THE WAY IT WAS:
Shipbuilding and other heavy industry dominated the Christina (it was then spelled 'Christiana'] Riverfront when Pauline mailed this post card 97 years ago. Many of the old buildings remain today but they are being put to new uses as the area is redeveloped as a recreational and shopping mecca.
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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YOU'D BETTER LISTEN UP: Couch potatos have heard it said many times that: “This broadcast is authorized by the (insert name of team) baseball club, solely for the entertainment of our listening audience. Any publication, rebroadcast, retransmission or other use of the descriptions and accounts of this game without the express written consent of the (insert name of team) is strictly prohibited.” This season  the Wilmington Blue Rocks are going to have real live lawyers, from the firm of Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor, take turns reading the notice before radio broadcasts of all home games. That doesn't mean it'll be listened to more avidly, but the legal beagles get five seconds of fame, presumably not billable, from the exercise.

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Two residents who, until now, have had relatively limited involvement in Brandywine School District affairs will join the seven-member school board in July.

Sandra Skelley and Joseph Brumskill were the only ones who filed for election to the seats being vacated at the end of the fiscal and academic year on June 30 by Ralph Ackerman and Harold Thompson, respectively. With no contests to decide the Department of Elections for New Castle County called off the May election. Skelley, who is in her 50s and lives in Silverside Heights, described herself as "a consensus builder." She said she believes that "discussion and compromise will lead to the best results for our schools within the constraints of the economy." She previously participated in the Parent-Teacher Association and other activities when her two daughters were students at Mount Pleasant High School.

Brumskill, 66, of north Wilmington, said he accepted a suggestion by Thompson, a friend, to seek the board position. Although he intends to pursue his own agenda, he said he will emulate his predecessor in furthering the aspirations of city children. "Dr. [Bruce] Harter (Brandywine's superintendent) wants to close the 'achievement gap' [between low-income students and others] and I'm there to support him," Brumskill said. He was a volunteer in the successful campaign to obtain voter approval for increasing the ceiling on the district's tax rate in 2002. Thompson described Brumskill as enthusiastic and dedicated, adding, "I think he'll do a fine job."

Brumskill's son, Eric, attended Harlan Intermediate School before graduating from Tower Hill School. An Air Force major and pilot, he currently is serving in the Middle East.

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AQUATIC CENTER STUDY AUTHORIZED: The state Budget Office has requested and received permission to spend up to $50,000 of previously approved capital funds for "a detailed review of the potential construction and operating costs" for the long-proposed state aquatic center at Philadelphia Pike and Cauffiel Blvd. In a report to the Capital Improvement Committee, budget director Jennifer Davis said it is uncertain whether the $9.7 million earmarked for the swimming facility is enough to construct one of a kind that would enable a private-sector firm to run it profitably. That is questionable, she said, unless the center contained other health and fitness amenities.

The firm -- which Delaforum previously identified as Delaware Swim & Fitness Center -- concentrates on competitive swimming and the report suggests that would restrict the amount of time the general public would have access to the aquatic center, except during summers. Two school districts and several non-profit organizations have been approached, but are not receptive to the idea, mainly because of its location, according to the report. An institution of higher learning -- believed to be Delaware Technical & Community College -- continues to explore the feasibility of taking on the project, it said. No date has been given for completion of the new review.

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Delaware Department of Transportation plans to provide a park in Hockessin, partly to serve as a site for an historic building displaced by the widening of Limestone Road.

Secretary of Transportation Nathan Hayward went to a meeting of the Greater Hockessin Area Economic Development Association on Mar. 17 to personally announce the project. Development of the park, he said, could begin as soon as the end of 2003, depending upon how quickly the project can make

its way through the county land-use approval process. Jeff Bross, of Duffield Associates, a DelDOT consultant, said the 40 acre tract, accessed by Bashers Lane, off Valley Road, has room for two full-size multi-purpose fields for soccer or similar sports and a smaller practice field. There
	This old house, which contains Tweed's Tavern, is to be moved from behind a fence on the other side of Limestone Road to a park developed on a site which now contains a lot of mud and abandoned piles of mushroom soil. Both the tavern and the commodity figure prominently in the heritage of the Hockessin area.

also would be a reforested area and a considerable amount of open space for walking paths and passive recreation, he said.

Immediate beneficiary of the project would be Tweed's Tavern,. a watering place which dates from the early days of the Republic and, about a century later near the end of the 1800s, was absorbed into what became a house. Inside a relatively modern shell is one of only a few known surviving log structures in Delaware, where log cabins were introduced to the New World by Scandinavian settlers, according to Preservation Delaware. The building has been resting for two years on chocks. In the new park, it will replace the remnants of a mushroom soil-processing site and a defunct logging operation. DelDOT has purchased about half of the property and is in condemnation proceedings to acquire the rest.

The department had not responded to a Delaforum inquiry about costs of the land and for development of the park when this article was prepared.

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MILESTONE REACHED: State representative Robert Gilligan and Senator Thurman Adams jointly made history on Feb. 26 when they became the longest-serving members in the history of the General Assembly, which was established in 1776. Not to let such a remarkable occasion pass unremarked, history-minded representative Wayne Smith introduced and had passed on Mar. 18, the day the Assembly returned from its budget recess, a commemorative resolution. For the record, it should be noted that Gilligan and Adams are both Democrats and the ranking members of their party in their respective chambers. Smith ranks second only to Speaker of the House Terry Spence in the Republican leadership on that side of Legislative Hall.

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GOING UNDER COVER:

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The state's financial crisis has been eased somewhat, but the General Assembly must still address "underlying structural problems" in its revenue-generating system, according to Budget Director Jennifer (J.J.) Davis.

Secretary of Finance David Singleton said that the upgrading of the Delaware Economic & Fiscal Advisory Council's revenue projections for the current fiscal year is not a strong signal that an economic turnaround is at hand. On the contrary, he said, its decision to delay for at least a month any revision, up or down, in its revue projection for the fiscal year beginning July 1 is an acknowledgement of uncertainty over what lies ahead, particularly as a result of the almost certain war against Iraq. As it stands now, the panel has come close to sanctioning Governor Ruth Ann Minner's proposed $2,432.7 million budget. Based on its forecast, which was officially adopted on Mar. 17, the statutory ceiling on the fiscal 2004 spending plan is $2.318.6 million.

As Delaforum previously reported, revenue from the bank franchise tax showed the most significant gains as 2002 ended and this year began. The take from  more significant corporation and partnership franchise taxes remains well below levels of recent years. Nevertheless, Singleton said, Minner's proposal to significantly increase those fees will have no bearing on Delaware's position as primary host for those businesses. "We've had extensive discussions with the corporate community. They understand that the [proposed] increase is reasonable and justified," he said. The Assembly's Joint Finance Committee has completed hearings on the governor's budget request and is about to begin the process of drafting final budget legislation. (See previous Delaforum article.)

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ROUTE 1 ALMOST FINISHED: Delaware Department of Transportation has set May 15 as the date by which the last segment of the State Route 1 Odessa-Smyrna-Dover bypass will be completed and open to traffic. There is to be a ceremonial ribbon cutting for the state's most extensive single capital project ever on May 19. No additional toll booths are planned along the stretch of roadway between Odessa and Smyrna.  The route continues through the seashore area of Sussex County to the Maryland state line. It is unknown whether it will be extended north from Churchmans Crossing along Limestone Road to Pennsylvania, as originally planned.

It will cost $2 to travel between the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal and the Air Force base south of Dover. Until now, the stretch between the canal and Odessa is believed to have been the most expensive-per-mile turnpike travel in the nation.

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MONORAIL DOUBTFUL: A $1.3 billion price tag has all but derailed any possibility of a building a monorail or other 'automated guideway' transit system. Although she said the report on a study of the  feasibility of such a system to link Glasgow and Blue Ball by way of Churchmans Crossing and Wilmington, originally due last October, is not quite finished, Heather Dunigan, senior planner for the Wilmington Area Planning Council, confirmed an article published in the University of Delaware's student newspaper to the effect that emulating what is being done in other U.S. and Canadian cities and has been done for some time in European cities cannot be economically justified here.

 The estimated cost, she said, may even be understated and, in any event, is greater than total anticipated transit spending in New Castle and Cecil Counties during the next 20 years. "Seattle [Wash.] is spending that much to extend its system. The only way it might work here would be with a combination of public-private arrangement like they have in Las Vegas [Nev.]," she said. The U. of Del. reporter quoted Ralph Reeb, of DelDOT, as saying, "With that much money, we could almost pay [people] to stay at home" as a way to alleviate commuter traffic problems. State representative David Ennis, who has championed a monorail project, declined comment pending publication of the feasibility study report.

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HEADED WEST: Ted Matley, executive director of the Wilmington Area Planning Council, has resigned to take a position with the Federal Transit Administration, a unit of the U.S. Department of Transportation, in San Francisco. He has headed the staff of the two-county planning agency here since July, 2000. Somewhat ironically, considering the apparent rejection of a proposal to build a monorail in New Castle County, the agency for which Matley will work has responsibility for the federal program to provide financial assistance to help meet capital costs of locally-planned transit 'guideway' systems. Its literature speaks of a goal of making "hundreds" of them available around the nation.

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IN SAFE HANDS: Delaware Department of Transportation has assumed custody of the Delaware Olds tiles and will keep them in protective storage in Dover until the community decides where they should be put on display, Secretary of Transportation Nathan Hayward said. Preservation of the art deco tiles, which illustrate several items associated with the automotive industry in the 1930s, '40s and '50s, was a condition for allowing the one-time automobile dealer showroom on Governor Printz Boulevard just north of Wilmington to be torn down to make room for erection of a data and communications center for Bank One.

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