Memos at Random


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

HAT IN THE RING: George Lossé, president of the Claymont Community Coalition, announced that he will seek the Democratic nomination to run for the new Eighth District Council Council seat. That raises the possibility of a primary race in the district which covers the Brandywine Hundred east of Interstate 95. John Cartier, who has been active with the Fox Point Association, previously declared his candidacy. Democrats hold the lead in voter registrations in that area. Lossé told Delaforum that his running is conditioned on former state representative David Brady not getting into the arena.

GRANTS PROVIDED: County Council approved a $310,000 grant to assist the New Knollwood Civic Association in its program of purchasing, rehabilitating and reselling houses in the community. The project, which is backed by P.N.C. Bank, has sold one house and has two others under sales contracts. One is now being renovated and two others are owned by the association. County Executive Tom Gordon recently announced awarding by the county administration of an unrelated $49,960 grant to finance completion by Thomas Comitta Associates of a community redevelopment master plan for Claymont.

'HOMETOWN' ZONING APPROVED: The 'Hometown Overlay' ordinance was unanimously enacted by County Council on Mar. 23. The new law enables selected communities to have redevelopment plans given the force of law and to administer them through design review committees. Beverly Baxter, executive director of the Committee of 100, a development business organization, said last-minute changes giving business interests assured representation on the design committees "made all the difference in the world" in allaying fears that the arrangement would impede development. (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)

CUTTING BACK?: Having set a 50¢-a-page value on its public documents sought under the state's Freedom of Information Act, the Brandywine School District apparently decided to hold the line on their free distribution. Contrary to previous practice, there was not an abundant supply of agenda booklets available to attenders at the most recent school board meeting. Ten minutes before the session began, the stack of 'Part A', with the first 77 pages, was exhausted and only two copies of 'Part B,' with 65 pages remained. There were 22 names on the attendance sheet, most of which belonged to district employees. (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)

PRACTICE, DON'T JUST PREACH: County Council directed its staff and the folks who clean up after them: Bail that paper and tote it to be recycled. In anticipation of the eventual likelihood of mandatory recycling coming to New Castle County and an intention to begin discussion soon of county government's role in that, Council's executive committee on Mar. 16 unanimously agreed that it should get off on the right foot by having its offices in the Redding Building should set an example. It did so with the hopes that will spread.

Council president Christopher Coons, who chairs the committee, said he will bring the matter up the next time county and city officials meet with the idea of getting Wilmington government offices, which share the downtown building, to follow suit. He also will take the message to the county Government Center at the airport. Recycling "takes a little additional time, but it's worth it," said Councilwoman Patty Powell, who said her family does it. Coons said the point was driven home to him when he recently "found an astonishing quantity of County Council paper residing in the trunk of my car."

About 2,500 new subscribers have been added since Delaware took over management of its E-Z Pass system on Dec. 1, 2003. That brings the total to 65,000.

Secretary of Transportation Nathan Hayward said that, despite general recognition of the advantages of being able to pass through toll gates without having to stop, only 41% of drivers using the Delaware Turnpike and 44% of those who travel the Korean War Veterans Highway are using the system. In part, he explained, that is because more distant states are not yet in the network, but participation is spreading to the Midwest and South. Usage is up from 27% in 2001, but commercial vehicles, oddly enough, are grossly underrepresented, he said. The goal is to boost usage to 75%.

Delaware dropped out of a New Jersey-based consortium in large measure because of customer-service complaints. It has turned that around, Hayward said, through use of a telephone line manned around the clock with a current average waiting time of seven seconds. Toll discounts for E-Z Pass users -- $1.25 instead of $2 on the turnpike and 85¢ instead of $1 at both barriers on Delaware Route 1 -- will remain for the foreseeable future, he said. No toll collector jobs have been eliminated, but "we're handling increased volume with the same number of people," he added.

The new arrangement is attracting attention from other jurisdictions, opening the possibility that Delaware may establish a consortium of its own, but "not until I'm absolutely certain we have ours perfected to the Nth degree," Hayward said.

You wouldn't believe that signs on every light standard in the 800 block of Market Street in downtown Wilmington read, "No parking at any time." Nor that the sign at the end of the block restricts access to commercial vehicles making deliveries. At any time on any day, there are plenty of sign ignorers with nary a meter maid in sight. And it's all free parking.

RESTRAINT URGED: Projected increases in state revenue "are no pot of gold," according to Secretary of Finance David Singleton who jointed with budget director Jennifer Davis in urging the General Assembly to go easy on spending the additional money. "There is reason to be cautious," Davis said after the Delaware Economic & Financial Advisory Council formally approved its updated forecast on Mar. 15. Referring to an announced Republican plan to cut some taxes, in particular the gross receipts tax, Singleton declared, "This is no time for [any] tax cut."

The advisory council reported that upward adjustments this fiscal year have totaled $298.3 million, including the effects of a restructuring of some key revenue streams. Davis, on the other hand, said pending legislation to set aside some money to meet anticipated adverse impacts of such things as Pennsylvania and Maryland establishing slot-machine gambling establishments and anticipated reductions by the Du Pont company in April affecting jobs in the state, will actually result in there being $2 million less revenue in the fiscal year beginning July 1. (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)

County Executive Tom Gordon said he has not given up the idea of using condemnation power to either force redevelopment of Merchants Square or turn it into a park.

In an informal 'state of the county' talk before the Council of Civic Organizations of Brandywine Hundred on Mar. 11, he said that the state has the authority to take private property for park use and, without being specific about strategy, indicated that his administration would seek to broaden its ability in that direction. Under a legal concept known as eminent domain, governments can force an unwilling owner to give up land in return for 'fair compensation' determined by a court in order to accomplish a public purpose.

"Twenty years is too long to be patient," said state representative David Ennis. who has been engaged for at least that long in trying to revive the mostly idle shopping center on Governor Printz Boulevard. Without mentioning the center's owner, developer Frank Acierno by name, Ennis said officials of the center recently rousted vehicles belonging to workers building the Bank One processing center nearby from the parking. "There was certainly plenty of open space there," he said sarcastically. State Police Capt. Dennis Doubet denied that troopers actually issued parking tags in the incident.

"We're not dropping it," Gordon replied when asked if a previous promise to force action at the center still holds.

THEY'RE TENACIOUS TOO: Claiming that is is "still not too late," the areawide civic group called for an effort to persuade state lawmakers to override Governor Ruth Ann Minner's veto of legislation that would repeal the expansion of County Council from seven to 13 members with the November election. Gordon said the additional Council members "will not provide better service or better government." On the contrary, he added, their arrival is going to provide an impetus for such things as increased public spending. "You're going to see the budget take off," he predicted.

WELCOME ACCOMMODATION: Council Robert Weiner announced that a 'boundless playground' will be a feature of the planned recreation area in Alapocas Run State Park at Blue Ball. Some 70% of the play equipment there will be designed in a way for it to be used by children whom Weiner said "usually get forgotten when playgrounds are built" -- those who are confined to wheelchairs. He said there are about 8,000 of them in northern Delaware. They and their care-givers will have an opportunity to actively participate in designing the park, he added.

CLOUTIER STATUE FINISHED: Sculptor Charles Parks has completed a somewhat larger-than-life statue memorializing Philip Cloutier and sufficient private contributions are in hand to pay for it. Ernie Cragg, a long-time friend of the late County Council president and state representative, said it will be installed inside the Brandywine Branch library and formally dedicated in April. A relaxed Cloutier is depicted reading a work by 13th Century theologian Thomas Aquinas. There is actual text, albeit in English, not the Latin Aquinas used. The library area in Talley-Day Park is known as Cloutier Complex.

New Castle County government on Mar. 10 sold $100 million worth of bonds at what chief financial officer Ronald Morrison described as the most favorable rate in 40 to 45 years.

The bonds, which will be resold in a $5,000 denomination and redeemed serially over the next 20 years, will pay interest ranging between 1.5% and 5%. For most investors, that is tax-free income. The county's effective annual interest cost is equivalent to a 3.24% annual rate over the life of the bonds. Morris said that, because the sale was negotiated with the selected underwriter, First Albany Capital Inc., the transaction was delayed for two weeks as rates in the municipals market declined. That, he said, reduced total debt service cost by $3.7 million. The bonds will be sold mostly to institutional investors.

Of the total issue, $70 million is new debt to finance capital projects and $30 million will go to refinance old debt carrying higher rates. That will reduce debt service costs by $1.6 million. A law against calling bonds before maturity more than once, prevented the amount of the refinancing and the savings from being even greater. Morris pointed out that the ability to score the fiscal equivalent of a grand-slam home run in baseball was the result of the bonds receiving top-of-the-line triple-A designations from major Wall Street rating firms, largely based on the county's financial health.

Ever wonder why, at a time when the public is being shielded from all sorts of perceived dangers, it is still permissible to have parking lots in which pedestrians don't even have as much as striped walking lanes to separate them from traffic?