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DOTRA BOARD MEETINGS

DOTRA BOARD MEETINGS ARE HELD MONTHLY ON THE FIRST TUESDAY OF THE MONTH.

DOTRA will hold its next regular meeting on Tuesday February 5, 2002.

First Tuesday of the month
Eddie's Eatery
628 Arena Drive
Hamilton Township
609-888-1414

Dutch treat lunch at 11:30 A.M. - 12:30 P.M.
Meeting starts promptly at 12:30 P.M.

ALL MEMBERS ARE WELCOME!!

Future Meetings Tuesday March 5, 2002
Tuesday April 2, 2002

SPRING LUNCHEON

Thanks to the efforts of Joe and Marion Bodnar arrangements have been made for a gala Spring luncheon to be held on Wednesday March 13, 2002 at the Country House restaurant on County Route 530 - South Pemberton Road in Pemberton, N.J.

See the enclosed flyer for details, menu and cost per person.

Hope to see you all there on March 13th. Come and join the fun!

ACTIVITIES CO-ORDINATOR SEARCH ALMOST ENDED

Thanks also to Fran Geurds and Jim Springstead who have volunteered to lend a hand on the activities committee. Although they have offered to help, we are still in need of some additional helping hands and minds with ideas for future trips and entertainment that's fun and maybe even educational - so please help us. If you would like to volunteer please contact our President, Dick Hobson, at the DOTRA mailing address P.O. Box 77160, West Trenton, NJ or call Dick at 609/737-3227.

DOTRA DUES

Many thanks to those of you heeded our request to check your mailing label on DotLine for the date your dues are paid.

Please send your payments to:
DOTRA
P.O. Box 77160
West Trenton, NJ 08628-6160

CHAPLAIN'S REPORT
by Guy LoBue

We would like to be informed of any retiree who is ill, those who are in the hospital, or anyone confined to their home, or any retiree who needs help in one form or another. Please call Guy at 609/585-4979 or write to him at 19 Mount Avenue, Hamilton, NJ 08620.

Recent Obituaries:

Amella M. Lesko (76) MVS 1992
Richard Levendouski (71) DOT 1989
Clifford A. Brown (77) DOT ?
Vivian Porter (69) DOT 1978
Evelyn Sholin (89) DOT ?
Lionel K. Murphy (78) DOT 1986
Lilah C. Laslo (64) MVS ?
Franz J. Mayer (81) DOT 1979
Robert W. Hassell (65) DOT 2000
Kathryn Filidore (85) MVS 1983
Elizabeth Burkus (92) MVS ?
Lawrence D. Higgs (60) DOT ?
William Bergner (78) DOT ?
Kathleen E. Tenaglia (59) MVS ?
Erma Pagliaro (80) MVS ?
ChristineE. Medulla (88) MVS 1976
Clarence Sandhoff (91) DOT ?
Emma Mary Kincel (89) DOT 1981
Samuel E. Brommer, Jr.(94) DOT ?
Gloria Blumenthal (78) DOT 1989

Recuperating at home:

We often hear of someone having been ill and hopefully are well on the way to better health by the time we publish our quarterly issue of DotLine.

We have heard that Leonard Calabrese,Jr. has had hip replacement surgery on December 4, 2001. Also we have heard that Mary Thompson broke her hip while on a trip to Europe. Mary thanks us for our good wishes and prayers.

Hurry up and get well. We are sure that they would like to hear some cheery news from their friends.

DOTRA'S EXECUTIVE BOARD

OFFICERS
President:  Dick Hobson
1st Vice President:  Guy LoBue
2nd Vice President:  Walter Gable
Treasurer:  Frank Herrera
Recording Secretary:  Hazel Rockhill
Corresponding Secretary:  Dee Wisneski

DIRECTORS
Chet Andres     Adrian Lincoln
Joseph Bodnar    Dolores Murphy
Fran Geurds     Mary Stafford
Wilma Gruzlovic    Peg Wieger
Don Hutchinson

COMMITTEES
Chaplain:  Guy LoBue
Membership:   Dot & Chet Andres
By Laws:  Chet Andres
Historian:  Wilma Gruzlovic
Actvities:  Fran Geurds & Jim Springstead
DotLine:  Dot Andres & Dee Wisneski
Website:  Kristina Erin Kaye ... 609/918-0603

DOTRA BUS TRIPS

On October 11, 2001 DOTRA ran a bus trip to Atlantic City to the casinos. It was a special trip in that it was a small, 32 passenger, bus staffed with a hostess who served snacks and drinks on the way to and on the way home from the casino. Each person received $22.50 in coins. The cost was $27.00. Everyone agreed that it was a fantastic trip and a great bargain. The trip was run by Frances Geurds who plans on having another one in the Fall - keep an eye out for the flyer in a future DotLine.

On November 29, 2001 Dee Murphy organized a bus trip to Madison Square Garden to see "A Christmas Carol - The Musical". The cost was $60.00 per person, which included lunch at the beautiful Florentine Gardens in River Vale, N.J. All who attended were extremely pleased with the show and the luncheon. We hope to have a similar trip again this year if someone will volunteer to organize the trip. Dee Murphy has said that she will assist whoever volunteers to run the trip. Please help if you can. If you are interested in helping us, please notify our President Dick Hobson as listed on the previous page.

NEW MEMBERS

We welcome the following retirees who have recently joined our organization:

Frank Battaglia     C&M
James Rush     Maint. Eng.
Matthew DiBenedetti     Proj. Mngt.
Norman Comfort     Reg. 3 Const.
Diane Butchin      Reg. 3 Maint.

Welcome to our organization. We hope to see you at our meetings and social activities.

FLORIDA REUNION

Don't forget the Florida reunion on Tuesday February 12th at Rockledge Country Club. If you need more information and you want to make a reservation, if you haven't done so already, please contact Kathy or Frank Wegel at:

8060 142nd Street
Sebastian, FL 32958
Telephone: 561/388-3991

HERE AND THERE
by Dot Andres

A very Happy New Year to all our members and their families. We are looking forward to a new start in 2002, after the final months of 2001 were so grim and disheartening for all of us. We hope we take this New Year as an opportunity for resuming a positive attitude and another chance to regain a positive spirit. We won't forget but we do go on!

Hopefully all our DOTRA members have received their personal copy of "People - The Transportation Connection." from former Commissioner Jim Weinstein. What a fine tribute the publication is to all NJDOT people, particularly those former employees who were there in the rapid growth years of the New Jersey Highway and Interstate Systems in the 50's, 60's, and 70's. You can be proud that you were there and made your contribution to the development of "one of the best transportation networks in the country."

With all of that said, aren't you glad that you are retired? The people I've seen about at our DOTRA activities recently all look great and sound happy! Our Holiday Party at Giovi's on December 5th was a festive affair and again very well attended. Good job Chet Andres!!

Our mailbox was somewhat empty this quarter - guess the anthrax problem at our West Trenton Post Office may have contributed to this. George Karaffa (Electrical) is "still trying to solve problems associated with his golf game." He claims he's squandering his free time traveling hither and yon, usually looking for his errant golf ball in strange places.

Don Telesco (C&M - Reg.1) writes that "at 63 I still enjoy playing hardball in the Over 40 New Jersey Baseball League." Don has been singing solos in various venues in NY and NJ for some time now and now has added a new challenge to his repertoire - acting! Back in June Don played the role of Captain Von Trapp in "The Sound of Music" with the Raritan Theater group and also a supporting role in "Anne of Green Gables."

Talk about versatility, Gary Gronroos (Design) writes "My wife and I recently rode our Harley Davidson to Daytona Beach Florida to attend the annual motorcycle event called "Biketober Fest" and visited friends in Ormand Beach. On our trip down we experienced high winds and mid-30 degree temperatures but on the way home it warmed up. We clocked 2608 miles round trip, stopping for gas 20 times. This was the first long trip on the motorcycle and we look forward to repeating it next October."

We got a nice note from Albert Christopher in Runnemede and wish him our very best good health in 2002. Maxie Bailey (ROW) writes that she likes being informed about NJDOT retirees via DotLine and sends best wishes to all. Mary Thompson (Traffic Eng.) is recovering from an injury suffered on a recent trip to Europe and thanks her DOTRA friends for their words of encouragement. She's fine now. Phil Vecere (Plant Eng.) is doing well, particularly since he got that nice raise in his pension check. Phil and buddy Frank Scarpatti (C&M) were very visible and very busy with the Italian-American Festival held in October at Mercer County Park. Want to see NJDOT folks? - visit Freddie's in West Trento at lunch time. We recently saw Georgia McGarrity (Local Aid) and Janis Stia (Support Services) at lunch there - both looking very well.

Our first trip to New York City after 9/11 was a wonderful bus trip to Madison Square Garden to see "A Christmas Carol". What a wonderful job Dolores Murphy (Central Services) did in arranging the trip and the wonderful luncheon/feast at the Florentine Gardens in River Vale.N.J.

Plans are underway down here in Florida for the "big reunion luncheon" on Tuesday February 12th. We expect an influx of Jersey Snowbirds to be there. With so many DOTRA folks moving down south, the Frank Wegels are looking forward to a big turnout.

Stay well in 2002 and peace to all!!

HISTORIAN'S CORNER

The following article was submitted to us at the suggestion of Wilma Cimino, who was the secretary for Dorland J. (Don) Henderson from 1961 until his retirement in 1970. The article, written by Jay Mann, originally appeared in The SandPaper, a local newspaper at the Jersey shore, on Wednesday July 22, 1992. We have received permission from the paper to reprint the article in DotLine.

This article is a good example of just how innovative and pioneering our department was. We would appreciate hearing from anyone who has comments on this article or suggestions regarding other innovations made by NJDOT that we can explore.

Editor's Note

"THE MAN WHO LIT THE BAY BRIDGE"
Dorland J. Henderson, 94, wanted to be there. Despite the brutal heat that tormented even the youngest bodies attending Tuesday's special NJDOT meeting, Henderson wanted to see through what he had begun some 34 years earlier.

In 1958, Henderson designed, from scratch, the nation's first low-level handrail lighting system. He did so as director of the Department of Transportation's Electric Bureau. His lighting creation would eventually illuminate the way for millions of residents and visitors crossing between the mainland and Long Beach Island.

Remarkably, Henderson, by his own admission, had never designed anything before developing the Manahawkin Bay Bridge's unique lighting system, a system that has been referred to as a "string of pearls" and competes with Barnegat Lighthouse as the area's most celebrated beacon to travelers.

Sitting placidly under the relentless midday sun (the bridge looming in the background), Henderson listened to the day's prime speaker, Transportation Commissioner Tom Downs, as he announced that the lighting system that Henderson had devised three decades earlier would remain aglow for many decades to come. A planned modernized overhead lighting system had been scrapped due to strenuous public efforts to keep the old system.

As a memento of his work, Downs presented Henderson with a photograph of the bridge taken on the day it was first lit in 1958. After the meeting, Henderson recalled that day, a day which he still remembers as one of the most terrifying in his life.

The whole idea for the low-level lighting was the brainchild of Dwight Palmer, the transportation commissioner at the time, explained Henderson. The commissioner felt that wasting light "up in the air was ridiculous," recalled Henderson.

Palmer first brought up the idea of low-level fluorescent lighting to Henderson's predecessor as director of the Electric Bureau, James Hays. "Mr. Hays practically told the commissioner he didn't know what he was talking about. If you knew Commissioner Palmer, you'd know that didn't sit well with him."

After Hays retired (the commissioner didn't invite him to stay on), Henderson became director. On only his second day at work, he received a memo from Palmer. "It was a one sentence memorandum. The sentence was: ‘ I would like to have low-level flourescent lighting at least considered for the Route 72 Manahawkin Bay Bridge.' When you get something like that from the boss, you know damn well you can't tell him he doesn't know what he's talking about."

Henderson began researching the low-level lighting idea, gathering as much data as he could, having little or no idea of what such lighting was all about. Henderson's only option was to begin experimenting with low-level lighting, which he did, in the parking lot adjacent to the Department of Transportation headquarters. There, workers would arrive daily to find mock-ups of a portion of the projected Manahawkin Bay Bridge. For Henderson, devising the system wasn't a pretty sight. "It was a hell of a mess. It was terrible."

But Henderson persevered. "I never designed anything before. I even wrote specifications, which I had never done before. But I had to do it. There was nobody else to do it."

With his experimental specs in hand, Henderson began hoping that the Manahawkin Bay Bridge contract would go to a company he considered the "state's best bridge builders." Henderson was familiar with the bridge builders and knew he could count on them for advice, advice about a certain highly experimental low-level lighting system. But when the bidding was done, Henderson was still on his own and more uncertain than ever over what would happen next.

"The (company) I wanted missed the bid by $1,000 on a $3 million contract. I thought this was it." But the bridge building went on and the Philadelphia company that won the contract began putting into reality Henderson's prototypical specification for the nation's first low-level lighting system. As work on the bridge neared completion, Henderson's day of reckoning quickly approached. That day was made no easier by Commissioner Palmer who gave strict instructions that the lights were not to go on at night without his say-so.

"I had to run all the continuity tests in the daytime," recollected Henderson, who had no way of telling the effectiveness of the system without darkness.

Then on a day in February, the commissioner gave word that the lighting system would be tested that night. About seven people, including Henderson and the commissioner, stood around waiting for dark. They waited at the westerly end of the bridge.

"As we stood around waiting for dark, one guy in the group asked me, ‘Do you think it will work?' I said that I had confidence in the design,' recalled Henderson, smiling as he revealed the true scenario. " Actually, I didn't have confidence in anything. I was absolutely terrified. I really didn't know what the thing (lighting) would look like as we stood at the end of the bridge."

At darkness, Henderson told the foreman to throw the switch. The rest is local history. "It looked like the pathway to heaven. I'm not kidding. It was unbelievable. The commissioner came over to hug me."

Efforts are now under way to make the bridge and its lighting a historic monument.

Jay Mann

DOTRA CONTACTS

If you have any reason to contact our organization, or a member thereof, you can write to this address:

DOTRA
Post Box 77160
West Trenton, NJ 08628-6160

OR

Our website: www.dotra.org

IF GOD HAD VOICEMAIL

Most of us have now learned to live with "voice mail" as a necessary part of our daily lives. But have you ever wondered what it would be like if God decided to install voice mail?

Imagine praying and hearing the following:

Thank you for calling Heaven.
For English, press 1.
For Spanish, press 2.
For all other languages, press 0.

Please select one of the following options:
Press 1 for Requests.
Press 2 for Giving thanks.
Press 3 for Complaints.
Press 4 for all other inquiries.

I'm sorry; all of our angels and saints are busy helping other sinners right now. However, your prayer is important to us, and we will answer it in the order in which it was received. Please stay on the line. If you would like to speak to:
God the Father, press 1.
God the Son, press 2.
God the Holy Spirit, press 3.

If you would like to hear King David sing a psalm while you are holding, press 4.

To find a loved one who has been assigned to heaven, press 5, then enter his or her social security number, followed by the "pound" sign. (If you receive a negative response, please hang up and try area code 666).

For reservations at Heaven, please enter J-O-H-N, followed by the numbers 3-1-6.

For answers to nagging questions about dinosaurs, the age the earth, life on other planets, and where Noah's Ark is, please wait until you arrive here.

Our computers show that you have already prayed today. Please hang up and try again tomorrow. The office is now closed for the weekend to observe a religious holiday. Please pray again on Monday after 9:30 a.m. If you are calling after hours and need emergency assistance, please contact your local pastor.

Thank you, and have a heavenly day.