Nuisance

A Common Pleas Court judge yesterday declined to lift an order shutting down Club Maui, a popular nightspot along the Delaware River waterfront that has been the focus of complaints from neighbors and authorities. At 12:15 p.m. Thursday, the Department of Licenses and Inspections posted a "Cease of Operations Order" on the front door of the club, at 1143 N. Delaware Ave. in Fishtown. The club, legally known as Maui Entertainment Complex, did not open Thursday night. L&I's decree follows the fatal shooting of 20-year-old Elijah Troupe of Trenton, who was gunned down in the club's parking lot Jan. 21 as he and his friends left shortly after 2 a.m. and got into a quarrel with several men. L&I Commissioner Edward McLaughlin said that in addition to that slaying, other reports of violence included 51 assaults on the premises in the last year.

The region mobilized last night to cope with the first winter storm of the season, sending salt trucks and plows over major highways made slick by a deadly combination of rain, sleet and snow. While only rain was expected in the city, outlying areas were hit by snow and sleet, especially in the northern and western suburbs. The U.S. Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for Bucks County, and a winter advisory for Chester and Montgomery counties. Snow showers were expected to continue today, with stiff winds.

A multi-agency task force seized 43 dogs from a home with conditions considered so intolerable that workers entered it Wednesday wearing hazardous-materials gear. "The sanitation issues were very bad," said Bob Lentine, assistant chief and environmental health specialist for the Camden County Department of Health. "There was a heavy buildup of ammonia from the excessive amount of urine and feces lying around," Lentine said. "It was as if someone had taken ammonia and dumped it throughout the house.

When the state teachers' college opened in an old peach orchard in 1923, the sleepy country road known as Route 322 seemed like a lifeline for the fledgling campus. As the college - now Rowan University - has grown, so has traffic on Route 322, which splits the campus down the middle. And the combination of almost 10,000 students and 18,000 cars and trucks a day has become a dangerous one. In January 1996, Michael Battagliese, a freshman, was crossing the two-lane road on his way to class when he was hit by a car driven by a fellow student.

Cell phones are a danger while driving a car. Something drastic has to be done soon. People on cell phones in stores and restaurants are a nuisance. Nobody wants to listen to them pretending to be big deals. This is getting out of hand. LARRY LIVENGOOD, Drexel Hill

Police in the county seat are gearing up to fight the type of crime that pops up with the spring flowers and simmers through the summer. These are by no mean felonies, but, rather, seasonal nuisances that frustrate Woodbury residents. The problems are often ordinance violations rather than crimes - loud music, loitering, public drinking, street ball games. Ann Shenton has lived on Hopkins Street for three years and says that when the snow melts, the trouble begins. "During the winter months, there aren't many problems.

Knowledgeable customers at the post office and businesses in the Fairview Village Shopping Center are careful to watch where they step in the parking lot. For about three years now, septic-tank fluids - and sometimes raw sewage - have been snaking through the lot at Route 363 and Germantown Pike. But over the last two weeks or so, the problem has worsened, said Richard Mullen, finance officer at the Fairview Village post office. "Customers have been coming in here complaining about the stench and the water flooding the parking lot," Mullen said.

Wildlife officials say only time will tell if a $1 million, five-point proposal introduced by Gov. Whitman in lieu of an organized bear hunt can reduce encounters between bears and humans. Whitman's plan, which is expected to add four wildlife control officers to the seven who work on bear issues in North Jersey while increasing efforts to educate residents and police about bears, should be ready by spring, when bears emerge from hibernation, said Sharon Southard, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Almost a week after a brawl left one person dead and at least 11 people injured at the Club Metropolis in the Woodbine Inn, police signed a complaint yesterday against the owners of the inn, charging them with maintaining a nuisance. The fight began in the club's bar and spilled out into the parking lot, leading to stabbings, shootings, and the death of a Camden man early Friday, police said. Among those injured were a paramedic and a Pennsauken police officer. Township officials said the brawl was just the latest violent incident at the Route 73 establishment during the last year.

Four days after a brawl left one person dead and 11 wounded at the Woodbine Inn, police officials are poised to sign a nuisance complaint against the owners, Chief John Coffey said. Municipal prosecutor Michael Joyce will meet with police today to review the evidence. "If the facts merit filing the charge, then we will file it," Joyce said. If the inn's owners are found guilty of maintaining a nuisance, a judge can order the business to be shut down for up to one year.