Memos at Random


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

Different rules would apply to hiring outside lawyers to represent county departments and using them for individual employees under legislation introduced into County Council.

The measure, submitted without comment by Councilwoman Karen Venezky on May 11 and expected to acted upon on May 25, continues to require Council approval to spend more than $50,000 for professional services not subject to competitive bidding. However, it would exempt services of outside lawyers hired to represent offices, departments or agencies. Such representation for employees "in a criminal investigation or action" would still require Council approval if the amount involved reaches that level. The proposed ordinance contains no reference to civil suits involving individuals.

As Delaforum previously reported, the issue was raised at a recent court hearing on a taxpayer suit challenging the practice of using outside lawyers when Chancellor William Chandler found the applicable county law ambiguous. Venezky's proposal, which is characterized in its title as a clarification, followed a May 4 behind-closed-doors briefing on the case for Council's executive committee by county attorney Timothy Mullaney and Collins Seitz, an outside lawyer representing the county. (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)

The measure also would authorize the county's chief administrative officer to transfer funds among line items in departmental budgets, another issue raised in the case.

ANNEXATION 'ON HOLD': Wilmington's bid to annex the Miller Road Shopping Center has been delayed pending a determination of how to accommodate two economic development proposals, according to County Councilman Robert Weiner, in whose district the center lies. City government wants to provide incentives for a Shop Rite supermarket to be located there. The Delaware Economic Development Office has offered the site to Access Group, now based on Foulk Road, as a place for larger office facilities. The former idea requires annexation while the latter would fall through if that happens.

Weiner said both proposals are still viable if everyone involved can come up with a way to redraw the city boundary to split the property at the northwest corner of the city between city and county jurisdiction. Many years ago, it was gerrymandered in order to put a brickyard outside the city. Weiner said the Shop Rite incentives are conditioned on the store's being in the city while Access Group officials do not want their employees to have to pay the city's wage tax. That company, which finances law school education, previously sought to relocate at the abandoned Cannin School site on Naamans Road.

PLAY NICE: Brandywine Little League will get its fields at Naamans and Marsh Roads after all -- but with a condition that the public can use them when league teams are not. County Council on May 11 approved passing through $310,040 of state money to develop the site as a county park. When that happens, special services general manager Joseph Freebery told Council, the park will be managed like all others in the system where organized leagues and other groups obtain permits to use the facilities at stated times. They open for use by anyone else at times when the permits are not in effect, he said.

RIVERFRONT GRANT APPROVED: County Council voted unanimously on May 11 to release $10 million to the Riverfront Development Corp. to develop a nature and conservation area, but did so with a promise to make money available in the future to support neighborhood projects in Wilmington. Councilman Penrose Hollins, whose district includes the city, told Council's finance committee that he has no objection to spending public money to attract people into the city, "but it's time to look at those people who are here 24-7." The Riverfront enclave is located with Wilmington.

Council president Christopher Coons, who lives in the city, said he agreed that the nature area is a worthy cause, but called for "comparable investments in other communities in the county that have needs." The county grant -- which will cover about two-thirds of the cost of the project -- was held up pending receipt of additional information about details of the project. They are still generally unavailable, but Coons said, "We're willing to trust the [development corporation's] board that they will use this public money well."

MIRROR IN MINIATURE: Four American Legionnaires have arranged for Delaware to have a smallerscale counterpart to the dedication in Washington of the long-awaited World War II memorial. Richard Struck. commander of Laurence Roberts Post, said they spearheaded the project at the national American Legion as a way to provide a venue for people who cannot attend the Washington celebration, which is expected to draw an overflow crowd. "We are glad to do it," he said, noting that the May 29 event, during the Memorial Day holiday weekend, honors all military veterans. Delaware has an estimated 88,000.

The local ceremony, at the Riverfront Arts Center, will begin with a prayer breakfast at 7:30 a.m., followed by a 9:15 walk in support of veterans with mental illnesses, of which Struck said there are between 3,000 and 5,000 in Delaware. The $15 charge will go to that cause. Reservations and donations are being accepted by Wilmington Savings Fund Society, 2502 Foulk Road. There will be displays of World War II memorabilia and band performances. Also on the committee are: Lyman Brenner, Maj. Gen. Francis Ianni and Wayne Pledger. Rita Marocco, of the mental illness association, also is involved.

Wilmington will continue to observe Memorial Day with a parade on the traditional date, May 30 -- which this year falls within the holiday weekend -- as it has every year since soon after the Civil War. It will step off at 6 p.m. at Rockford Park and proceed east on Delaware Avenue to a commemorative service at the Soldiers & Sailors Monument at Broom Street.

Congressman Michael Castle said he is seeking $150,000 in federal money to begin a long-term project to develop a recreation area along the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal.

Standing on the banks of the waterway on May 7, he acknowledged that, with an initiative of that magnitude, "the good days are the one when you make the announcement and the one when you cut the ribbon." In between, he said, there has to be a lot of hard work by many people. He didn't speculate on how long 'in between' will take or eventually cost, but said the result will be worth it. He described the canal as "an untapped recreational and educational resource." If Congress approves, the money will go to finance a study by the Army Corps of Engineers in hopes of bearing that out.

"It is a wonderful idea that should have been thought of long ago," said New Castle County Executive Tom Gordon, who pledged county participation. Lt. Col. Thomas Chapman, who heads the Corps' mid-Atlantic region, said it is "not just a dream -- it can become a reality." Opened in 1829 as a privately-owned nautical tollway, the canal now is a free 35 feet-deep, 14 mile-long channel across Delaware and Eastern Shore Maryland for nearly 1,000 commercial ships a year and scads of 'weekend navy' boats. Delawareans have long divided themselves between those living 'above' and those 'below' the canal.

When Oskar Herbe sailed up the Delaware River, he realized he was following in the wake of countrymen who made history by making the same passage 366 years ago.

Herbe, who calls Kalmar, Sweden, his hometown, said he had "heard about" the linkage between that place and Wilmington, Delaware, the starting point for New Sweden, the short-lived and only Scandinavian settlement in colonial America. The 20-year-old corporal is completing his year of mandatory military service aboard H.Sw.M.S. Calskrona, which docked on May 7 at the mouth of the Christina River, a mile and a half from 'the Rocks', where, local tradition holds, the original settlers first set foot on land after a harrowing voyage aboard the Kalmar Nyckel.

The Calskrona, a mine-layer which, at 3,600 tons, is the largest ship in the Swedish navy, is making a four-day goodwill visit on the second-to-last leg of its annual training voyage. Cmdr. Per Ståhl, her veteran skipper, said he selected Wilmington as her U.S. East Coast port-of-call at the behest of Lt. Cmdr. Thomas Edén, navigation officer, who was here for the 1988 anniversary celebration. Although security-conscious Port of Wilmington won't allow locals to visit the vessel, the 170 officers, national-service conscripts and midshipmen who make up her crew have a crowded itinerary of being hosted ashore.

While dutifully professing how pleased they were to visit here, the young men and women beamed when reminded they were less than a month away from reaching home after three months at sea. They get back just in time for Midsommardagen, the Swedish equivalent of New Year's Eve, Mardi Gras and Fourth of July rolled into one.

PASSIVE PREFERRED: Eighty-six percent of the 881 residents surveyed said they want Jester Park developed for 'passive recreation', according to the ad hoc Jester County Park Action Committee. Twelve percent want it to be 'active' and the rest offered no opinion. The survey was a sampling of opinion in a 2 square mile area around the site on Grubb Road near Naamans Road. According to the group's report, many residents of Chalfonte, which abuts the now-undeveloped and -unopened park, want it fenced to block access from their community and from Hanby Middle School.

Their election is still six months away, but already the six new County Council members are getting action on some issues which have been around for just over a quarter century.

Council's digs on the eighth floor of the Redding building not only be enlarged to provide them with office space, it will be completely refurbished. Plans now being developed call for new carpeting, a new ceiling and, most important as far as Council's staff is concerned, a new heating, ventilation and air conditioning system. Clerk of Council Betsy Gardner told Council's executive committee on May 4 that that should take care of long-standing concerns over air quality and provide room-by-room control over temperatures in the warren. As much of the work as possible will be done during Council's August recess.

Along with taking care of their physical well-being, the sextet and their aides will be mentally conditioned by a detailed orientation the day they arrive, which quirky state law said happens the day after the election. In the past, taking office has been tantamount to being tossed into the deep end of the pool and told to swim or sink. That makes sense, said Councilman Robert Woods, since "they're expected to be ready to vote on things right away." President Christopher Coons said that, with the overhaul, "we'll finally be able to get rid of all the residue that has accumulated around here over the past 25 years."

WHAT'S IN A NAME?: Red Lion Hunt is about to become Red Lion Chase. Why did homebuilder Toll Brothers take the trouble to go through the county's regulatory labyrinth to accomplish that? Simple, the firm's lawyer, John Tracy, told Council's land use committee: Marketers reason that prospective purchasers are more likely to be attracted by the new name. After all, he explained, a chase is more genteel and less violent than a hunt. Try telling a red fox -- or even a red lion, if you can find one -- who has been on the receiving end of both that there's really a clear distinction.

Bruce Harter said he did not make a strong effort to land a job as superintendent of a school district in northern Colorado.

"From time to time, I'm invited to apply, invited to interview for, or am nominated for another superintendent position. I've been declining these since I've come to Brandywine," he told Delaforum. According to a 'press release' issued by the Poudre School District in Fort Collins, Harter was one of four finalists for the position after a nationwide search which resulted in 92 applicants. Fort Collins is a city of 130,000 and the location of the main campus of Colorado State University. The public school district there serves 24,500 children -- more than twice as many as Brandywine -- in 44 schools.

Harter acknowledged that the superintendency "had some appeal since one of my sisters lives in Colorado," but said he "decided not to continue with the process ... once I had been offered an interview." He disputed a statement in the 'release' which attributed his withdrawal to a schedule conflict which prevented him from participating in two days of interviews leading to a final selection. That explanation was "taken out of a longer conversation I had with the board president and [did not] represent why I withdrew," Harter said. (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)

SPARE CHANGE: Discretionary use of contingency funds to meet out-of-the-ordinary expenses is a normal business practice, Ronald Morris, the county's chief financial officer, told County Council's finance committee. In government, it enables executives and managers to satisfy obligations directly "instead of going through the process of spending a month coming back for a budget adjustment," he said. In the case of New Castle County, several such funds, when combined, "add up to only eight-tenths of one percent of the budget," he said. "You're talking nickels and dimes."

The issue, which was raised at a budget hearing on May 3, came to the fore in light of County Executive Tom Gordon having used some of his contingency money to pay for outside attorneys to represent county employees. Council president Christopher Coons, without referring specifically to that, asked Morris if he thought Council should have an advance say in authorizing such spending. "That depends on what you feel is appropriate discretion for the executive to have," Morris replied. Monthly reports to Council, he added, are intended to keep Council fully apprised.