Memos at Random


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

AUDITOR TARGETED: Councilwoman Karen Venezky has circulated a memorandum among her colleagues reportedly criticizing county auditor Robert Hicks's performance of his duties in what some think is an effort to have him fired. Councilman Penrose Hollins said the matter will be discussed at the next meeting of Council's personnel committee, which he chairs. "This has been going on for some time. [It is] an attempt to undermine him," Hollins said. "There is a full-court press to get rid of Hicks," according to Councilman Robert Weiner.

Council president Christopher Coons said he is unaware of any movement to have Hicks fired. However, Coons added, "I will stand up for his right to a fair hearing and full review of any allegations against him in the event such a move to relieve him is made by others members of Council." He went on to say that Hicks "has upset powerful people in the current county administration." Coons noted that Council has just established an audit committee and said that would be the place to raise questions about Hicks's performance. Neither Hicks nor Venezky responded to Delaforum requests for comment. (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)

ROAD TO BECOME A BIT BRIGHTER: A Delaware Department of Transportation contractor will install reflective pavement markers on the center line of the Korean War Veterans Memorial Highway during the week of Aug. 29. It will be the first use of the devices, which increase safety by emitting a glow when caught by vehicle headlights. David A. Bramble Inc. will put them in on the State Route 1 toll road between the toll plazas south of St. Georges and east of Dover. The will be done at night to minimize traffic disruption and is scheduled for completion on Sept. 3. (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)

Governor Ruth Ann Minner has reconvened the taskforce she appointed to review Wilmington city government's financial needs and recommend new revenue sources.

Kate Bailey, the governor's acting press secretary, told Delaforum that the panel will begin meeting again after Labor Day with an intent to come up with a report by the time the next General Assembly begins in January. State legislation would likely be necessary to implement anything the taskforce recommends. In response to the taskforce's initial recommendations, the Assembly in 2003 enacted measures which resulted in the city's taking in an additional $3 million this year, Bailey pointed out. City officials have said that was welcome, but insufficient to meet long-term needs.

Bailey said that Scott Green and Fred Sears, co-chairs of the taskforce, met during the week of Aug. 16 with representatives of state and city governments "to outline a path forward ." During extensive discussion of a $15 million New Castle County grant to the city on Aug. 24, there were several comments regarding the taskforce, but neither William Montgomery, Mayor James Baker's chief of staff, City Council president Ted Blunt nor Council finance committee chairman Norman Griffiths even hinted that the group was about to re-assemble. (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)

ATTORNEY REQUESTED: County Executive Tom Gordon asked federal court to provide a lawyer to defend him against criminal corruption charges. At a hearing on Aug. 23 he told Judge Kent Jordan that he wants a lawyer, but does not have enough money to pay for one. Until now, Gordon, who was indicted in May by a grand jury on eight felony counts alleging racketeering, mail fraud and wire fraud and has pleaded not guilty, has been speaking for himself in court. "I had an attorney [that] I spent considerable money on," Gordon said. "At this point, it's a financial issue."

Jordan directed Gordon to file a financial disclosure affidavit and to submit supporting data. He will appoint a court-paid lawyer "if it is true ... you can't afford an attorney," he said. The judge cautioned, however, that court policy makes a distinction between not being able to afford representation and its being "financially painful" to hire a lawyer. In any event, he added, it may be difficult to find a local lawyer who does not have a conflict of interest because of having worked for county government. "We may have to go out of the county or even out of the state [to do so]," he said.

REDEVELOPMENT PLANNED: Home Depot has filed an application with the county Department of Land Use to tear down part of the Miller Road Shopping Center and put up a 92,435 square foot store and build a separate 4,000 square foot restaurant. As the result of some long-ago gerrymandering, the 16.4 acre property is in Brandywine Hundred, just outside the Wilmington city limits. City government earlier sought unsuccessfully to annex the property in order to attract a Shop Rite supermarket to locate there. The Home Depot would replace a now-closed variety store.

Construction on the Delaware Art Museum's $25 million expansion is moving ahead toward a completion and reopening now scheduled for March, 2005. An additional 60,000 square feet of gallery and education space is being built and the building's existing 40,000 square feet is being renovated. There will also be sculpture garden on the 11 acre property in the Kentmere section of west Wilmington. The museum has been in temporary quarters at the Riverfront Art Center.

HEARING POSTPONED: The first of two public hearings on the Brandywine School District's proposed plan for renovating and possibly closing schools, originally scheduled for Aug. 24, has been postponed. Superintendent Bruce Harter said difficulty in obtaining demographic information concerning how attendance zones would be realigned if a closure plan is adopted caused the delay. It is uncertain how that will affect the school board's ability to meet an October deadline for presenting the plan it chooses to the state Department of Education in order to hold a bond referendum on spring, 2005. (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)

It is hard to tell whether the resident of this property on Harvey Road in Arden can't make up his mind about which candidates to support or if he's a believer in equal exposure for everybody who's running. Either way, it's doubtful if his mélange of lawn signs will do much for promoting name recognition for any of them.

FINAL TRIBUTE: Ten days after giving the keynote speech at the formal unveiling of a statue of Philip Cloutier at the Brandywine Hundred branch library on Aug. 7, civic activist Ernest Cragg died suddenly and unexpectedly. Helping to obtain financing for the statue memorializing his friend and associate was Cragg's final project. In his talk at the ceremony, he explained why that was so important to him. As something of a memorial to that dedication, Delaforum is providing the text of Cragg's talk. It can be accessed by clicking here. (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)

We can't help but wonder why folks hereabout insist on telling people that they live in or near Wil-ming-TIN.

Daniel Harkins found a major gap in this year's anniversary observances of the Brown vs. Board of Education decision: Claymont High was barely -- and often not even -- mentioned.

Given the media penchant for focusing, then as now, on the 'negative', he isn't surprised. "There was no disruption here. It was accomplished with cooperation by all the parties," he said. "Claymont made the moral choice to do the right thing." But he wasn't about to let it rest there. With backing from the Delaware Heritage Commission he has organized a day-long symposium to focus on 'First school -- first state -- first to integrate'. Claymont High, of which Harkins is an alumnus, was the first and only school involved in the historic racial integration cases to voluntarily admit black students.

If that is something of a footnote in the history books, he isn't about to have the symposium be a footnote to the 50th anniversary. Sept. 5 is the 52nd anniversary of Claymont High integration; its first black graduate received a diploma just two months after the Supreme Court ruling. Jack Greenberg, of Columbia University, the last of the lawyers who argued the Brown cases, will be keynote speaker. There will be panel of students who were involved who'll tell it like it was. The intent, Harkins said, "is to make people aware of the respectful and dignified manner by which integration was achieved in Claymont." (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)

The symposium, open to the public without charge, will be Sept. 18, beginning at 12:30 p.m. in the auditorium of Claymont Intermediate School, which now shares the former Claymont High campus.

ADVISORS SOUGHT: With County Council approval of 'hometown' zoning ordinances in October considered certain, the Claymont Renaissance steering committee has begun an effort to find candidates to serve on the community Design Review Advisory Committee, which will review future development and redevelopment plans. County planner Josh Mastrangelo told a Renaissance meeting on Aug. 19 that the Department of Land Use will "look to the [advisory] committee for guidance" while retaining final approval authority over the proposed projects. Committee members will not be paid.

He said nominations of Claymont residents to serve on the advisory committee should be submitted to County Executive Tom Gordon for appointment, either through Mastranegelo or County Councilman Robert Weiner, by early October. Weiner told the meeting that he hopes most of the advisory committee members, who probably will total nine, will come from the ranks of those involved in Renaissance planning during the past four years. Brett Saddler, president of the Claymont Business Owners Association, emphasized, hoever, that the invitation to nominate or serve "should go out to everyone." (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)

During World War Two a siren atop the Nemours Building stood ready to warn of an impending air raid. A technologically advanced descendant is soon to go on duty.

"Since 9-11, it became clear to us that we needed the ability to warn and instruct citizens through a notification system that could complement the normal means of communications," Wilmington Mayor James Baker said in a press statement announcing plans to place wide-range speakers on 55-foot-high poles at 13 locations in the city. In the event of an emergency -- man-caused or natural -- they will broadcast a distinct tone and, if desired, oral messages. Receivers also will be available for installation in buildings where external warnings can't be heard.

Financed by a $360,000 federal grant secured by the police department with the help of U.S. Senator Joseph Biden, the system will be run from the city's '9-1-1' telephone center, its emergency operations center or a mobile police command unit. The alerts can be directed to specific areas or to the entire 10.6-square-mile city. Additional outdoor speakers will be placed at other locations, particularly downtown, if that is deemed necessary, according to the statement. The system is expected to be installed and operational by January, 2005.

It will be tested periodically, but, unlike 'Wailing Willy' of 60 years ago, the tests will be inaudible -- and it won't be necessary to douse the lights or pull down the blackout shades.

The New Castle County Planning Board will likely be holding public hearings more than once a month, but the sessions will be shorter.

Reacting to a recent hearing which went on until about 1 a.m., the board on Aug. 17 voted to limit spokespersons from civic associations to the same five minutes that individuals who testify are allotted. Applicants will still have 15 minutes in which to make their case. But the real 'reform' will be made administratively by limiting the number of items on each hearing agenda. "In the future we will schedule so the error is on the too-short side and not on the too-long side," said chairman Victor Singer. That, he added, will be preferable to recessing "before everything is done and tell[ing] people to come back."

Cutting down on the amount of time that civic leaders will be allowed to speak in favor of, or more frequently in opposition to, proposals before the board is not without some risk from the public perception viewpoint. Arthur Wilson attempted to compromise by proposing that officers of area-wide 'umbrella' civic associations be allowed 10 minutes at the podium, but that idea came out on the short end of a 5-to-2 vote. Rather than try to sort out who is speaking on behalf of whom, Singer said any civic association worth its salt should be able to divvy up its argument among more than one presenter.