OCT 2004

Dolly Pietrosante, grandmother of the late Scott Pietrosante, and Steven Pietrosante, Scott's uncle, are selling T-shirts bearing Scott's image at the Milmay Tavern. Pietrosante, a former cook at the tavern, was killed one year ago in the Tropicana parking garage collapse in Atlantic City.

Today, victims and their families will mark the anniversary of the Tropicana garage collapse with a 6 p.m. vigil on the Atlantic City Boardwalk, at a construction workers' memorial in front of Boardwalk Hall, erected to salute the Tropicana victims and others who died.

An apron hangs in memory of the late Scott Pietrosante in front of the Milmay Tavern on Friday.

ATLANTIC CITY - Jake Kennedy prefers not to talk about it.

Asked where he was on the morning of Oct. 30, 2003, he looks straight ahead, and then takes a long sip of coffee.

"They're my guys," Kennedy said as he sat with co-workers on a Boardwalk bench during a brief break from construction. "They're my guys. I'd rather not do this."

He stood up, and slammed what was left of his lunch in a trashcan, muttering, "Worst day of my life."

For construction workers finishing the final pieces of a parking garage at the Tropicana Casino and Resort, there is a delicate balance to strike every day - completing the work they have to do, and watching each other's back to make sure everyone finishes together.

But a year ago, finishing the job was the last thing on their minds after five floors of the parking garage collapsed in seconds in one of the worst construction accidents in the city's history.

"You're always jumping," said Egg Harbor Township resident Joe Golini, 49, an ironworker with Local 350. "It's crazy. You hear a noise and say, 'What the hell was that?'"

Kennedy, 45, also a Local 350 ironworker, needed a few minutes before deciding he wanted to talk. It was two brothers from his union - Jimmy Bigelow, 29, of Egg Harbor Township, and Michael Wittland, 53, of Pleasantville - who lost their lives in the accident.

Cement masons Robert Tartaglio Jr., 42, of Galloway Township, and Scott Pietrosante, 21, of Buena Vista Township, were also killed.

Kennedy thinks about that every day, he said. At first, he didn't want to go back.

"Yeah, I thought about not going back," Kennedy said. "It shook some guys up. We had a lot of guys leave the trade."

Instead, Kennedy returns to the garage every day more cautious, but more so for the workers standing next to him.

"You can only be so safe," Kennedy said. "It's the other guy you gotta watch out for."

Underlining the men's words was the thump of wooden sticks and spoons against empty bottles of laundry detergent, as striking Local 54 workers urged passers-by not to patronize the Tropicana, and chanted for a contract.

The men have had this company on their lunch break for the past three weeks. They continued to eat and didn't pay much attention to the makeshift drums.

Brian Bryant, 36, a laborer from Local 415, recalled thinking the garage collapse was a terrorist attack.

"After 9/11, then that, you didn't know what to think," said Bryant, of Egg Harbor Township. "(I remember) the pump truck was still pumping concrete."

Bryant said little has changed in the way of procedure since the collapse. Kennedy insists more steel has been put in.

"For something to happen like that, and you have the same people on the job, that should tell you something," Bryant said. "They didn't change anything ... the way they pour (concrete) and all."

Golini refuses to pinpoint one reason for the collapse.

"A lot of things added up to it," Golini said.

The workers estimate about a month-and-a-half of work remains before the parking garage is completed. There are still several floors and a stairwell that need to be finished.

Once it is done, they are off to the next project, likely at the Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa.

"It's the same old story," Kennedy said. "Hurry up and get it done."

He again quietly muttered, "I can't wait for it to be done."

"You walk by one of the areas where one of the guys was, you think about it," Kennedy said. "You never forget about it."

Pigeons and sea gulls began to gather around the workers' benches, waiting for one of them to drop a piece of their lunch, giving some of the men a good laugh. But the lunch break had ended, and there was work waiting to be completed.

Staff photo/Barbara Errickson

BUENA -- On a cold, blustery morning several years ago, Marie Dandrea and her family were praying at a small shrine on Route 40 they had built and dedicated to the work of St. Padre Pio, an Italian priest venerated by millions worldwide.

They had big plans for the 10-acre tract of land they owned. And, in the years to come, they relied on the spirit of others to help erect a towering monument to Padre Pio, surrounded by benches for those who come to pray at the shrine.

There was no formal fund-raising effort. Help just seemed to come along when it was most needed over the years.

A concrete worker stopped by with his family one day to help apply the monument's stucco exterior. An attorney volunteered his services to help the Padre Pio Corp. fill out applications to build in a Pinelands area. An architect designed a prayer pavilion -- it will hold 300 to 400 people when it is built.

"Padre Pio wants us to create this because he wants us to come back to God," said Dandrea, a lifelong Buena area resident. "And we're going to do it."

But as plans for a major expansion start to move forward, simply relying on the spirit of others might not be enough.

The Padre Pio Corp., which runs the shrine, recently received permission from the Pinelands Commission to proceed with plans to build the pavilion.

Last December, the commission put the group's plan on hold while it examined broader rezoning issues.

Now that hurdle has been cleared, and organizers can seek the borough's approval for the project. Local officials already have expressed support for the idea.

However, it is becoming clear to shrine supporters that they will need a more organized effort to finance the structure, said Kevin DiMedio, an attorney who is donating his time to help the corporation.

"So far, what has been done has been done as the spirit moves people," DiMedio said. "With this larger undertaking, the corporate board feels there may be a need for a more organized and targeted fund-raising effort."

What form that effort will take is unknown, DiMedio said, but it still will include relying on the faith of Padre Pio's followers to complete the project.

Organizers have not settled on other details of the expansion. They have talked about gardens, walking paths, areas for prayer and reflection, and more parking.

The faith of the local followers has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years, especially since Pope John Paul II canonized Padre Pio in 2002.

Recently, students from Our Lady of Mercy Academy in Newfield came to the shrine to learn more about the life of the humble, spiritual man who has touched the lives of so many people, Dandrea said.

Padre Pio never left his hometown in southern Italy and devoted his lifetime to hearing confessions.

He was known as a pious man who lived in poverty and had compassion for people who came from all over the world to have him hear their confessions, Dandrea said.

Padre Pio also lived most of his life with the wounds of Christ, or the stigmata, on his hands, feet and side, a phenomenon that could not be explained by scientific means.

He died in 1968 at age 81, and his popularity grew with Catholics and non-Catholics alike, said the Rev. John Vignone, rector of the Buena shrine.

For many, Padre Pio is fulfilling a need as a beacon of faith and hope in a troubled world, Vignone said.

"We live in a 'me' world," he said. "People are looking for goodness, something other than power and money."

And, Vignone added, "Padre Pio offers that example of the compassion of God."

Jill Bernardini, 16, a junior at Our Lady of Mercy Academy, accepts a string of rosary beads at the Shrine of Padre Pio.

BUENA VISTA TOWNSHIP - The operator of the township's community center has less than two weeks to vacate the building.

Superior Court Judge Valerie Armstrong ruled Tuesday that Atlantic Rural Development Coalition's contract to operate the Dr. Martin Luther King Community Center has expired.

Armstrong said the nonprofit organization had 14 days to remove any items belonging to it from the Newtonville facility.

The decision appears to have ended a weeks-long dispute over who owned the building.

ARDC has operated the center since it opened in 1998.

Earlier this year, township officials informed ARDC they were terminating the organization's services, effective Oct. 1. They said a lack of programs and financial mismanagement prompted the decision.

But ARDC Executive Director Robert Hadley refused to vacate the building. He contended that state grants awarded to build the center in the early 1990s also gave his organization ownership rights to the center.

After a confrontation with Hadley at the center on Sept. 30, township officials filed to evict him and ARDC.

Prior to Tuesday's hearing there was speculation that Hadley might be fired by his parent organization. But Hadley was present at the hearing on behalf of ARDC.

Neither Hadley nor ARDC board member Gene Sykes could be reached for comment Wednesday.

Township Solicitor Joseph Gindhart said Hadley's decision to fight for the center's ownership was a wasteful one.

"This was a selfish thing to do which simply wasted the township's time and resources," Gindhart said.

"They've created an inconvenience and a nuisance to the very people they're serving," said Mayor Chuck Chiarello of ARDC's actions. "As far as we're concerned, 14 days can't come soon enough."

The Vineland YMCA is currently considering taking over as the center's operator. But Chiarello said the township would keep the center running no matter what the YMCA decides.

"We're prepared to move forward with programs ourselves," he said. "We'll work with senior citizen groups and the local church to get something positive decided."

EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP - Herbert Scheufele and other model railroaders will be working until December, taking apart the miniature world that took them 15 years to build.

The Patcong Valley Society of Model Railroaders found a new home in Buena Vista Township, but their intricate scenery, which was glued to the old building, will go in the dumpster.

"We've just gotten used to having a big layout that is all detailed and now we have to start from scratch," said Scheufele, 66, a retired telephone engineer from Ocean City and the group's secretary.

The club will move in January to an old brick factory building on Route 40 in the Richland section of Buena Vista, he said.

The society's present clubhouse on Fire Road, which belonged to a member, will be demolished in December. The 25 model railroaders held their annual train show this month, and advertised their search for a new home.

Dick Schiereck, club treasurer and owner of the old property, said that the club received more than $1,000 in donations and more than 1,000 visitors during their two weekends of shows. He added that dozens of people called about possible homes for the club, but the railroaders chose the Buena Vista building because it was close to the road and would bring in more visitors.

Scheufele said it may take another 15 years to rebuild what the club had. But members are already devising ways to improve the old set-up, including a digital and computerized track system, he said.

"Everybody enjoys something different," he said. "Some people like to run the trains. Some like to build the tracks, others the scenery. That's what makes it a good hobby, and that's how we can function as a club because everyone likes to do different things."

He added, "We are sad to see what we are losing but we are (looking) forward to the challenge of building something better."

BUENA VISTA TOWNSHIP - It's unclear whether the nonprofit organization operating the township's community center has fired its executive director.

A board member for the Atlantic Rural Development Coalition said Wednesday that it was considering terminating Robert Hadley, who has operated the township's Dr. Martin Luther King Community Center since it opened in the late 1990s.

But a Thursday ARDC board meeting at which Hadley's status might have been discussed was held in closed session.

Before the meeting, ARDC officials said they were unsure when a decision might be reached.

Hadley could not be reached for comment Thursday.

BUENA VISTA TOWNSHIP - The operator of the township's community center may be fired by his parent organization.

Gene Sykes, a board member for the Atlantic Rural Development Coalition, says his organization is meeting tonight to determine whether to terminate Robert Hadley, ARDC's executive director and operator of Buena Vista's Dr. Martin Luther King Center.

Hadley is currently at the center of a legal dispute with township officials who want to terminate ARDC's services at the center.

Mayor Chuck Chiarello said the decision was driven by a lack of programs offered, poor fiscal management and negligent accounting practices.

But Hadley, who could not be reached for comment Wednesday, has said that grants awarded by the state to build the center in the early 1990s also gave ownership rights to ARDC and has refused to move from the building

Township officials dispute this claim and have filed to begin an eviction process. A court hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.

Sykes did not comment on why Hadley might be terminated.

But Chiarello, who has praised ARDC while criticizing Hadley, said he would look favorably on a decision to terminate the executive director.

"It's a decision I would welcome," Chiarello said. "We need to move on from this."

Township Solicitor Joseph Gindhart says the eviction hearing would continue even if Hadley was terminated.

"But if he's been terminated he can't represent the organization," Gindhart said.

ATLANTIC CITY - Beneath the pine floorboards of a Michigan Avenue home, Ralph Hunter III crept about a sandy, wet crawl space and discovered century-old images of an unknown black American family: Seven charcoal portraits - called crayon drawings - dating to the late 19th or early 20th century and one photograph.

For 35 years, the founder of the African American Heritage Museum of Southern New Jersey has scoured the United States for African-American relics. Until two months ago, Hunter never found any two pieces in the same place.

"She is just incredible, isn't she?" Hunter says, looking at the portrait of a little girl, no older than 6 or 7. Her lips are pursed, her wide, dark eyes are sober and her hair is wound in two stubby pigtails. She is dressed in a Victorian blouse, an indication of a family's wealth at the turn of the century.

"You never see portraits of children. Never. Look at her. She looks like a little Indian woman."

Some historians think the portraits could be one of Atlantic City's great treasures; a tangible link to when the tireless efforts of black city workers helped build the resort into an East Coast tourist stop.

"(The portraits) give African Americans the opportunity to look back 100 years when Atlantic City was in its infancy stage and see that African Americans had style, they had class. They were gentlemen. The ladies were well-dressed and they were very well-bred," Hunter said.

But mystery shrouds the portraits, and Hunter is asking the public to help solve it.

Who were these people?

Were they native city residents, or were they among the black refugees who left the bitter South between 1877 and 1905 for the employment opportunities in Atlantic City?

Why was the family's memory - and substantial investment - buried inches deep in a crawl space littered with beer bottles and shattered glass?

For now, Hunter plans to restore the portraits and hang them in his Newtonville museum.

In recognition of Black History Month in February, the Atlantic City Arts Center hopes to put the portraits on display so the public can give input.

"It could be a great unifying event for the city and city residents to be able to work on solving this puzzle together," Atlantic City Arts Center Executive Director Joyce Hagen said. "It's just a great detective story."

Ken Hill has lived on Michigan Avenue since 1947.

A lonely widow named Mrs. Pettijohn was the earliest neighbor he can recall living at 704 Michigan Ave., where Hunter made his discovery.

"I don't know if anyone alive would know Mrs. Pettijohn," Hill said.

As far as he knows, his home was built in the late 1800s.

In the 1960s, Mooney Washington and his family bought the house, a relative lived in it for a while and they've since rented it to the Watson family, said Alvin Washington, of Atlantic City.

"Was I shocked? Yes," he said. "I don't know how anything could survive down there. It floods during a great storm."

In August, Hunter, who lives nearby on Blaine Avenue, visited with Hill.

He learned that the Watsons, who were leaving the house, may have valuable antiques.

After searching the home, Hunter didn't find anything.

But when he looked on the back porch he noticed an old, handmade wooden frame held together by square-cut iron nails.

"Where did you get this?" Hunter asked the Watsons.

They said their deceased father might have buried the portraits in the crawl space years earlier.

The next day, Hunter spent 45 minutes navigating the crawl space and found 1917 plates from the Shelburne Hotel and the portraits.

"Everything was soaking wet," Hunter said.

Earl Parker III, owner of Parker Masterpieces in Williamstown, offers the rare service of restoring the portraits to reflect their original images.

Parker said each portrait began with a photograph, a very faint version of which was transferred onto photograph paper. Then, it was sent to an artist, who used pastels and charcoal to give the pictures life and dimension.

No artist appeared to have signed the portraits.

"Those are probably very good likenesses of whoever those people were," Parker said.

At some point in the process, the images were sent to Chicago or another major city, where they were transferred onto a linen canvas. That is why the portraits could withstand time, flood waters and neglect, Hunter said.

Local historian Keturah Jackson said the portraits themselves tell a story about the family.

Three portraits of women and one of a little girl show definitive American-Indian facial features, Jackson said.

"A lot of African families have Indian heritage," she said.

Their similarities, Hunter noted, suggest they are four generations of women from the same family, including the older woman with an apron pulled close to her bosom.

One portrait of a man standing near what may be a piano seems to depict a minister.

And the photograph celebrating a graduation shows teenagers dressed in their choir uniforms. It is signed by Weintrob Photo.

Of particular interest is one portrait of a man with facial hair and long sideburns who bears a slight resemblance to Atlantic City Mayor Lorenzo Langford.

"I've never seen a collection together like this," Hunter said.

"Who knows what's up in the attic?" added Hill.

"To me, they're priceless," Hunter said.

For more information about the museum, visit:

www.africanamericanheritage

museum.org/index/htm

Cumberland County just released an updated "Cumberland Grown" guide to farming. That resource, which includes locations of farms and their specialties, is being prepared for Internet access. For more information on agri-tourism, visit these state Web sites:

Karl Molinelli of the Buena Vista Township public works department prepares the site of Richland Park for seeding on Wednesday.

Buena Vista Township Committee