AC Linen Supply gives workers food

REGION
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2012
THE PRESS OF ATLANTIC CITY
Everyone
Has a Story
Michelle Brunetti Post
■ The move to November
brought more people out to the
polls.
Education Writer
Moving school board elections to
November improved voter participation Tuesday, even though not all
voters were aware of the change.
The April school board elections
have historically had a very low voter
turnout, typically about 12 percent.
The state Legislature passed a law
allowing school board elections to
be held in November both to
increase voter turnout and save
money by not having to hold a sepa-
rate election in April.
New Jersey School Boards
Association officials had been worried that the presidential race would
overshadow the local school board
races. But even though some voters
skipped over their school board candidates without casting a vote, the
number of residents who did vote
was far higher than totals tallied in
previous April elections based on
early returns in local districts.
A random sampling of about 20
residents voting at the Fernwood
Avenue Middle School in Egg
Harbor Township found about half
did not realize the school board
election was on the ballot until they
got their sample or went to vote.
Desiderio
remains
freeholder
in Cape
Photo provided by Dave Freeman
Duo puts trip
on hold to aid
storm cleanup
Bertha Segal, of Margate, turns
101 on Friday. Her family only
recently confirmed her age, said
granddaughter Shari Adler, of
Philadelphia. Segal’s parents did not
have a birth certificate for her, but
Segal finally recieved a letter from the
Social Security Administration this
summer confirming she had turned
100 last November, Adler said.
More stories to tell
Michelle Brunetti Post writes about
the lives, careers and good deeds of
South Jersey residents Sundays,
Mondays and Wednesdays in
‘Everyone Has a Story.’ To share
your story, call 609-272-7219 or
email MPost@pressofac.com
SECTION C
Most just didn’t vote, but a few peo- awareness that the school board
ple said they knew a couple of the election had moved to November.
candidates so they voted for them.
“You get a lot more voters out
Other residents were very aware when there’s a presidential elecof the race, and made a point to vote. tion,” Erik Schodnoff said.
“It’s very important to us,” Jim
Pete Castellano, who previously
Walsh said as he and his wife, served on the Egg Harbor Township
Barbara, left the school. “We are very Board of Education for 10 years and
concerned about the schools and was re-elected Tuesday, said the
the taxes here.”
change in voting brought more parOverall, residents said they ticipation but also more partisanthought including the school boards ship.
on the November ballot was a good
“There is a little inherent conflict
idea because more people do come there trying to run two types of races
out to vote then. While some simultaneously on the very same
thought the presidential race did day on the very same ballot,” he
draw attention away from the local said.
races, others thought having a presidential election this year raised ■ See Schools, C7
Bill Stage, 65, owner of New Jersey
Kayak in Barnegat Township, paddles through the marsh to check
his marina after Hurricane Sandy.
That’s a lot of candles
Classified ..........C11-14
Horoscope ..............C13
School elections see increased turnout
By DIANE D’AMICO
Dave and Amy Freeman thought
they would be spending a couple of
days with Bill and Carmen Stage in
Waretown when they paddled their
kayaks into Barnegat Bay on Oct. 26.
They planned to give a talk at the
Lighthouse Center for Natural
Resource Education, then get back to
their 11,700-mile canoe, dogsled and
kayak trip. The couple started in
Seattle, went to the
North of Canada and
will end in Key West,
Fla.
Instead,
they
arrived in time for
Hurricane
Sandy
and won’t get back
A. FREEMAN
on the water until
next Monday, Dave
Freeman estimated.
Stage, 65, owner of
New Jersey Kayak on
the bay in Barnegat
Township, said the
Freemans
spent
hours tying down
boats and equipD. FREEMAN
ment at the marina
before the storm, then rode it out
inland, and returned to help for days
with the cleanup.
When the roads were closed after
the storm, Stage and Dave Freeman
paddled kayaks to the marina
through flooded forest and marsh.
They found the boats in good shape,
but the docks and other structures
damaged. They spent days hauling
out tons of debris, mostly wood,
Freeman said.
It was the worst weather the
Freemans have experienced since
embarking in April 2010.
“The most similar thing was a blizzard in the Northwest territories,”
said Freeman, 36, of Chicago. “We
were dogsledding and it pinned us
down about three days. It blew roofs
off buildings. Still, it was nothing like
Sandy.”
The Freemans expect to pass
Atlantic City on Nov. 14, and welcome contact from locals about giving a talk to a school or community
group. Visit wildernessclassroom.
com for more information.
+nnnn
By TRUDI GILFILLIAN
Staff Writer
Press photos by Stefanie Campolo
Lesvia I. Albert, of the Chelsea Heights section of Atlantic City, prepares to leave the Atlantic City
Linen Supply Inc. on Tuesday afternoon after receiving her groceries.
A.C. Linen Supply
gives workers food
■ The company joins with
the Community FoodBank
and Jewish Family Service to
provide groceries.
CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE — Longtime
Cape May County Freeholder Leonard
Desiderio won another term in office
Tuesday, defeating a challenge from
Democrat Walter Deegan.
According to unofficial
results from the Cape May
County
Clerk’s
Office,
Desiderio received 23,555
votes while Deegan received
12,266.
Desiderio was first elected
to the Board of Freeholders in DESIDERIO
2002 to fill an unexpired term
and then went on to win re-election in 2003,
2006 and 2009.
“I’m just so excited about this victory,”
Desiderio said after the votes were counted
Tuesday night.
Desiderio also credited Deegan with running a very good, clean and issue-oriented
campaign.
According to Deegan’s campaign website,
Deegan had never run for office before this
year.
“I have no aspirations of seeking a higher
■ See Cape, C9
Other election news
By LYNDA COHEN
Staff Writer
Atlantic City Linen Supply
employees went to the city location Tuesday afternoon not to
work, but to eat.
The company joined with the
Community FoodBank of New
Jersey and Jewish Family Service
to give its employees food to
refill pantries and refrigerators
left bare by the storm.
“This is a blessing,” said Volunteers help prepare food bags for Sandy victims.
employee Elijah Heyward, 46,
who lives in downtown Atlantic bags with canned goods and out to help after the effects of
City, where he rode out the other pantry items.
Hurricane Sandy left many
storm with his girlfriend.
The goal was to fill at least 500 without homes or the furnish“I lost food and pieces of my bags with the 15,000 pounds of ings inside them.
sanity holed up with my girl,” he food the company owners paid
Shore
Helpers
—
at
joked as he and others waited to for and the food bank provided. www.shorehelpers.com
—
be led into the main area where That didn’t include perishable helps match those in need with
volunteers — including Steel items, such as milk, vegetables those willing to help. The webPier workers led by the Catanoso and cheese — which usually site allows people to volunteer
brothers
who
own
the aren’t included in such efforts.
Boardwalk attraction — filled
All over, people are reaching ■ See Food, C5
■ Frank LoBiondo beats Cassandra Shober
to retain his congressional seat. C6
■ Bob Menendez easily defeats Joe Kyrillos
for U.S. Senate. C7
■ N.J. voters approve both ballot questions.
C7.
■ The challenger leads the Cape May mayor
by two votes, with absentee ballots yet to be
counted. C7
■ West Cape May voters reject larger commission, pay cuts. C7
■ Nobody wins in Vineland. C7
■ Mayor leads Republican sweep in Stafford
Township. C9
■ Independents take all three seats in Lower
Township. C10
Northeaster
interrupting
Christie to visit Long Beach Island today Sandy cleanup
By DONNA WEAVER
Staff Writer
Gov. Chris Christie and his
cabinet officials will visit Long
Beach Island today to survey
storm damage in its six municipalities.
Christie’s appearance follows
an appeal by the island’s mayors
that the governor reopen the
island to residents.
At 11 a.m., Christie will start
the survey of the island and will
hold a northeaster preparation
press briefing at the High Point
Volunteer Fire Company in the town back to normal and to
Harvey Cedars, the release stat- get people home.
ed.
“I understood that the gover“I think it’s great. We got a nor flew over and was impressed
great town. I think that some- when he flew over the coast and
body’s noticed that. I think that saw those that had replenishthere’s attention being paid to ment didn’t have a whole lot of
our beach project because the damage,” he said.
Army Corps is trucking in a lot of
Ship Bottom Mayor William
sand to the beaches. These Huelsenbeck said Tuesday that
beachfill projects have made a the island’s mayors have written
huge difference in the reduction the governor, asking him to
of damage,” Mayor Jonathan remove restrictions to the
Oldham.
Oldham said he wants to get ■ See LBI, C4
By SARAH WATSON
Staff Writer
High winds, coastal flooding, cold and raw
temperatures, and heavy rain are all expected
today as another significant northeaster is
expected to pound the region.
And, if some forecasters are correct, much
of New Jersey, potentially even the coast,
could see its first snowfall as the storm begins
to move away from the area.
“It’s going to be a whirlwind of a weather
day, not only for Atlantic City, but the entire
Jersey coast,” said Andy Mussoline, meteor-
■ See Storm, C3
C
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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2012
REGION
THE PRESS OF ATLANTIC CITY
C5
Waterfront towns scurry to clean up as new storm brews
■ Town officials confront
an unending demand for
trash trucks and Dumpsters
for residents cleaning up
after Hurricane Sandy.
By HOA NGUYEN
Staff Writer
One week after Hurricane
Sandy hit, Absecon Island’s
Downbeach communities are
still struggling to remove sand
from the streets as well as piles
of storm-ravaged furniture
and household items being
placed on the curb by residents.
The work is so massive officials didn’t want to place a
timetable on when it would be
completed. There was a fear
the work would not be done
before a potential northeaster
is forecasted to move through
the area and possibly bring
high wind gusts
“For the most part, everything is water logged and
dense,” Ventnor Mayor Mike
Bagnell said of the household
debris. “Some of the stuff may
get airborne.”
The city contracted to bring
in six large trash containers to
begin picking up the items —
which included flood-damaged rugs, furniture and mattresses — today. The pickup
will begin in low-lying neighborhoods, although with residents appearing to bring more
Food
(Continued from C1)
certain services or ask for
help.
Caesars
Entertainment
assisted about 300 of its
employees Tuesday, and also
has offered temporary housing to employees in immediate need who have nowhere
to stay.
“We have an amazing community along the Jersey
shoreline and, on behalf of
Caesars Entertainment, I
would like to humbly thank
each and every person who
helped us get Atlantic City
back up and running,”
Eastern Division President
Don Marrandino said in a
news release.
The Red Cross had several
of its emergency response
vehicles throughout the area
Tuesday to offer help.
“Everybody needs it,” said
Lesvia Albert, an A.C. Linen
worker. “Everybody lost
something.”
Albert lost her home in
Chelsea Heights, where floodwaters ruined most of her
belongings. She, her husband
and their two children waited
out the storm with a friend in
Egg Harbor Township, but
storm-damaged items to the
curb, Bagnell said he wasn’t
sure when the work would be
completed.
In Margate and Longport,
sand appeared to pose more of
a challenge.
Officials estimated workers
removed 3 million cubic feet
of sand that the storm swept
onto the streets from the
Margate
beach,
Mayor
Michael Becker said. The city
also rented two dozen extra
trash containers and situated
them in different neighborhoods on Saturday.
“On Sunday alone, we emptied 60 Dumpsters,” he said.
“We still have a lot more.”
Flooding also caused damage to the first floor of City
Hall, requiring officials to relocate to the Union Avenue
School until further notice.
While most offices were closed
for Election Day, they will
reopen for regular weekday
business hours today, officials
said.
Businesses were among
those hardest hit, with many
remaining closed Tuesday due
to water damage, Becker said.
CVS, which remained closed,
was planning to open a mobile
store soon, he said.
The storm swept so much
sand onto the streets that it
exposed part of an old boardwalk by Quincy Avenue
destroyed by a 1944 storm and
now at least have a place to
stay after their landlord gave
them a second-floor room.
Eric Goldberg, one of A.C.
Linen’s owners, said it was
important to help the company’s 500 employees — many
of whom were affected by the
storm. As soon as employees
returned to work last week,
the process began.
“They walked around and
asked us if we lost anything,”
said Sapphire Wiggins, 26,
whose Brigantine home fared
better than most.
But she still lost food and
has a young son to feed.
“They have oatmeal,” she
said as she saw a co-worker
bring in a filled grocery bag.
“My son loves that oatmeal.”
“We worked together with
management to figure out the
best way to help people who
need it,” said Lynne Fox, of the
Philadelphia Joint Board,
Workers United.
“The needs are varying,”
said Andrea Steinberg, executive director of Jewish Family
Service based in Margate. “In
some cases, they are very dramatic.”
As for how long the need
will be there: “No one really
knows when this need will
end,” Steinberg said.
Toinette Solano’s older
daughter had to celebrate her
11th birthday in a Galloway
buried for all of those years,
according to Becker, who has
lived in town for about 40
years.
But Frank Tiemann, president of the Margate Historical
Society, said based on the
photos that he saw of the piling, the pieces weren’t part of
the historic Boardwalk but
rather an old bulkhead and
wall that predated the 1944
storm.
The Boardwalk piling would
have been situated much farther out in the water,
Tiemann, 76, said.
“When I was a little kid, we
used to walk on top of it,” he
said of the bulkhead.
John Gottlieb, 70, a resident
of Quincy Avenue, said the
storm surge was so strong that
at high tide, the street looked
like a river ran through it. Just
to remove the sand and muck
from the street required three
front-end loaders working for
days, he said.
“There were three of them
working from dawn to dusk for
three days,” Gottlieb said.
In addition to infrastructure, Margate officials were
concerned about residents,
canvassing the entire city
starting Tuesday, City Clerk
Tom Hiltner said.
“We’ve broken the city into
five quadrants, and building
inspectors and members of
the police department are
Staff photo by Ben Fogletto
Crews work at the beach bulkhead to clear Pembroke Avenue in Margate.
knocking on every door to
make sure that no one is
shut in there alone and that
everyone has heat,” he said.
“Our concern is that we do
have some people who live
alone, and they may not
have had someone checking
on them.”
In Longport, some neighborhoods, such as by 25th
Avenue, saw 4 feet of sand on
some side streets, residents
reported. Crews were still at
work Tuesday to clear the
remaining sand piles.
“This is 1,000 times better
than it was,” said John Duffey,
a 61-year-old Longport resident who was helping to clear
out his sister’s home nearby.
“The sand pile was as high as
that yield-to-pedestrian sign.”
Point Drive, which is at the
tip of the Longport peninsula,
was the hardest hit area in the
borough with nearly all of the
shore-facing residences experiencing extensive damage,
officials and residents said.
Retired dentist Robert
Bassman, 78, who lives on the
street but away from the
water, said several years ago
when his neighbor across the
street was building a new
house, the neighbor apologized for blocking Bassman’s
ocean views. It turned out the
new house took the brunt of
Sandy’s fury.
After seeing the damage
caused by Sandy, Bassman
said he wasn’t concerned
about the storm being forecast
for today.
“It’s just going to be a
nor’easter,” he said.
Staff Writer Steve Lemongello
contributed to this report.
Contact Hoa Nguyen:
609-272-7203
HNguyen@pressofac.com
A.C. man who tossed baby
off bridge to be sentenced
Press photo by Stefanie Campolo
Eric Goldberg, co-owner of Atlantic City Linen Supply Inc.,
prepares bags of food for distribution to employees.
Township
hotel
room
Thursday after they evacuated their Chelsea Heights
home. She’s now staying in
Lower Chelsea until the home
is deemed inhabitable. But
Tuesday, Solano at least had
some groceries to take home
to her family.
Workers say they need the
help, especially with fewer
hours due to less work for the
company — which has locations in the city and
Pleasantville, whose workers
are also being helped.
“It’s just a disaster,” Solano
said. “We lost everything.”
Contact Lynda Cohen:
609-272-7257
LCohen@pressofac.com
Follow Lynda Cohen on Twitter
@LyndaCohen
A
Galloway
grandmother during
Township man who
the kidnapping.
threw
his
infant
He is scheduled to
daughter from a
be sentenced at 9 a.m.
Garden State Parkway
today by Superior
bridge in 2010 is
Court Judge Bradley J.
scheduled to be senFerencz in New
tenced today.
Abdur-Raheem Brunswick.
Shamsiddin AbdurAbdur-Raheem
Raheem was convicted in grew up in Atlantic City, gradSeptember of murder, kidnap- uated from Atlantic City High
ping and endangering the wel- School in 2006 and had studfare of a child.
ied criminal justice at The
In February 2010, Abdur- Richard Stockton College of
Raheem kidnapped his New Jersey in Galloway
daughter, Zara, in East Township.
Orange, Essex County, and
He faces a minimum of 40
threw her from the Driscoll years and as long as life in
Bridge into the Raritan prison,
state
Attorney
River.
General Jeffrey Chiesa has
He was also convicted of said.
assaulting Zara’s maternal
David Simpson
C
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