Dispute over visas has ripples at Shore

A standoff in Congress over foreign labor could hurt tourism this summer, merchants warn.
By Jacqueline L. Urgo
April 23, 2008

Inquirer Staff Writer

WILDWOOD - Accountants and sales reps for Morey's Piers could be on the amusement park's front line this summer, operating rides and working in guest relations.
And the double duty won't be by choice.

Morey's, where hundreds of seasonal foreign guest workers did everything from strap riders into the Tilt-A-Whirl to dish out ice cream in 2007, is caught in a congressional immigration standoff that some say could cripple New Jersey's $37 billion tourism industry this year.

At issue is a critical shortage of H-2B seasonal-labor visas that last summer allowed about 7,500 foreigners to legally work at an estimated 700 businesses on the Jersey Shore.

"This is a huge economic issue for New Jersey," said Denise Beckson, director of operations and human resources at Morey's Piers, where the payroll grows to 1,500 in the summer.

Morey's, a landmark in this resort town, opened on Friday with a limited staff of mostly local employees. They are augmented by about a dozen college students from Thailand, whose J-1 visas will allow them to work for 90 days.

Hiring J-1 laborers has become a popular stopgap measure at the Shore, though employers would prefer H-2B workers whose six-month visas make them available in both of the "shoulder" seasons, before Memorial Day and for about a month after Labor Day.

"If you don't have enough employees, you ultimately can't provide proper service for your guests, and that could have both short-term and long-term impacts on New Jersey's tourism industry," Beckson said.

In 1991, the federal government set a quota of 66,000 seasonal H-2B visas per year - half issued in winter and half in summer - that allow residents of countries such as Ireland, the Czech Republic, Indonesia, South Africa, and Thailand to take mostly low-paying U.S. jobs that employers say are difficult to fill.

The laborers pay taxes and contribute to Social Security, then return home at the end of the season. By law, they must be paid prevailing wages. The H-2B visa program does not apply to seasonal agricultural workers.

Shore businesses "have historically tried to hire as many local kids as we can," said Michele Gillian, executive director of the Ocean City Regional Chamber of Commerce. "But there are usually more jobs than there are local students."

As tourist season has lengthened, hotels, restaurants, amusements and other businesses have relied less on American students because of their restrictive school schedules. And U.S. adults tend to seek higher-skilled year-round jobs, employers say.

Not only is the annual H-2B cap too low, say the business owners, but regulations that prevent laborers from applying for a visa more than 120 days before starting work hurt their industries. The 33,000 visas made available on Jan. 2 were gone in one day, before workers who would arrive in spring were allowed to apply.

This year, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus added a wrinkle by blocking legislation that would have extended a measure, first passed in 2005, that exempted returning H-2B workers from the quota. With that exemption, some say, more than 225,000 visas for new and returning workers were granted last year. The caucus has said it is holding out for a comprehensive immigration overhaul.

Local employers fearful of a summer labor shortage say immigration reform is separate from the issue of H-2B work permits and have called on Sen. Robert Menendez (D., N.J.), a member of the caucus, to get things moving.

"We have tried to make it clear to Sen. Menendez the negative impact that this standoff can have on his own home state," said Beckson. The Morey's Piers official is a member of a group called Save Small Business that recently made the rounds in Washington, asking legislators to reform the work-visa system.

Menendez is sympathetic, he said, but he is not inclined to reform immigration laws piecemeal.

"I am aware of the problems that small businesses face. Clearly, there aren't enough Americans to do the number of important jobs in this country," he said in an e-mail last week.

"We need to see the bigger picture: We need a complete package to fix the [immigration] problem," Menendez said.

And the chance of that in a presidential-election year is virtually nil, say many political analysts.

In the meantime, recruitment and hiring at many Shore businesses have come to a virtual standstill.

Beckson and others from Morey's did their customary off-season recruitment tour of Asia and Western and Eastern Europe this year. In the past, they signed up H-2B workers who were typically college-age or just out of school. The company stayed competitive, she said, by offering dorm housing and slightly better pay than other Shore businesses.

Morey's had hoped to recruit from South Africa this year, but canceled its trip there due to the visa issue.

The company expects as few as 35 H-2B workers to be on its payroll this summer, Beckson said. She hopes to hire more three-month J-1 workers, and she will dragoon Morey's administrative personnel if things get tough, she said.

Jenkinson's Piers, in Point Pleasant Beach, is looking for more domestic labor.

"We had a job fair last month, and we're having another one this month to try to find more local kids to fill in positions where we may need them later on in the summer," said Marilou Halvorsen, director of recruitment for Jenkinson's, which will open in a few weeks, weather permitting.

Jenkinson's hires about 1,500 employees for its amusement piers, beaches and aquarium, Halvorsen said. Last year, about 100 were H-2Bs.

In January, Jenkinson's contacted ski resorts out West in hopes it could persuade H-2B employees there to stay in the country and work at the Shore. The complicated process of applying for a visa extension has led few to come forward, Halvorsen said.

Gillian, of the Ocean City chamber of commerce, said some in her organization are worried about what will happen if Memorial Day arrives and they aren't fully staffed.

A labor shortage would affect New Jersey businesses large and small, Gillian said. At Six Flags Great Adventure, in Jackson, N.J., about 400 of the park's 1,800 workers were on H-2B visas in 2006, according to the most recent statistics available from the state Department of Labor.

"It could be devastating and seriously hurt our Shore communities if these workers can't return," Gillian said. "And it seems like we really won't know for sure what the numbers will be until the season gets into full swing in June."



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Contact staff writer Jacqueline L. Urgo at 609-823-9629 or jurgo@phillynews.com.

Be Fit

Fitness park off to running start in Wildwood Crest

By TRUDI GILFILLIAN Staff Writer, (609) 463-6716
Published: Tuesday, October 2, 2007

WILDWOOD CREST - Mayor Carl Groon summed up what made the borough's new fitness park different from similar settings in other cities and towns.
"(It is) a great park overlooking one of the best beaches in the world," Groon said as the park was officially opened Monday afternoon.

Jogging with an ocean view - what jogger could ask for more?

The name fitness park, however, is being used for lack of a better term, Commissioner Don Cabrera explained.

The park features a jogging path, five laps of which equal slightly more than a mile, but otherwise it is primarily a place to stop and relax thanks to the lush green lawn and plenty of comfortable benches.

The original plan was to have six to eight fitness stations with balance beams and other exercise aids, but they were not included in the final project budget of $475,000.
Cabrera hopes that a private donor will provide the approximately $30,000 needed to put that part of the park into action.

Meanwhile, residents and visitors alike have a new place to spend their time.

In fall 2006, Cabrera introduced the idea of turning two vacant borough-owned lots between Forget-Me-Not and Palm roads at Ocean Avenue into the fitness park with the help of money being returned to the county's municipalities by the Cape May County freeholders.

The money was the result of an ample 2006 budget surplus, which the county opted to use to encourage communities to make recreation or quality-of-life improvements.

The county set aside $3.8 million for those projects and Wildwood Crest received more than $156,000 to put towards the property's transformation from sandy, weed-covered lot to an inviting place to play.

In addition to the fitness stations, Cabrera said there are also plans to add an entertainment area for concerts and puppet shows.

The lots covered about 4,000 square feet and the jogging path measures 1,069 feet with five laps equaling just over a mile at 5,345 feet.

Cabrera credited the county and local residents for supporting the project.

"The park improves our recreation and our quality of life," Cabrera said.


To e-mail Trudi Gilfillian at The Press:

Mediation scheduled

Meeting set to settle costs, code violations in Wildwoods
By TRUDI GILFILLIAN Staff Writer, (609) 463-6716
Press of Atlantic City
Published: Saturday, August 11, 2007

WILDWOOD — A voluntary session with a state mediator is scheduled Wednesday in the ongoing effort to finally fix and pay for repairs to hundreds of Wildwoods condominium units not built to code.

At a February hearing, Superior Court Judge Steven Perskie urged mediation to settle the case he named “JCOW versus most of the western hemisphere.”

Attorney Glenn P. Callahan, representing the former Joint Construction Office of the Wildwoods, or JCOW, said he is dealing with 101 buildings, which were found to have violations related to fire safety.

“We are in settlements. We are about halfway through,” Callahan said.

Callahan said that of the 101 properties, 51 are settled between at least two parties, meaning they are awaiting closing agreements.

The parties involved in the agreements can include the construction office, builders, architects and condominium associations.

Callahan said another 35 properties are in the midst of “active negotiations” and about 15 are in a holding pattern.

All parties were invited to attend the mediation session in Trenton, but the session is voluntary, and Callahan said he won't know how many will take part until Wednesday.

Of the 51 described as settled, some of the work has been done to fix the violations while work is scheduled to begin on others.

The violations were first spotted in a 2005 review by the state Department of Community Affairs, which found as many as 500 units were not built to code. The violations included missing firewalls, inadequate exits and other fire-related issues.

Perskie had said he would take away the certificates of occupancy for units unable to work out the problems, but in February he was satisfied that was not necessary as settlement talks progressed.

Callahan said about 65 percent of the 101 buildings have seen the work completed, but questions remain about who will ultimately pay for the repairs.

Attorney Henry Lewandowski, who represents 42 of the condominium associations involved, said Friday that a few have seen their matters resolved with the work done and paid for already.

The rest, however, remain in settlement talks.

Lewandowski said he is working with the construction office and any architects with insurance.

His clients, meanwhile, continue to wait for their cases to reach some conclusion.

“Anger is the most significant, most consistent emotion,” Lewandowski said. “They get angrier as the days go on.”


To e-mail Trudi Gilfillian at The Press:TGilfillian@pressofac.com

Film Fest

Wildwood by the Sea Film Fest planned for fall
By TRUDI GILFILLIAN Staff Writer, (609) 463-6716
Press of Atlantic City
Published: Saturday, August 11, 2007

WILDWOOD — Never made it to a Hollywood premiere?
Well, not to worry. Organizers of the Wildwood by the Sea Film Fest hope to bring a little bit of Tinseltown to the shore.

“We're going to join Wildwood and Hollywood. We’ll call it Wollywood,” joked Paul Russo, co-director of the festival.

The festival, being presented by the Greater Wildwood Hotel Motel Association, is designed to combine music and movies for what organizers describe as “a world premiere event.”

Russo said a number of films will debut at the festival, which will run for from Sept. 27 to Sept. 30 at the Wildwoods Convention Center.

Russo said film director Shawn Swords asked why the island didn't host a film festival, and the festival grew from there.
Swords was one of three directors who helped announce the festival Friday inside the new Doo Wop Experience, the city's Ocean Avenue museum devoted to the culture of the 1950s and 1960s.

Near the podium was an artist's rendering of a red-carpet gala complete with limousine outside the entrance to the convention hall.

Russo said about 100 films will be shown during the festival, with cast and crew coming from as far away as Tokyo.

Bruce Smith, president of the hotel motel association, introduced three directors who will be premiering their latest ventures in Wildwood.

They included George Manney, director of “Pipes of Peace,” Carolyn Travis, director of “Airplay,” and Swords, director of “Philly Music Scene.”

Each of the films is related to the music industry and features some of the acts who also made a name for themselves in Wildwood during its musical heyday.

Travis said she couldn't think of a better place to debut her film, which focuses on the rebel DJs who made music available to audiences who might otherwise not have heard it.

Manney focused on the life of Rufus Harley, who was billed as the world's first jazz bagpiper, while Swords film takes a look back at the Philadelphia music scene between 1952 and 1963 with the aid of performers like Chubby Checker.

Swords promised a “couple of Hollywood people” would be among the crowd when the film debuts here in September.

While Friday's event was to introduce the festival, organizers also recognized doo-wop supporters and the musicians who made the era so memorable.

The owners of the Caribbean Motel, George Miller and Carolyn Emigh, received an award marking the motel's 50th anniversary.

“They made an investment in what we believe in,” said Dan MacElrevey, president of the Doo Wop Preservation League.

Assemblyman Jeff Van Drew, D-Cape May, Cumberland, Atlantic, was also on hand to present several proclamations to the motel owners and musicians Dee Dee Sharp and members of The Orlons and The Dovells.

Van Drew credited the island with finding ways to create economic opportunity and move the community forward while appreciating its history.

“Celebrate the past and look to a better and brighter vision of the future,” Van Drew said.


To e-mail Trudi Gilfillian at The Press:TGilfillian@pressofac.com

Waterpark in North Wildwood

Piering into the future North Wildwood approves plan for waterpark high-rise hotel
By TRUDI GILFILLIAN Staff Writer, (609) 463-6716
Press of Atlantic City
Published: Wednesday, July 18, 2007

NORTH WILDWOOD — City Council has approved a plan to turn the now-vacant Seaport Pier into a 90,000- square-foot pirate-themed indoor waterpark.
WB Resorts Development plans to invest $175 million in the project, which includes both construction of the water park on the east side of the Boardwalk between 22nd and 23rd avenues and a 16-story 425-room hotel on the west side.

Tentatively named “Captain Andy’s Indoor Waterpark Resort,” the water park could be open in 2010 if the project receives all the permits and approvals it needs.

Attorney M. James Maley, representing WB Resorts, called Tuesday’s decision by City Council the start of a partnership that will revive the dilapidated pier and bring new business activity to the area around it.

“If you’re not growing, if you’re not improving, then you’re dying,” Maley said of the need to bring new life to the pier.

He predicted the project would also deliver not only construction jobs, but 300 to 400 year-round job opportunities on the island.
Under the redevelopment agreement, the city would sell the pier to the developers for a yet undetermined price. WB Resorts already owns or has the option to buy the property across from the pier.

The plan also calls for the pier to be moved slightly to the south to align it with the hotel while also improving the view at the street ends at 22nd and 23rd avenues.

The pirate-themed water park would be enclosed in glass, visible from the Boardwalk, and built in what Maley called a “Disneyesque” fashion designed to draw visitors to the island beyond the traditional tourist season.

It would be open to hotel guests first, and then to other island visitors based on availability and the park’s capacity.

The 187-feet, 16-story hotel, meanwhile, would feature some form of condominium ownership, but all the rooms would be used as hotel rooms, Maley said.

An overhead pedestrian walkway would link the two properties. The resort would also feature three restaurants and a 600-car parking garage.

Maley said the developers plan to meet with the neighbors around the site within the next month to discuss any concerns about the effect the resort will have on the neighborhood.

He said the entrance for vehicles would be within the building’s footprint to avoid traffic backing up into city streets.

Maley said the property will also handle its own trash collection and security to reduce reliance on city services.

With the city’s approval in hand, the developer can now work on obtaining Coastal Area Facility Review Act, or CAFRA permits, along with local Planning Board approvals.

City Planner Stuart Wiser said the city currently permits buildings as tall as 90.8 feet in the Boardwalk location, so variances will be required.

Special counsel Robert Beckelman said the city has to approve the design and final site plan, and the developer is obligated to stay in constant communication with the city on the project’s status.

Beckelman said the redevelopment agreement also requires city residents to get the first crack at the resort’s jobs.

Wiser said the city’s Planning Board has also declared the west side, where the hotel will be built, as an area in need of redevelopment and an agreement on that portion of the project will be forthcoming.

WB Resorts is a limited liability company founded in 2006 by Andrew Weiner, Brian Baratz and David Baratz.

Weiner is the managing partner of Splash Zone, a water park in Wildwood. Brian Baratz is an accountant and founding partner of Baratz & Associates. David Baratz is director of operations and marketing for Splash Zone.

The project is expected to have a 2008 ground breaking with an opening planned for 2010.


To e-mail Trudi Gilfillian at The Press:TGilfillian@pressofac.com

South Jersey Journal
Cradle of Rock? Two Towns Stake Their Claims

By ROBERT STRAUSS
Published: July 10, 2007
WILDWOOD, N.J.

Bill Haley and the Saddlemen performed at Jack's Twin Bar in the early ’50s, before the Comets and “Rock Around the Clock.”

Dick Richards was pounding the drums and thinking of the girls on the beach. It was Saturday night during Memorial Day weekend in 1954, and more than 500 people were jammed into the HofBrau Hotel here to hear his band, the Comets, kick off the summer.

“We had just recorded this song in April,” he said, “and that night we introduced it to the crowd. I guess that was the first real night of rock ’n’ roll.”

The song was “Rock Around the Clock,” by Bill Haley and His Comets, considered by many to be the first rock-’n’-roll hit, and the first song with the word “rock” in the title to hit the top of the Billboard charts.

Now officials and residents in Wildwood, which in recent years has put a high polish and a healthy dose of kitsch on its 1950s- and ’60s-era motels to promote tourism, are saying that their town near the southern tip of New Jersey in Cape May County is the birthplace of rock ’n’ roll.

After all, for a few summers Dick Clark held record hops in Wildwood while he was the host of “American Bandstand.” And there are plaques where the HofBrau once stood, as well as the site of the former Rainbow Club (now a nightclub called Kahuna’s), where Chubby Checker first performed “The Twist.”

But Gloucester City, another New Jersey town, about an 80-mile drive northwest of Wildwood, wants to cut in right there. And on Saturday, Mr. Richards and other Comets plan to headline a show in Gloucester City, in Camden County along the Delaware River, to commemorate an 18-month span in the early 1950s when Mr. Haley led the house band at the Twin Bar.

The thing is, though, at the time that band was Bill Haley and the Saddlemen— not the Comets — and it started out playing traditional country-and-western music.

“Before I joined them, they had started playing a song called ‘Rock This Joint,’ which had a rhythm-and-blues beat, but mostly they were a western swing band,” said Mr. Richards, who today is 83 and has homes in Ocean City, N.J., and in Missouri, near Branson, where the Comets play at Dick Clark’s American Bandstand Theater about 80 times a year.

“Then they added a drum and a lead guitar and became the Comets,” Mr. Richards added, “and the rest is history.”

Or maybe not.

No matter what claim these two towns make, competition for the birthplace of rock ’n’ roll stretches from Philadelphia, the home of “American Bandstand”; to Cleveland, where the disc jockey Alan Freed came to fame and home to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum; to Memphis, the site of Elvis Presley’s Graceland home.

“I don’t know that rock was born — more that it evolved,” said Bob Santelli, a former education director at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and a former chief executive of the Experience Music Project museum in Seattle. “Memphis, New Orleans, the Mississippi Delta all significantly helped the American music scene after World War II, though certainly these New Jersey towns played roles.”

Still, he acknowledged that Bill Haley, who died at age 55 in 1981, “has rarely been given his due.”

Mr. Santelli said of Mr. Haley, “He was among the first to blend black and white music and saw that country and western and rhythm and blues could have a hybrid.”

Steve Martarano, 78, who still lives in Gloucester City, said he was just back from the Navy when he started hanging out at the Twin Bar.

“Ladies weren’t allowed in the front room of the bar, but they could go back in back where the Saddlemen played,” said Mr. Martarano.

Dennis Galligan, a trucking executive from Williamstown, about 20 miles south of Gloucester City, was looking for a business that he and his wife, Tammy, could run while caring for her sick father. He ended up buying Burt’s Shamrock Bar in 2004, and soon afterward had an out-of-towner come in and look around.

“It was a guy named Marshall Lytle, and he said he played there as one of the Comets,” Mr. Galligan said.

Mr. Lytle, indeed, played bass with the Comets in the 1950s, and still does along with Mr. Richards, and Mr. Galligan’s business was the former Twin Bar. Mr. Galligan painted the exterior yellow and renamed the place Jack’s Twin Bar. It has outdoor seating by Gloucester City’s main intersection, and the front doors are copies of the original hardwood-and-glass ones that Mr. Haley strode through.

While Gloucester City’s rock commemoration will feature an afternoon of music, Wildwood is planning an entire weekend — its fourth annual Fabulous ’50s Weekend — in October, with performers like the Coasters and, the Cadillacs and Little Anthony and the Imperials.

“We’ll let them have their version if they let us have ours,” said Paul Russo, the owner of Cool Scoops, a ’50s-themed ice cream parlor in North Wildwood and a promoter of the weekend celebration. “It’s just important that people know South Jersey wasn’t a backwater, but an innovator of a great part of American culture.”

4th of July

Wildwood Is Having a July Fourth Bash
Four Days of Fun Set Up Around July 4th in Wildwood,NJ
Chris Kirk
AC - The People's Media Company
July 1, 2007

Some cities celebrate July 4th in style. Wildwood, NJ though has decided to turn July 4th into a five day celebration with details on this website. They have decided at this beach town on the southeast coast of New Jersey that just one day, just plain isn't enough. The resort town will of course be having some of the traditional celebratory activities, including fireworks on July 4th, but they will add to it. Considering that there are fireworks every Friday night in season in Wildwood, it was only natural to try to do something a little bit different for the Fourth Of July, and Wildwood has done just that.

The celebration will last a total of five days. The resort town will start and end the celebratory period of our nation's independence with concerts, and also have fireworks, a barbecue, and boxing during that time period. The celebration will start on July 3rd at 8 PM, as Jefferson Starship, the band with hits from the 60's through the early 90's, will open the celebration up with their concert. Other bands will appear with Jefferson Starship as was as Tom Constanten of The Grateful Dead.

On July 4th, Wildwood is turning the beach into a huge backyard barbecue! The back deck of the Ocean Front Arena is where everyone will want to go starting at 5:00 PM. There will be a large "all you can eat bbq buffet" starting at that time which will include hamburgers and hotdogs, sausage and peppers, chicken, fruits, vegetables, and cookies. All of this will be available for adults for $14.95 and only $6.95 for children ages six and under. The barbecue will also offer peel and eat tiger shrimp and clams as well for an additional cost for anyone wishing to purchase them. After the bbq, there will be a live DJ playing music until the fireworks display at 10 PM.

On Friday July 6th, Wildwood will host live boxing matches along with mixed martial arts matches. There will be six boxing matches, along with 8 mixed martial arts matchups for a total of 14 contests. Tickets will be good for both shows. The doors for the Ocean Front Arena (Wildwood Convention Center) will open at six o'clock with the mixed martial arts matches starting right away, the boxing matches will begin at eight o'clock on the 6th.

The Fourth Of July week celebration will end on Saturday night with Mary Wilson of the Supremes performing a concert. She will be joined by The Angels, The Dixie Cups, The Ronettes, and The Shirelles. The concert will be held once again at The Wildwood Convention Center, and will begin at 8 PM.

Tickets for the concerts and the martial arts and boxing event can be purchased through Ticketmaster

Beach Boardwalk

Wildwood meets bathers halfway
By TRUDI GILFILLIAN Staff Writer, (609) 463-6716
Press of Atlantic City
Published: Friday, June 29, 2007

WILDWOOD — Sure, a moving sidewalk that carries beachgoers and their belongings the 1,800 or so feet between the Boardwalk and the water's edge here would be perfect.But visitors such as Diane Dunham are almost as thrilled with the next best thing — a wooden walk that makes at least half the trek across the city's expansive beach just a little easier to manage.

On Thursday, public works crews installed the new wooden walks at several streets. Most of the wooden sections ordered by the city should be in place in time for the Fourth of July holiday.

“You're not having to walk in that hot sand,” said Dunham, of Woodstown, as she and her friends and family prepared to make the trip toward the Atlantic Ocean from the Boardwalk at Leaming Avenue.

They came to town for the day, but with what appeared to be provisions for a much longer stay. There were beach chairs, a cooler, buckets and shovels, beach towels and more. The little ones in her group helped carry what they could, and the new wooden walk eased their burden, too.

The wooden walkways, made of pressure-treated pine, were built through a Department of Corrections program and funded by an $80,000 grant from Cape May County, said city development director Lou Ferrara.
Nine hundred of the 4-by-10-foot-long sections will be planted up and down the beach as they come in. By Thursday afternoon, Roberts, Rio Grande, Leaming and Hildreth avenues had the walkways in place.

Mayor Ernie Troiano Jr. said the city hopes to improve access for everyone, particularly those in wheelchairs, who want to enjoy the beach. Beach ends with ramps were among the first to receive the new walkways.

In addition to the 900-foot-long walks, the city has added portable toilets at the end of the walks, including handicapped-accessible facilities, said acting Public Works Director Kevin Verity.

Along the way, extra boards have been added at certain points to allow room for beach- goers to pass each other. Benches will likely be added later, Troiano said.

Ferrara said the boards will likely stay in place until the season comes to a close, and then they will be stored until next summer.

And in the meantime, the mayor warned those with permits to drive on the beach not to drive across the walkways, which could crack or break under the weight of a car or truck.

“Anybody caught driving over them will be shot at sundown,” the mayor joked.


To e-mail Trudi Gilfillian at The Press:TGilfillian@pressofac.com