By CHRISTOPHER SOUTHCape May Star and Wave

FISHING CREEK – Owners ofabout seven homes alongTabernacle Road have startedworking together and poolingresources to fight the flooding thatis threatening to damage theirhomes.

Henry Kobik, who lives at 763Tabernacle, said his neighbors at771 Tabernacle already lost theirheater and their well pump isthreatened. He said he has made15 calls to Lower Township andCape May County looking for helpbut none was forthcoming.

“As far as we know there is onlyone pump in the township,” Kobiksaid.

The neighbors got a pump ontheir own and managed to get

assistance from the Cape MayPoint Fire Company, which loanedthem hose so they can pump waterto the storm drain at Tabernacleand Shunpike. Neighbor DorsieKerlin said they had to buy morehose and now have 550 feet run-ning from the Axelsson residenceat 755 Tabernacle to the stormdrain. Kerlin said the Axelssonsalso lost their heater due to theflooding.

Kobik and Kerlin said the neigh-bors are taking two-hour shiftsoverseeing the pump and keepingit fueled. The pump is working butprogress is slow.

“Our only salvation is to getsomeone with a big pump,” Kobiksaid.

His wife Marilyn said she calledFrank McCall, director of thecounty’s Emergency Management

Communications Center, and theywere told the situation wouldimprove when the leaves come outon the trees, which will causethem to draw water from theground.

“What I said was we are hopingmother nature would be coopera-tive and for the rain to stop,”McCall said. “We’re coming out ofwinter and the trees and flowerscome to life, are starting to bloom,and their feed is water.”

McCall said the county needs forthe rain to stop, for southwestwinds to start blowing, and forplants to consume water to helpwith all the flooding.

That being said, McCall saidFEMA has been in the county fourtimes resulting in two presidential

Please see Pool, page A2

By ERIC AVEDISSIANOcean City Sentinel

OCEAN CITY - Ocean City Council PresidentSusan Sheppard announced on Monday thatshe’s running for Cape May County freeholder inthe June 8 primary.

Sheppard will run on a ticket with incumbentFreeholder Gerald Thornton.

Both Thornton and Sheppard will run againstOcean City businessman John McCann andincumbent Freeholder Ralph Bakley, whoreceived the endorsement of the Cape MayCounty Regular Republican Organization.

Sheppard, 43, an attorney with her own prac-tice and member of Ocean City council since2008, said that she’s running to bring a new,independent perspective to county Republicanpolitics.

Sheppard is married to former school boardmember Frank Faverzani. The couple has threechildren.

“I have watched how the Republican Party hasbeen operating in the county and I am dismayed

by the way that they approach anyone fresh oranyone with new ideas and anybody with an inde-pendent voice. I was really disheartened to seethe way they treated Jerry Thornton and spokehis mind,” Sheppard said.

She said that Thornton approached her andasked if she’d be his running mate for freeholderin the primary race.

Sheppard said she wants to become freeholderto best represent Ocean City and all of Cape MayCounty’s taxpayers.

“I have been saying from the Ocean CityCouncil chair for a very long time that I was hop-ing for more cooperation from the county onissues and more understanding between themunicipalities and the county government,”Sheppard said.

This is Sheppard’s first foray into county poli-tics. She said she’s looking forward to providingvoters with an alternative.

“In the primary election, you should always

Please see Ticket, page A2

Tabernacle Road residentspool efforts amid flooding

Jerry Thornton,Susan Sheppardform a ticket

Christopher South/Cape May Star and WaveTabernacle Road residents Henry Kobik and his wife Marilyn speak to neighbor Dorsie Kerlin (left) about severe flood-ing that has affected the entire neighborhood. A wooden walkway installed by the Kobik’s son doesn’t even reach dryground anymore. The residents have had to chip in for a pump to send water to a storm drain.

‘I was really disheartenedwith the way they they

treated Jerry Thornton...’– Susan Sheppard,

candidate in GOP primary

By CHRISTOPHER SOUTHCape May Star and Wave

LOWER TOWNSHIP – Thefeuding over the LowerTownship budget might bethe only fireworks residentswill see this July 4, as theDelaware River and BayAuthority cannot fund theannual fireworks display.

Lower Township DeputyMayor Kevin Lare said theDRBA is not going to fund thefireworks, which costs theauthority $50,000 last year.

According to Lare, Gov. ChrisChristie has twice vetoed theDRBA budget, saying theauthority must remain rev-enue neutral. With that inmind, they have to cutexpense such as fireworks,which makes no money for

the DRBA. Lare said last year the town-

ship spent between $27,000and $28,000 for the street fes-tival held in conjunction withthe fireworks, normally heldJuly 3. The same amount is inthe proposed 2010 municipal

budget. “Council has to

decide what to do,”he said.

“What is CapeMay doing? Maybewe could combineour efforts,”

Councilman Wayne Mazureksaid.

Cape May has its fireworkson July 4, with the bulk of thecost being paid for byCongress Hall.

Councilman GlennDouglass said the permits

required for a fireworks dis-play take more time than thetownship now has to pull off aJuly 3 display.

“I’d like some recommenda-tions from the RecreationDepartment,” Mayor MikeBeck said. “We’ve had some-thing for years and to justthrow in the towel...you haveto do something.”

Douglass suggested gettingthe Chamber of Commerceand other civic groupsinvolved.

‘We’ve had something for years and to justthrow in the towel...you have to do something.’

– Lower Township Mayor Mike Beck

Budget fireworks might be bigger than July 4’s

By CHRISTOPHER SOUTHCape May Star and Wave

CAPE MAY – The CapeMay Jazz Festival, scheduledfor April 16 to 18, is gearingup for Spyro Gyra andShemekia Copeland, andprobably no one is moreexcited than Jazz Festivalexecutive director Sal Riggi.

“Ticket sales are phenome-nal. They are about doublelast year at this time, and weusually don’t get this until aweek before the festival oreven the weekend of festival,”he said.

The credit, he said, goes to atremendous line-up, includ-ing the headliners.

“The line up for this festival

is a killer,” Riggi said. “SpyroGyra and ShemekiaCopeland, the two headliners,combined make for a big

pitch. And the jam line-up isvery big.”

Riggi said the Jazz Festivalis trying to stay with its core

audience but want tobranch out to ayounger audience.By “younger” hemeans people intheir 40s, 50s and60s, who might alsobe nouveau jazz fans.

“Some of the hard-core fans are in their70s and 80s,” he said.

Riggi said anotherthing that has helpedadvance sales hasbeen the discountoffered for early pur-

chases. “The discounts are

becoming very popular. Wewere getting tickets sales forthis festival as early asDecember,” Riggi said.

“People are looking to savemoney anyway they can, andwe are letting people knowwe are all in this together.”

Riggi said the original planwas to offer early-buyer dis-counts for the November 2009Jazz Festival, to promotesales for the slower sellingfall festival. He said the dis-count program worked sowell they decided to continuethe discounts in the spring.

“The response has been fan-tastic and we are going to doit again in November,” Riggisaid. “But people started call-ing as soon as they found outSpyro Gyra was playing, andothers called about Shemekia

Please see Jazz, page A2

Jazz Festival features Spyro Gyra, Copeland

Cape Ma WaveStar156th YEAR NO. 13 CAPE MAY, N.J. 50¢SERVING AMERICA’S NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK CITY

SPORTSCape Storm Rugby

now 2-0, A14

LCMR boys tennisdecent, not deep, A14

Lower Township$24.7 million

budget introduced, A13

ARTSSinger-SongwriterConference, A3

INSIDE

THURSDAY, April 1, 2010

WEATHER ALMANACBY WAYNE ROOP

MARCH(Normals: 51˚/35˚, 4.22()

High Low Precip.18 68˚ 36˚19 70˚ 37˚20 71˚ 47˚21 60˚ 47˚ .36”22 56˚ 47˚ .06”23 55˚ 46˚24 61˚ 43˚

INSIDE:

See RealEstate

Resource and Home

ImprovementGuide inserts

Spyro Gyra, Photo by Paul Greco

Shemekia Copeland, Photo by Carol Freidman

4/1 10:24 10:47 4:10 4:16

4/2 11:11 11:35 5:00 5:02

4/3 12:00 5:51 5:51

4/4 12:24 12:54 6:45 6:43

4/5 1:19 1:54 7:43 7:41

4/6 2:19 3:00 8:44 8:45

4/7 3:22 4:04 9:44 9:49

Full Moon 4/28Last Quarter 4/6 New Moon 4/141st Quarter 4/21Apogee 4/8Perigee 4/24

APRIL 2010T IDE TABLE

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