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INITIATIVES

As County residents and employees have made so clear to Council members and me in our Listening Campaign and Open Door sessions, the services New Castle County provides are crucial in maintaining and improving our quality of life. That’s why our fiscal year 2006 budget includes a few modest, new initiatives that focus on:

• supporting emergency personnel,

• preserving open space,

• improving the quality of our communities, and

• building strong foundations for young people.

SUPPORTING EMERGENCY PERSONNEL

Hometown Heroes Homebuying Program ($200,000 reallocated)

One consistent problem we have with all three emergency services is recruitment and retention. There is a persistent shortage of paramedics and volunteer firefighters, and we must strengthen and diversify our police recruiting as well. That’s why the Hometown Heroes Homebuying Program is so important to New Castle County. Citizens Bank, JP Morgan Chase, WFS and Wilmington Trust have agreed to work with the County to support the Hometown Heroes program to offer no-interest down payment and settlement help for our county police officers, paramedics and firefighters to purchase homes anywhere in New Castle County. We expect to assist more than 60 emergency personnel this year to own homes in our community, which is an investment in stronger and safer neighborhoods.

Emergency Services Corps ($300,000 from the county; $300,000 from AmeriCorps – pending grant approval expected mid-July)

Another initiative that will address the ongoing staffing shortages in emergency personnel for the County is the Emergency Services Corps. As our population grows and our communities change, we need to attract a larger and more diverse group of people to become firefighters and paramedics.

Through the Emergency Services Corps, we are recruiting 20 young people to become volunteer firefighters and to train with our paramedics. We are working with the chiefs of our 21 volunteer fire companies and hope to partner with AmeriCorps. These young volunteers will run volunteer recruitment and community outreach programs that we hope will net more than 100 new volunteer firefighters each year, as well as qualified new recruits for our paramedic academy. This investment will buy us committed and well-trained firefighters and paramedics for years to come.

This program is pending final approval of an AmeriCorps grant, but we are recruiting now so we can be up and running in September. For more information, please contact Paula Marsilii at (302) 395-5285.

ENCOURAGING SMART GROWTH

Redevelopment Office ($407,755 including one full-time employee)

The Redevelopment Office is the core of an innovative way to preserve open space in New Castle County: supporting the redevelopment of existing properties, rather than the development of open space and farmlands. The point is simply to encourage and guide developers to use the land that’s already been developed and abandoned, and leave open space open as much as possible. The County can play a vital role in this effort by planning, lining up funding, coordinating acquisitions and clean-ups, and marketing to redevelopers. This is the work of the new Redevelopment Office.

We are advertising now for a director and expect to have the office up and running later this summer. In the meantime, we are beginning to market properties for redevelopment through ongoing discussion with business leaders, an article in the County Chamber’s Images magazine (coming out in September) and promotion at the international biotechnology conference BIO2005.

Buy From Your Neighbor ($75,000)

This is a simple step that can take us a long way in our work to preserve some of the 350 working farms that remain in our county. In this initiative, the County is partnering with the state Department of Agriculture, the Farm Bureau and UD Ag Extension, as well as with local grocery stores, restaurants and caterers, to encourage all of us to buy local, New Castle County grown agricultural products. Why ship our meats and vegetables thousands of miles from California or Chile, when we could bring them in fresh from Middletown or Townsend instead, while encouraging local farming at the same time? If we want to preserve our local farmlands, we must preserve local farming by making it profitable.
 

IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF OUR COMMUNITIES

Problem Properties Task Force ($450,000 reallocated plus one position; $200,000 is for FY05, $250,000 is for FY06)

The Problem Properties Task Force is tackling the numerous abandoned and severely neglected properties that exist throughout the County. We want the owners to clean them up or sell them to someone who will. In some cases, when owners either can’t be found or decide they don’t want to deal with those properties anymore, the Task Force will work to have them transferred to nonprofit organizations like Habitat for Humanity, Interfaith Housing, Cornerstone West and others who can turn them into affordable housing for people who need homes and will care for them properly.

To start, we’ve identified 25 high-priority properties, and we are focusing on bringing these properties into compliance – or getting them demolished. Already, our efforts have resulted in action on three of those 25 properties, which have been repossessed or transferred to other owners and brought into compliance.

With determination and commitment, we can eliminate these eyesores and drug havens from our neighborhoods, increase neighborhood property values and restore the sense of community New Castle County residents deserve.

Rental Housing Code ($200,000)

We are also working to make a significant impact in our communities by strengthening the standards for rental properties. Through the stronger rental housing code, we can clarify the roles and responsibilities of tenants and property owners. Among the steps, we will offer a free tenants brochure. The money allocated for this program will cover staff to handle registering all 35,000 properties and to handle the increased tenant-driven inspections. The stronger Rental Housing Code will result in stronger communities, better-maintained properties and, ultimately, increased property values. This item is scheduled to come up for a vote by Council at the next Council meeting.
 

BUILDING STRONG FOUNDATIONS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

Summer Youth Programs ($135,000)

New Castle County has more than 200 county parks, and many of them are small parks in working class neighborhoods that badly need positive programs for youth in the summer. In partnership with established, proven community centers, we are offering full-week summer youth programs. These free programs give young people structured activities in their own communities. These programs are serving as a pilot program, and we hope we can expand in the future.

Library Outreach ($60,000 including one-half position)

Through a series of outreach programs, we are working to improve the outreach of our county library system. We are working with the Family & Workplace Connection to provide books and other resources to small, in-home daycare centers, enabling these childcare providers to create literacy-rich environments for our youngest residents. We also are working to improve our ability to provide books to shut-in seniors. County libraries also can be great assets for small and start-up businesses, and we plan to provide staff and other resources so that our libraries can further support such endeavors.