The Central New Jersey Home News from New Brunswick, New Jersey • 9

TUESDAY, JULY 8, 1980 15 PERTH AMBOY FIRE COMICS OBITUARIES CLASSIFIED ADS lifts Tending ths newly improved grave site of eight early New Brunswick residents is Edna Renzo, president of the Rutgers Village Civic Association, Story on this page. Home News ohoio Epps, citing conflicts with school board, steps down By PHYLLIS MESSINGER Home News education writer NEW. BRUNSWICK C. Roy Epps stepped down yesterday as president of the city Board of Education, blaming conflicts with the majority of the board about the selection of a new superintendent of schools and "procedural policy differences." He will remain on as a board member. "The majority of the board was not listening to me," hs said yesterday.

"I came on the board to serve youngsters. They are the constituents. And even though a majority of the board is But board member Edward Boylan said, "I'm sorry Roy did this. I'd rather have seen him wait" to become acquainted with the new superintendent. "We are listening to him," Boylan said.

"But this is a seven-member board, and his is one voice." Epps' successor as president probably will be chosen at the board's next public meeting at 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Chester Redshaw School on Livingston Avenue. His resignation as board head is his second in less than a year. Epps stepped down from the presidency last November after four board members against me, the people in the community still support me." Epps' resignation came the same day Ronald Larkin, an assistant superintendent for elementary education in Newark, began his new job as New Brunswick schools superintendent. Larkin, who spent part of his first day touring the city's schools and meeting some of the district's supervisors, said he didn't want to comment on Epps' resignation.

He would say only: "We've talked. I respect his position. He's a man of principle." Mayor John Lynch, who appoints members of the school board, could not be reacned for comment yesterday. Boylan, Dino Zarrella, Rosella Stass and August Bonanne rejected his proposed hiring and recruitment policy for the district. But a few days later, the policy, with a minor change, was accepted by the four board members and Epps returned as president.

This time Epps said he will not come back. And board Vice President Zarrella, who's next in line for the presidency, said he's not so sure he wants Epps to return. "He can't resign each time he doesn't get his way," Zarrella said. "I'm sorry he resigned, but I don't think I'd ask him to stay." Epps and Boylan, Zarrella, Mrs. Stass, Bonanne and Blanca Gonzalez have been at odds publicly since June 18, when Larkin was chosen superintendent.

Larkin's predecessor, William Hall, resigned under pressure in early March. "There's a whole procedural question that goes back to the resignation of Dr. Hall through to last week," Epps said. Shortly after Hall's resignation, four board members voted to limit the search for a successor to the two candidates Hall had bested to get the superintendent's post the previous summer. Epps wanted another full-scale search.

But the four board members who voted in the majority said it was important to mmmmmmmmmmm Edison tries to collar dog-limit ordinance By ANDY ROTHMAN Home News ftaff writer EDISON An ordinance limiting the number of dogs a resident can own will be acted on at tomorrow night's public meeting of the Township Council. The council, at an agenda meeting last niglt, discussed tying the number of dogs to property size, with a maximum of either four or five. The proposal was sparked by complaints to township officials about homes Tith -numerous dogs that pose nuisances to neighbors. One draft of the ordinance would restrict residents living on less than one-half acre to owning no more than two dogs. Residences with less than three acres would be permited a maximum of three dogs.

At the agenda meeting, council members were divided as to whether residents living on three or more acres of property should be allowed to own four or five dogs. The proposed ordinance was not discussed in any greater detail. The proposal was opposed last night by Ladis Gola, who describes himself as a "hobby breeder" of show dogs. Gola, a resident of Stevens Avenue, said he owns five dogs and lives on a small piece of property. "I will be the one to suffer for the people who don't take care of their dogs," said Gola.

He said he did not know of any complaints lodged against his dogs. In a letter to the council, Gola asked for the establishment of a "hobby breeder" category of dog owner. Such owners, Gola hopes, would be exempted from the proposed ordinance. He stated that people who breed dogs for "the betterment of the breed" are able to properly care for any number of dogs they choose to own. Gola promised that he and other breeders of show dogs would protest the ordinance at tomorrow's meeting.

The only regular council meeting scheduled for July will begin at 8 p.m. tomorrow at the municipal complex. MARKING GRAVES Edna Renzo, president of the Rutgers Village Civic Association, places flowers on the grave site of eight early New Brunswick residents. The graves are under ground occupied by the Route 1 Flea Market, and the property owner recently improved the burial site and buried the graves 20 feet deeper. '80 TESTS EQUALLED EARLIER MARKS Ooops! State flubbed in figuring Park pupils' basic skills scores replace Hall quickly.

Larkin was one of those two candidates; Donald Warner, superintendent of the Red Bank Regional High School District, was the other. However, Warner then said he no longer was interested in the New Brunswick job, and in the face of adverse community reaction, board members changed their minds and agreed to open up the selection process to include all applicants. Two citizen screening committees recommended Larkin and three other persons for the post. Piscataway party-goers face charges By JILL ROSS Home News staff writer PISCATAWAY Six people are to be arraigned in Municipal Court tomorrow on charges stemming from a police raid of a Saturday night party they had attended at 8 Curtis Ave. On two consecutive nights, neighbors had reported hearing shotgun blasts coming from the Curtis Avenue home.

Complaints of shotgun blasts were made to police at midnight Friday and at midnight Saturday. Police obtained a search warrant and conducted the raid shortly after midnight Saturday, turning up a shotgun and various quantities of drugs, police reported. Frank Pondaco, 18, of Howell was arrested and charged with unlawful possession of a shotgun and unlawful discharge of a firearm. He was released on $2,000 bail, police said. Michael W.

Kaprosch, 18, who lives at the Curtis Avenue address, and four other people were arrested on drug charges. Kaprosch and Kathleen Hagelberg, 18, of West Union Avenue, Bound Brook, were charged with possession and intent to distribute more than five grams of hashish, according to police. Kaprosch, held overnight in Middlesex County Jail, was released after posting $2,000 bail on Sunday, police reported. Miss Hagelberg was released on her own recognizance. John Garbiras, a former township resident now living in Livingston, was charged wjth possession with intent to distribute an undetermined amount of qualudes.

As of last night, he was still in the county jail, police said. Vincent Engelmann, 21, of Mountain Boulevard, Watchung, who was charged with possession of less than five grams of hashish, posted $250 bail, police said. Francis Granger, 19, of Edwards Avenue also was arrested on a disorderly persons charge and later released on $250 bail, authorities reported. No clues found to indicate man was slain Somerset County and Branchburg police are questioning acquaintances of a New York man whose body was found in Branchburg a week ago for leads on how and where he died. Police don't believe that the victim, 21 -year-old Peter G.

Manning, was murdered since his body showed no signs of a beating or bullet or stab wounds. Prosecutor David Linett said laboratory examination of bis vital organs is being made in an effort to determine the cause of death. Linett said police are checking a report that Manning was a drug user. He is believed at one time to have worked for a rock group in a non-performing capacity. He lived on and off with his mother in Manhattan.

She last saw him June 24, officials said. Linett said Manning probably died soon after that, because he was dead for about five days when his body was found in a ditch off Pleasant Run Road. The prosecutor said police have found nothing to indicate Manning was in New Jersey before his death. Police are also trying to trace the painter's drop cloth in which Manning's body was wrapped. An only son.

Manning was born in London and grew up in the United States. His father left him and his mother shortly after he was born, according to police. Home News photo Eight early city residents morrow in the high school cafeteria. The tests, given to pupils in grades 3. 6, 9 and 11, are one way of measuring student skills in reading and mathematics.

In all cases but one, Highland Park pupils passed the tests, according to the state. Sixth-graders on average failed the reading test by half a percentage point, scoring 9 percent lower than sixth-graders did last year, the results show. But, Marshall said, it was in figuring the sixth-grade average that the state included the results of nine special-education students, slanting the scores by at least 9 percent. HIGHLAND PARK Local third-, sixth- and ninth-graders who took the state's Minimum Basic Skills tests in March performed as well as their counterparts did last year, contrary to test results released by the state last week, borough school officials said yesterday. The state erred accidentally in com-piung Highland Park results by including scores from pupils in special education classes, data that generally isn't used in comparisons with results from previous years and other school districts, Board of Education President Gilbert Marshall said.

A special meeting to explain the results has been scheduled for 8 m. to now rest in a deeper peace Study of RVH puts hospital's bid to bed By RUDY LARINI Home News staff writer NEW BRUNSWICK The wife of a general in the American Revolution, a wealthy 18th-century businesswoman and six other early New Brunswick residents are buried some 20 feet deeper today than they were a week ago. The graves are located under the parking lot of the Route 1 Flea Market, formerly the Great Eastern Discount Center. When Great Eastern was built 15 years ago, the owner of the property, John E. Burke, wanted to move the eight graves, which are marked by a single stone monument listing seven names.

He decided not to, however, when he learned he would need the written permission of all their heirs, according to Burke's son, John Jr. of the adjacent J.E. Burke playground equipment company on Route 1. Instead, when the 15-acre site overlooking the Raritan River was filled during the construction of Great Eastern and its parking lot. Burke built four concrete walls around the graves and monument, creating a 20-foot pit which eventually became a depository for bottles, cans and other debris.

"It was just a garbage dump instead of a place of reverence for the dead," said Burke, whose father acquired the property in 1943 and operated the Raritan Playland amusement park until 1955. Burke and his tenant, Ray Travis, who operates the popular weekend flea market, decided to fill the concrete pit with dirt and raise the granite monument to ground level. City history buffs who observed heavy equipment at the site last week, however, at first thought the graves of Mary Ellis, her sister Margaret Ellis White and their descendents were being disturbed. Mary Ellis, a wealthy 18th-century city landowner, carved By RICK DEL VECCHIO Home News staff writer A second offer by Plainfield's Muhlenberg Hospital to buy Raritan Valley Hospital will not be considered until completion of a state study on converting the debt-ridden Green Brook facility into a nursing home. The state Department of Health commissioned the study a week before the College of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, which owns the hospital, received Muhlenberg's July 2 offer of $6.5 million.

Dunellen Mayor Lawrence Anzovino, one of a number of municipal officials lobbying to keep the hospital open as a general health care facility, said he believes the study makes the state's position clear for the first time. "The state is going to do everything they possibly can to make it a nursing Buried at the site along with Mary Ellis (1750-1828) and Margaret Ellis White (1767-1850), according to the inscriptions on the burial monument, are Margaret and Gen. White's daughter, Elizabeth Mary White (1792-1861); the daughter's husband, Thomas M. Evans, who died in 1820; their children, Elizabeth Margaret Evans (1813-1898) and Isabella Johanna Evans (1815-1901), and a woman named Mildred Moody (1746-1816), who is identified only as the "wife of Thomas Evans." An eighth person, a servant of the family, is believed to be buried at the site as well, according to Mrs. Renzo.

Travis, who said he spent more than $1,000 to dump 11 truckloads of fill dirt in the fenced grave pit, said he had cleaned the area when he first opened his flea market in 1975. "In a matter of a year, it became a garbage pail again," he said, explaining the pit became overgrown with weeds in addition to the debris which was dumped there. Travis said he plans to landscape the dirt around the burial monument. "We're going to put a few ferns there and some other nice things," he said. "I don't like to take pats on the back.

I just did it because it looks better." The Mary Ellis float in the Aug. 16 Raritan River festival, meanwhile, will commemorate a woman who holds an honored place in city history. Miss Ellis acquired the estate on which she is buried from her brother-in-law, Gen. White, who had met Margaret Ellis while stationed in South Carolina during the Revolution. Mary Ellis, who was born in 1750, had come to New Brunswick in 1784 and lived with her sister and brother-in-law on an estate on Livingston Avenue at New Street where the YWCA is now located.

Mary Ellis, who is remembered as a shrewd businesswoman who voted in city elections, attracted the attention of her contemporaries when she challenged a City Hall proposal to build a new street through her garden. Although she could not prevent the construction of Schureman Street through her property, she is said to have marked its existence by installing a boldly lettered sign identifying the thoroughfare as "Oppression Street." Miss Ellis never married, bet she is rumored to have fallen in love with a sea captain whose return she patiently and unsuccessfully awaited from her estate overlooking the Raritan River. Mrs. Renzo said the name of float being sponsored by the Rutgers Village residents, whose properties are part of the estate once owned by Miss Ellis, is "Our Neighbor Mary Ellis: A Story of Love and Hope." facilities from the area, are ready to "march on Trenton." However, Health Department spokesman Mitch Leon denied the study represents anything more than an attempt to gather information. "I don't believe this study is designed to prove what everyone else has already concluded," he said yesterday.

"Whether or not the hospital continues in whatever form is not one agency's decision," he said. Muhlenberg's original $4 million offer was rejected by the CMDNJ. It then raised the offer to a sum equal to Raritan Valley's current debt. The offer is valid until Sept. 1.

In the first year of the proposal, the hospital would be reduced to 70 beds fro: i the present 131. Eventually, Muhlenberg proposes, 107 beds would be available. Currently, about half the beds are not in use. Muhlenberg would operate the facility as a referral center for acute care patients. The current staff of 500 would be reduced to 200, but Raritan Valley would retain some emergency and surgery facilities.

The state purchased Raritan Valley in 1970 as a teaching hospital. However, the CMDNJ gradually moved its facilities to Middlesex General Hospital in New Brunswick. Raritan Valley was then put up for sale. Middlesex General also is studying the possibility of purchasing the a place for herself in New Brunswick history by voting and challenging City Hall over the construction of a road through home," Anzovino said yesterday. "The study is to convince the governor that the hospital should change." her property.

Her sister Margaret was married to Revolu tionary War Gen. Anthony Walton White. Anzovino said he hopes the 68-mem- Edna Renzo, the president of the Rutgers Village Civic Association and the chairman of a group which plans to exhibit a Mary Ellis float in the city's Raritan River Tercentennial festival next month, said she received a telephone ber group of officials can mount one last drive on behalf of the hospital before the state study is finished in mid-August. He has called a meeting of the call from a friend who announced, "They're bulldozing Mary Ellis!" group for Wednesday, July 16. Anzovino hopes to hold a series of 'I had a fit," said Mrs.

Renzo, explaining she was relieved public hearings and to meet with Gov. Brendan Byrne. and pleasantly surprised to learn the actual purpose of the work. Anzovino said area rescue squads, "They did a good job," she said. "Before it was so ugly you which are concerned that the hospital always went away feeling a little bit sad." closing would remove emergency-room.