Memos at Random


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

Six candidates have filed to run for election to the two seats on the seven-member Brandywine school board being given up by incumbents David Adkins and Thomas Lapinski.

Debra Heffernan, of Edgewood Hills, is seeking Adkins's seat. She is co-founder and co-president of the recently formed Brandywine Special Needs Parent-Teacher Association, was a former co-president of the Bush Early Education Center P.T.A. and 2003 recipient of its 'volunteer of the year' award. She said she is running "to promote educational excellence for all children and to inspire students, parents and teachers to work together." Heffernan works part time as an environmental risk assessment specialist. She and her husband, Pat, have two children in district schools and one in private school.

Michael Procak, of Chalfonte, and his wife, Diana, are members of the Brandywood Elementary P.T.A. and have two daughters in that school. Procak, 38, said he believes the school board should provide an oversight function, concentrating on planning and budget matters and "leave the day-to-day running of our schools to the principals and teachers." Employed as a salesman, he is seeking Lapinski's seat. Filing just before the Mar. 4 deadline were Whittona Burrell, of Seton Villa, and Olivia Johnson-Harris, of Dartmouth Woods. Neither could be reached for biographical information. (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)

Delaforum previously reported the candidacies of Jeanne Best and James Garrity. The election will be held on May 10.

County police will help the Wilmington and Newark forces, but only on an episodic basis and for limited durations, chief David McAllister told County Council's public safety committee.

"Any time another jurisdiction needs assistance, we'll respond. If they call, we'll go," he told County Council's public safety committee. But, he added, commitments to augment Wilmington's response to drug-related shootings and Newark's to serial burglaries are neither open-ended nor as comprehensive as has been reported. His department's primary mission remains law and traffic enforcement in mostly the unincorporated areas outside the cities. It boils down to "offering limited resources when they are available," he said. That translates into "five to 10 officers [participating] in a specific operation."

With "357 authorized positions for 500 square miles ... and [an estimated] 420,000 residents," it requires "a real balancing act" to effectively deploy the county force, he said at a committee meeting on Mar. 1. Including 28 not-yet -fully-trained recent police academy graduates, it has 345 officers on its rolls, but military leaves have cut into that. There were nearly 500,000 calls for service last year and, with more cellular telephones, the number is growing. Only about 10 of 16,000 home security alarms were actually valid. Because of traffic, "time it takes to get from point A to point B has increased dramatically," he said.

Councilman William Bell promised "serious discussion on public safety" while Council is considering the proposed fiscal year 2006 budget.

GRADUATES WHO MADE GOOD: With the start of the Major League Baseball pre-season, fans are

NOT RUNNING: Neither David Adkins nor Thomas Lapinski plan to seek re-election to the Brandywine school board. Both have been on the board for five years. Adkins said that is enough and it is time for someone else to occupy his seat. As Delaforum previously reported, there are two candidates to do so -- Jeanne Best and Debra Heffernan. One candidate, James Garrity, is seeking Lapinski's seat on the seven-member board. Deadline for candidates to file with the Department of Elections for New Castle County is Mar. 4. The election will be held on May 10. (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)

ETHICS RULES MAY BE TIGHTENED: County Councilman Robert Weiner said he will introduce an ordinance to implement the changes in county government's ethics code that were requested by the Ethics Commission. As Delaforum previously reported, the changes would give the commission investigative power involving a former employee for up to three years after he or she leaves the job. Candidates for county office would be fined $10 a day for failure to file a timely financial disclosure statement. Honorariums for speeches and public appearances would have to be disclosed. (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)

REBUTTAL: County Council followed the rules when it held a special meeting to fire auditor RobertHicks, according to Carol Dulin, Council's lawyer. Responding to a Freedom of Information Act complaint by Common Cause of Delaware, she said a meeting notice was posted outside Council's eighth floor Redding Building office 34 hours before the meeting began at 8:45 p.m. on Jan. 25. The law requires at least 24 hours notice. In addition, she said, Council president Paul Clark telephoned selected news media representatives and Common Cause to notify them.

The posted notice, she said, explained that the meeting was needed because of "recent developments since the audit committee meeting of Jan. 20" and that was sufficient explanation why it could not wait long enough to enable providing the standards seven-days notice. A revised agenda saying that "a confidential personnel matter" to be considered at the meeting involved the county auditor was put up nine hours before the meeting, she said. "In short, the special meeting of New Castle County Council was properly called, noticed and conducted," Dulin concluded. (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum story.)

NEW ARRANGEMENT: Each member of County Council will be allotted $15,000 during the coming fiscal year to distribute as he or she sees fit in the form of grants to 'worthy causes' if Council's budget proposal is adopted. That would be similar to the General Assembly's practice of allocating 'streets money' to legislators to be spent at their discretion for various projects in their districts. Until now, Council has acted as a whole on grant requests from nonprofit and charitable agencies, although they usually are sponsored by a member. The contributions line in the current budget is $82,500.

Council's finance committee on Feb. 22 approved a $3,157,910 budget request for fiscal 2006, up 11.4% from $2,833,148 in the current budget, as amended. Council was expanded from seven to 13 members last November. The proposed budget calls for $300,000 for contingencies, up from $200,000 currently. Council's budget request will be considered along with requests from county departments for inclusion in the proposed overall budget County Executive Christopher Coons will submit to Council, which has final say over how much will be allocated.

ENVIRONMENTAL LAW SUPPORTED: County Council urged Congress to back away from any proposal to take away Delaware's authority to regulate industry in its coastal zone along the Delaware River. An effort is being made to transfer jurisdiction to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. That would trump Delaware natural resources secretary's invoking the Coastal Zone Act to deny British Petroleum permission to build a pier at its proposed liquefied natural gas facility opposite Claymont. Council unanimously approved a resolution to that effect, sponsored by Councilman Robert Weiner.

NOTIFICATION LACKING: The Historic Review Board called off a 'special hearing' to consider seeking national historic recognition for Hickmans Row in Claymont. But anyone interested in attending the hearing on Feb. 23 did not learn of the postponement until arriving at the Government Center, some distance from Claymont. A Department of Land Use staff member said notice of the postponement was posted at the entrance to the room where the hearing was to have been held that afternoon. As late as the morning of Feb. 24, it was still listed as going to happen on the department's easy-to-change web site.

Edgewood Village L.l.c. was ordered to restore the section of a stone wall in the Paladin Club condominium complex which it surreptitiously had torn down more than a year ago.

In a letter to Wendy Danner, the firm's lawyer, Charles Baker, general manager of the county Department of Land Use, said he has "concluded that the wall is historic in nature and must be restored in accordance with the [Historic Review] Board's recommendation." He agreed with the board that restoration should be done in a way that the wall "appears as it did originally." No deadline was set for complying with the order. Baker also declared that a pending proposal to build townhouses on the hillside behind the wall be changed to remove destruction of the wall as one of its elements.

The issued has been pending since the board issued a decision early last summer. Residents of the complex had argued that the wall dates back to the early 19th Century and is one of a few surviving remnants of the Sellers family estate. Edgewood Village, an affiliate of Pettinaro Construction, claimed that the wall had no historical significance and that removal of part of it was not unlawful. Jonathan Husband, president of the Fox Point Association, told Delaforum that he believes the firm complied with a directive to keep the original stones (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)

Four or five "major national developers" are in the running to buy the Brookview apartment complex, according to County Councilman Robert Weiner.

He did not identify them and declined to reveal if any had met the $31 million asking price. He said at least one has agreed to a "strategic partnership" with another firm to redevelop the commercial area fronting on Philadelphia Pike. Weiner told the Claymont Design Review Advisory Committee on Feb. 17 that all the proposals call for building "different types of housing styles ... [in a] traditional neighborhood design." They would be sold, not rented. He said Mid-Atlantic A.A.A. is eyeing the potential project as a place for mid-level employees it is moving into the Wilmington area to live.

The committee tabled the first redevelopment proposal to come before it as part of the 'hometown' zoning process after the applicant, Linda Ng, said she is uncertain whether to use the building at 3511 Philadelphia Pike for a Chinese restaurant or grocery store. Those uses require meeting significantly different development requirements. Carmine Casper, Ng's engineer, said also that nothing had been done to acquire shared parking space with the neighboring property to meet that requirement. "They have to do a little more research and come back," Committee member George Lossé said. (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)

Announced at the meeting was a $25,000 grant "for planning and publicizing your activities" to the Claymont Renaissance Development Corp. from County Executive Christopher Coons.

	keeping their eyes on Johnny Damon of the champion Boston Red Sox and Carlos Beltran, recently acquired by the New York Mets. Those stars have something in common: They played for the Wilmington Blue Rocks. There are 75 former Rocks who made it to the majors since the minor league team was reborn in 1994. The Blue Rocks, now a Red Sox farm team, open the 2005 Carolina League season on Apr. 7. (CLICK HERE to access a list of successful alumni provided by the Blue Rocks in response to a request by Delaforum.)
Beltran		Damon