Complaints

The owner of a Caln Township group home for the retarded last week defended his business against accusations that it hurt the community. Edmund St.Peter, chief executive officer of TeSaK Inc., told the township Board of Commissioners on Thursday that the three residents of the Jonathan Drive home want to be good neighbors. St.Peter said nearby residents have complained of unkempt lawns and heavy traffic through the neighborhood. He conceded that in the past the property was not well-cared for, but he said that has changed.

Fewer citizens reported that they had been physically abused by police in 1986 than in any year since 1982, when the Police Department began keeping detailed records of such complaints, according to the records. At the same time, the total number of citizen complaints against police for any reason was the lowest in the last eight years. The number of fatal shootings by police last year - four - was the lowest since 1982. In addition, Police Commissioner Kevin M. Tucker fired more officers last year - 39 - than any commissioner in the last six years.

A resident of Chestnut Avenue in Woodlynne said the borough trash collectors threw a trash can in the middle of the street and left it there. An Evergreen Avenue resident said the trash collectors didn't pick up an empty case of beer bottles. A resident of Cedar Avenue said the trash collectors left a can half-full of trash. And residents of Evergreen, Maple, Cooper, Woodlynne, Linden, Chestnut and other streets in the borough said the trash collectors didn't pick up trash at all. For months, Woodlynne residents have been phoning in complaints about the trash service they have been receiving from the O'Connor Corp.

State Rep. Ruth B. Harper felt a little put out by the apparent lack of concern over the condition of her office at the Capitol. But all that changed yesterday, shortly after she brought those complaints to the attention of her colleagues. About an hour after the Philadelphia Democrat raised a stink on the House floor about "garbage" piled outside her office and about curtainless windows inside, she returned to her third-floor office to find state workers already attending to her complaints.

The owner of a Lawrence Avenue car dealership told the Borough Council Wednesday that the activities at his business that had resulted in complaints by some residents had been rectified. "I think it's pretty much under control," Troy Fink said. Fink's dealership, S & S Auto Sales, had been the subject of complaints by some Lawrence Avenue residents several weeks ago, council members said. The residents said that dealership cars were being driven the wrong way on the one-way street, and that cars were being parked on the street, causing crowding.

An unnamed employee in the state Insurance Department forged consumer complaints in rate disputes involving two auto insurance companies, the department said yesterday. Acting Insurance Commissioner Constance B. Foster said in a statement that the phony complaints had been submitted by the employee in disputes involving auto-rate filings by Allstate Insurance Co. and the Travelers Insurance Cos. Foster said it was "incomprehensible" that anyone would need to "forge a consumer complaint when dozens of similar documents were filed with the department challenging the rate increases.

The Gloucester County freeholders scolded county Medical Examiner Claus P. Speth behind closed doors last night but stopped short of taking disciplinary action against him. Meeting privately, the freeholders told Speth to make "a concerted effort to modify his demeanor and conduct," said County Solicitor Raymond Page. The freeholders called the meeting after Speth was officially reprimanded last month by Robert Goode, the state medical examiner. "Alone among the county medical examiners in the state of New Jersey, your activities generate the largest number of complaints," Goode wrote in a Jan. 15 letter to Speth.

Two private groups seeking to provide housing in Browns Mills for poor people have filed complaints in the state Superior Court in Burlington County against the Pemberton Township Zoning Board of Adjustment in an attempt to overturn two recent decisions. The Zoning Board was "arbitrary, capricious, unreasonable, and otherwise wrongful" in its May 20 decision to deny the Pemberton-based Christian Caring Center a use variance for a building at 11 Clubhouse Rd., where the group wanted to provide three apartments for low-income tenants, according to the complaint mailed to Superior Court last Thursday, said Cynthia S. Earl, the center's attorney.

Complaints of noise and loitering at the borough's parks may become less of an issue now that they will close an hour earlier. Council members unanimously approved an ordinance Tuesday night that would change park hours to 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. The borough's five parks had been closing at 10 p.m., but more than 40 complaints about rowdy teenagers brought pressure to reduce the hours. In many cases, residents said, police have taken until about 11 p.m. to disperse crowds. Residents said problems were particularly serious at Knight Park, which is bordered by Church Street, Main Street and Bannockburn Avenue.

Two black Paulsboro residents yesterday signed formal complaints against three local police officers, contending that they physically or verbally abused them at the police station. Six other written complaints of physical abuse by officers were received Tuesday night by black community leaders, who said yesterday that they would file the letters with the state Division of Civil Rights. The two complaints yesterday were filed with the Paulsboro court clerk and will be scheduled for a hearing.