By BILL BARLOW
Staff Writer

CAPE MAY – The four candidates seeking a single seat on City Council in the Tuesday, May 13 vote each say Cape May must strike a balance between its role as a resort and its obligations to the community.
But the candidates differ on how that balance can be found, and how good a job the current City Council is doing.
The seat’s incumbent, David Craig, won the seat with a strong showing in a crowded field four years ago, but decided he did not want to seek a second term. By the deadline for filing petitions for a run, Jack Wichterman, Harry Bellangy, Jeanne Powick and Terri Swain were set to be on the ballot for the seat.
There are also three candidates for mayor – incumbent Jerome Inderwies and challengers Ed Mahaney and William Gaffney, who have both also served as Cape May Mayors. The mayoral candidates were profiled in the May 1 edition of the Cape May Gazette, and those profiles may be read at www.thecapemaygazette.com under bonus coverage.
In recent interviews, the four City Council candidates discussed their reasons for running, their backgrounds, and some of the hot issues in Cape May.
Two of the candidates have deep roots in Cape May, while two others have moved to town more than a decade ago. There are two men and two women, and three of the candidates are retired.
They presented a range of views on a variety of issues, although each expressed concern about the city’s status as a historic landmark, and there was one area each candidate agreed upon – a parking garage in Cape May would be a waste of taxpayer money.

This is Harry Bellangy’s second run for City Council. He fell short in his first attempt, part of a ticket in the crowded field of candidates in 2004 after the change in government meant the entire council was up for election.
Bellangy, 64, grew up in Cape May, and his family has been in the area for generations. He is single, and lives on Pearl Avenue.
He is a retired system’s analyst who said a large part of his job was designing systems to improve efficiency, which he said would help him on City Council.
Interviewed at Larry Muentz’s Alexander’s Inn on Washington Street, Bellangy was a member of the Planning Board for 15 years, and has been involved in the Center for Community Arts and Animal Outreach. He was also strongly opposed to changes in the city’s beach-management plan as it relates to the trap, neuter and release program, of which he is a strong supporter.
Bellangy cited his involvement in the construction of the city’s desalination plant, which he said should be a model for other large-scale projects such as building a new Convention Hall. In that project, he said, extensive input was gathered in the planning stage, with a wide variety of options explored, and there was very little controversy when it came time to build.
As for the Convention Hall plans, he had some praise for the most recent version of the plan, but questioned whether the city really needs as large an auditorium as is suggested, with 1,500 seats, two floors, retail space and a restaurant, and also questioned the wisdom of putting the new hall in the same place as the current one on Beach Avenue.
“Do we want to put it in the ocean, literally?” he said. He also pointed out that before the previous Convention Hall was damaged by the March, 1962, storm and torn down, it was also badly damaged in the hurricane of 1944, which caused extensive damage to the town.
Bellangy said a huge concern for him is Cape May’s status as a national historic landmark city. He said the city is on a watch list of endangered historic sites, and that with the level of development now under way, he does not see the city coming off the watch list.
He also questioned why the same few people are on several boards and commissions, saying there is a huge number of talented people in Cape May who could serve.
Asked if the overlap between boards and commissions is not at least in part a function of the limited number of people willing to dedicate their time to the meetings, he said “I know people who have asked to be on committees and commissions and they never got a call back.”
Another area of concern for Bellangy is the shifting of fire inspections for accommodations from the local fire department to the state. He said the requirements imposed by the state inspections for fire protections were unreasonable and often out of character for the historic buildings.
It ends up being far more practical for bed and breakfast owners to switch to whole-house rentals, which do not face the same level of inspections, he said.
Local fire inspectors would be required to demand the same fire protections, but Bellangy said the local inspectors would be better for the owners.
“It’s like they have to find something,” he said of the state inspectors, citing an instance where a bed and breakfast owner was fined because the door of a circuit breaker box was not closed.
He suggested the inspections could badly damage the bed and breakfast industry in Cape May, which he said would be very damaging to the town.
He also expressed support for local business, although like other candidates, he said there needs to be a balance between accommodating visitors and looking after residents.
“Tourism is our business. It has been since 1700 or something when people started to ‘resort’ in Cape May,” Bellangy said. A large amount of the costs of running the city is paid by tourism, he said, and it is a vital source of local jobs.
“We have to be friendly to our visitors. They pay a huge number of our bills,” he said.

Jeanne Powick began attending city meetings in recent years, and soon became a familiar face at City Council meetings, as well as at meetings of the Revitalization Commission, the planning and zoning boards, town meetings held by the design firm Rhodeside and Harwell on a vision plan for the city, and several others.
Interviewed at her Clay Street home, she said what she heard the residents say they wanted for Cape May at those meetings was not what was being enacted by City Council and recommended by the boards and commissions.
She said as the city embarks on revisiting its master plan this year, it should listen to what the residents want.
“I feel the city needs to be very vigilant in creating a master plan that has a vision for 15 to 20 years out,” she said. That should include getting input from residents at the start of the process, she added. “Once you ascertain where you want to be 15-20 years down the road, you start to bring harmony back to Cape May because we’ll all be concentrating on the same path.”
A key element, she suggested, is for the residents to be brought together in a real town hall meeting.
Powick, 66, moved to Cape May 11 years ago. She is married, and has four children and seven grandchildren, and said she is very active in the Cape May Lutheran Church. She worked for the consulting and marketing arm of AT&T, and has a master’s degree in business. She said she was responsible for multi-billion-dollar decisions, adding that she feels that sets her apart from the other candidates.
That criticism extended to the vision plan developed by Rhodeside Harwell, and to the way the plans for the work on the Washington Street Mall – now finishing up in advance of the summer – was planned and approved.
“What I wanted was what I heard the people say they wanted, which is to have the property owners on the mall bear a part of the cost,” she said. Residential property owners have to pay for sidewalk work in front of their properties, she said, so she believes the owners of the commercial properties on the mall should kick in for the cost of the work there. She said the results of a bond referendum in 2006, in which the bond funding the work was narrowly overturned, confirmed this position.
Asked if she could be considered a candidate of change, she said it would depend on the definition of change, but that she wants to see the inclusion of residents and taxpayers in the process of deciding what they want Cape May to be in the future.
“The people feel as though they’ve been neglected, they feel as though they’ve been left out, they feel as though they’ve been not listened to, and they want to be heard,” she said. “They want a vote, they want to be heard. The council works for them, and they don’t see that right now.”
She said she gained insight into what the people want while campaigning door-to-door during the election, and that she has met extensively with numerous voters.
She suggested that the committees working on plans for parking improvements, Convention Hall and other issues are very powerful, and criticized City Council’s decision to approve a contract for architectural services for Convention Hall without competitive bidding.
“The people are just appalled,” she said. Numerous architects would have wanted to have a chance to design the building, she added.
While she praised the current plan, she said it may be too large, and questioned its placement on the waterfront. She also suggested it should be more for residents than conventions.
“I feel that the people said loud and clear that they wanted a community center,” she said.
Powick criticized the planning that has taken place so far, including the number of seats included in the plan, and the lack of a clear timeline for how long the project will take. She also questioned where users of the new facility will park.
“Too much power is in the subcommittees, and the council needs to take back that power,” she said.
She was also critical of the amount of development currently taking place.
“I think we need to determine up front how much more growth is sustainable until the quality of life in Cape May is sacrificed,” she said.
Like the other candidates, she said the city has to strike a balance between business interests and residents, but she said there are some who see Cape May primarily as a business, and maintains that kind of thinking will hurt the town.

Terri Swain, the third-generation owner of Swain’s Ace Hardware on Jackson Street, says she decided to run because of her family’s history of giving back to the community.
“It’s a part of what made us whole,” she said in an interview at the store recently.
She cited her father’s dedication to the business and to numerous community organizations, saying the kids got to see him on Sunday, but on other nights, he came home from work and immediately went right back out.
“But it was necessary for our survival, to make sure the community was getting as much in time and contributions as it needed,” she said.
Swain, 45, is engaged to Glenn McBrearty. She was born and raised in Cape May, attending Cape May Elementary and was part of the first class at the Teitelman School in the Lower Cape May Regional school district.
She went to New York University for dance, but after graduation “reality hit me. I was going to have to have a job and pay rent.”
She took some night classes at Stockton State College and then went to Pace University for accounting. She ended up working for a large accounting firm, working in Australia on an assignment and traveled elsewhere in the United States. She later became a certified public accountant.
In 1994, she returned to Cape May to help with the family business, taking a leave of absence. She worked at the hardware store as well as at her step-sister’s inn.
Swain was reluctant to cast herself as Craig’s successor on City Council, but made clear she felt they have a lot in common, and that she would bring a similar perspective to the table.
She said they disagree on some issues, but that they are both Cape May locals and relatively young for council.
“There needs to be some diversity on council, so it represents what the community is really about,” she said. She said it was a huge decision to run, but when Craig decided against seeking another term, “I felt that there needed to be a younger person.”
She also stressed that she has seen Cape May in good times and in bad, and that the town could be heading into a tough economic time, although she hopes it can be kept from getting too bad.
Swain said that she brings a unique perspective to the race.
“I feel the other candidates don’t have that kind of experience,” she said.
Like other candidates, she said she is not aligned with any of the mayoral candidates, although she says she knows all three. She said that some people perceive some alliances in the race, but none exist.
“I do my own thing,” she said.
Swain also questioned the plans for a new Convention Hall, suggesting that the two-floor design might not be very workable. She said the plans should be revisited.
“We should define the uses and build it to reflect that,” she said.
Swain was involved in the creation of a Cape May dog park on Lafayette, and she said it is important for residents and visitors to realize that no tax money went into its creation.
She said it is important for the city to look at ways to do things differently, and to see what can be done smarter or with more efficiency.
When asked about the accusation from some during the election that special interests hold too much sway in Cape May, she said “I feel that’s sad, when we have to go there.”
But she said the city should look at the process, and if there are any hints that the process is tainted “then we have to go back and do it right.”
Like other candidates, Swain expressed concern about Cape May’s historic landmark status.
She said it is important for Cape May to understand the people who come to the resort, and why.
“So many people live in this town that just really love this town,” she said.

Jack Wichterman is the only candidate for council this year who has served in city government, both in Cape May for one term and 13 years in Ringwood, where he used to live.
He stressed that experience during the campaign and during an interview at his Delaware Avenue home. Asked if he could be considered the “establishment” candidate, he answered an unequivocal yes.
Wichterman, 71, moved to Cape May in 1998. He and his wife have a grown son and daughter. He retired as a vice president of international sales and marketing at Oak Tree Packaging Corporation.
He lost his bid for reelection in 2004 by 46 votes in a field of 13 candidates, he said. Since then, he has been involved with the Cape May Taxpayers Association, and is also a member of the Kiwanis Club and other local groups.
“This is a time where there needs to be some experience on the council,” Wichterman said. “I think I’ve got the experience. I think there’s a lot going on in town.”
He also criticized candidates who cited how long they or their families have lived in town.
“That doesn’t mean a heck of a lot to me. I’ve been in town for 10 years and I’ve been involved since I’ve gotten to the city,” he said.
Wichterman said Convention Hall is the most important issue facing the town, and he said the city should not spend any more money keeping the former hall open.
He is also the only candidate who wants to see council move ahead with plans for the new hall, while others are calling for more public input and, in the case of one mayoral candidate, even a reworking of the entire plan.
“We’ve had at least a year of public input,” Wichterman said. “It’s time for the mayor and council to make a decision. They can start with demolition and get this out of here.”
He is not a complete fan of the current proposal. He said he would prefer the new hall stay the same size as the current hall – the latest plans call for a considerable expansion – and said Cape May should not try to compete with the convention center in Wildwood and the new performance spaces in Lower Township and Middle Township. But he said it is time to move forward.
“You can’t please everybody, there’s no doubt about that,” he said.
He also wants the city to take a stronger role in promoting the town, taking some of the burden off private groups such as the Chamber of Commerce and the Mid Atlantic Center for the Arts.
He says Cape May is not the sleepy little town that some people portray.
“Cape May is a tourist destination, plain and simple,” he said.
Wichterman says Cape May has one of the lowest tax rates in the state, and that if it wasn’t for the Lower Cape May Regional School funding formula, it would be even better.
He also spoke of the importance of the review of the master plan set to start this year.
Wichterman is an advocate of selling $10 beach tags in January. He said that’s a way to give residents a break on the cost of the tags, because the state will not allow residents to be given free tags.
He also wants to reinstitute what he called a talent bank, which he helped put together in his first term, under which those who are interested in serving on boards, commissions, committees or otherwise volunteering would put their name forward and be included in a database.
Wichterman wants City Council meetings to be videotaped for broadcast on the local cable access channel. He said he brought this idea up while on council, but that there was no interest at the time.
But he said there are a lot of people in town who have trouble getting to the council meetings.
Wichterman has also called for the county to take over the library building on Ocean Street, and either completely renovate it or replace it. He said the city sent $727,000 in library taxes to the county in 2007, as well as a huge amount of open space tax, and that the city does not see any of that back.
He has also been a critic of those who say special interests have too much influence in Cape May. He has been criticized for comments in which he said he had no idea who are the special interests. When specific people were mentioned, who serve on more than one board or influential city committee, he said they are volunteers, and that Cape May is better for their efforts.