The Courier-News from Bridgewater, New Jersey • Page 4

Mi in i. .1 3 ET 71 Somerset Watchung out to defend title. Page C4 Rent controls making comeback. Page A3 II 1 1 II .1 nr Ska 1 a i 4 Vl fly -4b 1 I I II I I III 1 Tonight will be clear and mild, with a sunny, warmer day tomorrow (Weather details, page A2 Serving Central Jersey Friday, September 15, 1978 A Gannett Paper 722 8800 20 Cents 0 "''ft 1 J- If I JL. i Nets get new owners Related story on CI ra i neiworK, A A 'I mm Courier-Newi Photo, by vmct Krtmcr Lowering the beam Workmen place one of six precast concrete beams in position last night during widening work on the two-lane Van Veghten Bridge between Manville and Bridgewater.

The bridge, which spans the Raritan River at Finderne Avenue, will be closed from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. tonight, Monday and Tuesday. staffers 'sick' over contract By JOHN BELIS Courier-News Sports Writer EAST RUTHERFORD The New Jersey Nets are alive and well. It was made official yesterday in a Meadowlands Sports Complex press conference attended by Gov.

Brendan Byrne, announcing the sale of the National Basketball Association franchise to a nine-man group headed by chairman Alan Cohen, former president of Madison Square Garden. The team, which plays its home games' at the Rutgers University Athletic Center in Piscataway, had been threatened with bankruptcy and extinction during recent months. Until this week, there was serious doubt whether' the franchise would survive. Former owner RoyBoe had accrued debts totaling $15 million. Creditors seized the team's property by court order from the team's locker rooms and several players' paychecks bounced this summer.

According to NBA commissioner Lawrence O'Brien (former chairman of the Democratic National Committee) the league was prepared to begin the 1978-79 season next month without the Nets. But all of those problems have apparently been solved by the new owners who, according to the terms of the sale, will satisfy all of the Nets' financial obligations. The Nets, who were to open their training camp today, will play at Rutgers for two more seasons before moving to the new indoor arena at the Meadowlands which is scheduled to be completed in 1980. The regular season opens Oct. 13 in Detroit and the Nets will play their home opener the following night against the Los Angeles Lakers.

N.J. Sports and Exposition Authority chairman William Hyland pointed out that Gov. Byrne had made the decision last month to go ahead with the ground breaking for the indoor arena which will be located approximately one half mile east of Giants Stadium. "First class is the way we go in this state and we intend to build a first class indoor facility," Byrne affirmed. "It's a great plus to have the Nets as tenants but frankly we were ready to go ahead with construction with or without them." The Governor also gave the club a vote of confidence.

By JEAN E. CATINO Courier-News Staff Writer New Jersey will buy most of the state's Conrail-owned passenger rail network today although some cars still in use qualify as museum pieces. State Department of Transportation (DOT) officials said they would buy 374 miles of track and 130 passenger stations for $17.5 million. However, Conrail will continue running the system for now. Included in the Conrail network are the former Erie-Lackawanna Railway and the old Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ) line, which carries some cars dating back to 1928.

Several of the "antique" CNJ railroad cars still in service have been requested by railroad museums around" the country. The DOT has proposed rail improvements which would include the replacement of old CNJ cars with 47 air-conditioned trailer cars, 16 air-condi- bers of Council 8, which represents more than 1,000 Civil Service workers, but appear to be an insurgent group. Camerano said the leadership of Council 8 has stated its opposition to the sickout. "I informed them a sickout against the hospital was not the proper means for expressing their dissatisfaction," Camerano said. He repeated a warning that absent employees should be ready to produce a doctor's excuse or face loss of a day's pay.

The county has offered five percent wage hikes, but union members say they are seeking 10 percent. In New Brunswick, a federal mediator has scheduled new talks Wednesday and next Sunday in an effort to avert a threatened strike by 250 registered nurses at Middlesex General Hospital. The nurses are represented by Local 1542, Professional Nurse and Hospital Employees. They are seeking a 12 percent salary increase in their first contract with the hospital, which has offered a seven percent increase in previous mediation sessions. tioned, lavatory-equipped cab cars and 10 diesel locomotives.

Minor station improvements are also included in the proposed "Phase of a railroad capital improvements project, which is expected to cost $70 million. State transportation officials expect the project, part of a planned $600 million scheme with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, to be funded by the Urban Mass Transportation Administration (UMTA). They will submit a funding application in 1979. The planned purchase of the Conrail network, according to Transportation Commissioner Louis J. Gambaccini, is intended to protect rights-of-way, give the state more control over maintenance and upgrading and make it easier to replace Conrail as operator if the state decides it.

can provide better service. The purchase price of $17.5 million was set by the federal government and is said to be as little as one-fifth the current market value of the properties. The law that set up Conrail on April 1, 1976, gave states 900 days from that date to buy passenger lines for the same prices Conrail paid to the bankrupt railroads it replaced. The purchase option expires Sunday. Meanwhile, the DOT held another hearing last night, at Somerville High School, on proposed rail improvements.

At least two transportation officials at the hearing were not satisfied with plans simply to replace the "rolling stock on the CNJ, or Raritan Valley line. Arthur L. Reuben, transportation coordinator of Somerset County and assistant director of the county Planning Board, told state DOT officials that although commuters would welcome the upgrading, through access to New York City via electrification of the line is necessary and "essential to the economic viability of the railroad." Because of technical limitations the diesel locomotives on the Raritan Valley line cannot pass through Hudson River tunnels into New York. Commuters must change to Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) or Penn Central trains at Newark's Pennsylvania Station in order to reach Manhattan. Reuben recommended a dual-powered system of locomotion one that would Continued Back Page This Section basics as extra pay for working weekends." He said the union is seeking some slight compensation in cases where an employee is required to be on standby for 24 hours.

Craner said the council's refusal to agree to a dues checkoff and procedures regarding changes in job deceptions were other stumbling blocks. He said a state mediator has urged acceptance of a number of such non-monetary provisions with no success. Meanwhile, 60 Runnells Hospital employees, considered an insurgent group of Union County Civil Service Association Council 8 workers, called in sick and prepared to demonstrate at the county Courthouse in Elizabeth. Franklin Camerano, administrator of the county-operated hospital, said this morning the nursing department was operating "fairly smoothly" with off-duty nurses and professionals from other departments filling in for the missing personnel. Camerano said the practical nurses, institutional attendants and maintenance workers who are out all are mem Indictment 'unlikely' for chaplaincy group Manville By TEK TALMONT Courier-News Staff Writer MANVILLE Nearly three dozen public works employees called in sick this morning following "a total breakdown in negotiations" for a new contract, according to an attorney representing the municipal workers.

Sixty workers at Union County's John E. Runnells Hospital in Berkeley Heights also called in sick to protest lack of a settlement in 1978 contract talks. And negotiations will continue in an effort to avoid a threatened strike on Sept. 25 by nurses at Middlesex General Hospital in New Brunswick. Manville Mayor Albert Palfy described the sickout as "a childish action hurting only the 13,000 residents of Manville." He questioned the motive, saying that both sides in the contract dispute had agreed Wednesday to submit all issues to binding arbitration.

Palfy said no action would be taken against those employees of the water, streets and sewer departments taking Prosecutor David Linett declined comment yesterday on the case, except to confirm that evidence gathered by his office since February will be presented to the 21-member grand jury early next month. The council was a non-profit organization, started in 1960, with offices on North Bridge Street. It received financial support from churches in the county and federal funds through the county Comprehensive Employment and Training Agency (SCETA). The council worked with criminal offenders, offering job placement, counseling and related community services. SCETA began an investigation into the council after receiving allegations of fiscal mismanagement by council officials in January from a fired associate director of the agency, David Jones.

Jones had asked SCETA to overturn his dismissal. Continued Back Page This Section Living Lotteries Obituaries Religious news Sports Stocks Theater, Arts Weather What's Going A2 B2 B3 CI-6 B7 AI2.13 A2 A9 B2. part in today's sickout. The protest involved almost all public works employees. But he said several courses of legal action would be considered if the walkout continues into tomorrow.

Palfy said garbage pickups in a section of Manville were not made today. He said a pickup crew normally is scheduled to work Saturdays. John A. Craner, Mountainside attorney representing the Manville Public Works Employees, said efforts to negotiate a contract have been frustrated by repeated changes in the makeup of a negotiating committee appointed by the government body. "We are repeatedly starting from scratch," he said.

The employees attempted to negotiate their own 1977 contract, Craner said, but talks broke down in mid-December. Attorneys were brought in to settle last year's and this year's contracts, the lawyer said. According to Craner, the Borough Council has increased its original offer of a three percent salary increase to an "acceptable" seven percent in each of the two contract years. Craner said, however, the municipality is trying to take away "such They hope eel heals pV iri KHaamMi By SAM MEDDIS Courier-News Staff Writer SOMERVILLE Evidence to be handed over to a Somerset County grand jury next month is likely to result in a formal criticism of the fiscal management of the defunct county Chaplaincy Council, but no criminal charges, a reliable source said yesterday. A source with knowledge of the police investigation said evidence obtained so far on allegations of.

fiscal irregularities at the council does not indicate any major wrongdoing by individuals associated with the agency. The source said the investigation is virtually complete, except for final paperwork. A grand jury makes its findings on the basis of evidence presented to it. In some cases, the jury may decide not to hand up criminal charges, but instead issue a statement called a presentment, which criticizes the practices of an organization. MLtu rm a x.

lid Tv A jrr s4 11 in TV Ml Blackmail: Pay off or get plague TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) An unsuccessful attempt was made yesterday to deliver money to an extortionist who has threatened to contaminate the city with a virus, police said. A newspaper said the threat mentioned bubonic plague. The money was delivered to a location near Mount Lemmon north of the city, but no one showed up to pick up the cash, police Maj. John Carter said.

A hiker and a motorcyclist opened the package containing the money but were questioned and released, he said. The extortion attempt was similar to one made last spring. In that incident, the extortionist said he would contaminate the city's water supply with typhoid bacteria, but Carter said the latest threat made no mention of the water system. The Arizona Daily Star reported in Fri-. day's editions that the latest threat said the plague would be spread by infected fleas.

Carter downplayed any danger to Tucson residents, saying there is "not a great degree of threat." Another Investigator said the chances of infecting the area with plague are "very, very remote." The Star also reported the amount o( money demanded was $500,000, adding that it had learned the extortionist also demanded free food for the poor and the resumption of free abortions at Pima County's Kino Community Hospital. Letters sent to Mayor Lewis Murphy last spring demanded $750,000. The latest Continued Back Page Toil Section Inside The Courier-News Astrology A9 Bombeck A8 Bridge B6 Business B7 Classified C6-14 Comics B6 Crossword A13 Editorials, Letters Engagements AIO HELPI A9 Landers A8 Legals C6 Attendants carry a 6-hot-2-lnch Maria from a holding tank to an Chicago's Shedd Aquarium for Moray eel named gave the staff some scary moments when she began operating table at to revive during the operation, but officials said the eye surgery. Maria surgery apparently was successful..