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January, 2006 |
JOB BID WITHDRAWN: Brandywine school superintendent Bruce Harter confirmed that he had applied to be superintendent of the Pulaski County School District in Arkansas, but told Delaforum that he withdrew from consideration after an all-day interview session. He did not elaborate on his reasons for doing so. He said he had been 'nominated' for the position. Little Rock is the seat of Pulaski County. Harter, who recently was one of four finalists for the superintendency of the Christina School District, has told the Brandywine school board and public that he will pursue professional opportunities if and when they become available. (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)
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TRAIN STATION STUDY: Wilmington Area Planning Council expects to hire a consultant soon to look into the feasibility of significantly upgrading or replacing the Claymont train station. Executive director Tigist Zegeye said the study, which will be paid for from the $30,000 left over from a $50,000 2003 transportation grant, will study options ranging from simply sprucing up the present station, though constructing a parking building with commuter amenities, to building a new station on Citi Steel property north of the present one. She said the consultant will take about a year to produce a 'master vision plan'. (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)
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Seniors and disabled persons who qualify for New Castle County property tax discounts are being billed for sanitary sewer service at the old rates. Everyone else is being hit with a 40% increase. (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)
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AD STRATEGY: County communications director Christy Gleason recommended that newspaper advertisingof public notices be changed to reach more people with ads half their present size while cutting the cost by nearly a third. Any weekly reaching more than 5,000 people would be added to Middletown Transcript and editions of Community News which are now being used. The News Journal ad would run on Sundays, when circulation is highest, rather than Saturdays when it's the lowest. That, she told County Council's finance committee on Jan. 24, would cost $195,414 a year, compared to $312,665 now being spent.
Council members, who must pass on the proposal, questioned the value of newspaper advertising. President Paul Clark said his impression is that more people are attracted to meetings and hearings by signs posted -- at developer expense -- on affected properties or "hear about [them] from their neighbors." Councilman George Smiley suggested that newspapers which get county advertising dollars be prompted to provide more than "negative reporting" about county affairs. Gleason also recommended that the county website be "enhanced" to provide more comprehensive information and that an optional e.mail notification feature be included.
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FINANCIAL REPORT: Midway through the fiscal year, county government spending is keeping pace with its budget, but financial officer Michael Strine told Council that it's likely an upward budget revision will be necessary to cover utility costs when electricity rates soar in May. Spending during the year ending June 30 is now projected to total $157.3 million. That would be down from $167.7 million in fiscal 2005, but $6 million more than anticipated revenue, he told Council's finance committee on Jan. 24. He said the county currently is borrowing against its financial reserves while it decides on timing of a planned $70 million bond issue.
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LEASE TERMS MODIFIED: Concord Soccer Association and Talleyville Girls Softball League will be permitted to recruit other sports organizations to help them pay to maintain fields at the Channin and Old Mill Lane school sites. They prefer to call it 'cost-sharing' rather than charging a fee. Terms of a lease with the softball group approved on Jan. 24 by County Council gives county government oversight as to how much they can charge and to prevent possible discrimination in whom they accept as partners. The sites are now officially county parks. The Concord group's lease will contain the same previsions.
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RATE INCREASE TAKES EFFECT: Sewer service bills being mailed to county residents average 41% more than a year ago, depending on water use, but include an option to pay them in two installments -- at the end of February and the end of May. That, said Michael Strine, the county's chief financial officer, reflects the rate increase enacted last year by County Council plus a general increase in the amount of water typical county households are using. He said the residential rate held steady while the cost of providing the service increased by 61%. Still, he said, the new rate is "significantly lower than the rates in surrounding areas."
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'BROOKVIEW' NO MORE: Robert Ruggio, senior vice president, told the Claymont Design Review Advisory Committee that Commonwealth Group wants a new name for the redeveloped Brookview apartment complex. He invited the public to participate in the process of coming up with one by sending suggestions to the firm before the middle of March. He didn't offer a prize for the best suggestion. Also to be named are streets in the proposed community, except those that will connect with existing streets. The committee agreed unanimously to support the preliminary plan for the community which is now before the Department of Land Use.
In another matter at its meeting on Jan. 19, the committee opted to accept Wawa's offer to landscape the small plaza at the corner of the site of its Philadelphia Pike outlet. Member Brett Saddler told the group that the alternative, putting up a statue or other public art, would cost upwards of $20,000. "That's more than Wawa would be willing to pay," he said. Claymont resident Frank Kolling cautioned that a statue would distract drivers and make an already dangerous intersection more so. The resolution ending the dispute over the color of bricks on the fast food outlet included a suggestion that the company not forget to water the flowers. (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)
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Cost of constructing the New Castle County public-safety building is running $1.7 million over budget despite having been able to make $876,600 worth of cost savings.
Most of the overrun was the result of an average 7.6% increase in construction-related prices since project costs were estimated a year ago, Richard Przywara, general manager of the Department of Special Services, told County Council on Jan. 17. He said it was too early to project how much higher than anticipated the project's final pricetag will be. He cautioned that state-of-the-art equipment to be installed in the facility may well drive it up by a considerable amount. That is especially true, he said, for the 9-1-1 emergency center which will have a redundant backup communications system.
The project is budgeted at $46.2 million -- the largest single building expenditure in county history. Of that, the construction budget totals $34.1 million. There is a normal contingency fund built into the budget which could be used to offset some of the overrun. "As painful as this [information] is, we still see the benefits" of replacing the outmoded county police headquarters, Council president Paul Clark said. The present building is a former elementary school acquired by the county in the early 1980s and adapted -- some say jerryrigged -- for its new function. Przywara said the new building is on schedule to go into service by the end of the year.
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APPROVAL RECOMMENDED: The Planning Board and Department of Land Use recommended that County Council approve a change in the development code to allow recreational facilities in existing buildings in industrial parks and other areas zoned for light industry. The recommendation is conditioned on altering the ordinance pending before Council to exclude heavy-industry areas. Sponsored by Councilman Timothy Sheldon, the measure is designed to make available more locations with suitable dimensions to house intensive recreational uses, now permitted only in shopping centers and other commercial areas.
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HOMESTEADS: County employees will be given an opportunity to live in six county-owned houses in county parks for up to two years for what probably will be below-market rent. Rather than arbitrarily providing the housing, employees will bid competitively on how much they are willing to pay with the minimum set at half the going rental for comparable houses, general manager Richard Przywara said. Police officers will continue to live in Rockwood and Carousel Parks for security reasons, but they will have to bid against each other. In the past, there was no established process or apparent objective criteria for selecting tenants, he said.
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BOAT PARKING REQUIREMENTS LIKELY TO BE EASED: County Council president Paul Clark said Councilman George Smiley is attempting to work out a compromise to resolve the dispute over a section of the property code which significantly restricts parking of boats and recreational vehicles in residential areas. He advised the Council of Civil Organizations of Brandywine Hundred , "Don't bet" on the result including a provision that they have to be kept in screened side or back yards. "We can't [physically] get that in 60% of the houses" in the county, he said. Enforcement of that part of the code has been suspended..
Approximately 200 people -- an unusually high turnout -- thrashed the issue at a meeting of the civic group on Jan. 12. While most of the questions and comments put to Clark indicated support for efforts by the group's executive committee to greatly curtail if not eliminate the practice of keeping boats and recreational vehicles in suburban driveways, references to doing so as a violation of basic rights of property owners were the ones that drew applause. "Is it my property or does it belong to the state?" one attender asked rhetorically. "The way people use their property can impact other properties," said Philip Lavelle, the civic group's land use chairman. (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)
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RECYCLING COULD BE REWARDING: Tri State Waste plans to begin a pilot program in March that would result in Brandywine Hundred householders receiving merchandise or service coupons redeemable at selected business establishments proportionate to the amount of material they voluntarily recycle. The container they use would be automatically weighed when it is dumped into the collection truck and, based on total weight for the month, they would receive up to $25 worth of coupons, Kevin Shegog, of Tri State, said there "will be a charge" beyond the firm's regular collection rates, "but prices are not completely firm yet."
The program is an extension of one operated in southeastern Pennsylvania by Blue Mountain Recycling, which makes its money by processing and selling the material, and Recycle Bank which markets the coupons to area businesses as an advertising medium. Robert Anderson, of Blue Mountain, said processing will be done at its Philadelphia-area facility, but "as volume grows in Delaware we will look for a site in Delaware." Wally Kremer, chairman of the Council of Civic Organizations of Brandywine Hundred, predicted that the program "will get recycling going in Delaware." (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)
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BONUS REJECTED: Bruce Harter, superintendent of the Brandywine School District, turned down a $5,250 performance bonus and a $9,290 merit increase, according to data provided by the district in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. He said he was concerned about district finances and didn't want to embarrass the board over the size of his paycheck. The additional compensation would have amounted to a 9.4% supplement to Harter's $154,832 fiscal 2006 salary. Other Brandywine administrators received merit increases ranging up to 2%. (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)
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