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Latest Tyler
McConnell Bridge plan --- Secretary of Transportation
Nathan Hayward has decided that Delaware will pay the full cost
of replacing the Tyler McConnell Bridge over the Brandywine,
according to state Senator Charles Copeland. That cost will be
somewhere in the range of $60 million to $80 million, the
legislator said.
The decision
reportedly came after the Federal Highway Administration refused
partial financing because the present two-lane span is
considered to be an historic structure and is located in an area
designated as historic. Copeland said he is not certain if
federal money would be available if Delaware Department of
Transportation went ahead with the plan to expand the crossing
to four lanes by building a parallel structure adjacent to
the present one.
Another bridge was
recommended after more than a year of discussion and debate by an advisory panel of area residents, civic and business
interests, and public official. Hayward and Governor Ruth
Ann Minner originally accepted that idea. Following further
discussions by a more select group empanelled to deal with
federal requirements involving environmental, cultural and
historic considerations, Hayward announced a change of mind,
saying that the present bridge should be torn down and a new
four-lane bridge built.
Known as a '106
committee' -- after the section of federal law dealing with
those matters -- the group before which Hayward spoke on May 2 has led
something of a shadowy existence. DelDOT has not responded to
several requests by Delaofrum to be notified of its meetings,
which presumably are open to the public under the provisions of
state and federal 'freedom of information' laws. No other news
media has reported on its proceedings since DelDOT held a press
briefing in early January. (CLICK HERE to access the Delaforum
article about that event.)
DelDOT's Tyler
McConnell project Web site has not been updated since a few days
after that session and a subsequent 'public workshop' meeting. (CLICK
HERE to access it.)
Copeland told
Brandywine Council that he learned only indirectly and at the
last minute about the recebnt meeting, held in the Soda
House on the grounds of the
private Eleuthere Library in Christiana Hundred, at which
Hayward disclosed his latest decision, and was able to attend
only part of it because of a schedule conflict.
Delaforum was unable
to reach Hayward or other ranking DelDOT official for comment or
elaboration of Copeland's report. A DelDOT public relations
spokeswoman said she was not aware of what happened at the
meeting, but added that it is "not unusual" for the department
to mix and match a variety of financing sources to pay for a
major project.
H H H
Mousely Farm development --- Setting Properties will probably propose
building a 'gated community' of 186 age-restricted houses on the
42 acres along Concord Pike between Brandywine Town Center and
the Delaware-Pennsylvania state line. Lawyer William Rhodunda
said design of the intended upscale community is in a
preliminary stage and that details, including the specific kind
of houses timing, have yet
to be worked out.
"We're not coming
close to what the Unified Development Code would allow," he
said, adding that it is Joseph Setting's intent to preserve as
much of the tract's natural features as possible. Also to be
saved, if possible, his an abandoned house believed to date to
the mid-1700s. "It's in deplorable conduction but, instead of
going for a demolition permit, we want to preserve [it] and use
it for a community center," he said.
The new community,
which does not yet have a name, will be compatible with the
community of single-family houses proposed for the Naamans Road
side of the Town Center. Developer there is 202 Group, which
Rhodunda also represents.
An age-restricted
community is one in which at least 80% of the properties are
sold to persons age 55 and older. Rhodunda said the fencing it
and controlling access through gates was a desirable feature
among persons in that age market. He said that it is hoped that
an arrangement can be worked out so that there can be access
from the Town Center as well as Concord Pike.
The proposal did not
generate any unfavorable response at the meeting. County
Councilman Robert Weiner said that, while the community would
prefer no development on the site, the plan is preferable to
commercial development talked about when the property was owned
by a corporation controlled by the late John Rollins. Rollins
interests have more recently sold the Town Center and the
adjacent tracts.
Brandywine Council's
zoning chairman, Philip Lavelle, said the organization will keep
in touch with the proposal as it is developed and decide whether
or not to take a stand, either approving of or opposing it
"when more detailed information is available.
In another land-use
matter, Lavelle told the council meeting that there is no
validity to rumors that the county seeks to develop the Jester
farm property off Grubb Road as an active-recreation park. A
petition has circulated in the area opposing what is said to be
an effort by a soccer organization to have playing fields there.
H H H
Sanitary sewer
rehabilitation program --- The investigatory phase of
the county program to repair and expand capacity of sanitary
sewers in northern Brandywine Hundred has been completed and 75
separate projects have been identified and assigned priorities,
according to Michael Harmer, the county engineer leading the
program.
Heading the list are
reopening of the interceptor sewer that runs through the Citi
Steel plant in Claymont, repairing collapsed pipe in Knollwood,
repairing pipes along North Stonecrop Road and plugging openings
in old-style manhole covers to prevent rainwater from flowing
into the sanitary system.
Cost of doing all
the projects, he said, would be about $25 million. It has not
yet been determined over how ling a period the work will be
spread, but Hartner said the top-rated projects will get
immediate attention.
As expected, a major
problem discovered during more than a year of inspecting sewers
was a large number of storm drains and household sump pumps
connected to the sanitary system. Although a violation of the
county building code, making those connections have been a
popular expedient employed by both homeowners and builders for
many years. Jon Husbands, a manager involved in the project,
said the county is now in the process of developing a policy for
getting them disconnected. He said there is no intention to
penalize property owners who have such connections and as yet
undecided whether they will be required to bear the cost of
unhooking them, estimated to run between $200 and $500 if
professional tradesmen are engaged to do the work.
James Shelton, a
consulting engineer, said property owners have been
overwhelmingly cooperative with county crews involved in looking
for problems in the sewer system. "We went to about 2,000 homes
and very few [residents] said not to come in," he said.
The investigatory
phase of the program in the southern half of the hundred will
begin this summer, Harmer said.
H H H
County Council
expansion --- State senator Karen Peterson told the
council meeting that her fellow legislators "are tired of
dealing with the issue" of expanding New Castle County Council
from seven to 13 members. Sponsor of a bill that would repeal
the law requiring that the existing six districts be doubled in
time for the 2004 election, Peterson said she cannot predict
what, if anything, the General Assembly will do before it
adjourns at the end of June. State representative Robert
Valihura said "there is no support" for repeal. Unless the
Assembly takes action to change things, the redistricting
process is scheduled to begin in July or August.
Peterson has sided
with Brandywine Council in advocating repeal on the grounds that
an enlarged County Council is not needed and would impose a
significant unnecessary expense on county taxpayers. In a
proverbial 'preaching to the choir' talk, Peterson questioned
whether the present workload measures up to what could be
expected from part-time legislators.
"I have never seen
anybody on Council drop over from exhaustion," she quipped.
Peterson was
president of County Council in the 1980s. That is the only
Council seat filled at-large over the entire county and would
remain such under the new arrangement..
When she was in
office, four or five zoning requests on its biweekly agenda was
the norm; today the Unified Development Code limits
consideration of all cases to batches presented just three times
a year, she said.. In 1989, there were 720 resolutions and
ordinances acted upon; last year there were 345. All members now
have full-time county-paid aided to handle constituent relations
and other day-to-day chores; "in my day I had to do my own
typing," she said.
Brandywine Council president Daniel Bockover acknowledged that
the organization is fighting an uphill battle seeing repeal, but
urged civic association delegates to try to whip up a
last-minute effort to sway state legislators' opinions. "If more
people knew what the fact were, I think we'd have a whole
different result from what it seems now," he said. |
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