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To THE CITIZENS OF KENT COUNTY, DELAWARE
Fellow Citizens: Being guided in the discharge of my public duties by our excellent constitution, and laws made under it; and having always in view the happiness and best interests of my fellow Citizens, I cannot for bear to express the satisfaction which I feel when, upon important and critical occasions, my countrymen approve my conduct, and do justice to the motives which influence it.
The sentiments publicly expressed by the people of different parts of the Ud. States, and the anxiety which is shewn by all considerate and well disposed citizens to preserve the peace of our country and a continuance of its prosperity, is an incontestible evidence of their enlightened wisdom in justly appreciating the blessings we enjoy beyond, perhaps, any other nation under the sun.
While I assure you, Gentlemen, of the great pleasure which it gives me, to see this public testimony of your particular attachment to our Government, and approbation of its measures; permit me to express my gratitude for those marks of personal respect and attachment, which are evidenced in your address, and let me beg you to believe that it will ever be my study to deserve them.
Although support for the TDC power plant may look like a chance to support jobs, the reality it that it is an environmental disaster.
When you support a disaster, you eventually lose….
Labor Unions will lose public support if this TDC center goes through…. Withholding the environmental dangers from the public may work short term and get approval, …
But once built, and when ash particles the size of golf-balls begin to fall on Newark, Stanton, Elsmere, Wilmington and Claymont, the public will ask,,, how on earth could this have been approved?
The truth will come out at that point, that bad people sneaked it through using bad ways…..
You will eventually lose prevailing wage if this TDC goes through…. The public will turn on you. I almost turned on you before I calmed down. Economics are a strong suit. But one’s life trumps economics. The environmental consequences of this TDC are gigantic. Everyone who gets cancer will blame you… Anything they can do to hurt you will become their dying wish, if you know what I mean….
What to do….
- Support a data center without a power plant.
- Support building a data center in a rural area close by so we get the same jobs… 20 miles into Cecil County or east of Middletown would do the trick.
- Support something else being built on the same location…. One that has no environmental impact.
Putting your loyalty and support behind the Data Center, is like putting your loyalty and support behind a candidate who unknown to you committed child abuse 25 years ago… At some future point, you lose all your investment…… and are left to fight a defensive war to keep more from being taken away by business groups…..
You did not know this would turn on you. But it has, and will get worse…. Now is the time to sneak out of the back of the crowd while no one is really looking or counting…..
Signed: Your most ardent supporter.
K
Charles Potter has just introduced an amendment to SB51 striking the 3.0 average entry requirement. He says it discriminates against a black child who struggled hard though High School to get a 2.99… The toady for the administration is arguing that there is a clause allowing 10% of those not to be above target. He could slid in under that… Potter’s response is that what if that child was on the cusp, and after 10% were in, he was next and would be denied.
The administration is saying that this bill is to raise standards and if you don’t raise standards what’s the point of having this bill.
Potter is dancing around the topic, but is essentually saying this is a bad bill and needs to be voted down if it doesn’t have this amendment, and finally, finally, debate is getting out on the floor, The administration’s toadies are panicked… They’re wearing the stone expression face..
Now points we made are poking holes in the bill, but the speaker is reigning discussion to the amendment….
Any discussion of this bill is good…
Fact is, Potter is correct. This bill certainly does discriminate against wanna be teachers who studied their whole career, and with so many strikes against them, ARE proud of their 2.5 record… AND THEY SHOULD BE…
Courtesy of ©2012 Michael D’Antuono oil on canvas 30″ x 40″
In an insightful meeting at the Delaware Republican’s Lincoln Day dinner Saturday night, Grover Norquist, the featured speaker, came to give the locals an idea of what was going on in Washington…..
More gridlock. More obstruction. More intransigence, In his speech, the prime points were that there would be no compromise. Republicans were dedicated to seeking full sequestration. They were going to cut spending no matter what was going to happen. They don’t care if Dover AFB is going to close; its a good thing because the military budget will be cut in half. They don’t care if Highway funding is going to be fully put all upon the states; sequestration is going to cut the budget in half. They don’t care if there will be no beach rebuilding this summer; Republicans are going to cut the Federal budget in half. There will be no agriculture support payments; Republicans are going to cut them in half. There will be no Federal Medicare or Medicaid payments reimbursements made to the states; Republicans are going to let sequestration cut them in half. When heaven forbid, an oil tanker turns the beaches and marshes of Rehoboth to Ocean City Md, into this century’s Valdez calamity, Both state’s will have to use their general fund to clean it up; the Republicans are going to say no to all new money…. Remember the last East Coast hurricane relief? You were lucky, was the implication. Forget about any more for any storms in the future…
On the revenue side, huge tax breaks must continue going to oil companies and oil hedge funds; Republicans are going to say taxes were raised too much already. Huge off-shore tax breaks will be maintained by billionaires and millionaires; after all taxes are raised too much already for any more loopholes to be closed. (If pressed, they might do away with the mortgage interest deduction since that doesn’t affect billionaires; it only affects the middle class so it won’t create any economic impact.. The implication was that Republicans will do that if necessary, but at the bottom of the upper class; that is where they draw the line… ) The clear message was: it is time to make the poor suffer more; after all, the rich have suffered too much already.
More gridlock. More obstruction. More intransigence,
“You can’t have compromise when both parties are going in the opposite directions.” said Grover. “It doesn’t do any good to say no, no, no, …yes. It has to always be no, no, no… no.”
More gridlock. More obstruction. More intransigence,
There was little that was new. Grover did express hope that as the Obama/McCain wave of democratic Senators comes up for a vote this next election, many in traditional Red states, playing a no-gain defense until the new team comes on board, is their best option.. Grover Norquist also made the point that due to the Republican redistricting, the red districts will outnumber the blue in the House until the next redistricting in ten years.
A decade of decadence is a long time.
Grover did bring up an interesting concept. That we have red states and blue states and they will be a laboratory of who is right, red or blue… We will see within these experiments whether theology can trump economics, whether philosophy can support a family, or whether an idle belief, can pay the bills…. He seems to believe that side by side experimentation will bode well for the red states instead of the blue. He is thinking only as a rich person. We shall see if voters agree with him, if they prefer living in a first class blue state or would rather forebear a third world red state…. His idea will backfire…
He praised Indiana erroneously, calling that a school choice state. Instead voters threw out their gung-ho school-choice education head and replaced him with a Democrat who is going slow.. He praised Indiana’s privatization plan of the Indiana Turnpike without mentioning this road had not had upgrades to it in over 5 years. It is called the most dangerous Turnpike in America. (The money collected is going to the investment bankers)… He derided California which has finally achieved a balanced budget. He praised Wisconsin’s eradication of public unions without mentioning that because of Scott Walker’s governmental pay cuts, the economy in Wisconsin was collapsing while all others were bouncing back from the recession. So though his scenario as presented painted a glowing picture to those Republicans seated before him, it was full of errors.
But I confess, I agree with his premise. I too would like to see vindication that in order to run a stable economy you need what’s been missing: a balance between profits, taxation, and job growth and the only way to achieve that is to tax the top echelon much, much more so they reinvest in their state to avoid paying higher taxes….. As was just done in California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland; all economies that are now rising while those of red states are falling or staying the same.
Unfortunately we will have to make the states our laboratory. We will have no choice but to rely upon the state level to analyze what is working and what is not and then derive from pure evidence, which one of our two parties we need to completely eradicate and do away with…. so government can begin to compromise and to work again.
For on the national scale, Grover promised it: All we are going to have is….. More gridlock. More obstruction. More intransigence,
We will have it; because Mr. Norquist said so. He promised it in a keynote address, at Dover Downs in Dover Delaware on February 9th, 2013….
The Delaware Department of Education has launched an anonymous online survey called “TELL Delaware,” using Race to the Top money.
Educators have until February 15th to take the survey with the results being finalized in March. The state is seeking a 50-percent response rate at each school to get the best data.
I entreat all educators. This is important. This is the opportunity to get your statements out there. I believe 50% is an gross underestimate. I would encourage every teacher to strive for a 100% compliance among your peers. Yes, teachers, you may have to ride your fellow teachers. Every teacher should make it a personal goal, that every teacher they know, turns in their online survey…..
Why?
Across this nation education is racing forward. Giant sums of private investment are becoming available to help education. This has never happened on this scale in your lifetimes. The problem is that those who best know their children, up to now, have been shut out.
Research has finally caught up. It is now apparent that national testing measures nothing more than whether or not a person passed a test. The knowledge normally and previously required to score well on such tests, are missing… We are training nothing more than how to pass a test.
Teachers teach because it is their love. Each of you has not only an opportunity to express your beliefs, but an obligation….
You need to be a part of how Delaware education goes forward…. You NEED to be a part….
Here is how you should approach it. Remember 100% response rate!
Read the online survey questions.
Think about it for a while.
Isolate your top idea on how to better get through to your kids.
Do the survey and send.
I do want to caution you that the less wordy you are on your survey, the less heart your pour into the sidelines, and bylines, the better your survey will be.
Surveys are data collectors. There may be hundreds of ideas, many of them the same. The survey will isolate the top three… There is a good chance that out of all the Delaware teachers taking the survey (remember the 100% return rate) those concerns rising to the top, will be the best one. After all, if teachers the state-over have many of the same concerns, then addressing those concerns can only help children. Correct?
Now just in case this is a ploy or trick, I would recommend that notification be sent to the DSEA so we have two counts of the number of surveys sent. If the Department were to say their pool was 1100 and the DSEA had 4400 who acknowledged filling out the survey, we would instantly know cherry picking of the results was taking place to skew the results.
I caution the Department of Education. The idea of this survey is to find a way where teaching and corporate funding can co-exist in a way that helps education… In a way that improves learning. If you fudge your figures and the children continue to show no improvement, then money is wasted for no good…
The point is to find a way where teachers and investment can focus their resources on their children, and not quibble back and forth in stalemate. We need to focus on the children.
I have my own theories but they don’t belong here. 8,000 Teachers across this state have an average of 8 years of teaching. That is an average 64,000 years of experience…. Hmmm if we went back in time, it would be 62,000 BC, about the time mankind went down to one woman and built back up to what it is now…. All that teaching experience is now being tapped to combine with corporate money and invested in our schools.
If you care about teaching even the slightest, this is an opportunity not to be missed…. It is the chance of a lifetime to make a real difference…. If Delaware succeeds, then every child across America will one day get the full benefit.
I’m tying together three threads to make a knot..
A. The election 2012 showed the end of political dominance by “white people” on the national stage.
B. John Stapleford wrote a derogatory piece in Wilmington’s News Journal whining that “blacks and browns” (his words) were lazy, no good, bums and would always not vote for a white guy, no matter how fly…..
C. Martin Luther King Blvd. is renamed off of Duke of York Streets, William Penn Street, and Court Street….
This 2012 election bamboozled Republican strategists because they totally neglected to account for the votes of Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, who were heavily engaged in this election. To Republicans, these people never mattered. But, these people who never mattered, now have more votes. They, are the majority… and far more moral than any Republican Moral Majority could ever hope to be…..
John Stapleford’s piece was an attempt to denigrate this very vote. By saying thugs had overrun the election, he could still attempt to keep his values above water. He was trying to say….”our outdated values are still the true path; we were overwhelmed by critters and just lost one round, that’s all.” It didn’t fly. His audience almost to every man and woman, saw it as prejudice and nothing else. Instead, the die had been cast. This Obama was the direction America really wanted to go….
Dover changed the name. Now Dover is the 40th Capital City to have a Martin Luther King Boulevard. It will not be the last…. In a sad way, Delaware’s Colonial Heritage is being lost to the 20th Century… The Duke of York put Dover in the same class as Williamsburg. The colonial aspect of Dover is now gone. It is just old buildings on a street that happens to be named after the bravest American of the last century… Before there was correlation…. Now, what’s the correlation?
But that is … as it should be… Times change. And really… though sad to see 300 years of tradition swept away, exactly “who” is the Duke of York? How many of those voting in Dover itself, could have answered that question properly?
He, along with William Penn… have no meaning to people whose ancestors were sold, brought across the Atlantic, sold again, mistreated, and then once freed, quietly kept in second class status, until one man made so much noise it could be ignored no longer…..
It is proper and fitting that someone who has more name recognition and who deserves to be honored, replaces 300 years of tradition… We can only hope he may reign on that street sign, as long as did the Duke of York…..
The vote has passed. We are now in a new America, and it is good.
I attack the bastion that Iowa should be the first primary… For one, it is not a primary. For two, it is not indicative of the whole United States, and three, it has been hyperbolated far beyond it’s own net worth.. In essence, both Iowa and New Hampshire, are harmful to the American voting process…. very harmful.
Essentially we allow less than 100,000 campaign volunteers, to determine the front runner. Not even close to the population of one entire state… The Iowa Caucus is not a contest that determines who is the best candidate for our nation. It is a contest of whom can organize the most of their supporters… buy them outright, if need be…..Hitler would win Iowa. Obviously the candidate who states, I will protect the wealthy’s money, has quite an edge….
How many is 100,000……?
And how does that compare to the entire USA?
(right click on picture to display full image)
The stats are as follows…
100,000 / 307,000,000 = 0.00033 or 0.033%….
African Americans make up just 2.8% of Iowa’s population. Worse, when Reagan won, in 1980 they were below 1.4%…
Iowa was ranked number two, behind Wisconsin as the worst place for blacks to live…
Latinos make up 5% of the Iowa’s population.
On a better note, 11.4% of Iowa’s are represented by unions… compared to the national average of 11.4%…
Iowa was estimated to be 56% metropolitan in 2007. Meaning 44% of it’s population is non metropolitan… The national rural/urban split is 21/79%.
In 2008, estimated $51,593,849 was spent by candidates on the 2008 Iowa Caucus. The 16 candidates for the 2008 presidential election raised and spent a grand total of $457,802,866 by the end of 2007, with the winners continuing on to spend in future races.
If there ever was an situation set up perfectly where an election could be bought, Iowa would become the perfect model.
Which could explain the extreme and excessive variables that Iowa has shown this cycle… First it was Michelle Bachmann who was hot… Then she disappeared as Rick Perry waltzed across the stage… Even his jobs record became outshown by the devil’s plan turned upside down, .. 999.… Until a too cocky Cain, resigned.. Gingrich lurched into favoritism… until he too discorporated … Suddenly a surge swept up number 2, Ron Paul.. but now, with the endorsement of a two single preachers, Rick Santorium, who I believe was originally under the 1% threshold at the beginning, is now rumored by ABC News to be able to win it all!!..
This is madness. This is Iowa. This is why we do not get qualified people into office… (from either party.) Are Iowa people dumb? Can Iowa people not make up their mind? Are Iowa people that uninformed? Are Iowa people that crazy? ….
Or,
…. are Iowa people being played by the press, and hoopla, and rest of the nations is stuck with their decisions…..
It is time another state issues a challenge to the prognosis that New Hampshire and Iowa need to be first.
ideally it would be state that was the first to ratify the Constitution. Ideally it would be a state that mirrors the national statistics a little better than some of the others. ideally it would be a state that has no television station. Ideally it would be a state where no one listens to the radio. Ideally it would be a state where one-on-one contact was possible with a large proportion of that state’s population. Ideally it would be a state with 11.9% of its workers represented by unions, equivalent to the national average of 11.9% of its workers represented by unions. Ideally its rural/urban split at 22/78% would mirror the nations rural/urban split at 21/79%… Ideally its African American mix (21.4%) would mirror that of America, 12.4%… Ideally its Hispanic population would do the same…. (8.2%/16.3%) and most particularly, in order to be representative of America as a whole, the non Hispancic white race should mirror that of the nation as a whole… 65.3% to 63.5%
There is a state that is far more similar to any pre campaign state out there.. it is the first state to ratify the Constitution….
It is time for courage to take over the wheel.. Those timid party reps who cow at the the National Political Machines, when it is nothing more than a self bloated paper tiger, need replaced by human beings who deeply care about the country.
Delaware losing representation at a convention, will make little difference in that convention’s outcome.. But sticking to our small state’s guns, and making Delaware the first state to hold a primary, would put a voice of reason, a system of control, and even sanity, back into our electoral process. It would also inspired a national media Maddow conversion, named after her experience in the Deer Park Tavern last cycle, where she was blown away that there existed a state, who’s citizens actually were well informed by sources other than commercials and the main stream media, and actually knew what was happening…. For it was a revelation: like “duh, common people aren’t stupid after all.” Perhaps the sanity that is Delaware, needs to become more mainstream… after all…
Looking at Iowa this year, it sure as hell couldn’t hurt….
Right click to open full image… Pictograph Courtesy of Viral..
So, can someone tell me again, why we shouldn’t tax the rich, and instead, balance the budget on the backs of everyone else?…….
I seem to be missing that little detail where that all makes sense……
Ok, by now all of you are sure of your presidential candidate, Senator, and Congress person… You may not think that you have made up you rational mind, but if you ask yourself who you would vote for today, ….. you know.. Face it , it’s not going to change…
But if you are anything like the rest of us in Delaware, state rep, state senator, insurance commissioner, county commissioner, levy court, you draw a blank… “I’ve heard bits and pieces, ” you stutter….
So where do you go to find stuff? What are the candidates really like?
You could trust the News Journal… But blogs have destroyed their credibility and proven that their endorsement can be bought as well…. You could listen to WDEL all day long, and here what those motivated to call in, have to say… But any kook can call in…
You could go to their websites, http://www._________.com and scroll through the most boring of accolades known to man… “Blah, Blah, I’m great, blah, etc…..”
You could also wait until someone showed up at your door and vote for them because they cared enough about your neighborhood to walk its streets. But that would leave 95% of Delawarean completely out of the loop…..
Or….
You could just Google up a candidate’s name and see what people have said about him over his whole life.. If its all bad, he probably won’t do this state any good; if it is all glowing, then he probably will. At least the chances are on your side…. You can also judge the demeanor of those making the praise or scurrilous remarks… do they even know what they are talking about? Are they rational, or do they just have an ideological bone to pick…. “socialist, pinko, gay, communist, etc…”—boring.
For instance, lets start with a no brainer… The governor’s race… Markell vrs Bill Lee
First Jack Markell….. Now Bill Lee for Governor
See what I mean? It is kind of obvious why polls are showing Markell approaching a 70% advantage. If you only read the News Journal, you would think it was still a close race…
Ok, now the fun one… We compare Gandalf to Sauron… First we Google Matt Denn…. and then Google his antithetical opposite, Charlie Copeland.… Wow, talk about opposites…
Insurance Commissioner? Google Karen Weldin Stewart and then her opponent John Brady…. Tom Savage is the independent who also on the ballot. The best one to carry on Matt Denn’s tradition was not who you thought it was going to be, now, was it?
OK, Senate races… If you live in the Chateau Country, properly known as the 4th…(because if and when they get to the bottom of the fifth, they are all drunk.) Google Dr. Katz and John Clatworthy. LOL… that’s my humor for the day.. Ok for real this time… for Dr. Mike Katz for Senate…. I think that is the first time a Delawarean candidate has been beaten off the front page by an animated cartoon…. If you have time, its a good cartoon. But those not already having their arms twisted by either candidate, can readily see who would provide a different perspective to our state legislature…. If there is anything our General Assembly is in sore need of, it’s a new direction.
Next is an important battle for the soul of Newark: State Senate District 6: first John MacKenzie; next Liane Sorenson.
(Ok, I’m getting tired, and my list is long.)
State Senate 10
Bethany Hall-Long
James Weldin
State Senate 16
Harold Stafford
Colin Bonini
State Senate 17
Brian Bushweller
James Hutchison
State Senate 18
Gary Downes
Gary Simpson
State Representative 4
State Representative 7
State Rep. 8
Quinton Johnson
Martha Sturtevant
State Rep. 9
Rebecca Walker
Dick Cathcart
State Rep. 10
Dennis Williams
Robert Valihura
State Rep. 11
Charles Old
Gregory Lavelle
State Rep. 17
Michael Mulrooney
David Lee Osborne
State Rep. 18
State Rep. 19
Robert Gilligan
Joe Sakeley
State Rep. 21
State Rep. 22
State Rep. 23
State Rep. 24
Daniel Basara
Bill Oberle
State Rep. 25
State Rep. 26
John Viola
Jeremy Filliben
State Rep. 27
Earl Jacques
Vince Lofink
James Spencer
State Rep. 29
State Rep. 31
State Rep. 32
Brad Bennett
Donna Stone
State Rep. 33
State Rep. 34
Bruce Hamilton
Donald Blakey
State Rep. 35
Aaron Chaffinch
David Wilson
State Rep. 37
Helen Truitt
Joe Booth
State Rep. 38
State Rep. 39
State Rep. 40
Barbara Hudson
Clifford Lee
State Rep. 41 “God’s Country”
John Atkins
Greg Hastings
New Castle County Council District 12 (The only County Race This General Election)
(My apologies to the City of Wilmington… Those living within the city proper, should have the picture of what to do by now…. )
Kent County Races
KC Register of Wills
Levi Court 3
Levy Court 5
George Sweeney
W.G. Edmanson
Kent County Comptroller
Georgette Williams
Steven Artz
Sussex County Races
Sussex Clerk of the Peace
Sussex County Council 2
Sussex County Council 3
There you have it. What was originally started as a comparison between the two Lieutenant Governor’s candidates Google pages, has grown into the most definitive place to find out about Delawarean politics in the world…
Anyone wanting to know about anyone of their candidates upon the ballot, can in less than five minutes, make up their mind… It is my hope that putting this information out there so all can see it raw, will bypass many of those middle men who have wrongly meddled too many times in this state’s politics… Furthermore, I hope that it will circumvent the ignorance that most of us have when we go to the polls, and suddenly struggle with choosing one of those on the bottom of the ticket…
As I look over my work, I realize that this will be a forever changing document, subject to the rules of Google’s algorithms… As Duffy, LG, and I will attest, anyone with $40,000 to spend could get a nice opening page supporting their candidates. Because of that, this collection will be freshest as soon as it is first published… I highly recommend that each candidate take a screen shot and save it, as proof of future tampering…. Your audience is fairly savvy. If anyone is caught tampering, they sleep in the doghouse for an election season.
Happy voting, and this time, let us make a real difference…..
photo from file.
(Overheard on his cellphone to his developer boss; paraphrased, coming from a skinny twenty something, logo’d in a golf shirt, khaki pants, standing in the vestibule corner as everyone filed out; “it’s spinning out of control. E-v-e-r-y-b-o-d-y is angry. I don’t think we can fix it. It’s going the wrong way. I think we lost the election.”)
Now I’ve seen many meetings. Usually it’s always the same comfortable group, the same participants, with one or two of the same troublemaker activists. We all know each other, politely nod to our enemies, and once our duty is performed, socializing progresses afterwards. The short story version appears in the News Journal two days later….
Usually.
That was not what happened last night, August September 4th ( 🙂 h/t rsmitty) inside the Crossroads Presbyterian Church, which had blissfully wonderful cushioned green seats; that is if you were early enough to grab one…
Standing-room-only would be too cliche to describe the turnout. This issue at hand was so hot it swelled participation far above the 200 the organizers had expected…. (237 cars were counted; 500 participants?) They had even forgotten to plan for a microphone, assuming normal voices would suffice.
They didn’t, and fortunately a microphone was found.
Dignitaries (ie our politicos) sat across in front of the crowd… Dick Cathcart sat center, Bill Bell sat next to him. Bill Powers sat and stood on Cathcart’s left. Penrose Hollins drove down to represent Council. Bill Dunn, Bethany Hall Long, Earl Jacques, Rebecca Walker, Tom Scherer, Mike Protack, Bruce Ennis, members of the land use committee, and the Superintendent of the Appoquinimink School District showed up. Ms Fitzpatrick (sp) came in place of Representative Lofink, who was unfortunately at his son’s wedding rehearsal, to which one irate resident blurted out….”that’s no excuse!” Her spouse, quickly put his hand on her leg, and warned her to calm down..”it’s his son’s wedding….”
Yes tensions were that high…..
But the real star of the entire evening was the map…. Yes, a silly map. It stood tall over the entire meeting, dominating everyone’s attention… It out staged the County Council Head, Penrose Collins, who stormed off when it became obvious that the audience was not interested in his point of view….
Most felt that was fair play…. for no one had taken the time to consider their point of view when these ordinances were passed, affecting the entire lower region of the New Castle County… That it turns out, appears to be true…. no one.
The map stood tall over the entire proceeding, reminding everyone, every minute of the immense changes coming soon. And the changes were immense….
Here is the scale they are speaking off.
Three new schools will need to be built, one each year, to accommodate the new influx of students. The school district was surprised tonight; the plans were made without consulting them. They have no money to grow.
Traffic will grow by 1800 cars. What’s the visual of 1800 cars? At fifteen feet per vehicle, 27,000 feet total divided by 5280 ft/mile, equals a line of cars, parked bumper to bumper, a little over 5 miles long… Imagine a line of cars parked on the shoulder of RT 1 from St. George’s bridge to the heart of Odessa. There is your visual image. Deldot was surprised tonight. The plans were made without consulting them. And they too, have no money to grow.
Most of the areas do not have sewer capacity yet; however in a rush, building will progress, anticipating promised waivers to use septic systems, until the county sewer system can catch up….. (Do you follow county finances?) They have no money to grow…..
The wells to supply additional amounts of water; they are not yet drilled. They are on hold, for they have no money to grow….
The anger seemed to grow exponentially within that room… (Thank heavens they held this disclosure within a church).
Hats off to a great job done by the organizers, including one Chuck Mulholland. No one could have prepared them for what took place. Their natural demeanor saved the day, rising to the challenge of the moment. Particularly impressive was Chuck’s impromptu changing of the agenda, as it became quite apparent that citizens were there to make their voices heard, not listen to failed excuses…. That change-up, diffused some tension, perhaps saving a riot… I’ll bet he never expected to put 3 miles on that evening, all the while carrying the microphone.
The question of the day? How could this have happened…
The answer:
Mr. Pam Scott Paul Clark, President of County Council.
All these elements were rushed though, without vetting, to get developers in construction phase before the public could become aware of what was aimed at them. No vetting was done, so no leaks would occur. The last thing developers and Paul Clark needed, was a large meeting of outraged citizens.
Obviously the details of the arrangements were made in his home, and presented fait accompli to the Council for its rubber stamp. That is after all, what New County Council’s tend to do…
Therefore Paul Clark needs to go.
Councilman Bill Bell, who resembles the Stay-Puff Marshmallow Man, performed the role of a stool quite adequately. “No one told me” was his response….” I didn’t know…” he stammered. The question which immediately popped into every head but one, was ” why not?” That’s your job…
Obviously his principal function was to be the Rose Margaret Henry of the County Council. Being put in that position by the developers and unions, means he obviously feels he doesn’t need to call back his constituents, doesn’t need to show up at their meetings, doesn’t need to answer their letters or emails… Like Margaret Rose Henry, all he needs to do is show up… and vote the way he is told..
When faced with 450 some people he began to get nervous. His primary is days away… His opponent Tom Scherer, who is having his own personal fight with the developers of his development, over their unfulfilled promises.. certainly does appear to be the better choice, Towards the end, almost reduced to pleading for his seat, Mr. Bell promised too late, to “not support” the resolution that due to his complicity, has already been passed….
If there was another star, other than the map, the organizers, and the citizens themselves, it was Representative Dick Cathcart… Angered at the incompetence bordering on deceit coming from Mr Pam Scott Paul Clark and his Council, he promised legislation to forever put County Council growth under State oversight…. it’s about time.
Bruce Ennis, surprised everyone in the room by coming down hard for a moratorium on all new development. Two, three, four years whatever it takes to get local citizens to become comfortable with the new developments. He cited Kent County as a place where citizens took control and booted all developers our of governmental oversight positions…. That county is once again under control of its citizens; spawning a series of lawsuits from developers against it. Ennis implied that as long as New Castle’s citizenry supported the continuation of a moratorium against such lawsuits, he would as well. Most nuisance lawsuits would be thrown out, costing nothing since they were filed with no legal grounds to support them, but still the stigma of having lawsuits might make some citizens feel uneasy…. The consensus in that room was: if you take on the developers…. we got your back….
Go get them Bruce.
They came to listen. They got their earful.
Distilled to its basic elixir, here is the essence.
New Castle County development is controlled by developers and the Building Trades Union who are linked together in their interest for growth. Money for developers, jobs for employees. They own the following: Chris Coons, Paul Clark, Bill Bell, Bill Powers, George Smiley, and Bob Weiner….
Breaking that connection is the first step in returning Democracy back to those New Castle County citizens who live outside the city. Democratic Voters have the opportunity to sever that connection during Tuesday’s primary, September 8th. Voting Bill Dunn over Paul Clark, Tom Gordon over Chris Coons, Tom Scherer over Bill Bill, and Carl Colantuono over John Cartier, will do your part in returning Democracy to County Government. (Yeah, I know one is controversial, but if elected, we will own him, not the developers).
I’ve run out of time and space. Not mentioned here was the citizens fear of falling property values; not mentioned here was one realtor who spoke 6 (?) times, warning citizens of how workforce housing would affect their property values, not mentioned here was the question of where these workforce housing residents, transferred from Wilmington’s projects on the East Side, would find ever find work to pay for their housing, pimps, and bags of crack; not mentioned here was the cost of someone to cut down tennis shoes hanging from electric wires; not mentioned here was how noble Bill Dunn looked when working the crowd, compared to Paul Clark 4 years ago; not mentioned here was how poorly workforce housing residents obey driving laws; not mention here was how insufficient the current sewer systems are today, even without additional units; not mentioned here was how County Council increased the density levels, so developers could sell more houses per lot, more profit per lot; not mentioned here were the number of minority citizens who vehemently said they left the city to get away from the trash the County was again forcing upon them; not mentioned here was how hard everyone has worked, and suffered, to build their piece of the American dream, which now the County Council, at the bequest of Developers and Building Trade Unions, was about to destroy, WITHOUT EVEN CONSULTING THEM!
I wish I had more time…
Nancy, Geek? Can you add more?
kavips 
