The Courier-News from Bridgewater, New Jersey • Page 1

13 Hillsboro tops Watchung Voortieei 27 N. Hunterdon 0 20 14 N.PIainfleld Rldga Hillsboro 21 Watchung 7 Future Lirtf antiques Jj Old pool and billiard tables are popular with collectorsB-1 Reds close to sweep of World Series Cincinnati takes third game, 8-3, against OaklandD-1 Immaculata 13 Central-Newark 12 S.PIainflald N. Brunswick 21 6 Bound Brook 27 Lloyd McCorkla 8 Complete results in Sports, Page D-4, 5 rin Somerset, Hunterdon Edition Sunny, high 58-64; clear tonight, low 37-42; tomorrow: cloudy, high 62-67 Weather details Page A-2 25 Cents 722-8800 A Gannett newspaper serving Central New Jersey Bridgewater, Saturday, October 20, 1990 Liuu Emergency declared in Montgomery IKJSV I 1 MlMM I Ml If '4 "J-i: 11 1 U)urier-New8 photos by Kathy Johnson The foundation of David and Patricia Byron's home at 35 DeHart Drive in Montgomery stands exposed yesterday following Thursday's tornado, which leveled the house. II Ut Ij. Oil 1 i Area rallies for storm cleanup By KATHIE FLANNERY Courier-News Staff Writer MONTGOMERY Mayor Robert Kress yesterday estimated damages at $2 million after a tornado swept through the northeastern portion of the township Thursday night.

In declaring a state of emergency in the area, Kress said the figure does not include the contents of damaged or destroyed homes. He also estimated that the town will spend $75,000 on emergency services in three days. The twister leveled one house and damaged 23 others in the Mill Pond Estate development. The U.S. Weather Service said the tornado, with winds of 150 to 175 mph, touched down about 7:45 p.m.

Thursday, flattening the Byron residence at 35 DeHart Drive. After destroying the home, the tornado split in two, sending a less destructive funnel up the eastern side of DeHart Drive and a stronger one to the west, said Jack Warrelman of the Weather Service. The western funnel stayed closer to the ground, causing more destruction, Warrelman said, while the eastern portion whirled above the houses. Three homes, including the one that was leveled, were ordered condemned last night. Two others with major damage were listed as reparable.

Nineteen houses incurred minor damage, which is considered anything that can be repaired for less than $10,000, Kress said. Yesterday, rubbish cluttered the streets, with their cluster of attractive 15-year-old homes. Two of the homes looked like giant doll houses walls were torn open, exposing flowered wallpaper, curtains on non-existent windows, and furniture strewn about. Throughout the neighborhood, basketball poles were bent in half. While an older man gently carried a drawer full of ceramic religious statues to safety, other residents searched through piles of debris to salvage what they could.

A lost-and-found was set up in the temporary police command post in the neighborhood. Kress explained that by declaring a state of emergency, the township can take charge of the area, rope it off and bring in emergency crews. The declaration also is the first step in obtaining funding for the cleanup and other expenses, he said. In less than two years, Kress noted, the township has been hit with four By KATHIE FLANNERY Courier-News Staff Writer MONTGOMERY Neighbors, churches, rescue workers and businesses pitched in yesterday to help DeHart Drive residents pick up the pieces of their homes and lives torn apart by a violent storm Thursday night. Amidst the rubble left by the storm, DeHart Drive swarmed with activity, resembling an army ants rebuilding a hill.

Inspectors went house to house to examine electrical systems, assessors checked damage to homes, and Public Service Electric and Gas Co. workers checked gas lines. At the same time, food poured in from a variety of sources, and neighbors offered to help sort family treasures from the rubble. United Telephone of New Jersey set up a portable telephone station offering free telephone calls to residents without homes or utilities, said representative Ray Munro. The phone company also offered a message system to those families; the system was designed to leave an out- See HELP on back page 4 'If, I wir "WW See STORM on back page Patricia Byron, center, searches through the rubble of her home yesterday in an attempt to salvage her belongings.

Teacher charged with sen crimes AMettes to meek Bruce, Bradley have sports and fans in common ents will be encouraged to talk to their children, and if they suspect that their child has been abused, they should call Hillsborough police and a detective from the prosecutor's office will talk to them. A child psychologist also will be available, Bissell said. Bissell said the steps are being taken to "be cautious" and "put everyone at ease." Hillsborough Police Chief Henry Genzel, Hillsborough Schools Superintendent Michael Carey, Assistant See TEACHER on back page- office have devised a plan to inform parents about the alleged incidents. Deborah Anne McGowan, the county's sexual assault prevention coordinator, will be at the middle school on Monday morning to answer questions from faculty and students about identifying and reporting sexual abuse. The school also will send letters to parents explaining the same.

School officials plan to compile the names of students who had a great deal of contact with Kulat and notify their parents of the allegations. Par filed in Superior Court. The alleged relationship was not consensual on the part of the girl, police said. Kulat was arrested yesterday morning at the Carrier Foundation in Montgomery, an in-patient psychiatric hospital where he had been admitted two weeks ago for unrelated but undisclosed personal reasons, officials said at a press conference called by Somerset County Prosecutor Nicholas L. Bissell Jr.

While police do not believe there were other assaults, as a precaution the school district and prosecutor's By MARY ROMANO Courier-News Staff Writer SOMERVILLE A veteran Hillsborough Middle School teacher was charged yesterday with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old female student in an empty classroom nearly three times a week for seven months. Andrew Kulat, 43, of 92 Petticoat Lane, Clinton Township, was charged with three counts of first-degree sexual assault and third-degree sexual contact, according to a complaint Senate budget plan easier on N.J. taxpayers with us," Bradley said yesterday. "I am looking forward to meeting him. I know well all have a great evening together." Said Bruce: "It will be a pleasure to meet someone who has achieved so much in a sport and achieved so much in his life.

I'm really excited about it I saw a couple of commercials of him taking care of the Jersey shore, and I like that I've never met a United States senator before. Plus, there's a good concert." It will be the first outing for Bruce since July, when surgery for a bed sore slowed the steady progress he had made since the crash. Bruce, 19, was enjoying a promising athletic career and looking forward to college when tragedy struck on Nov. 5, 1988. As a senior at Bridgewater-Rar-itan High School East, he was on his way to take the Scholastic Aptitude Test when the car in which he was a passeriger skidded and crashed into a tree.

Bruce suffered a spinal injury, which robbed him of the use of his arms and legs and forced him to See BRUCE on back page By ROBIN GABY FISHER Courier-News Staff Writer BRIDGEWATER Although they are no longer on the playing field, Bill Bradley and Michael Bruce can still draw crowds of supporters to their arenas. Today, in the latest show of a continuous outpouring of affection for Bruce a former star lacrosse player at Bridgewater-Rar-itan High School East who was rendered a quadraplegic after an auto accident in November 1988 a group of volunteers will plant shrubs and trees donated by local nurseries to spruce up the new handicapped-access addition to the family's Martinsville home. And tonight, Bruce will travel to the Meadowlands to be among thousands of people who will pay tribute to Bill Bradley, the basketball player turned senator, at a to raise funds foj Brad-, ley's re-election campaign. I They'll be meeting for the first time. But there already seems to be a mutual admiration brewing between the pair.

"I am so proud Michael will be there to share this celebration By JOHN MACHACEK Gannett News Service The limitation on deductions would cost New Jersey taxpayers an additional $2.02 billion over five years. Six percent of the state's taxpayers earn more than $100,000 a year. "It's the most troubling part of the tax provisions," said Stavroula Lambrakopoulos, director of the state's Washington office. "The limitations on deductions will have their highest impact in states like New Jersey." New Jersey motorists would pay an additional million in gasoline taxes under the Senate's five-year budget plan. They would pay $528 million over the same period if the 9-cents-a-gallon tax Is retained.

The "sin taxes" on cigarettes and alcoholic bev-erages would cost the same under either plan. Budget-writers bargainingA-3 billion in income taxes from 1991 to 1996 if a House-Senate conference, meeting this weekend to negotiate a reconciliation of differences in the two bills, adopts the House proposal to raise the top marginal rate from 28 percent to 33 percent. The Senate plan doesn't raise the top income tax rate. Other House provisions include a proposed 10 percent surtax on taxable income of more than $1 million, which Florio's staff said would cost New "Jersey an extra $342 million, But Florio's lobbyists said the most onerous tax proposals for New Jersey are in the Senate plan. The Senate package, which passed early yesterday, limits itemized deductions on the federal return for people earning more than $100,000 a year.

It also gradually increases the gasoline tax to 18.5 cents a gallon, more than double the current levy of 9 cents a gallon. WASHINGTON Wealthy New Jerseyans would feel the sting of deficit reduction less under a Senate-approved budget plan than they would under a competing plan endorsed by the House. Gov. James Florio's Washington staff yesterday calculated that state taxpayers would pay more than $5.2 billion in new taxes over the next five years under the House plan, compared with $3.6 billion under the Senate plan. The amounts calculated by Florio's staff don't include a House proposal to increase the amount of income subject to 1.45 percent Medicare payroll tax from $51,300 to $100,000.

New Jersey taxpayers would pay an extra $2.8 1 i l. i i i. i mi- I I I I ii I i i i i ir. ill i r''.