Memos at Random


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

MINIMAL PENALTY: Paladin Club residents said its developer got by with a veritable slap on the wrist for tearing down most of an old stone wall in violation of county regulations. Jim Jones, president of the Paladin Club Master Association, called the reported $200 fine "a pittance" and Roy Jackson, who initially raised the issue. said it was "ridiculous." Jones expressed concern that the Pettinaro Construction subsidiary will use an order to stabilize the hillside above what's left of the wall as a license to level it, preventing future restoration. Pettinaro officials did not respond to a request for comment. (CLICK HERE to read the previous Delaforum article.)

A process which began a generation ago will move to completion as soon as spring weather arrives and paving material becomes available.

Jonathan Husband, of the county Department of Community Services, said that, following approval by a community steering committee of the final plan on Feb. 12, Woodshaven-Kruse Park will be developed in time for a formal opening in early summer. The 18-acre site off Darley Road west of Philadelphia Pike will be dedicated to 'passive recreation'; that is, activities like walking, jogging or just schmoozing on

pleasant days. It will have a couple of picnic pavilions, grills, a small playground, two areas for exercising dogs, a paved circumferential path and an unpaved meandering trail.

Originally a girls' reformatory, the park site was declared surplus by the state in the 1980s and given over to a lengthy disposal process. In one respect, that process will not end with the opening because the committee conditioned signing off on the plan on a promise to hold back money to pay for additional parking spaces and-or lighting if experience indicates they're needed after the park has been in operation for a year or so. Husband said initial development will cost about $175,000 and that the unspent portion of the $300,000 budgeted for the park will remain available for future improvements.

Delaware Solid Waste Authority would be unable to support mandatory but free curb-side collection of recyclables, according to Pat Canzano, its chief operating officer.

He told a meeting of the Council of Civic Organizations of Brandywine Hundred on Feb. 12 that subsidizing the voluntary drop-off system established in 1991 costs $3 million a year. He did not specify an amount, but said subsidizing an alternate system would cost considerably more. Environmentalist Alan Muller argued that the authority reported a $13 million 'profit' in its most recent annual report, but Canzano said that money is actually "'cash flow' which goes right back into the operation." By law, the waste authority is required to be self-supporting.

A study is now underway to evaluate the feasibility of a mandatory statewide program, including how much it would cost residential property owners. State Senator David McBride told Delaforum that he has decided to hold up on legislation toward that end which he had planned to introduce "because I don't think it would have support" in the General Assembly. Voluntary curb-side pick-up, which the authority is offering on a pilot-program basis in Brandywine Hundred, has attracted about 650 participants, Canzano said. Nevertheless, he added, it is costing the authority about $89,000 a year. (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)

The effort to block expansion of New Castle County Council is over, state Senator Cathy Cloutier said. She told the Council of Civic Organizations of Brandywine Hundred that there is no likelihood the Senate will even consider overriding Governor Ruth Ann Minner's veto of legislation that would keep the legislative body at seven members.

GOOD CHOICE: If someone were looking for the ideal candidate for official designation as an historic highway, they wouldn't go wrong picking Philadelphia Pike, a steering committee of residents doing just

The common thread is transportation, which spurred development along the road from its beginnings. One of the oldest main roads in the nation, it dates to the 1670s when each family along the route was required to "contribute one able-bodied [man] to work on [its] construction. The road was paved -- with bricks -- for automobile traffic in 1919.

Delaware Department of Transportation will waste no time in beginning to make formal offers to owners of homes in Glenville extensively damaged by the September storms.

The purchase process was to begin the day after County Council on Feb. 10 approved spending $15 million as the county's share of the cost of the buy-out The General Assembly is expected to approve a like amount in the state's capital budget, which will be enacted in June. Delaware's congressional delegation is seeking federal participation. The buildings will be demolished and the property converted into wetland as federally mandated replacement for land in the nearby marsh to be taken to widen the Delaware Turnpike.

Speaking on behalf of a large contingent of residents who crowded into Council chambers to witness the vote, Bill Marino, president of the community civic association, praised county and state officials for prompt response to the disaster. Council president Christopher Coons responded by declaring Marino "civic association president of the year" for doggedly pushing the unprecedented rescue. Councilman Robert Woods said efforts will now be started to provide assistance to Marshallton, Yorklyn and other places along Red Clay Creek that also experienced extensive flooding. (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)

Ironically, Council's unanimous vote was delayed two weeks when it postponed its Jan. 27 meeting in deference to a snowfall.

A myriad of public records which many people do not know are public and which relatively few ever bother to seek out will soon be just a mouse click or two away.

The Department of Land Use is nearly finished expanding its niche on the county Web site. When the work is completed -- as soon as end of February -- anyone with a browser will be able to access data ranging from the agenda of the next Planning Board hearing to minute engineering details of development plans and aerial photographs of existing communities which can be zoomed in to nearly spy-satellite perspective. Making that available is the culmination of "$50 million invested in [information] technology over the past seven years," said Sherry Freebery, the county's chief administrative officer.

She and land use general manager Charles Baker unveiled a mockup of the expanded site to officers of areawide civic associations on Feb. 5, explaining that it contains nothing more than so-called 'courthouse records' which can be freely seen on request in various government offices, not only here but everywhere in the nation. Included are such things as property deeds, wills and tax records. Heretofore, that kind of stuff mostly was fodder for folks like lawyers and real estate agents. Detailed property records have been electronically available on the site for some time. (CLICK HERE and scroll to the bottom of the page to access them.)

Still to be decided, Freebery said, is whether to expunge individuals' names from some of the posted records as something of a middle ground between ease-of-access and privacy considerations.

GOAL EXCEEDED: Astra Zeneca bettered the requirement that it divert 15% of its workforce from single-occupant vehicles during the morning and evening rush hours, according to Roger Roy, director of the Transportation Management Association of Delaware. "Wait until you see the numbers," he said, referring to results of a Delaware Department of Transportation biannual audit of the company's traffic-mitigation efforts. The pharmaceutical company was the first to be granted a waiver of the level-of-service requirement in connection with county approval of its plan to expand its corporate headquarters complex.

CHANGE OF HEART: Delaware Department of Education has reversed itself and will now allow in-school computers to access ratemyteachers.com, a Web site on which students around the nation can post comments. As Delaforum previously reported, access was blocked after some teachers complained. DelDOE spokesman Ron Gough said the ban was lifted after Education Secretary Valerie Woodruff "found that the website was simple and most comments thoughtful." The department is working a formal policy to decide when a site should be blocked from the public schools' statewide Internet system. (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)

WELCOME TO FEBRUARY: And a rare one it is with not only a Leap Year day on the 29th but also a Friday the 13th. You can literally count on one hand how often that occurs in a lifetime. The last was 1976, the Bicentennial, when we elected Jimmy Carter to be our president. Before that was 1948 when Thomas Dewey lost to Harry Truman after having already packed his suitcase for a move to Washington. Then there was 1920 and Warren Harding heard the vox populi. Leap year wasn't presidential in the 19th Century but, for the record, double witching happened in 1888, 1860, 1832 and 1814. (CLICK HERE to read all about leap year.)

Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has proposed widening the 7.5 mile stretch at the southern end of of the Route 202 corridor linking Delaware with West Chester.

In a proposed environmental-impact document recently issued for public comment, PennDOT said it favors widening the highway -- known as Wilmington Pike in Chester County and Wilmington-West Chester Pike in Delaware County -- from four to six lanes and building interchanges with Lincoln Highway at Painters Crossroads and at two other major intersections farther north. The department has rejected the idea of a limited-access expressway as harmful to commercial interests and unlikely to get support in Delaware where it would replace Concord Pike with an extension to Wilmington.

Three possible alignments are offered for the highway between the state line and Painters Crossroads. One would eliminate the split of north- and southbound lanes through Elam, putting the entire roadway east of that hamlet and turning the present southbound lanes into a local-use 'main street'. The document is not specific about the future of the Pyle Road intersection just inside Pennsylvania. It does emphasize protecting the park at the site of the Revolutionary War Battle of the Brandywine in Chadds Ford. The plan, PennDOT said, will increase highway capacity while preserving open space.

The Route 202 improvement project has been underway since 1991 and recently saw completion of a massive interchange with the Pennsylvania Turnpike and Schuylkill Expressway near King-of-Prussia.


County official Jonathan Husband (center) presents the final plan for development of Woodhaven-Kruse Park to a community steering committee. Committee members pictured are (clockwise from the left): Thomas DiCristofaro, Lisa Imburgia and Frank Kolling. The photo at the right shows how the park site looks now.