Press of Atlantic City from Atlantic City, New Jersey • 20

PAGEC4 THE PRESS ATLANTIC CITY NJ REGION TUESDAY MARCH 13 2007 Career expo at Hamilton Mall LOCAL AGENDA right thing now by operating at reduced power until the next Richard Webster a staff attorney at the Rutgers Environmental Law Clinic doesn't agree Webster said the plant continues to have main tenance problems far as we are concerned this is just another sign that this plant is reaching the end of its Webster said plant is like an old car If not one thing another thing" The Oyster Creek nuclear generating facility is the nation's oldest operating nuclear reactor Its initial license was issued in 1969 and is set to expire in 2009 AmerGen has applied for a 20 year renewal of that license A decision from the NRC could come as early as May To mail Dave Benson: DBensonpressofac com out and make all the adjust olsom School District Superintendent Jean Rishel said feel that fair for them to have gone back (three years) like To cover a little more titan half of its tuition increase olsom schools plan to ask voters to support an 1 12 percent tax hike It would be the largest school tax increase in the borough in 15 years according to district sta tistics The state aid boost would cover most of the difference Hammonton and Waterford district officials and lawyers have been negotiating since October olsom officials said Hammonton officials unfairly waited until just more than two weeks ago to contact them about the plan The districts will follow an appeals process set up through the state Bureau of Controversies and Disputes It provides the districts a chance to explain their differences to Department of Education offi cials and finalize an agreement that meets state school laws inalizing this budget could bring an end to the financial instability that has shackled Hammonton schools for the past year The new budget would fully erase more than $1 million of deficit and lift spend ing freezes that limited mainte nance updates the purchasing of materials and text books and the filling of staff positions Hammonton officials have said After the voters rejected last budget proposal town offi cials were highly critical of how little payment the school district required from its sending dis tricts The town replaced its for mer business administrator and the new administrator Barbara Prettyman made a priority of reconfiguring those tuitions doing her job but the board had the opportunity to 1 look at that budget and deter mine what was Rishel said olsom voters rejected a budget that had no tax increase last year making Rishel who just joined the district last month concerned they will reject this budget as well Hammonton should have spread the increased burden out over several years to be fair she said By DAVID BENSON Staff Writer (609) 272 7206 The Oyster Creek nuclear gen erating station has reduced power output by almost 25 per cent to avoid a sudden shut down that could lead to a fish kill a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Monday The nuclear facility will operate at between 75 and 82 percent of capacity for the next several weeks until a pump can be fixed during a routine power outage scheduled for April Leslie Cifelli a spokes woman for the Oyster Creek plant said inspectors recently found increased pressure on an inner seal in one of the pumps that cools the reactor There are five pumps at Oyster Creek One pump has been offline since December for repairs With one pump down for repairs and another showing problems with a seal "Nevertheless the company has assets and real estate that could be attractive to a buyer interested in Atlantic Perry said that the hiring of Merrill Lynch is the next step in Trump's growth strategy The company wants to expand the Trump brand into other mar kets while continuing to upgrade its aging casinos in Atlantic City "What we have said from the very beginning is we have a plan for growing the company and we are pursuing strategic alternatives to carry out that Perry said Trump Entertainment oper ates Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino and Trump Marina Donald Trump is the compa largest single shareholder owning about a 30 percent stake Although Trump Enter tainment is one of the largest casino operators it con sistently loses money In the fourth quarter of 2006 the com pany posted a net loss of $97 million or 31 cents per share Trump's casinos have tradi tionally lagged behind their competitors because the com suffocating debt load left no money for major upgrades However the com pany restructured its finances through Chapter 11 bankrupt cy in 2005 reducing its debt and freeing up extra cash for improvement projects includ ing an 800 room hotel tower that will open next year at the Taj Mahal To mail Donald Witlkowski at The Press: DWittkowskipressofaccom temperature of the water dis charged from the plant which can kill fish In April 2004 AmerGen was fined $1 million for a fish kill in September 2002 In that inci dent about 6000 fish died when a temperature dilution pump was turned off during maintenance Neil Sheehan a spokesman for the NRC said the plant could operate safely during the next few weeks "This is an economic issue for Sheehan said are base load plants designed to operate at 100 Cutting potver output cuts into the bottom line Sheehan said but in this case it doesn't affect the safety margin "We're always worried about maintenance issues" Sheehan said "We make sure that they stay on top of these things But it looks like doing the AmerGen owner of the plant decided to reduce output Cifelli said initial reports from the NRC that the seal is leaking are wrong is no Cifelli said found an increase of pressure on the inner seal but there is no Cifelli said there are redun dant seals in the pump If the inner seal fails there is an outer seal being environmental ly Cifelli said of the decision to reduce power out put instead of taking the plant offline upholding our promise to the The plant needs at least four coolant pumps to operate at full power With one pump offline a seal failure in one of the remaining pumps could cause an emergency shutdown of the plant A quick shutdown causes a rapid change in the By TIMOTHY PUKO Staff Writer (609) 272 7275 The two school districts that send students to Hammonton are disputing tuition adjust ments that would allow Hammonton School District to avoid a tax hike this year but cause large tax hikes in the sending districts The school budgets for Hammonton and its sending districts Waterford and olsom could hang in limbo well past next school board elec tions and Waterford and olsom could be left with budget fights and massive cuts sending dis trict superintendents said1 Monday Hammonton expects a S3 million increase this year in payments from its sending dis tricts part of which would come from what those super intendents say is an illegitimate re examination of previous tuition Tuition at Hammonton High School is scheduled to go up by about $1000 per student next year a number Waterford and olsom officials say is fair and beyond their control But receiving districts also adjust tuition for three years past in order to align real costs with early estimates and the two sending districts are preparing to challenge upcoming adjustments forward they have a right to establish what the (state) code says they can said Waterford Township Public Schools Superintendent Gary Dentino whose students account for slightly less than half of Hammonton High enrollment going back three years you can't just destroy the old Bodt Waterford and olsom officials said Hammonton offi cials are breaking a previous con tract in the method they are now using to adjust the previous three years olsom would have to make back payments for those years as part of a $259000 tuition increase for the upcoming school year its top officials said olsom wall send 86 students to Hammonton High School next year going with a zero percent (tax) increase over there and expecting that fair to ask the elementaries to go The union's main concern was that corrections officers who had to transport inmates suspected of having TB were not provided with protective masks As a result of the new policy the officers will be fit tested for masks for use when they arc in contact with or transporting a suspected infected inmate Herbert said Herbert said the parties worked hard to reach an agree ment that would help alleviate concerns He added: result was a new policy that will benefit not only the officers but all employees inmates and visitors to the rumors of the location of that winning ticket In the past million dollar prizes in New Jersey have gone unclaimed' or nearly un claimed hr May of 1996 a Pick 6 ticket sold in Passaic County expired It was worth $23 million In June 2001 a 40 year old computer technician mailed his $46 million ticket to state county followed proper proto col according to a state health official who examined the policy "It give peace of mind to the corrections officers and their families or the inmates As far as I am concerned if they want to be tested more they will be It (TB) is a scary Myron Plotkin labor negotiator said the policy was developed in a good faith effort to enhance the safety of the officers and to protect them analysts as the most likely casi no to be sold Perry cautioned that tax lia bilities would make it hard to spin off one casino from the rest of the Trump holdings Among them the company has agreed to pay up to $100 mil lion of Donald person al tax liabilities if a casino is sold very difficult under our current structure for the sale of an individual casino to make financial sense for the compa ny's restructuring or the benefit of Perry said Shareholders are peeved with stock price which has plummeted more than 20 percent since the failed bid in December to win a gaming license for one of two new slot parlors in Phil adelphia Now Trump will be squeezed by extra competition when the new slot parlors open next year Trump and other casinos are also expected to take a hit when Atlantic new smok ing restrictions take effect April 15 Smoking will be limited to only 25 percent of the casino floor raising fears that Atlantic City gamblers will flee to other gaming jurisdictions where there are no smoking restric tions "We continue to believe Trump will experience a tough 2007 and 2008 as the company is impacted by the new Pennsylvania slot parlors Atlantic City smoking restric tions and its failed bid for a Philadelphia slot ana lyst Joel Simkins of Prudential Equity Group wrote in an investment note Bob Hackett grew up farming the family land his wife remembers a picture of her husband at about age 8 bent over working on a lettuce plant He available for com ment on the sale but his wife says that at one point the fam ily was farming more than 100 acres near Mill Road on both sides of the Northfield line used to grow all the corn for here They grew toma toes some beans some pep and much more Leslee says standing behind the counter of a stand that's open just three days a week in the off season She started working in the farm stand as soon as she joined the family and in fact it was a farm stand that got her into the family Leslee and Bob met at another stand the Hacketts owned that one a mile or so to the north off Tilton Road Leslee says there used to be a dirt road to get from the main farm to the Tilton Road stand which she figures would have been some where in the parking lot of now the Superresh supermarket that closed last month When she moved to Mill Road she figures there were maybe 15 houses on the whole stretch between the Hackett home and Route 9 in Northfield Now there are 11 houses right across the street and several more develop ments running along the Northfield side of the border Leslee estimates that traffic on Mill Road has increased by 70 percent or more in the last 20 years as has traffic all through her section of the booming township She remembers when there were no traffic lights at ire and Tilton roads an intersection now packed almost all day and night She can tick off the names of former farms in Egg Harbor Township and what's on that land now Maryanne Lavner tire tax assessor fig ures that excluding horse pas tures there may be five farms left in the township and three of them mostly grow hay The Hacketts and the Reed family are about the only ones left in the sprawling municipal ity who grow food and sell what they grow at roadside stands Lavner says And when the Hacketts have their stand anymore after all those years what will they do? Leslee hesitates a few sec onds before she answers have no she finally says I guess we have a few years to figure that To mail Martin DeAngelis at The Press: MDeangelispressofaccom ronment someone can always come in and make an Perry said of the potential buy out deals for publicly traded companies like Trump Analysts say Trump Entertainment may consider selling off all of its holdings parting with just one of its casi nos or negotiating a refinanc ing deal to ease some of its $125 billion debt Another option might be to swap one of the Trump casinos for either land or a gaming site in anoth er city possibly a riverboat casino owned by Penn National Gaming Inc or Ameristar Casinos Inc "We believe there are a num ber of public or private enter prises that could be interested in an acquisition of Trump gaming ana lyst Adam Steinberg of Morgan Joseph Co Inc wrote in an investment note Steinberg mentioned Amer istar Casinos Penn National Gaming and Boyd Gaming Corp as candidates to buy Trump Entertainment outright or at least one of its casinos Ameristar and Penn National don't have a presence in Atlantic City but Boyd Gaming owns and operates Borgata Hotel Casino Spa Boyd could use a Trump casi no to handle the overflow crowds from the popular Borgata Atlantic top grossing casino Steinberg said Trump Marina Hotel Casino adjacent to Borgata is cited by to address the concerns Over the past few months while the county continued to dispute OP 34 's allegations of any health problems four inmates were diagnosed with TB and 12 others tested posi tive for exposure The first inmate was diagnosed in October 2006 The second active case was confirmed by the county 1 lealth Department in late January and the other two in ebruary George Hebert president of OP 34 said the union "will continue to take whatever actions may be necessary to protect the rights health and safety of its Staff photo by Ben ogletto Siobhan Knuttel of Brigantine left talks with Janis Parker a sales representative from the radio station WAYV and affiliates during the Careers and Employment Expo sponsored by The Press of Atlantic City on Monday at the Hamilton Mall Representatives from area busi nesses and organizations were available to meet prospective employees during the daylong lottery officials two days before the one year deadline The man Melvin Milligan had checked an old ticket after watching news accounts of the unclaimed ticket Milligan chose to take the prize in an annuity paid out over more than two decades If he had chosen a cash payment the ticket would have been worth $237 million It would have been the largest unclaimed prize in state lottery history a lottery official said at the time Trump (Continued from Page Cl) Lottery (Continued from Page Cl) arm (Continued from Page Cl) from potential exposure to infectious airborne diseases such as tuberculosis Several meetings took place before the agreement was reached Tom Privett the TB manager attended two of the three meetings and provid ed guidance for an improved policy It all started with a freehold er meeting in January That was when Plotkin told the freeholders of the con cerns The freeholders then established an investigating committee which included free holders Lawton Nelson Jr rank Giordano and Alisa Cooper Meetings were then scheduled Hammonton revising rental property ordinance ISSUE: Town Council gave preliminary approval Monday night to revising an ordinance that a group of landlords has claimed is unconstitutional The town has been trying to work with 18 landlords who filed suit in Superior Court last November to compromise on the issue Originally passed in September despite several complaints from landlords the ordinance could be officially revised in two weeks and the lawsuit subsequently dropped The measure ensures frequent inspections of rental property and improved living conditions for tenants according to town officials WHY IMPORTANT: The town saved money by choosing to work with the landlords and avoid continued lit igation Solicitor Brian Howell said The original ordinance made landlords responsible for disorderly conduct nuisance offensive or other illegal acts on their properties The property owners claim this violates their state and federal constitutional rights in part by violating their due process While the new ordinance would still include vicarious liability standards according to Howell landlords have more due process rights that give them the option of issuing behavioral ZeTren WamingS reqUire an eviction Maria and hd n3Ve reaChed an landlords Mana and Michael Ricca said in an mail we find it disconcerting considering we could have arrived at this point in a more constructive and less difficult manner had our voices been heard on Sept 25 come aMhPMEXTh read'ng the ordinance will come at the March 26 council meeting The town has set a May 1 deadline for resolving the issue Intn are reviewin9 the revised ordinance If they approve the revisions the landlords will drop the suit once Town Council passes them the Riccas said Information about Hammonton can be mailed to Timothy Puko at TPukoPressofac com TB (Continued from Page Cl) Oyster Creek cuts output to avoid possible fish kill Sending towns feeling pinched by Hammonton I Byy a air S' vWMMflryT i Al'.