County Council will formally begin the process of doubling itself at its July 8 session when it appoints a seven-member redistricting committee to draw new boundaries.

Compared to its 2002 predecessor, this group will have a relatively easy job. The state law mandating that the present six Council districts be increased to 12 specifies that should be done by simply dividing each of the present districts. Under the one person-one vote standard, the halves will be based on demographics, not geography. The portion in which the incumbent lives will be considered the 'old' district and the other side will be the 'new' one. Voters in the latter, will elect representatives in 2004. Terms of the present members will last until 2006. The present Council has to approve the new districts before the end of this year.

Council members already have chosen persons to represent their interests in the redistricting committee. Following past practice, no more than four can be registered with the same political party. As a result, one of Council's five Democrats had to select either a Republican or someone listed as independent. The appointees -- technically tentative until confirmed by Council -- are:

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WHAT DID WE GET?: Like kids on Christmas morning, officers and members of various nonprofit

civic, social and other organizations are eagerly searching to see what Santa, in the persons of state legislators, brought. The stocking is the annual 'grants-in-aid' law, traditionally enacted on the final day of the General Assembly session. Biggest slice of the $38.4 million pie, 28%, went to help support paramedic services in the three counties. Fire companies received 14%. The two large categories where who you know in Dover pays off are senior centers and civic and neighborhood organizations. Modern Maturity and the Harold J. Weston center came off best in the former category. Brandywine Community Resource Council, which runs Claymont Community Center,

 and the Edgemoor Community Center were leaders in the latter. The largest single grant went to television station WHYY. (CLICK HERE to access the entire list.)

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NO LINES THIS TIME: Used to be that a large lottery jackpot meant long lines wherever the tickets are sold. That's no longer the case. Although the current pot is valued at upward of $135 million, it's a simple walk-up to take a chance. No doubt the fact that Pennsylvania is now part of the nationwide lottery consortium to which Delaware formerly had sole dibs hereabouts, no doubt has a lot to do with it. As you probably suspected in days gone by, most of the folks ahead of you were Keystoners. What really is curious, however, is that Delaforum bought its ticket with no one else in sight at a gas-and-go station where vehicles are lined up six deep on cents-off promotion days when the maximum saving is half a buck.

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LET'S GET IT STRAIGHT: A local organization which should know better recently issued a public statement referring to "Caesar Rodney's historic ride [that] assured Delaware a place in history as the first state." And that's not the worst of the myths which circulate at this time every year. The state was the first to ratify the U.S. Constitution -- 11 years after Rodney rode to break a tie in the Delaware delegation at the Continental Congress and thereby contribute to the necessary unanimous, by colony, approval of Richard Henry Lee's resolution declaring that the colonies were and by right ought to be free and independent of Britain. Incidentally, the resolution was voted up on July 2, 1776, not on the Fourth, when delegates approved a statement explaining why they did it. (CLICK HERE to read -- and print -- a more detailed account.)

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PRINCIPALS APPOINTED: Brandywine School District has appointed new principals for the coming academic year at two of its schools. Mark Frankel will succeed Susan Gleich at Claymont Intermediate and Mark Silverstein will replace Clarence Grasty at Hanby Middle. Gleich has been promoted to the central administrative staff as supervisor of curriculum and instruction, a position vacated by the retirement of Leslie Morrill. Grasty is retiring. Frankel comes to the district from Baltimore, where he was principal of Mount Royal Elementary School. Silverstein has been principal of Bridgeton (N.J.) Middle School.

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RARE BOOK DONATED: The University of Delaware will receive a 112-year-old folio edition of signed Felix Darley illustrations depicting scenes from Shakespearean plays, thanks to a Connecticut woman

are only five or six known copies of the book, which will be housed in the Morris Library on the university's Newark campus. Irene Pollack she bought it for $600 and, luckily, had second thoughts about dismantling it. Instead, she took it to an appraiser, who put its nominal value, intact, at about $19,000. The Pollacks selected the University of Delaware to receive the gift "so it will come back and remain close to where Darley was," she said.

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THE WAY IT WAS:

This is the view of the east side of Market Street looking south from just north of Sixth Street as it was toward the end of the first decade of the 20th Century. The building just beyond the intersection housed Jas. T. Mullin & Sons, clothiers. It is now an apartment building. On the near side is the building that once was the headquarters and showroom of Delmarva Power & Light Co.
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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