WHAT'S GOING ON BEHIND THE GREEN FENCE?:

M.B.N.A. isn't talking and city officials, if they know, aren't saying. A construction barrier has been erected in front of the former Public Building, which the bank now owns, and its sloping steps are evidently being removed. City spokesman John Rago told Delaforum that no redevelopment plan has been filed, but that permits have been issued for 'partial demolition' of the building. Neither he nor others had responded as this item was being prepared to a Delaforum request to define 'partial'. Stay turned. CLICK HERE to access previous item.

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STATE SELLS BOND ISSUE: Morgan Stanley & Co was apparent best bidder on a $120 million State of Delaware bond issue. Thomas Cook, deputy assistant to Secretary of Finance David Singleton, said net true interest will be 3.85% over the life of the bonds, which will be redeemed serially with half  being retired in 10 years and the other half in 20. Cook said the rate makes the bonds competitive with current top-rated interest-free  municipals. An issue in January carried a 3.73% true rate and the July, 2002, issue required 3.7%. For the first time the state offered underwriting firms an option to resell the bonds in a $500 denomination, which would be more attractive to individual investors, but all six opted to keep  the $1,000 denomination.

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Brandywine School District has hired a new principal, replaced a recently appointed principal, promoted an assistant principal and begun looking for yet another.

In the latest personnel moves involving the top administrators at the school level, Lynn Sharps was named to Lombardy Elementary, succeeding Lois Perry who is retiring. Sharps, whose teaching career includes kindergarten, first, third and fifth grades, comes to Brandywine from Lansdowne, Pa., where she most recently was an elementary school principal. Ron Mendenhall, who was a middle school principal in Salem, N.J., will take over at Hanby Middle. Mark Silverstein, who was appointed to that position, replacing retiring Clarence Grasty, resigned before reporting for work to take a job as superintendent of a district in New Jersey.

Promoted at Bush Early Education Center was Ginny Burns-Ferrara, who served a year as assistant principal. After seven years in the district as a teacher and assistant principal, she succeeds Kristina DuBois, who previously was principal of both Bush and Forwood Elementary. She will remain in the Forwood position in the coming academic year. The district also has begun seeking a replacement for Alfred DiEmedio as principal of Brandywine High. DiEmedio recently announced his intention to retire after a 37-year career in education. Long-time Brandywine High school secretary Dottie Paulin also has retired. CLICK HERE to read earlier Delaforum article.

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ADMINISTRATOR COUNT: Brandywine has two more central-office administrators than it did a year ago, but 10 of them did not get raises for the coming academic year, resulting in a less-than-proportionate increase in total salary expenses. That was done, according to public information officer Wendy Lapham "in order to put the money in the buildings where it is needed most:" The school board recently extended the contracts of some or all administrators beyond June 30, 2004, but did so by simply ratifying a discussion held in executive session behind closed doors. Asked to identify who was affected, Lapham replied, "We don't have [that] information available yet in public form. We anticipate it will be available soon."

Here is the roster of central-office administrators as of July 1 in each year, obtained by Delaforum through an inquiry made under provisions of the state Freedom of Information Act:

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APPEAL FILED: Wilmington resident John Kearney asked Superior Court to set aside the Coastal Zone Industrial Control Board's upholding of a Coastal Zone Act permit allowing Sunoco to install a sulfur-recovery unit at its Marcus Hook refinery. He asked that the board and the Department of Natural Resources & Environmental Control be required, with regard to this and future permit applications, "to allow fair and full public participation" at its hearings. In a statement, Kearney said he does not want to prevent installation of the new unit, but does want its maximum emissions reduced.

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CONCORD PIKE TIMETABLE: Delaware Department of Transportation expects to start reconstruction of Concord Pike in early November. The two-year job, the second of six phases of the Blue Ball road-building project, will include building an overpass at the Foulk Road  intersection and a bridge over what will be a secondary road through the park planned for the east side of the pike and a pedestrian and bicycle 'greenway' path. Installing decorative stonework on those bridges will be a key element because "a lot of people are concerned over what [they] will look like," John Rautzahn, vice president of McCormick, Taylor & Associates, a DelDOT engineering consultant, told a recent meeting of potential bidders on the road contract.

Although the detour roadway west of the pike will be completed in early autumn, it will not be used until after the turn of the year. The contractor must first construct a new Foulk Road access to the pike adjacent to Independence Mall and relocate a portion of Weldin Road to intersect with it. The first thing the public will see after the job begins will be the disappearance of the three large mounds of dirt and rock at the site -- 85,000 cubic yards in all. The state is recommending -- but not requiring -- that the contractor haul the material to Fox Point State Park where it will be used as part of environmental preparatory work for the second section of the park. Rebuilt Concord Pike is scheduled to be available to traffic in June, 2005. CLICK HERE to access the Blue Ball Project Web site.

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No one has been dismissed nor dropped from the list of applicants who qualify for jobs in Catholic schools as the result of the Diocese of Wilmington's new background-screening policy.

Sister Suzanne Donovan, director of human resources, said the local diocese "is way ahead" of most other dioceses in the nation in terms of the thoroughness of the program it established to implement directives laid down by the national bishops' conference in the wake of the scandal involving sexual abuse of children. "We are probably among the top four or five in that regard," she told Delaforum. All teachers, administrators, counselors and volunteers in the 38 parochial and private Catholic schools have been required to undergo criminal background check. Donovan said she and other diocesan officials are "very satisfied" with the program and with the cooperation received from participants.

She said there are two levels of scrutiny. Teachers and others in direct daily contact with the school system's 15,000 students have been fingerprinted and have had records checked. Others have had a 'less invasive' records check going back seven years and covering court and police records in every state in which they have lived and worked during that time. The program, she said, follows recommendations from retired Superior Court judge Vincent Bifferato and a review board set up to advise Bishop Michael Saltarelli on how to deal with the situation. The background checks are part of a recently promulgated extensive set of rules for dealing with children in the diocese. CLICK HERE to access the entire program.

In addition to school personnel, the program applies to everyone in the diocese, which includes Delaware and the Eastern Shore counties of Maryland. every priest, deacon, member of a religious order and seminarian has been screened, Donovan said.

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MOVING RIGHT ALONG: The commission drawing the lines for the six new districts that will make up the expanded County Council may already be a third of the way to its goal. Although the tentative plans presented at its second meeting, on July 28, still have to be accepted by incumbent Council members and commission chairman Richard Przywara ruled that they will not be 'released' to the public before that happens, two of the districts were presented by the respective commission members as meeting all criteria. William Tansey's district would be split into two by a line drawn along Limestone Road tipped by a dog leg along Valley Road to Hockessin. Robert Woods's district would be divided along the Christiana River.

Two possibilities were offered for Robert Weiner's Brandywine Hundred district. One uses Interstate 95 as the dividing line for most of the way but includes a corridor north of Naamans Road.  The other calls for the new district to lie north of Silverside Road and east of Concord Pike. Penrose Hollins's Wilmington district would be divided either along Market Street or Fourth Street. Less clear is the Newark area district where Karen Venezky's representative would like to cede a few polls to Tansey -- which may not be allowed under the expansion law. And using the logical Chesapeake & Delaware Canal as the divider in Democrat Patty Powell's district would put her home, and therefore her, in a Republican-leaning district.

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If it weren't for the welcome signs, most of us would be hard-put to tell when we crossed a state border. For those in Delaware's 19 northernmost households, however, crossing the line could soon prove to be an adventure.

Thanks to an historical quirk which can be credited to our founding fathers, they may have to traverse a good bit of Pennsylvania to access their home state. Back before the Revolution, it was decided that Delaware's northern boundary would be an arc with a radius extending 12 miles from the pinnacle of the courthouse in New Castle. That gave Delaware the only  boundary in the nation that isn't a state line. The resultant geometry also means that two residences and the Concord Pike intersection through which folks living on State Line Road and Husbands Drive connect with the outside world are tucked just inside the keystone commonwealth.

Comes now the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. It wants to add a third lane in each direction to Concord Pike and,