Memos at Random


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

Hockessin is in line to become the first unincorporated community in New Castle County to have a locally generated 'master plan' made a part of the county's basic development and zoning law.

Sherry Freebery, county government's chief administrative officer, told a meeting of the Greater Hockessin Area Development Association that, as soon as the initial draft is put into final form, it will be submitted to County Council to be enacted as a section of the Unified Development Code. It will then "rule what happens here" in terms of future development and redevelopment. The plan seeks to channel local-scale retail, office and some residential development into a core area along Old Lancaster Pike, which would take on the attributes of a 'village main street'. Businesses of a regional nature would be located on Lancaster Pike, the highway. Residential areas as far distant as Red Clay Creek would retain their present character.

Pete Johnston, a land use consultant to the steering committee that produced the plan with county financing, said the idea is to "distinguish Hockessin from the rest of the county [and] give it an identity." The plan will concentrate growth in places where there is existing infrastructure and minimize 'sprawl', he said. County planner Jim Smith said including the plan in the land-use law would permit such things as consolidating parking requirements for individual properties into a common public-parking lot. Also, such things as stormwater management could be handled on an area-wide basis. The committee will now take the plan to a series of public 'workshops' for possible modifications.

Landscaped medians, street-type lighting and extended sidewalks are to be part of a related highway safety improvements to be made to Lancaster Pike, the meeting was told. That project is scheduled for the spring and summer of 2005.

SHUTDOWN NEAR: General Chemical's sulfuric acid plant in Claymont will close on Nov. 11, plant manager David Tusinski told Delaforum. For the next six to eight months, its power plant will continue to supply steam to the company's specialty chemicals facility on the south side of Philadelphia Pike, which will remain open. Meanwhile, the new sulfur-recovery unit at Sunoco's refinery is undergoing a 'final shakedown' prior to going into regular operation. Sun no longer is selling acid gas, a refinery byproduct, to General Chemical. The necessity to burn the gas at times when General Chemical was unable to receive it caused several air-pollution incidents in recent years.

If you've been watching the World Series on television, you've heard several references to "flashbulbs popping" around the stadiums. That is despite the fact that flashbulbs haven't been used for more than a quarter of a century and a majority of the camera users are not old enough ever to have seen one -- nor astute enough to realize that their battery-powered flashes are not effective at long ranges until they have their film developed and discover that the stars they thought they had photographed didn't show up.

McDONALD'S GOES ALONG: The Claymont Community Coalition has prevailed in its effort to have McDonald's Corp. rebuild its Philadelphia Pike eatery to an "acceptable" design, according to Frank Kolling, vice president of the civic organization. It had opposed McDonald's plan to redevelop the site with a building resembling the chain's original 1950s drive-in motif. Kolling said the company will put the new, slightly larger, building closer to the road, eliminating out-front parking in favor of side and rear parking lots. There will be two drive-up windows accommodating up to eight vehicles at a time. Construction is scheduled to start in October, 2004, with completion by the end of that year.

PARKS ADVOCATED: County Councilman Robert Weiner said he will formally propose that New Castle County government purchase the sites of both the former Channin and Old Mill Lane Elementary Schools and convert them into 'active recreation' parks. That, he told the Fox Point Association on Oct. 21, will retain their present use as youth sports fields. The Brandywine School District has declared the buildings, unused since 1978, to be surplus. A plan by the Delaware Economic Development Office to allow acquisition of the Channin site for use as a commercial office building were abandoned after community opposition drrew support from county and state officials.

STILL HOPING: County Council on Oct. 28 will enact an ordinance adding six new districts and paving the way for the probable election, in 2004, of Democrats to fill the new seats, but its collective heart will not be in it, Council president Christopher Coons said. "We do not want to double in size," he told the Hockessin civic group. "It is still possible for the General Assembly to vote to rescind (repeal) the law," he said indicating that Council and like-minded individuals and organizations should lobby for that to happen. He said later, however, that chances of that happening are slim. Council will go from has seven members to 13 if the Assembly does not act.

Councilman William Tansey said he will attempt to have his district divided as here requested through his representative on the redistricting commission. Instead of a line along Limestone Road with a dogleg over Valley Road and Lancaster Pike, the commission voted to recommend a gerrymander line that would virtually assure election of a Democrat council member in the new district. Tansey is one of Council's two Republicans and his line would have created either a Republican or a 'swing' district. Tansey was the only Council member whose wishes were not respected by the commission. If Council votes on party lines, as it seldom does, it will rejects Tansey's amendment to the redistricting ordinance by a 5-to-2 vote. (CLICK HERE to access previous Delaforum article.)

ESTATE TO BE DEVELOPED: County Council on Oct. 28 will approve plans to develop the former Donald Ross estate at Montchanin and Kirk Roads. The community, to be known as Applecroft, will have 23 custome building lots. The farmhouse, barn and outbuildings will be retained as the 24th property. Attorney Lisa Goodman said that most of the trees will be retained and an easement has been granted to the Brandywine Conservatory. Deed restrictions will be imposed to keep the community compatible with Montchanin Road's status as a state scenic route. she said. The property originally was proposed as the site of a retirement community, but objections were raised on the grounds that would require too dense development.

Conectiv Power Delivery was prepared in advance to deal with Hurricane Isabel, but was overwhelmed by the storm, according to Lee Frankel, vice president of the utility's New Castle region.

Previewing testimony it will give at a General Assembly committee meeting on Oct. 28, he said 60% of Delaware customers were without service for up to eight days although 80% of those were back on line within 48 hours. The storm "was the most devastating to hit [in] Conectiv's history," he told a meeting of the Greater Hockessin Area Development Association on Oct. 20. It was necessary "to get [the entire system] restored in an orderly and rapid a manner as possible," he said. That meant working down from main transmission lines to individual customers in much the same was that snow is plowed on main highways, then secondary roads and finally individual streets.

Responding to questions concerning the company's attempt to keep the public informed of the status of things, he acknowledged that that was woefully short. "We had 200 representatives [manning] the phones on 12- to 16-hour shifts, [but] we received 300,000 calls in four days," he explained. Out in the field, there were 400 work crews brought in from other companies as far away as Detroit and Quebec in addition to Conectiv's full force. "I don't know what more we could have done in advance," he said, explaining that the company did anticipate a bad storm and called in some of that help a couple of days ahead of its arrival.

Unlike utility companies elsewhere on the East Coast, Conectiv finally restored service with only one instance of a worker being 'injured', he said. A Canadian, unfamiliar with the plant, had a brush with poison ivy.

New Castle County property owners can expect to see the tax moratorium continue through fiscal year 2008 and probably beyond, but those with sanitary sewer service probably will see that fee go up in a year or two.

The real estate tax rate in unincorporated areas has held at 45½¢ for each $100 of assessed value since fiscal 1996 and the county has $61.5 million squirreled away to keep it there through the remainder of County Executive Tom Gordon's administration and well into his successor's. In a 'read-my-lips' pledge while campaigning for that office in '66, Gordon promised not to raise taxes. "We are probably one of very few governments in the country that has been able to do that," Ron Morris, the county's chief financial officer, said during a presentation on Oct. 14 before County Council's finance committee about the current state of county coffers and, for the first time ever, the outlook for the next five years.

He revealed that the county closed its books on fiscal 2003 on June 30 with a $13.5 million surplus, taking in $137.2 million and spending $123.7 million. Assuming that current service levels are maintained with no major new programs added, there will be a relatively small surplus this year followed by increasing deficits that will have to be covered by the 'tax rate preservation fund'. The back-up fund will still have about $50 million in it come June 30, 2008. The sewer fund, however, is already running a deficit and by fiscal 2006 "discussion [about] adjusting revenue needs to take place," Morris said. Those projection assumes that the proposed extension of sewer service into the southern part of the county is happening.

An audio-visual version of the county's comprehensive financial report has been prepared on compact disc to supplement what Morris described as "a 200 page report that is barely read." The county has received awards for presenting fiscal information to the public in a way that the average person can understand it.

School bells will ring a month early next summer for pupils at Maple Lane Elementary as the school in Claymont moves toward becoming the first in New Castle County to offer regular classes year around.

Initially, the 'balanced calendar' the Brandywine Board of Education is expected to approve in November will do away with four weeks of vacation in August and replace them with two in October and one each in January and May. That is intended to lessen what educators call the 'summer learning loss' and primarily benefit poorer-performing children, according to principal Julianne Pecorella, who presented a nearly complete plan for the program to the school board on Oct. 13. Participation will be optional in the sense that parents can transfer their children to other public schools under the state's choice law. Children also can be transferred into Maple Lane. Pecorella said she is "not getting any negative reports" concerning present students.

Except for planning to begin classes on Aug. 4, the plan is not a radical departure from the norm. It contains the same number of instruction hours as other schools and will observe the rest of the district calendar while in session. The displaced vacation weeks will be 'intersessions' offering remedial and enrichment classes. That arrangement is not yet final, Pecorella said, because it depends on finding volunteer instructors or outside sources of money to pay regular teachers. Brandywine superintendent Bruce Harter said the plan would cost the district an additional $5,400 to provide bus transportation. (For further details, CLICK HERE to go to the school's Web site.)

The Brandywine board also is expected to approve a new report card system for kindergarten through sixth grade to kick in on a pilot basis next year at Carrcroft and Mount Pleasant Elementary and Claymont and Harlan Intermediate. When fully implemented, the new system is intended to align with the state's teaching standards and five-step performance ratings.

CAUTION -- CONSUMER MATH IN USE: A travel agency advertises a bargain rate tour at just $1,000 (plus a 10% service charge). Air lines will fly you to sunny climes for just $89 (each way with a round trip purchase). Gasoline is selling for just $1.59 9/10 a gallon (which is pretty close to $1.60). You can buy a good book on line for $25 (plus shipping and handling), Get a cash advance on your credit card and pay just 4.9% introductory interest rate (after a one-time upfront charge of 3%). The supermarket sells juice for 99¢ a can (provided you buy at least a dozen cans), A popular magazine will let you subscribe for just a third of the newsstand price (if you sign up for five years). What did Barnum say was born every minute?

BARN CONTRACTOR PICKED: Commonwealth Construction Co. has been awarded the contract to renovate and expand the historic Blue Ball dairy barn. Mark Chura, manager of preservation and development for the state Division of Parks & Recreation said the firm submitted a base bid of about $4.8 million, the lowest of five received. The work has to be coordinated with highway construction along Concord Pike but, hopefully, will get underway by the turn of the year, he said. It is expected to take about 14 months. The project involves making the barn into a museum and community center and erecting a service wing behind it. (CLICK HERE to access previous Delaforum article.)

CRACKDOWN, OF SORTS: New Castle County is going after householders who have basement sump pumps connected to the sanitary sewer system. But Jim Shelton, who works for the consulting firm helping with rehabilitation of sewers in Brandywine Hundred, told a meeting of civic association officers that the crackdown will be of the kid-glove variety. County officials now designing a pilot program to get a massive disconnect are more interested in securing compliance than in punishing violators, he said. Well they might be. When it rains, illegal hookups pour an estimated 28 million gallons of water that shouldn't be there into the system, he said. Cost of disengaging runs between $300 and $400 in most cases.

In a related matter, New Castle County has agreed to eliminate an old system by which effluent from combined sanitary and storm sewers is discharged into the Delaware River, the state Department of Natural Resources & Environmental Control said in a press statement. Involved are two locations in Brandywine Hundred north of Wilmington where the sewers, which were legal when constructed more than 30 years ago but are no longer legal, discharge when it rains or when snow is melting. The statement did not say how much effluent is released. The county has agreed to replace the systems by the end of 2005 at a cost of $9 million.