Memos at Random


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

CUTS MAY BE RESTORED: Delaware Department of Transportation officials expect to be able to come up with financing for the department's entire fiscal 2006 capital program. "There is belief that the seemingly increased federal dollars will complement the state-side share enough to bridge the gap," spokesman Michael Williams said in response to a Delaforum inquiry. Wilmington Area Planning Council, which questioned the basis for cuts in DelDOT's initial plan, has withheld support for a pared-down version. Williams said the department "hopes to iron out [that] issue" in time to meet the federal financing deadline. (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)

FINANCING SOUGHT: County Council has been asked to provide $614,721 in start-up money to launch two of County Executive Christopher Coons's initiatives. One of two resolutions expected to be voted upon on Jun. 14 would close out the housing development revolving loan pool to provide $414,721 to finance the 'problem properties' program. The other would move $200,000 from the fund to assist first-time homebuyers to the new 'hometown heroes' fund to assist emergency response personnel buy homes. Both of the funds from which the money is coming are self-renewing through repayment of previous loans.

CONFIRMATION: It should come as no surprise to anyone who's been out on the highway lately, but a survey by G.M.A.C. Insurance found that Delaware is home to a lot of dumb drivers. The state ranked 35th -- tied with Kentucky and Mississippi -- in average score on a test on the rules of the road given nationally to 5,000 licensed drivers. General driving habits also were surveyed. Not to feel too bad, though. We outscored Pennsylvania (38th), Maryland and New York (tied for 44th) and, of course, New Jersey (47th). Rhode Island had the worst average score; Oregon the best. One out of 10 people who took the test failed it.

Brandywine School District voters gave virtually unqualified endorsement to the school board and administration by overwhelming approving the final phase of its building renovations plan.

"This is one great community," exclaimed board president Nancy Doorey as she and other officials and supporters watched a decisive victory unfold as referendum votes were counted. The totals showed better

which approved the second phase of the three-phase plan. It will provide the district with all up-to-date facilities when completed in 2012. Planning is to get underway during the coming fiscal and academic year, while the second phase is being completed with renovations to Talley Middle and Lombardy Elementary. First project in the third phase will be complete renovation of P.S. du Pont Intermediate in fiscal 2007. (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)

AWAY WITH THE PILE: Common Cause of Delaware will seek a General Assembly resolution calling on the Department of Natural Resources & Environmental Control to 'do its duty' and compel the Du Pont Co. to remove, rather than cover, 500 tons of contaminated waste stored near its Edgemoor plant. Lobbyist John Flaherty said that the department is ignoring existing law by not doing so. "If this had happened anywhere else and it was not Du Pont, [the department] would have required it to be moved long ago, he said at a media briefing on May 24.

Ellen Lebowitz, of Green Delaware, said that a pending resolution sponsored by Representative Diana McWilliams calling for the department to arrange for an independent study of the material financed by the company was a "mechanism for further delay." Steve Tindell, president of the Cragmere Civic Association, said the department "already knows what's there -- an illegal landfill on the banks of the Delaware [River] ... in the midst of a populated area." Flaherty said Common Cause has not yet lined up a sponsor for what it calls a "people's resolution." (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)

County Council unanimously called upon the Pentagon to keep the National Guard base at the county airport and not transfer its complement of C-130 aircraft to units in other states.

The proposal recommended by the federal Base Realignment and Closure Committee would effectively destroy the air component of the state's militia, according to Adjutant General Frank Vavala. It would "take the air out of the Delaware Air National Guard," he testified before the resolution sponsored by Councilman William Tansey, a retired Guard officer, was approved unanimously on May 24. Vavala said the move, termed a 'realignment' by the committee, actually would be a 'closure' and have a "significant impact" on the county and the state. Communities around the nation are similarly seeking reconsideration of the plans.

In this case, the move would result in the loss of 47 full-time military and 101 civilian jobs as well as 485 part-time Guard slots. Transfer of the firefighting unit to Dover Air Base would put an added burden on area volunteer fire companies. A variety of businesses which supply goods and services to both the base and its personnel would suffer. The preamble to the resolution put the overall loss to the county economy at more than $28.7 million annually. Councilman John Cartier said the resolution represented the type of action Council should take on issues which fall outside its jurisdiction but which affect the county.

Twenty of 30 New Castle County employees serving active military duty related to the Iraq War are from the police department. All the employees were recognized for their "great character and bravery" in a separate Council resolution.

SCHOOL EXPANSION: Spanish Gardens Pre-school has filed a plan with the Department of Land Use calling for erection of a 999-square foot addition to an existing garage on a property at the intersection of Barley Mill and Montchanin Roads on the approach to the Tyler McConnell Bridge. Becky Laster said the school, which now operates a bilingual pre-school and kindergarten in Westminster Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, wants to expand into an elementary school. If the expansion is approved, it will be able to acquire the property, which also contains a house, and obtain bank financing, she said.

County Executive Coons ordered a top-to-bottom review looking toward revisions to the county's capital spending plans and more public participation in the decision-making process.

Announced in a press statement on the eve of County Council's expected enactment of an ordinance authorizing a $58.6 million capital budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, it was not immediately clear what, if any, immediate impact the executive order will have on that proposal. The ordinance would authorize borrowing $16.1 million through the sale of long-term bonds to partly finance the budget. Included in that plan are about 50 projects. More than two-thirds of the authorization would cover improvements to and expansion of the sanitary sewer system.

According to the statement, distributed on May 23, a committee headed by chief financial office Michael Strine and consisting of administration officials and Council members will review all active projects and those in the long-range capital program. There has not been any review for more than 10 years and some $200 million worth of authorized projects have not been begun, the statement said. The order also calls for holding public hearings on all budgeted and programmed projects. The statement does not make clear whether that would apply to previously approved ones which survive the review.

AS ORDERED: Wilmington will again commemorate Memorial Day on Memorial Day -- as it has done annually since so ordered by Gen. John Logan, commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, three years after the end of the Civil War. For several years, the last Monday in May has been designated to pay tribute to the dead in all wars. It just happens to fall on May 30, the traditional date, this year. Many places even choose other days to avoid interfering with what has become a federal and state holiday inaugurating the summer vacation season. (The Wilmington parade on Delaware Avenue will step off at 6 p.m. and end with memorial services at the Soldiers & Sailors Monument at Broom Street.)

CAMERA WORK: Delaware Department of Transportation plans to have all 20 authorized 'red light' cameras installed by June and operational soon afterwards. At present 11 are functioning at selected intersections throughout the state. The cameras videotape vehicles that violate the traffic signal law. Owners of the vehicles are subject to $75 fines. There are working cameras at Naamans Road and Concord Pike, two in Newark and one in Elsmere. Others will be at various intersections along Pulaski Highway, Kirkwood Highway and Du Pont Parkway.

COMPROMISE: Caught in a dilemma between suburbanites who don't like large vehicles cluttering their developments and residents of rural areas in the southern reaches of the county who say that shouldn't bother their more distant neighbors, the Department of Land Use has drawn the line at two acres. Applying different rules based on property size apparently clears the way for Council to enact an extensive revision of the property code which has been pending for a year. But Councilwoman Patty Powell said she won't lift the ordinance off the parliamentary table until her colleagues are all on the same page.

Assistant general manager James Smith told Powell's land use committee on May 17 that a fourth revision of the proposed law was worked out in behind-the-scenes discussions with the Council of Civic Organizations of Brandywine Hundred. The revised code, he said, will allow residents of the smaller properties to park either a large recreational vehicle or a boat trailer, but not both, in a rear or side yard but not on the street or in their driveways. Other code changes will require all backyard swimming pools to be brought into line with fencing standards and require all parked vehicles to be operable and licensed.