FOUR DAYS OF FLARING: Sunoco has begun burning acid gas through the flare at its Marcus Hook refinery so workers can install connections and valves to a pipeline which now carries hydrogen sulfide to the adjacent General Chemical plant. The links will connect to a sulfur-recovery unit which the oil company expects to have installed when General Chemical shuts down. The flaring, which releases toxic sulfur dioxide into the air, began about 8 p.m. on May 12 and will continue until about noon on May 16. Delaware Department of Natural Resources & Environmental Control, which approved releasing 45,000 lbs. a day,, said it is being done now because Sunoco is now refining crude oil with a relatively small amount of sulfur.

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An ordinance which, if enacted, will make the most significant changes in the Unified Development Code since its adoption at the end of 1998 was introduced without comment at County Council's meeting on May 13.

Sponsored by Councilwoman Karen Venezky, amendments to the code would require developers of residential communities larger than 50 acres to permanently set aside an area for natural resource preservation. It would be part of an open-space set-aside at a rate of one acre per 100 housing units. All developments of more than 30 units would have to put dedicate at least half of their total area to open space for community use, mostly recreational. Those areas would be maintained by a community or condominium maintenance association, a government entity or, in the case of the natural resource area, a recognized conservation organization approved by the Department of Land Use.

As previously reported by Delaforum, the ordinance, contained in a 52-page document, was put together during a series of meetings hosted by the Department of Land Use and attended by a representatives of diverse interests.  It mandates that all local developers employ conservation design techniques when planning communities and 'green technology' to manage stormwater runoff. Those environmentally sensitive approaches are growing in popularity around the country and are now being used voluntarily by some developers in this area. The proposed ordinance would apply only to new projects. It will be for public comment at one or more Planning Board hearings before final approval by Council, which is considered all but certain.

A significant feature of the measure is a requirement that stormwater drainage ponds, now common in newer communities, no longer be used. Natural absorption through vegetation and undisturbed soil would replace them. (Read previous Delaforum article.)

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FEWER TEACHERS LAID OFF: Brandywine School District has notified 69 'permanent' teachers and 33 with temporary contracts that their contracts will not be renewed for the 2003-04 academic year. Such layoffs are common in public school districts because of the practice in Delaware of linking state authorization for teacher and related positions directly to school enrollment, which is not officially counted until the end of September. Because districts are required to give notice of nonrenewal by May 15, they do so and rehire some of those affected to fill vacancies caused by attrition and larger-than-expected enrollments. Last year, 22 of 69 'permanent' teachers were rehired.

Brandywine  is projecting an enrollment of 10,600 students in the coming year Official enrollment this year is 10,699. The school board discussed the nonrenewals in executive session and approved them without discussion at a recent open meeting. The district undertook a  publicized effort to recruit and hire new teachers for next academic year early in this calendar year in order, it said, to attract more highly qualified candidates. Asked how that jibes with letting present faculty members go, spokeswoman Wendy Lapham said, "New hiring commitments were made in retirement areas of critical need, such as chemistry." She did not say how many have been hired.

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IS THIS AN UNWELCOME EXEMPTION?:

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ETHICS COMMISSION ISSUE NEARLY RESOLVED: County Council expects to write the final chapter to the Ethics Commission dispute on or about the first anniversary of its inception. As Delaforum previously reported, the seven members who replaced those who resigned en masse last summer have put the commission back in business. Councilwoman Karen Venezky said she is working on drafting an ordinance which will better delineate the functions of the panel. She expects to introduce it by the end of June. "We're getting all the support from Council and the [county] executive that we need," commission chairman Dennis Glower told Council's executive committee.

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Delaware Department of Transportation paid Valley Road Partnership $1.9 million a year ago for 34 acres at Valley and Limestone Roads which it is providing as parkland for the Hockessin area. An adjacent tract is now involved in condemnation proceedings.

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A WHOLE LOTTA READIN' GOIN' ON: Use of the new Brandywine Hundred branch library has exceeded expectations by a wide margin, according to county spokesman Anthony Carter. "We knew it would do well, but it's been much more than anybody thought it would be," he said. From Apr. 12, when it opened, through Apr. 29, 40,177 patrons visited the library in Talley-Day Park and checked out 36,193 items. Although comparable data from the Concord Pike Library, which the new one replaced, was not immediately available, Carter said that easily surpassed the amount of traffic there. He credited location, ambiance and general public satisfaction with the new facility.

Don't look now, but it is even possible that we have a new direction in leisure-time activity shaping up. There were 1,522 new borrower's cards issued. There aren't a lot of discarded TV sets in evidence. But who knows -- it could happen if word gets out. A quick Delaforum survey apparently scotched one rumor -- food concession tabs are pretty much  in line with what it costs to read-and-munch at Borders and Barnes & Noble. Sandwiches, $4.99 at library and Borders, are $5.95 at Barnes & Noble. Bagels are a buck at all three places. A small-size coffee is $1.29 at the library, a dime cheaper than the highest, but a large size runs a dime higher. Soda also is high at the library, $1.49 a pop compared to $1.25 at the low end of the scale. See previous article.

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THEY'RE COMING BACK: On Jun. 6, the baseball Athletics will play their first game in Philadelphia since Sept. 19, 1954. To be sure, it's the Oakland Athletics now and Elmer Valo, Ferris Fain, Sam Chapman, Bobby Shantz, Jimmy Foxx and Home Run Baker and others are long-ago memories and the three-game set with the Phillies is booked for Veterans Stadium, not Shibe Park. It wasn't Connie Mack Stadium when the Grand Old Man and his waving scorecard held forth. Still there are many folks who remember the losers everybody loved -- albeit not enough to keep them in town. That last game 49 years ago was  a 4-2 loss to the New York Yankees, played before just 1,715 fans who didn't realize it was to be the last hurrah.

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THE WAY IT WAS:
This is how the platform at the Wilmington Train Station --then known as Penn Station -- looked in the late 1920s or early 1930s before the Pennsylvania Railroad electrified its New York-Washington main line. Today, it belongs to Amtrak and serves rail travelers with the likes of the high-speed Acela train.
This is another in a series of 'then and now' views of Wilmington. It draws on the extensive collection of local picture post cards accumulated by Terry Craig. Current views of the same scenes are Delaforum digital photos. See previous views in this series.

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