The Brandywine school board approved a property tax rate for the coming fiscal year that is 12.2% higher than this year's, but deferred taking action on a preliminary fiscal 2006 budget.

Financial officer David Blowman told the board on Jun. 27 that the increase to $1.4365 for each $100 of assessed value from $1.2805 will yield an additional $5 million in revenue. Most of that will go to pay for security measures, improved maintenance, higher energy costs and improvements to athletic facilities. The temporary 12¢ tax rate increase was approved at the May referendum. Another 1.6¢ is for added debt-service cost and 2¢ is to meet increased tuition bills for Brandywine students attending special schools in other districts, principally Christina. School taxes are due on or before Sept. 30.

Postponing consideration of the budget will give the district's finance committee an opportunity to review it after the close of the present fiscal year on June 30, Blowman said. Although the actual proposal may be modified somewhat, a preliminary draft presented to the board indicates that the spending plan will be in the neighborhood of $114.9 million. That would be an 11.4% increase over the present budget. Most of that growth would be in salaries and other employment costs, by far the largest spending category. Allocations for facilities and support services also would rise. (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)

Responding to a suggestion by board member Craig Gilbert, superintendent Bruce Harter said an advisory committee will be reconvened this autumn to consider a new round of cost-containment measures.

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MORE PERSONNEL MONEY NEEDED: County Council on Jun. 28 is expected to allocate an additional $475,000 to cover shortfalls in meeting retirement, overtime and employee benefit costs. Fiscal notes in the proposed ordinance explain that there has been a larger-than-usual number of retirements, boosting severance pay this fiscal year to $1.8 million from $1 million in fiscal 2004. Police overtime as the result of investigating five homicides also contributed to the gap. Increases in the number of claims for medical benefits produced $225,000 of the total shortfall.

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County Council recently approved what County Executive Christopher Coons refers to as a scaled back set of initiatives. CLICK HERE to read what they are and the arrangement for their financing.

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TOPPED OUT:

Mayor James Baker (center photo) and other public officials joined with Buccini Pollin Group management in commending construction workers for having reached the highest point in the building of a 23-story apartment along the Christina River just south of downtown Wilmington. The traditional celebration was held on Jun. 24 in the upper reaches of the tower. The 173-unit structure is scheduled to open by the end of the year. Also in the residential complex to be known as Christina Landing will be 63 townhouses and a 25 story condominium building.

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The Recycling Public Advisory Council, as expected, endorsed proposed legislation authorizing counties and municipalities to set up non-mandatory recycling programs.

"It's not what anyone of us would sit down and write ourselves. But it's the best compromise for the state of Delaware," said council chairman Paul Wilkinson before six of the nine members on the panel voted on Jun. 22 in favor of supporting the latest version of a bill drafted in the governor's office which will be introduced into the General Assembly by Senator David McBride. There is no chance that it can be enacted before the Assembly's first session is adjourned on Jun. 30. Steve Masterson, of Waste Management, a trash-hauling firm, abstained from the council's vote.

Compromise continued until the last minute. A provision in the bill authorizing creation of recycling districts for which a single hauler would be franchised was dropped and an absolute prohibition against the Delaware Solid Waste Authority's charging a fee to accept recyclable material was softened. Nothing was changed in the way of providing more liberal state financial aid to assist municipalities meet start-up costs, however. Pasquale Canzano, of the waste authority, voted in favor of the endorsement. George Wright, of the League of Local Governments, did not attend the meeting. (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)

If the legislation is enacted, a ban on the waste authority accepting lawn waste would go into effect on Jan. 1, 2007.

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NOT VERY OPEN ABOUT IT: The state Department of Natural Resources & Environmental Control displays a sign in front of its office on Lukens Drive near New Castle advising folks who come to attend public meetings there to park in the rear of the building and use the back door. A sign on that door identifies it as the correct entrance to access the public meeting room. Problem is the door is kept locked. The only way to get it opened is to attract the attention of someone inside the building by rapping loudly on the glass panel in the door.

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Focus at Rockwood Park has shifted from its being primarily the setting for a Victorian-age museum to being marketed as a 'family fun' venue.

Manager Ann Hampton told County Council's community services committee that the intent during the coming fiscal year is to increase the number of visitors by 50% while bringing in revenue to help support staffing and maintaining the facility. She unveiled a fee schedule, which will go into effect July 1, ranging from $20 for a private group to rent a small room in the mansion for a weekday evening to $3,500 for exclusive use of the mansion and visitors center for a full day or over a weekend. Thematic tours conducted by either staff members or volunteers will cost between $10 and $20.

She said about 14,500 visitors are expected to have used the park before this fiscal year ends on June 30. That would be up from 10,000 in fiscal 2004. She did not specify how much it will have cost to operate during the year, but county officials have previously said the sum is large. During a presentation on Jun. 21 she said general public use of Rockwood will remain free and that popular events such as the ice cream festival and Christmas season lighting will continue. Now under study, she said, is an arrangement to allow consumption of alcoholic beverages at catered private affairs such as wedding receptions.

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WHERE TO PUT IT?: No one is saying it's too much of a good thing, but the county police force has had "to rent a few trailers" to store all the anti-terror equipment that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is sending its way. That is after as much as possible has been put into the trunks of patrol cars. William Dill, police finance officer, told a recent County Council public safety committee meeting that there is not enough storage space in the headquarters at Minquadale to handle all the stuff. When the new public safety building is finished that should be remedied, he said.

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NO DAWDLING: Who said politicians can't move quickly when the issue calls for it? It took literally less than a minute for Council's executive committee on Jun. 20 to receive a motion, second it, and voice vote approval. The question before the 11 members who attended the meeting was  whether to take off for the month of August. It's not that the members can't take the heat. Council traditionally calls a dog-days recess, but gave up half of its vacation in 2004 to be on hand should action of some sort be required in light of the then-recent indictment of the county executive and chief administrative officer.

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An issue beyond its jurisdiction -- but not outside its members' range of interest -- turned out to be the most divisive that Council Council has dealt with since its expansion last year.

After heated debate, 12 members split three ways, to defeat a resolution sponsored by Councilwoman Patty Powell that would have called upon the General Assembly to enact a controversial measure to prohibit residential development anywhere that the ground held more six parts per million of arsenic. Powell, Penrose Hollins, Jea Street and David Tackett voted in favor; Council president Paul Clark, George Smiley, William Tansey and Karen Venezky voted 'no'. The issue actually was decided by John Cartier, Joseph Reda, Timothy Sheldon and Robert Weiner who abstained. William Bell was absent.

Powell said that "as elected officials, it is our job to do our utmost to protect our residents." She said that Senator David Sokola's pending bill would do just that. Clark argued at the Jun. 14 session that it would be ill-advised for either Council or the Assembly to arbitrarily impose a restrictive standard before the state Department of Natural Resources & Environmental Control completes a study to come up with a scientifically-supported standard. Sheldon urged Council to back off because taking a stand might alienate legislators and sway their votes on legislation directly affecting county government.

Martha Dennison, of the Civic League for New Castle County, testified in support of Powell's resolution while Jeffrey Bross, of the pro-development Committee of 100, opposed it.

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Cameras at Concord Pike and Naamans Road have caught what transportation secretary Nathan Hayward called "an unbelievable number" of drivers running red lights.

As of the last count, just under $53,000 in fines have been collected from more than 600 violators there. But, according to Delaware Department of Transportation spokesman Michael Williams, that is just something over half the number who were caught in the act. Another 700 vehicle owners signed affidavits claiming that someone else was driving. Even if you believe them, he said, the law provides that the registered owner is responsible for paying the $75 fine no matter who was actually driving. If the owners don't cough up the money, they will be flagged when they next go to renew their registration.

So far, the busy north Brandywine Hundred intersection is the leading all camera locations in the state, Hayward said. The sophisticated equipment is beginning to pay for itself even though it is intended to improve safety at places with high accident counts rather than as revenue generators, he said. DelDOT will press for authorization to expand the program. Two cameras at Concord and Naamans went into operation on Jan. 21. They monitor traffic turning left onto the pike from westbound Naamans and going north on Concord through the intersection.

Statewide, 22,477 citations were issued through Jun. 8 for violations recorded at the 20 intersections which are being monitored.

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NOT ANOTHER ONE: Residents of the Paladin Club are nonplused about yet another postponement by the Board of Adjustment of a hearing on the appeal by Edgewood Village l.l.c. of a Department of Land Use order to rebuild an historic wall it had partly destroyed. "The whole process is beginning to take on an awful smell ... [a] smell like the politics of old," said Jim Jones, president of Friends of Paladin, a civic group which is pressing to have the wall restored. That seems more so, he added, because the new hearing date, Jul. 7, is during the week of the Independence Day holiday "when many people are away."

The latest postponement, the third, was "due to a scheduling conflict," according to Vince Kowall, assistant land use administrator. In response to a Delaforum inquiry concerning apparently conflicting schedule information advertised in Brandywine Community News, he said the weekly newspaper's deadline had passed before "we learned of the continuance." The News Journal ad listed the continuance as a separate item, but he blamed an "oversight" for the case also being listed in the agenda for the Jun. 23 hearing included in the same advertisement. (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)

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