A potpourri of miscellaneous news SCRIBBLED IN A REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK

SHOCK WAVES: Both the state and city-county buildings in the government complex in downtown Wilmington were evacuated on Sept. 12 as the result of a bomb scare. The telephoned threat was believed to be part of the ripple effect of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. Such events tend to bring out the worst in depraved people elsewhere. As workers from those offices stood by, police brought in bomb-sniffing dogs, which found nothing. Curbside parking was banned on the King and Ninth Street sides front of the federal office building. Delaware Senator Joseph Biden, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, is prominent in crafting a U.S. response to the perpetrators' organizations and backers.

Early school dismissals during the Sept. 11 emergency tested the state's electronic notification system much earlier in the academic year than anticipated. The result was nowhere close to what officials said would happen when that time came. Only four of the 19 public school districts -- Brandywine, Caesar Rodney, Milford and Polytech -- and none of the 20-some nonpublic schools went on line to tell what was happening. State Representative Wayne Smith, whose General Assembly resolution brought about the system, noted that the system was designed to deal with the unexpected and expressed disappointment that it failed. Delaware Department of Education did not respond to a Delaforum request for comment.

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AN ALSO-RAN: Knollwood's housing rehabilitation project made the finals, but fell short of winning a prestigious national award. It was not one of the seven inter-governmental activities selected for Joint Center 'Sustainable Community' recognition, according to Martin Harris, director of the center, a joint venture of the National Association of Counties and the U.S. Conference of Mayors. New Castle County's Department of Community Service and the State Housing Authority have been collaborating to encourage home ownership in the north Claymont community. Although not a winner, Knollwood will receive recognition in a descriptive article in a center publication circulated to more than 3,000 federal and local officials, Harris said.

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GREETINGS: Victoria Gehrt, former interim superintendent of the Brandywine School District, received a very unwelcome welcome on her new job. Teachers in the Bensalem district in Bucks County, Pa., began the academic year on the picket line. And on Sept. 7 they voted 455-0 to reject an administration proposal to return to work and submit the wage and benefits dispute to nonbinding arbitration. A union spokesman said teachers feel that would not solve anything because one side or the other would most likely reject the recommendation. Under Pennsylvania law, the teachers could stay out until the week of Sept. 24. The strike is affecting some 6,600 students. Gehrt did not return a Delaforum telephone call seeking comment.

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IT EVIDENTLY MEETS A NEED: Delaware Solid Waste Authority's electronic gear recycling program has been more popular than the agency thought it would be. During the first two months of the program, more than 290,000 lbs. of material was turned in. That indicates that the 400,000 lbs. expected during the first year will be gathered by around the end of September, said spokesman Danny Aguilar. About 85% of it is reused as parts of in some other way.  The authority pays Elemental Inc., of Philadelphia, 13¢ a pound to take and dispose of the items. There is no cost  to individuals or businesses that turn in the items. That arrangement will be evaluated in about a year, he said.

Agular said the program is the first statewide one in the nation. It was undertaken because some electronic waste -- old computers, monitors, printers, television sets, cellular telephones, facsimile machines and the like -- pose potential environmental problems. Also, there is a tendency to hoard such items now that schools and charitable organizations no longer are willing to accept it as a donation. Businesses, both small and large, have been the major contributors so far. They can arrange for pickups while individuals have to deliver the items to the authority at its Lambsons Lane facility off New Castle Avenue. Questions about the program are being handled on 800-404-7080.

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Three principals have proposed that Brandywine School District consider establishing a two-building arts academy in north Wilmington as part of its Neighborhood Schools Act plan.

The idea was presented on Sept. 5 as a committee messaged previously presented prospective plans to base attendance zones on postal zip codes or on a modified version of boundaries at the geographic midpoint between schools. Anita Thorpe, principal of Harlan Intermediate School, said that more than half of her students and about the same proportion of youngsters at neighboring P.S. du Pont Intermediate now participate in voluntary band, chorus or similar arts activities. The idea would be to offer a program similar to that of Red Clay district's Cab Calloway School of the Arts to both elementary and middle school grades at Harlan and P.S. and a high school program housed as part of the enrollment at Mount Pleasant High School.

Thorpe, P.S. principal Judith Curtis and Mount Pleasant principal Dennis Runyon told the committee that their proposed 'magnet' school would offer a standard curriculum enriched with instruction in fine and performing arts. Such arrangements have proven successful in other urban environments, they said. Children who did not want to go to the academy would be assigned to the suburban school closest to their homes. Also considered would be the possibility of offering the program on a year-around basis. In a different context at the meeting, there was discussion about the possibility of seeking state financial support to build a conventional school on the P.S. campus to replace the now-closed high-rise Burnett building.

The committee will seek reaction to the possible plans it is considering as well as other conceptual ideas on Sept. 12 at the first of five mandated public hearings on neighborhood schools. That session will begin at 7 p.m. in Claymont Intermediate School. Later hearings will be rotated among other locations in the district.

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LABYRINTH: Trinity Episcopal Parish has  established a meditative labyrinth on the stage of the amphitheater outside historic

Old Swedes Church at Sixth and Church Sts. in downtown Wilmington. According to Max Dooley, project coordinator, Christian labyrinths, which date from the 12th Century, inspire spiritual thoughts about the path to salvation. Walking the path, which is intricate but has no dead ends has "a wonderful calming effect to cleanse your mind and free your spirit even in the midst of distractions of its urban setting," he said. Several area churches have adopted the idea, but Old Swedes decided to put its in a location easily accessible to the public through the parking lot off Church Street during daylight hours. ¨    ¨    ¨ County Council has been asked to deal with the controversial issue of whether to monitor employees' telephone calls and e.mail and their

Youngsters from Grace Academy, a home-schooling cooperative, walk the new labyrinth during a field trip to Old Swedes Church.

use of the Internet.

Chief administrative officer Sherry Freebery raised the issue at a meeting of Council's land use committee on Sept. 4 following a routine notification from the county personnel department that monitoring is taking place. "It was poor timing to put out the notice now," she said, explaining that it was just coincidence that it happened as County Council offices were brought into the computerized telephone system which has served the executive branch since moving most operations to its suburban Government Center at Corporate Commons. That phone system has the capability to automatically record the telephone numbers involved in all calls received by and placed from those offices.

A new state law requires that employees be told if their employer is monitoring them. Freebery said county policy has been to initiate targeted monitoring only with the approval of two general managers and the county executive but the general recording of telephone numbers was simply a matter of deciding to make use of an available service. When it comes to applying it to Council's offices, that brings up the matter of separation of the branches of government, Councilman Robert Weiner said. Councilman Richard Abbott called the question "a privacy issue, not a political one." Council President Christopher Coons said it is generally accepted in business that employees have no right to privacy in their use of company facilities.

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ENDORSEMENT: The Data Service Center "currently provides a valuable service" and is "cost justified," a consulting firm has told the Red Clay Consolidated School District. Although directed to just that district, the firm's study is expected to be the basis of decisions by the three other northern New Castle County public school districts whether to retain the data processing organization which was used to provide consistent reports while under the federal court desegregation order. Red Clay has decided to remain in the four-district consortium, according to chief financial officer Richard Moretti. Indications are that Christina and Colonial districts will also. Brandywine is still considering the matter.

K.P.M.G. Consulting said Red Clay receives up to a half million dollars worth of benefit beyond the $891,000 a year it kicks in as its share of the Talleyville-based service center's budget. Included in those benefits are processing of student records and schedules and a central contract bidding system. The benefits are based on a comparison of what it would cost Red Clay to set up its own system and hire and train people to use it. John Bolinski, director of the center, said in response to the report that his organization is committed to "keep pace with the changing needs of its member districts in the areas of data processing and technological support" now that the court order no longer is in force.

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WE WONDER ... :

... remembering the classic 1954 Spencer Tracy-Ernest Borgnine movie, whether the folks who'll work in this new bank building in Bellevue Corporate Commons might not be in for some really Bad Days.

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CASE CONTINUED: Justice of the Peace Linda Gray on Aug. 30 granted Robert Bland a month's continuance of a housing code-enforcement case brought against him by New Castle County for alleged violations involving his keeping inoperable automobiles on his property on Lincoln Avenue in Claymont. County attorney Jonathan Layton did not object to Bland's request for a delay, which he said would enable him to hire a lawyer, but the judge questioned why he had not already done so since the case previously was continued in June. Bland said he was unable to find one who "was familiar enough with the county law" to take the case. Gray said there will be no further delays, whether or not he is successful in hiring representation.

Several cases involving Bland have raised a question of whether courts are willing to enforce county laws dealing with property maintenance. Layton told Delaforum that Chief Magistrate Patricia Griffin "has issued a memorandum to all the judges in the state system which indicates that it is her stance that no defendant who is charged with a code violation can be imprisoned or placed on probation at any level." Other judges apparently are taking their cue from her, Layton said. The General Assembly set up a taskforce to look into what can be done to strengthen the county's hand in code enforcement, but Senator Dallas Winslow said that panel has yet to be formed. A resolution he sponsored directed it to report  findings by the end of the year.