Avalon

AVALON, N.J. - A thick wave of fog washed over the beach yesterday, spilling onto the dunes and scrubby pines, right to the deck of Joe Paterno's oceanfront home. You could almost imagine the fallen legend out on the deck alone, staring off into the mist. He will have more time for that, now that he has been deposed as Penn State's football coach. This town's motto is "Cooler by a Mile," and for 25 years Paterno and his family have traveled more than 250 miles to chill out inside a comparatively modest two-story house nestled between certifiable mansions on the dunes.

Just a few months after the Eagles drafted Donovan McNabb, another thing happened to Angelo Cataldi that infuriated him for years. McNabb is long gone, but bring up beach tags and the longtime 610-AM sports personality's bitterness over his 1999 beachfront brouhaha with Avalon comes surging back. "I try to avoid Avalon whenever I can," Cataldi said yesterday. "I am one of the top enemies of Avalon, and I am proud of it. " Cataldi was renting a home in Avalon in August '99 that came with beach tags.

A political tempest has swept through this pricey resort town in recent months, consuming conversation at the weekly bridge games at the municipal building and up and down the lunch counter at Sullivan's Department Store. "It's got neighbor against neighbor," says Ed Crippin, a 13-year resident. "People aren't speaking to one another. No matter where you go, people will talk about it. It's just a shame. This has never happened before in Avalon. " What is happening is a mud-slinging, eye-scratching political catfight between two Main Line retirees who want to be mayor: Rachel H. Sloan, the incumbent mayor and former nursery-school teacher from Merion, and James H. Redditt, a retired engineer and executive from Narberth.

Last year was a good one for real estate in Avalon and Stone Harbor, known collectively as Seven Mile Island, according to statistics compiled by the Cape May County Multiple Listing Service. There were 295 settlements in 1994, compared with 268 in 1993, an increase of 10 percent. The lowest sale price on Seven Mile Island was a condominium for $36,000. The highest sale price was an oceanfront single-family house for $2,275,000. The highest demand continues to be for single-family houses, with 169 sales in 1994.

The Avalon String Band, which selected a theme called "Red, White, Rhythm and Blue" for the 1993 Mummers Parade, will be strutting those colors to honor Bill Clinton's inauguration on Jan. 20 in Washington. Avalon's quick-step appearance in the inaugural parade will be the Mummers' second national exposure of the month: The Travel Channel, available on cable systems that reach 17.5 million subscribers, will carry the Mummers Parade in its entirety, the first such airing for Philadelphia's New Year's festivities.

New Jersey's Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that Avalon must pay a Moorestown couple for beach property it took to build protective dunes after a storm devastated the area in 1962. The ruling said Avalon's actions had been "contradictory" and said the borough "skirted its obligation to answer for its action. " However, the court said that despite paying taxes on the property for decades since the storm, Edward and Nancy Klumpp were no longer the legal owners with rights to what had been an oceanfront lot on 75th Street.

It's an opportunity for Shore living for which only the filthy stinking rich need apply. The commonly affluent probably shouldn't bother. For $7 million, give or a take a couple hundred thousand, in a secluded section of Avalon overlooking the ocean is a vacation house just waiting to be knocked down. "The value's in the ground," said Michael Powers, incoming president of the Cape May County Association of Realtors and a veteran Avalon broker. Multimillion-dollar knockdowns are common at the Shore.

David and Elizabeth German had the chance to buy an architect-designed house in Avalon for $1. That's right, Avalon, the ritzy Jersey Shore community where offering $1 million for a house is considered a good starting point and $1 seems like the stuff of 999,999 dreams. There was a catch, though. The Germans had to move the house out of town. "It's really not all that unusual to find a house for $1 in Avalon," said David German, 57, a woodworker who makes his living crafting Adirondack chairs and picnic tables.

Is there such a thing as a restaurant intervention? The history of Avalon, a distinctive BYO that takes its name from a Van Morrison song, certainly reads that way. John Brandt-Lee, who owns the restaurant with his wife, Michelle, was loosely connected to the place as its Web-page designer and silent partner. Avalon had opened after Sept. 11, 2001, and floundered, Brandt-Lee said, largely because its fine-dining concept remained a vision - it was at odds with the actual service (too casual)

You Eagle linemen are probably wondering why I asked you here. I did so because I needed six powerful men for the great Toyota Taffy Pull. I want you three defensive linemen to grab the back end of this Toyota Camry platform, while your teammates from the offensive line get a good grip on the front. Everybody ready? OK, pull. Heave, boys. We want to increase the wheelbase of that platform four inches - from 103.1 to 107.1. OK, stop pulling, I think we have it. Now, we'll just drop this new body on what had been a midsize Camry and, presto, we have the Avalon, Toyota's new large car. And that's really what the Avalon is: a stretched, re-bodied version of the Camry V-6. It is also a very ingenious and historic variation on the Camry.

What's a 9,000-square-foot beachfront property in Avalon worth? Depends on who's doing the math. In a convoluted legal dispute settled last week, a Superior Court judge in Cape May County has ordered the Borough of Avalon to pay a Moorestown couple $284,802 for a 90- by 100-foot lot at the end of 75th Street that the borough seized without compensation in 1965. Edward and Nancy Klumpp had sought $5.5 million, based on current real estate values. The Klumpps lost a six-bedroom home on the site in the great storm of 1962.

AVALON, N.J. - New Jersey environmental regulators say this Jersey Shore town may be doing something stinky in its effort to control skunks. Avalon officials have been capturing and moving skunks - about 80 of them in the last year - and the state Division of Fish and Wildlife wants to know where they are being taken. A permit is needed to move wildlife to another town because the animals could cause problems in their new homes, an agency spokesman told the Press of Atlantic City.

Wes Kerr's growth involves a lot more than his height. The Moorestown guard stands taller than ever in many ways - skill set, command of the game, confidence on the court. Kerr's remarkable jump from role player as a junior to leading man as a senior for one of South Jersey's most underrated teams was on full display in Moorestown's impressive, 84-62 victory over Cinnaminson on Thursday night. Kerr controlled the fast-paced Burlington County League interdivision clash from the opening tip, scoring 19 of his 23 points, grabbing five of his seven rebounds, and dealing four of his six assists in the first half as the Quakers broke to a 49-28 lead.

Wes Kerr's growth involves a lot more than his height. The Moorestown guard stands taller than ever in many ways - skill set, command of the game, confidence on the court. Kerr's remarkable jump from role player as a junior to leading man as a senior for one of South Jersey's most underrated teams was on full display in Moorestown's impressive 84-62 victory over Cinnaminson on Thursday night. Kerr controlled the fast-paced Burlington County League interdivision clash from the opening tip, scoring 19 of his 23 points, grabbing five of his seven rebounds, and dealing four of his six assists in the first half as the Quakers broke to a 49-28 lead.

AVALON, N.J. - A thick wave of fog washed over the beach yesterday, spilling onto the dunes and scrubby pines, right to the deck of Joe Paterno's oceanfront home. You could almost imagine the fallen legend out on the deck alone, staring off into the mist. He will have more time for that, now that he has been deposed as Penn State's football coach. This town's motto is "Cooler by a Mile," and for 25 years Paterno and his family have traveled more than 250 miles to chill out inside a comparatively modest two-story house nestled between certifiable mansions on the dunes.

POINT PLEASANT BEACH, N.J. - Bowing to an outcry from fishermen worried about getting kicked off the beach at night, New Jersey environmental officials are rewriting their proposed beach access-rules to protect anglers' right to fish during off-hours. The move by the state Department of Environmental Protection addresses a key complaint about the new rules that emerged at a series of contentious public hearings this spring. The DEP undertook a sweeping revision of beach-access rules, moving away from a one-size-fits-all rulemaking approach in favor of letting individual Shore towns write their own rules.

Jason Malick has always loved water. For the first 12 years of his life, his family summered in Sweetwater, N.J., near Hammonton, on the Mullica River. The Malicks lived in an old concession stand, which didn't even have plumbing the first few years, and the five brothers got in the habit of bathing in the river. Mom would throw them a bar of Ivory soap. Always Ivory, because it floated. "We would often come out dirtier than when we went in," said Jason, 29, "because of mud fights at low tide.

Just a few months after the Eagles drafted Donovan McNabb, another thing happened to Angelo Cataldi that infuriated him for years. McNabb is long gone, but bring up beach tags and the longtime 610-AM sports personality's bitterness over his 1999 beachfront brouhaha with Avalon comes surging back. "I try to avoid Avalon whenever I can," Cataldi said yesterday. "I am one of the top enemies of Avalon, and I am proud of it. " Cataldi was renting a home in Avalon in August '99 that came with beach tags.

South Philly's own Frankie Avalon, coming to town for Jerry Blavat's Mother's Day Musical Spectacular at the Kimmel Center Sunday, will stop by the Shoprite in Marlton, N.J., (307 W. Route 70, 856-667-9410) at 2 p.m. Saturday to sign cans of Avallone Tomatoes. That's his mom, Mary, on the label, and the line of Jersey-grown tomatoes belongs to family members. Harry Ochs Prime Meats closed its stand at Reading Terminal Market this week after 105 years. Stand owner Nick Ochs is now head butcher at Main Street Market in Manayunk (4345 Main St., 215-482-9500)