Memos at Random


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

COUNCIL EXPANSION MAY BE CALLED OFF: The state House of Representatives is about to have the final word on whether New Castle County Council will be expanded to 13 members with the November election or will remain with seven. Majority leader Wayne Smith said his committee has cleared the bill to repeal expansion legislation for floor debate. Originally sponsored by Senator Karen Peterson, it was passed by the state Senate last June. Several civic groups and individuals, including the present Council, have opposed expansion as an unnecessary and overly costly. (CLICK here to read previous Delaforum article.)

McDONALD'S MAKEOVER: The plan to replace the McDonald's fast-food restaurant in Claymont is back -- this time with a couple of major differences. Unlike two years ago, it apparently has support from the Claymont Renaissance. That is largely because the plan now calls for putting up a relatively conservative brick structure rather than a throwback 1950s-style drive-in. Mike Carr, project director, told the Renaissance committee on Jan. 15 that the company will soon file a redevelopment plan with the county and is hopeful it can have the new establishment up and running by the end of the year.

New Castle County government came through the annual outside audit of its financial books covering the fiscal year ended June 30, 2003, with flying colors.

Steve Baloga, a partner in the auditing firm of Ernst & Young, told County Council's executive committee on Jan. 13 that the county in being run by "financially savvy people." That is especially significant, he said, at a time when an apparent preponderance of state and local governments around the nation have found themselves in trouble as a result of the economic slump. New Castle County, on the other hand, finished the year with a $240 million surplus and substantial cash reserves, retained its triple-A bond rating and boasted one of the lowest tax rates of any comparable jurisdiction.

Checking the books for the first time, Ernst & Young found nothing to complain about, Baloga said. The firm issued a 'clean', or unqualified, opinion on the county's financial report. Although it said internal budget controls are effective, the firm did endorse the idea, which Council is now considering, of establishing an independent audit committee. In response, the administration questioned the value of spending the money necessary to expand the internal auditing function when "the county has [had] such proven and widely lauded financial management and reporting practices" over a span of several years.

"We're getting so used to [meeting] these high expectations that we take them for granted," said Councilman Robert Woods, former chair of Council's finance committee.

Councilman Robert Weiner charged that County Executive Tom Gordon is using the community planning grants program "to improperly reward friends ... and punish enemies."

He said the recently announced $20,000 grant to the Claymont Community Coalition in support of the Claymont Renaissance was not a grant at all, but money promised a year ago to reimburse a payment to town planning consultant Thomas Comitta. The coalition, one of three sponsoring organizations, had asked for and, he claimed, been "promised" $49,900 to continue Renaissance planning. Weiner, who helped instigate the movement and has been closely identified with it, has been at political loggerheads with Gordon and chief administrative officer Sherry Freebery for more than a year.

The councilman said that the Renaissance steering committee had agreed to drop coming up with a preliminary redevelopment plan for Brookview Apartments because Gordon objected to using public money to support what is intended to eventually aid a private developer. Weiner recently told the committee that he agreed with that position. Now, it is "time to re-evaluate our dependence on Tom Gordon's financial assistance," Weiner said. "There are too many strings attached to the community grant program as administered by Gordon and Freebery." [CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.]

TRANSPORTATION PROJECTS: A $1 million project to improve safety and capacity of the Interstate 95 interchange with Marsh Road, construction of a new headquarters for Delaware Transit Corp. and a bridge over the Christina River to link the Riverfront stores with South Market Street are among the new projects listed in this year's edition of the long-range Transportation Improvement Program. A draft of the plan presented at a public Wilmington Area Planning Council 'workshop' on Jan. 12 lists anticipated highway spending through the 2007 fiscal year.

Topping the list by a large margin is construction of a new link between I-95 and Delaware 1 and widening of the Delaware Turnpike from the Maryland line to Bain Road. Projected spending on that project is $165 million. Continued work on roads in the Blue Ball area and improvements to several streets in downtown Wilmington are listed. The plan calls for construction of a $40 million Tyler McConnell Bridge replacement in fiscal 2006 and lists the Federal Highway Administration as provider of 80% of that money despite questions raised about the project's eligibility for federal financing.

REFORM STILL SOUGHT: Daniel Bockover, president of the Council of Civic Associations of Brandywine Hundred, said he still advocates fundamental changes in the way school boards are elected despite the council's membership having rejected a proposed resolution to that end at a recent meeting. "Reform is still needed," he told officers of area-wide civic associations, indicating that he will press for it. Specifically, he said, school board elections should be held in November during the general election, and members should represent designated areas within school districts and serve two-year terms.

GRANTS AWARDED: Seven area civic associations and the Delaware Nature Society are sharing $250,000 in the first distribution of county community planning grants. The program, initiated by County Executive Tom Gordon and administered by the Department of Land Use, is intended to partly support 'hometown' projects related to future development. Money was first appropriated in the fiscal 2003 budget but not distributed as the formal program was being established. The grants now being distributed are financed in the current budget and have been under consideration since last April.

The nature society gets the largest grant -- $50,000 to prepare an application for state scenic highway designation for roads in the Red Clay Creek Valley. Fox Point Association has been allotted $45,000 to prepare an historic-resources inventory and pursue a scenic highway designation for Philadelphia Pike. Greater Hockessin Area Development Association will have $40,000 to continue work on its community plan; Centreville Civic Association $30,000 to develop a business-retention plan and design guidelines for Kennett Pike; and the Claymont Community Coalition $20,000 to support the Claymont Renaissance.

Gordon is expected to ask for a like amount to continue the grants program in his proposed budget for fiscal year 2005, which begins in July.

BONDS SOLD: Investors snapped up Delaware's $133.5 million bond issue at prices ranging between $97.75 and $100.125 in 43 trades on Jan. 8, the first day they went to market. Merrill Lynch was the successful bidder to underwrite the issue at an average interest rate of 3.4%, which state officials said was the best term ever obtained.. The bonds carry triple-A ratings, the best, from all three major Wall Street bond-rating services. Proceeds from the current sale will be used for capital spending for schools, libraries and beach preservation and to refinance some older bonds with higher interest rates.

Downtown Wilmington's perennial back alley would get a cosmetic and functional makeover as part of a new effort to attract development.

Shipley Street stands to benefit from recent improvements to 10th Street at its northern end, the Ships Tavern District revitalization at the south and removal of the last remaining section of the Market Street Mall on its flank, said Heather Dunagan, of Wilmington Area Planning Council, who will manage the project. If successful, she told a small audience at an initial organizing meeting on Dec. 7, the effort can "potentially make the neglected street attractive to new business." That would be a far cry from now on a thoroughfare dominated by empty buildings and "a wide array of how people deal with their trash."

If property owners have neglected the street, they're not alone, according to attenders at the meeting. Meter maids and police who back them up to enforce parking regulations tend to look the other way while trucks unloading cargo block travel lanes and workers from nearby offices spend their days feeding parking meters. What's worse, Dunagan said, "it's not a comfortable environment" and people who venture into the area "don't have a very secure feeling." The council is soliciting ideas about how all that can be turned around. (CLICK HERE to access the project Web site.)

That may not be as difficult as it sounds. It would involve only a relatively simple reconstruction of the juncture where Concord Pike and State Line Road meet. Right now it's only a couple of feet north of the boundary. The alternative, it seems, would be acquiescing to DelDOT's Keystone counterpart which wants to eliminate the ability of drivers on State Line Road turning left into Delaware. Employing a bit of hyperbole at a Planning Board hearing, County Councilman Robert Weiner said that is equivalent to having them "cut off from the rest of the world."

The hearing had to do with approving the development plan for Village of Brandywine, a gated age-restricted community between the state line and Brandywine Town Center. Philip Lavelle, of the Council of Civic Organizations of Brandywine Hundred, testified that developer Joseph Setting is "a case study of how we would like to see developers proceed." The road plan and providing access to utilities were among the things he worked out with neighboring State Line Road residents. The community also will voluntarily will conform to the county's new conservation-design standards.

Resident Helen Brown tendered a literal yes-in-my-back-yard endorsement. She testified that Setting donated 27 trees to provide a buffer and paid for a landscape architect to determine where to plant them along her property line.

NO CAMERA YET: It evidently will be several months before DelDOT installs a camera to enforce compliance with the traffic signal at the Concord Pike-Naamans Road intersection. Spokesman Michael Williams said that it has been decided to install a monitor in Dover and delay the New Castle and Sussex County installations until an unspecified future date. The New Castle one initially was to have been in operation soon after the start of the year. Naamans Road was chosen as its location because that intersection is classified as accident-prone.