Judge house system was a replacement of what had originally been in the house, McCabe said. The furnace in the Judge house was manufactured by the Heil Quaker Corp. The manufacturer of the furnace in the Hallam house was the Lennox McCabe said.

Survivors of the Judge family have filed suit against the Heil Quaker Sears Roebuck and N.J. Natural Gas and Bayshore Community Hospital. The first three companies are being sued for not recognizing that the Judge furnace was defective, Hugh M. Turk, the lawyer representing James J. Gallagher, the executor of the Judge family estate, said yesterday.

The hospital is being sued for failing to recognize a case of carbon monoxide poisoning when members of the family came in for treatment, Turk said. The lawsuit still is pending and Turk said he does not know when it will come to trial in Superior Court in Freehold. Hallam said flatly that his family does not intend to sue anyone. Police Holmes J. Gormerly said Wednesday that after the Judge tragedy last year, he had drafted a safety letter to be sent to township residents, but the committee declined to send it on the advice of its lawyer, John O.

Bennett III. Committeeman Richard T. Stair said Bennett advised the committee that the letter was not a good idea, because of the litigation over the incident. The letter might have been interpreted as saying that all gas furnaces are dangerpus, Stair said, which is not the case. By WILLIAM C0NR0Y Press Red Bank Bureau HAZLET TOWNSHIP The furnace and heating system at a house here from which carbon monoxide fumes leaked through corroded flue pipes putting Mary Hallam and her granddaughter in the hospital with gas poisoning was 27 years old and had not been inspected by an outside professional since the house was built in 1959, a member of the family said yesterday.

Gifford P. Hallam, Spotswood, Mrs. Hallam's son, said his father, the late Gifford G. Hallam, was a mechanic and handled most household items himself. The younger Hallam lived in the house at 40 Buttonwood Place until 1971.

He said that as far as he knew, there had been no problems with the system until the accident. Gifford G. Hallam died Jan. 12 after being hospitalized with a stroke since Dec. 9, his son said.

His father had been in ill health in recent years, and had suffered several heart attacks, Hallam said. Had the heating system been professionally inspected on a regular basis, it's unlikely that the corroded pipe would have gone unnoticed, said Lt. John J. McCabe, the police officer who investigated the incident. McCabe said that he had completed his investigation, and his conclusion was that the poisonous fumes originated from the gas furnace and hot water heater, which were side-by-side in a first-floor closet.

The fumes, leaking from holes in corroded flue pipes, were being drawn back into the return ducts and circulated through the heating system, McCabe said. "They (the flue pipes) were all rusted out, with holes in them," McCabe said. Mrs. Hallam and Kimbcrly Lion-etti, her granddaughter, were found suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning at Mrs. Hallam's at the house Wednesday, and Mrs.

Hallam was listed in critical condition at Bayshore Community Hospital, Holmdcl Township, Wednesday night. However, Mrs. Hallam's condition was upgraded to fair yesterday, and Kimberly continued to be listed in fair condition, a hospital spokeswoman said. Hallam said he expected that his mother and niece would be released from the hospital today. "She's (Mrs.

Hallam) fine," Hallam said. He said that hospital officials had told him they were just keeping his mother and niece another day as a precaution, for observation. Glenn J. Phillips, a spokesman for New Jersey Natural Gas which had a crew at the scene Wednesday measuring carbon monoxide levels, said the gas company agreed with McCabe's assessment of the cause. "Carbon monoxide escaped from openings in the flue pipes," Phillips said.

The incident was similar, in some respects, to an incident that killed five members of the John Judge family less than a year ago, in a house just four blocks away in the same housing development. McCabe said he was surprised that By ARLENE NEWMAN Press Staff Writer ONLY ONE PERSON died of carbon monoxide poisoning from a malfunctioning furnace in the state in the most recent year statistics were compiled. Nationwide, the total was 60. Yet, within the last year, two families in the same Hazlet Township development have been overcome by carbon monoxide fumes traced to furnaces. In the first instance, five members of the same family died.

Wednesday, a woman and her granddaughter were saved. Mary Hallam and her granddaughter, Kimberly Lionetti, were rescued by Kimberly's mother, Gail, from Mrs. Hallam's home at 40 Buttonwood Place. Police said the fumes were circulated through the house after the gas leaked through holes in the smoke outlet, or flue. Last March 19, five members of the John Judge family were found dead in their Monmouth Street home.

Investigators said the fumes escaped through an access panel to the furnace that was left ajar. The Hallam house is less than four blocks from where the Judge family lived. The layouts of both houses are similar, and both have gas-fired forced-hot-air heating systems. There, the similarities end. Leigh Cook, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health, reported that only one person died ci carbon monoxide poisoning from a malfunctioning furnace in 1984, the most recent year the state compiled statistics.

Nationally, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission re.