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In a rerun of a
storied tradition from Delaware's past,
the Du Pont company apparently has ridden to a last-minute recue of
state officials caught in a dilemma of what to do about the Brandywine
Hundred yard waste disposal site.
Natural resources secretary Collin O'Mara
announced at a well-attended community meeting that his department had
just reached an agreement-in-principle with the company to rent -- for
what he said will be a nominal fee -- a two-acre site at Edgemoor and
Hay Roads so it can relocate the facility now just off Cauffiel Parkway.
State senator Harris McDowell, who has long been pushing to move it,
warned that failure to do so by June 30 would put the Department of
Natural Resources & Environmental Control in violation of a state law
which he got enacted a year ago. O'Mara said the present site will be
shut down permanently at the end of the day on June 29. He acknowledged,
however, that the new site might not be ready for use by then and was
vague on what will happen if that is so.
Marjorie Crofts, acting director of the
department's Division of Air & Waste Management, said that only the
Cauffiel and Du Pont sites among 18 studied met the criteria for a
suitable place for dropping off and mulching yard waste, now banned from
being buried at the Cherry Island landfill. The primary requirement, she
explained, was not being near a residential community. A woman at the
meeting on Apr. 27 complained, however, that it will be yet another
irritant from the industrial area east of Interstate 495 for residents
of Edgemoor and Paladin Club. O'Mara said talks are underway with
Holland Mulch, which abuts the Du Pont property, to have it dispose of
the waste. Eventually, he said, it is hoped that all recycling activity
can be 'privatized'.
♦ ♦ ♦
POSSIBLE
AMENDMENT: There is an outside possibility that County Council
for the first time in recent memory will amend the budget. Councilman
Bill Bell told Delaforum that he intends to seek a provision to
establish a 12-hour, seven-day paramedics station south of the
Chesapeake & Delaware Canal. He said he is working with the Coons
administration to find a way to finance it -- probably by shifting money
in the public safety department's budget. Although several Council
members have talked about a need to provide for filling some vacant
positions across county government departments, Bell apparently is the
only one seriously considering attempting to modify the administration's
proposed budget. (CLICK HERE to read previous
Delaforum article.)
♦ ♦ ♦
GRANULATED
HANBY:
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| Most of the debris
from the demolished Hanby school building is being
pulverized to be used in construction the new elementary
school to be built on the site in Chalfonte, beginning later
this year. Besides being in keeping with plans to have the
new structure be certified as a 'green' building, the
recycling has eliminated need for a large amount of
dump-truck traffic through the community, according to
project manager John Read. What to name the new school is so
far undecided since it will replace Brandywood Elementary
but be located in the neighboring development. |
♦ ♦ ♦
OUTLOOK
BRIGHTENING: Delaware Economic & Financial Advisory Council will
bump up its state revenue forecast for the coming fiscal year, but David Gregor,
the finance department's director of research and analysis, told its
revenue committee that most of the increase is expected to come from
volatile and largely unpredictable abandoned property payments.
Nevertheless, he and private economist Fred Dixon said they are seeing
some upward momentum in the national economy. Overall, the committee
agreed at its meeting on Apr. 16 that the state will take in $64.6
million in the year beginning July 1, or about 1% more than it thought
in March. Of that, $45 million will be in escheat payments and $18.5
million will come from corporate income tax. (CLICK
HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)
♦ ♦ ♦
CHALLENGE:
Councilman William Tansey challenged colleagues who questioned whether
some county government departments may have tightened their belts too
much to provide them money to fill vacant positions. "If there is a
strong feeling we ought to increase [staff] here and there, we should
amend [the proposed budget] and then figure out where we're going to
find the money," he said. Since the budget Council will enact in May has
to be balanced, the alternatives, he said, would be to "cut someplace
else" or to raise the property tax rate. Tansey, who is stepping down
when his term expires in November and who has consistently opposed tax
increases, did not indicate which, if either, of those he favors.
He made the remarks while presiding as
co-chairman of Council's finance committee at a budget hearing on Apr.
12 after some Council members questioned how long the Department of
Community Services can rely on volunteers to fill the gap left by 20
vacant job slots. "Some of those positions should be classified as
essential personnel," William Bell said. The job functions are "critical
to the quality of life" of county residents, Penrose Hollins said,
adding, "We can't continue this way or something is going to crack."
Community services general manager Ann Farley told the hearing that
volunteers provided a total of 13,413 hours of cost-free services last
year while 375 part-time employees helped hold down personnel costs. (CLICK
HERE to read previous Delaforum article)
♦ ♦ ♦
The extent of county
government incentives -- if any --
for the reactivation of the oil refinery near Delaware City has not been
determined, according to the spokesperson for the county executive.
"Chris Coons is working closely with the
governor to determine what the county can do to assist this important
venture, which will bring much needed jobs to the area," Angie Basiouny
said in response to a Delaforum inquiry. A press statement from the
governor's office referred in general terms to a state loan of $20
million which would convert to a grant if employment targets are met and
a $10 million donation and piggyback bond authorization for capital
improvements to control nitrogen oxide emissions. County government
agreed last year to give Fisker Automotive a five-year tax holiday as an
incentive to purchase and operate the closed former General Motors
assembly plant.
Under an agreement made public on Apr. 8,
the investment subsidiary of Germany-based Petroplus Holdings A.G. will
acquire the idled refinery, power plant, Delaware River terminal and
pipeline from Valero Energy for $220 million. Following an extensive
overhaul, the refinery would be restarted in the spring of 2011. But,
according to an announcement posted on a business public relations wire,
the deal is "conditioned upon certain regulatory approvals and obtaining
satisfactory permits from local regulatory authorities." Petroplus is
the largest independent refiner and wholesaler of petroleum products in
Europe with refineries in Germany, Belgium, Britain, France and
Switzerland. The Delaware refinery would provide its initial entry into
the United States. (CLICK
HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)
♦ ♦ ♦
OPEN HOUSES: County government has
borrowed a sales technique from realtors
in its effort to revive the resident curator program which has
languished for several years. It has scheduled public inspection tours
at the 19th Century houses in Bechtel and Talley-Day Parks on Apr. 17.
The Department of Special Services hopes to attract people who will
agree to fix up and then maintain the structures in return for open-end
leases allowing them to live there rent- and tax-free. The Brandywine
Hundred sites are the first of several throughout the county to be made
available. The Ivyside house in Bechtel Park is said to date from 1853
and the Talley house goes back to 1847, according to a county press
notice. (CLICK
HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)
♦ ♦ ♦
STILL
UNCERTAIN: While several governors around the country are
questioning how just Delaware and Tennessee, alone among the states,
qualified for education financing windfalls, the state Department of
Education remains vague on how $100 million will be divvied up. In
response to Delaforum inquiries, DelDOE spokesman Ron Gough repeated a
previous statement: "Fifty percent of the [money] goes directly to the
schools while the remaining 50% of the funds will go to the state." The
latter, he went on to say, "will be portioned out to the school
districts and charter schools with a small amount" kept by the
department "to help provide oversight of the ['Race to the Top']
programs and funds."
He declined to say what criteria will be
used to determine who gets what other than to note that "there will be
no local competition" involved. "Federal calculations will determine the
amount of funds going to each school," Gough said. The money will be
doled out over the next four year with only public schools in line to
get a slice of the pie and charter schools being treated no differently
from traditional ones, he said. Meanwhile, according to a New York Times
article published on Apr. 4, officials in Arizona, California, Colorado,
Nebraska, South Carolina and South Dakota have indicated they are so put
out that they may not even bother to participate later this year in a
scheduled 'second round' of competition for grants. (CLICK
HERE to read previous Delaforum article.) (CLICK
HERE to read New York Times article.)
Last updated on April 28, 2010
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