Memos at Random


	A potpourri of miscellaneous news SCRIBBLED IN A REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK

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.

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, in the process, shut off a left turn from State Line and nearly adjacent Pyle Roads. A traffic signal there, planners say, would be easily missed by drivers getting up speed at that point. Turning right onto Concord Pike means a mile journey to the Naamans Creek Road to make a U-turn, if intervening crossovers are also closed. Residents, therefore, have asked Delaware Department of Transportation to consider realigning State Line Road so it and a new intersection, are safely inside Delaware. Ralph Reeb, DelDOT's director of planning, didn't promise anything, but said he'll look into the possibility.

The present left turn maneuver, resident Wayne Brasure said, isn't for the faint-hearted. "There are certain things you have to play out to make that intersection," he said.

The Gordon administration has backed off from a plan to permit Miracle League of Delaware to locate a ballfield for physically and mentally handicapped children and youth in Woodley Park, off Lebanon Road near Concord Pike.

Sherry Freebery told Delaforum that the decision to go back to 'Plan A' and limit development of the park to improving its playground area came after County Executive Tom Gordon and she were informed

about how extensive Miracle League sites around the nation tend to become. "We originally thought they were talking about just one field," she said. Gordon, however, is still interested in the county's assisting the local branch of the national organization and will look for a "more suitable" site to accommodate the regional participation that would be expected. One possibility, she said, is River Road Park, which
	A change of signs signifies a change of mind. The one in the left photo went up on July 18 and, according community leaders, alerted them to a change in plans for Woodley Park. After plans were changed back, it was replaced on July 23 by the one in the right photo. County officials say development work will mostly involve the playground visible in the background of both photos.

The decision not to use Woodley Park, she said, was reached at a meeting of community activists and state legislators brokered by the Council of Civic Organizations of Brandywine Hundred on July 22. Council president Daniel Bockover said he wanted to "settle this quietly" after a firestorm of protest arose around 'Plan B'. A flurry of electronic mail messages accused Gordon of having reneged on a previous agreement by the Department of Special Services to keep the park, except for the playground, for 'passive recreation'. State senator Charles Copeland and representatives Gregory Lavelle and Robert Valihura lit into the county leaders for not having involved the community when they were considering a different scenario.

Freebery said that Miracle League will have to comply with the county's development process, particularly as it regards generating traffic, if the organization intends to have anything more extensive than a single ballfield at the site eventually chosen.

NO PARKING: The parking garage under the adjacent Carvel and Redding government buildings in downtown Wilmington has been closed to the general public after 7 p.m. Past practice has been to have it available to attenders of City and County Councils' sessions. President Christopher Coons said the change was a security measure, but added that he wants to make some other arrangement before County Council resumes meeting in September. William Narcowich, past president of the Civic League for New Castle County, complained that having to park on the street would discourage attendance. Visitors to offices in the buildings must pass through metal detectors, but there is no such requirement to access the Council chamber or caucus room.

CHIPPING AWAY: The wing at the rear of the Public Building in downtown Wilmington which used to house the police station is being at least partially demolished as M.B.N.A. Bank begins converting the landmark structure into an office building. The company remains secretive about the future of the

It appears that demolition of one of two wings on the French Street side of the former Public Building is being done relatively surgically.

building, which it acquired last year when state courts moved out. Its public relations office did not return a call from Delaforum seeing information about how it is planned to alter its appearance and city government spokesman John Rago said that only parts of a development plan have been filed. The city, however, issued a demolition permit, permitting work to commence. Extent of the planned demolition could not immediately be determined.


... another Wilmington landmark is getting a new look. Workers in Brandywine Park are putting the finishing touches on a paved walkway -- complete with steps after the fashion of canal locks -- on Monkey Hill. Old timers who remember the challenge of running up the old dirt, later asphalt, path will at least be able to again navigate the hill. The roadway will remain cobblestoned.

BOARD WASHES ITS HANDS: Admittedly confused about the intent of legislation which apparently has given authority to dispose of the Channin and Old Mill Lane Schools properties to the Delaware Economic Development Office, the Brandywine school board indefinitely tabled the proposal to declare those properties surplus. "The groundrules are completely changed," said board member David Adkins, who initially moved to declare the structures not surplus, but yielded to board president Nancy Doorey who sought to put off the issue until when, and if, the situation is clarified.

After conferring in executive session behind closed doors during its meeting on July 21, the board expressed concern that a rumored plan to provide at least one of the sites as a venue for youth athletics would shortchange the district. "Should the state decide to basically give it away to a sports group, our 40% [of the proceeds] won't amount to anything," Doorey said. Although state sources remain quiet about what is planned, Delaforum has previously learned that the development office is looking at the Channin site as the location for an office building for a large non-profit organization. (CLICK HERE to read previous articles.)

ROAD WORK BEGINS: Delaware Department of Transportation is about to start a year-long project to reconstruct the Barley Mill-Montchanin Roads intersection. It awarded a $4.2 million contract to A-Del Construction Co. to widen the roads to ease congestion on the approach to the Tyler McConnell Bridge. Nothing will be done to the bridge at this time, but it is expected to eventually be replaced by a new four-lane span. DelDOT said the intersection work will include installation of pedestrian and bicycle paths and provide improved access to Hagley Museum and St. Joseph-on-the-Brandywine Catholic church.

This park that occupies the block between Seventh and
Eighth Streets, Broom and Franklin Streets
still serves that neighborhood -- as it did nearly a century ago.
The post card view (above) was around 1908.

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.