Memos at Random


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

Wilmington government is looking at both sides of the coin in an effort to deal with rainfall. It proposes parallel plans for times when there is too little and when there is too much.

While state and county officials appear to be moving toward setting up a stormwater utility to coordinate and pay for managing excess stormwater, a measure pending before City Council would establish one, primarily to eliminate the spillover that occurs when the combined sanitary and storm sewer system can't handle increased volume. To offset some of the added cost of that, the other measure would encourage water conservation by charging heavy users higher rates. Both are in response to mandates imposed by state and federal laws and regulations.

By combining financing, most of the owners of 21, 000 residential properties served by the city water and sewer systems would end up paying about the same as now while contributing to the new stormwater management arrangement, according to a press statement. The utility would have a tiered fee structure with larger properties, which have more water running off from them, paying at a higher rate. Sewer fees would be lowered for owners of small properties. The statement quotes Kash Srinivasan as saying that would put the combined fees on a 'fair-share' basis.

APPOINTMENT AUTHORITY: The state House of Representatives received and immediately passed a measure to restore the New Castle County executive's ability to appoint general managers of operating departments. Incumbents would be removed from the job-protected merit system. The measure, sponsored by Representative Wayne Smith, requires approval by the state Senate and Governor Ruth Ann Minner. David Singleton, the county's chief administrative officer, said he did not expect wholesale removal of the present managers by County Executive Christopher Coons.

COLOR CODED: When the seats for Concord High School's renovated auditorium arrived, it was discovered that someone goofed -- they were 'Brandywine blue'. There was nothing else to do but replace them with seats of a hue "more appropriate to the school," according to Craig Gilbert, the school board's liaison with its renovations oversight committee. Concord's predominant school color is maroon. Not to worry, though. The rejects, he said, will be donated to rival Brandywine High, which did not get new auditorium seats when its building was renovated several years ago.

LEGISLATION SOUGHT: The Ethics Commission has asked County Council to enact several ordinances that would strengthen its hand in dealing with alleged violations. One would specifically empower the commission to investigate former officials and employees for up to three years after they leave office or their job. Another would bar anyone who has committed a serious or repeated violations of the code from being appointed to or hired for a county job for 10 years. Interfering with a commission investigation would be made subject to a criminal charge and penalty.

In a letter to Council president Paul Clark, Dennis Clower, chairman of the commission, proposed a new procedure, including ability to level a $10-a-day civil fine, for dealing with candidates for county offices who fail to file timely financial disclosure statements. If Council agrees to amend present law, the commission would have to publish the name of anyone it finds in serious or repeated violation of the code. Confidentiality about matters pending before the commission could be waived if doing so is "in the public interest" without having to go through the rule-making process as is now required.

Brookview has come back to star in Claymont's redevelopment plans provided a prospective purchaser will agree or can be convinced that its future lies with seeking owners, not renters.

"Nobody is going to support anybody who comes in and just wants to make it prettier," said Beverly Baxter, a Claymont Renaissance Development Corp. director. County Councilman "We don't want somebody to go in there and apply Band-Aids to those old buildings," said County Councilman John Cartier. Councilman Robert Weiner told the group at a meeting on Jan. 20 that at least two "major players" specializing in urban turnarounds are among prospects expressing interest in the 66-acre site. It is listed for sale at $31 million by Potomac, Md.-based Ideal Reality Group.

Whoever buys Brookview will be expected to provide middle- and upper-middle-class housing in sufficient quantity to support proposed commercial development along Philadelphia Pike., according to corporation president Bretdt Saddler. Weiner said county government officials "would be amenable to discuss tax incentives" with a prospective developer but also are "discussing our condemnation authority" relative to supporting community economic development. He cautioned against looking askance at "including an 'affordable housing' component" which would mean units selling in the $150,000 range. (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)

MARCHING ORDERS: Charged by Governor Ruth Ann Minner to "recommend a statewide organizational structure to coordinate surface water management strategies," a blue-ribbon taskforce she appointed launched an intensive effort to come up by Apr. 1 with a plan to deal with flooding and other drainage problems. Natural resources secretary John Hughes, who chairs the panel, told an organizational meeting on Jan. 21 that the state drainage code "is ancient and shows its age -- it functions, [but] it functions very slowly."

Drainage program administrator Frank Piorko told the panel that the approach to date has been piecemeal. "The level of development is overwhelming given our 'funding' and program staffing," he said. There were 419 plans considered during 2004 and 1,300 over the past three years. State Senator David McBride said that "it seems like whoever was talking the loudest at [a given] time was in charge." Representative Roger Roy said that "things we put in place aren't working." Hughes said establishing a self-supporting stormwater utility "might be a practical solution to a variety of problems."

You can tell you're in Brandywine Hundred when, in anticipation of a snowstorm, the library shelves are emptied as fast as the supermarket shelves.

Civic League for New Castle County came out in opposition to British Petroleum's bid to construct a pier at a proposed liquefied natural gas terminal in New Jersey opposite Claymont.

A detailed resolution which league directors adopted at a meeting on Jan. 18 calls on the Department of Natural Resources & Environmental Control to deny the company an exemption from the Coastal Zone Act and declare the project ineligible for a permit under the act. The Delaware law applies because the pier would extend into the river. Delaware's eastern boundary is the New Jersey shore. The civic league, which claims to be representative of civic organizations countywide, had previously opposed the project in general terms, but the resolution will be submitted as part of the formal approval process.

David Bailey, its sponsor, said the intent was not to block the terminal but to get the company to locate it in less populous southern New Jersey. That would require building a connecting pipeline and the company "doesn't want to do that because it would cost [it] money," said league president Frances West. Charles Weymouth, the only dissenter from the resolution, argued that it would be shortsighted not to have "the cleanest, safest fuel" readily available to industry in the river valley. Beyond that, he added, "it's time once again to review the intention of the Coastal Zone Act."

West said she doubts Governor Ruth Ann Minner, who has not yet taken a position, will oppose the terminal because, West said, "we still have a number of 'good ol' boys'" beholden to big business influential in state government.

A half-minute Super Bowl television commercial costs $2,4 million. But think of it this way: That's just $80,000 a second.

RECYCLING NO-NOS: It will be against the law to not separate designated recyclable material fromordinary trash if draft legislation presented to Governor Ruth Ann Minner on Jan. 14 is introduced into the General Assembly and enacted. The proposed law also would ban disposing of recyclables "which are marketable or capable of being put to beneficial use." As previously reported, the measure provides for a series of enforcement steps up to charging violators with 'environmental misdemeanors' which are punishable by fines up to $1,000 and 30-day jail sentences. (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)

County Executive Christopher Coons endorsed establishing a stormwater utility as the best way to manage and pay for flood control.

It would resolve conflicting views over whether state or county government has primary responsibility for measures to lessen the danger of flooding, he told a meeting of officers of 'umbrella' civic associations. His comments were the strongest expression of support since the state Department of Natural Resources & Environmental Control put forth the idea several weeks ago. The utilities take many forms around the nation, but the concept is to pay for infrastructure improvements and day-to-day management of drainage systems with fees collected from property owners.

Doing it that way, Coons said, would provide a "dedicated revenue stream" to meet objections from both state and county lawmakers and other officials that neither level of government has enough money to pay for what's needed. Fees would be based on the amount of impervious surface a residential or commercial property has. New Castle County presently finances its sewer system with fees based on water consumption. Without a utility, Coons said, the county will have to undertake "a whole lot of projects [but] in two, three or four years end up in the same situation we are now." (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)

In another matter, Coons told the civic leaders that he will seek to have County Council again consider enacting a rental code. The proposed measure, he said, probably will be the same one which Council rejected last year. (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)

GETTING TO KNOW YOU: County Executive Christopher Coons and Council president Paul Clarkwant to hold public meetings in each of the six new Council districts to introduce residents to county government and to get a feel for their concerns and policy preferences. In addition to Coons and Clark, participants would be the councilman representing the district, the previous member from whose district the new one was split and the general manager of one of the county's departments. The meetings, Coons said, will be held before completing his proposed budget.

"Many of our citizens don't know what county government does," Clark said. Since a majority of Council members are new to the job of legislating, they don't have a sense of community priorities, he added. Coons, who has promised an 'open' administration, said one objective is to change the practice of the Gordon administration during which "a lot of project didn't come out of a public process." Clark said the meetings will contribute to making "good decisions about what the future of New Castle County is going to be."

SOGGY TIMES: Final results are in and it is official: 56.64 inches of precipitation, mostly rain, in the Wilmington area during 2004 washed away the previous record, 54.87", set in 2003. According to data provided by state geologist John Talley, 9.31" that fell in September, 2004, was the most rainfall ever in a single month. Runners up for the annual amounts: 1983, 54.7"; 1979, 53.31"; 1996, 52.36"; 1971, 52.24"; 1958, 51.87"; and 1978, 51.28". Average annual precipitation since 1949 is 41.75". Measurements are taken at Porter Reservoir. (CLICK HERE to read previous Delafourm article.)

LEGAL AID: New Castle County Government paid 21 law firms more than $1.9 million during the fiscal year ended last June 30 and nearly $636,000 so far this fiscal year. A report from acting county attorney Dennis Siebold to County Council members listed Connolly Bove Lodge & Hutz as getting, by far, the most, $903,511. It was followed by Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor, $394,794; Klett Rooney Lieber, $393,663; Sutherland Asbill & Brennan, $192,835; and Saul Ewing L.L.P., $111,573. Siebold said he has been asked by the new administration to prepare an analysis of the use of outside counsel.