Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Delmar Cigarette Outlet Opens
Yesterday the Delmar Cigarette Outlet opened. It is behind Delmar liquors. Good Luck to them I am sure I will walking over for my Cigars and Pipe Tobacco.
More Curbing
This photo is at the corner of Lincoln and 2nd Street. Another place where the curbing over the storm water drain is gone, setting the Town up for a lawsuit when someone slips off the curbing into the storm water drain.
New Post Office
Last night at the Joint Council Meeting it was mentioned that it was time petition for a new post office. Given the number of homes potentially to be built in the area over the next five years the current post office will be overrun. Between the additional mail carriers they may add and the parking problems that may occur around the Post Office I concur in the need for a new Post Office at a new location. Altho I will miss the convenience of just walking to the Post Office I won't miss the strange driving and parking habits of it customers and employees.
Monday, January 30, 2006
Utility and Joint Meeting Tonight Jan 30th
As a reminder there is a Utility Meeting tonight at 6:30PM and a Joint Council Meeting tonight at 7:30PM at Town Hall.
Curbing in Delmar
Some Photos of my morning walk in the Fog.
The Top Photo is the corner of Second and Jewell. Not only is the curbing falling apart but the garbage in the gutter has been there so long grass is growing it.
The bottom photo is of a sewer drain behind the post office on First Street. The curbing was broken several years ago by Postal Trucks and Contractors trucks taking a shortcut out of the post office parking lot over it. Several months ago the broken section was sawed out and the hole was left. Anyone walking down the sidewalk runs the risk of falling into the hole (which goes down several feet) and breaking their leg.
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Bennett School Project
Today (1/24/06) the Daily Times had a good letter from Bruce Webster in the "Letter to the Editor" section. Back in the 1960's the Wicomico County Board of Education decided to build all the Middle and High Schools in Salisbury. Plus they are all within a few miles of one another. It was an ignoramus ideal for the City of Salisbury to think all knowledge was in Salisbury and teenagers from 10 to 20 miles away should be bussed each day to Salisbury. If a new school is to build I agreed with Bruce Webster - it should not be build in Salisbury.
My Position on Annexation
I have been accused by a number of people as being against growth for Delmar. I am not against annexation. I do feel any annexation that occurs should not be at the expense of the current residents. The cost should be borne by the new residents or real estate developers. The current residents should see no increase in taxrates or water and sewer rates. In fact they should see a reduction. Why would you pay to have additional land and people in Delmar? The current annexation will raise the tax rates and the water and sewer fees. The only thing that will be achieved is a larger spot on the map. This is empire building and not quality growth.
Wicomico County Civic Center
Recently the Wicomico County Council approved the establishment of a capital improvement fund for the Civic Center. A few months ago the Civic center was made an enterprise fund, which means it operates as abusiness without County (taxpayer) support. Obviously the Capital Improvemenr Fund was a maneuver on Gary Mackes part to do as he likes with Civic Center funds and continue to have the taxpayers support the white elephant known as the civic center. I think Gary Mackes is a very smart department head who is saddled with money draining facilities, however the Civic Center is either operated as a business or it is not.
Monday, January 23, 2006
Constant Vigilance
Money is a fleeing item. Regardless how frugal you think you are you will sooner or later come across something that you have paid to much for. Today Aero Energy came by to fill up our fuel oil tank. Now Fuel oil is worst than gasoline in price, at least I thought so. For twenty or more years I have had automatic fillup. I started with Gordy Fuel Oil and when He decided he didn't want to have anything else to do with Delmar and sold it to Aero Energy, I continued with them. Still on automatic fill up. I had always thought that Automatic Fillup was a way the oil company had to retain customers - people wouldn't be phoning for the better prices. Today when Aero Energy arrived to fill the tank I asked why they were charging $2.49 a gallon for #2 fuel oil. It turns out there is about a 25 cent per gallon surcharge for automatic fillup. This is like 10% above the "Will Call" fill up price. Needless to say I changed by status with Aero Energy very quickly. I have managed to save enough today to fill up my Dodge Omni and buy a six pack of cheap beer, life is good.
Friday, January 20, 2006
Scenic Downtown Delmar
Each morning as people go to work on Route 54/State Street this is what they see and this is the impression Delmar makes on them. This is the John LeCates property on the corner of State and Pennsylvania. Parcel ID 53202014020400. The property has been in this shape for at least 10 years.
Correctional Officers Wages and Foreign Correctional Officers
In addition to increasing the minimum wage Maryland increased Correctional Officer's pay by 6%. An 18 year old fresh out of high school can now start at $26,000 a year and in a very short time be up to $33,000 a year. Delaware has recently increased Correctional Officer's pay. The Pay raise cycle will now start again. At the Wicomico County Detention Center I watch this game played each year. One jail would raise Correctional Officers pay and than all the officers in the other jails would go to their Warden and say look how much they are making, pay me more or I will go there. In turn the local jail would raise pay and than the state Jail would have to raise wages. For a basic baby sitting job it an overpaid field.
There is a high turnover in the field due to the negative environment of dealing with inmates and dealing with government paid wardens. Rarely is a jail's budgeted amount of Correctional Officers filled. At the Wicomico County Detention Center I felt part of this was due to the Warden desiring to use the unfilled positions salaries in his budget to apply to the numerous overrun non pay budget items. If Wicomico County was truely interested in controlling expenses they would simply say salary funds are not to be used for anything but salaries and can not be transferred to non pay budget items.
If the shortage of Correctional Officers is due to the lack of people willing to work for a given rate of pay then do as the fast food and hospitality industry does - hire foreign workers. We all know they are used extensively in Ocean City and the chicken plants, why not hire foreign Correctional Officers. They would probably work for $20,000 a year and like it. A few good Singapore or Chinese Correctional Officers would do wonders for the inmate population.
There is a high turnover in the field due to the negative environment of dealing with inmates and dealing with government paid wardens. Rarely is a jail's budgeted amount of Correctional Officers filled. At the Wicomico County Detention Center I felt part of this was due to the Warden desiring to use the unfilled positions salaries in his budget to apply to the numerous overrun non pay budget items. If Wicomico County was truely interested in controlling expenses they would simply say salary funds are not to be used for anything but salaries and can not be transferred to non pay budget items.
If the shortage of Correctional Officers is due to the lack of people willing to work for a given rate of pay then do as the fast food and hospitality industry does - hire foreign workers. We all know they are used extensively in Ocean City and the chicken plants, why not hire foreign Correctional Officers. They would probably work for $20,000 a year and like it. A few good Singapore or Chinese Correctional Officers would do wonders for the inmate population.
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Maryland Minimum Wage
The State of Maryland recently raised the minimum wage to $6.15 an hour. This is a $1.00 increase over the old rate. It has long been my feeling that the minimum wage should be $10.00 an hour. Using simple numbers lets look at what $6.15 an hour will pay for or rather won't pay for.
If the person works 40 hours a week for 52 weeks that person will make $12,792, less social security and taxes of $1,279 will net the person $11,513 to pay expenses. Lets say this person rents a mobile home for $600 a month ($7,200 a year). The person pays $800 a year for electric for lights, hot water , and cooking. Another $300 is paid for fuel oil to heat the mobile home. Given $3,650 a year for food, $500 for shoes, clothing and cleaning the clothes, $250 for haircuts and personal hygiene items, $150 for cleaning supplies and misc, $480 for a cell phone. A car is a large expense, but how are you going to get around on the Eastern Shore without one? Lets say $150 car payment ($1,800 a year), car insurance of $600 a year, gas of $1,000 a year and car maintenance of $300 a year. This will total $17,030 in after tax income. If we bump it up 10% for taxes and social security the person will require about $9.09 an hour versus the $6.15 the State of Maryland says you can live on. It means you could never get sick, no internet access, no catv etc and no eating at Liquid Assets in Ocean City.
Let's compare out $6.15 an hour worker to the economics of another Eastern Shore Blogger. The blog site "Justice For All" by Hadley Baxendale on January 10th discussed going to Ocean City for lunch and spending $315 on lunch. In all fairest it was for two people.
If the person works 40 hours a week for 52 weeks that person will make $12,792, less social security and taxes of $1,279 will net the person $11,513 to pay expenses. Lets say this person rents a mobile home for $600 a month ($7,200 a year). The person pays $800 a year for electric for lights, hot water , and cooking. Another $300 is paid for fuel oil to heat the mobile home. Given $3,650 a year for food, $500 for shoes, clothing and cleaning the clothes, $250 for haircuts and personal hygiene items, $150 for cleaning supplies and misc, $480 for a cell phone. A car is a large expense, but how are you going to get around on the Eastern Shore without one? Lets say $150 car payment ($1,800 a year), car insurance of $600 a year, gas of $1,000 a year and car maintenance of $300 a year. This will total $17,030 in after tax income. If we bump it up 10% for taxes and social security the person will require about $9.09 an hour versus the $6.15 the State of Maryland says you can live on. It means you could never get sick, no internet access, no catv etc and no eating at Liquid Assets in Ocean City.
Let's compare out $6.15 an hour worker to the economics of another Eastern Shore Blogger. The blog site "Justice For All" by Hadley Baxendale on January 10th discussed going to Ocean City for lunch and spending $315 on lunch. In all fairest it was for two people.
Wind and Rain
Well for the past few days Delmar has had high winds, rain and some light snow. In my walks around Delmar, tree limbs are down, some vinyl siding is tore from houses, and the storm water drainage system is clogged due to leaves and debris in the streets. Some flooding could have been prevented by scheduled street sweepings. At my house I had an aluminum canoe blown from it rack over into my lilac bushes, a few tree limbs flung to the ground, and a metal trellis blown over. But the bright side is the temperatures for most days have remained above normal, which means less fuel oil being used.
Monday, January 16, 2006
Martin Luther King Jr Day
As an older, white, native, Easternshoreman I naturally have mixed emotions over Martin Luther King Jr day. The main organizations that actually observe it as a holiday seem to be those that are supported by taxpayers or heavily government regulated business. If we say Martin Luther King Jr represents the civil right movement in America than I can truly say no other person impacted my social social enviroment more than him. Over the years from the 1940's until now I have seen an improvement in the way people are treated, given a little more opportunity and a little more respect. I have not agreed with some some of the steps taken to make this happen, but it has happened and I would like to say it is behind us. I think America in some respects has improved.
Saturday, January 14, 2006
Delmarva Model Railroad Club
I went by the Delmarva Model Railroad Club Open House today. As we in town know it is in Camelot Hall, second floor, where they have a permanent display of train tracks and trains. It looked like they had a good turnout of people. Their displays of trains sets and landscaping is just amazing. It is one of the more positive features of Delmar.
It brings to mind my first encounter with the phrase "Christmas Garden". I am sure I was well into my 40's and a Baltimore person mentioned they had set up their Christmas Garden. Being someone who is interested in flowers and Christmas is somewhat of a dead time for gardens I asked what he had planted. Well, it turns out in Baltimorian language Christmas Garden is a train set. What can you expect from people that have sauerkraut with turkey at Thanksgiving.
It brings to mind my first encounter with the phrase "Christmas Garden". I am sure I was well into my 40's and a Baltimore person mentioned they had set up their Christmas Garden. Being someone who is interested in flowers and Christmas is somewhat of a dead time for gardens I asked what he had planted. Well, it turns out in Baltimorian language Christmas Garden is a train set. What can you expect from people that have sauerkraut with turkey at Thanksgiving.
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Secrecy in Government
Todays NewsJournal has an article on the problems the Delaware Manufactured Home Owners Associations is having in bring a bill to the floor of the Delaware General Assembly. It does bring to light an issue I have always had with Government acting behind closed doors. The Federal Government is a prime offender of this and it has gone on so long, and public apathy is so great it will probably continue. In Delaware the General Assembly has it's exemption from the Freedom of Information Act. I think it is time to vote Senator Thurman Adams out of office. In Delmar I have seen an increase in closed door sessions. It has increased even more since Mayor John Outten was made Mayor. I am told by Sara Byrum King that it is all legal as it is discussions on contracts and annexations etc. Perhaps it is one reason why when a motion is made to annex etc the council appear to be already in agreement with one another. No doubt these matters were decided without any public input unless you consider input from Real Estate Developers in closed sessions as public input. I believe that if you are spending taxpayer's money everything should be public. This includes salaries of town employees, contracts that are being made, budget workshops etc.
A few years back my wife and I would attend the Delmar school district meetings. I guess we made too many comments as George Stone had the meetings changed from a public meeting to a meeting held in public but no public comment was allowed. Yet the school district has no problem in asking for tax increases. Like sheep we are allowed to be sheared but have no say in how the wool will be used.
A Blog I would recommend is Paul Smith's which is at http://paulsmithjr.blogspot.com
A few years back my wife and I would attend the Delmar school district meetings. I guess we made too many comments as George Stone had the meetings changed from a public meeting to a meeting held in public but no public comment was allowed. Yet the school district has no problem in asking for tax increases. Like sheep we are allowed to be sheared but have no say in how the wool will be used.
A Blog I would recommend is Paul Smith's which is at http://paulsmithjr.blogspot.com
Tom Capano
An interesting event in the Delaware legal system, Tom Capano's death sentence was overturned. Tom Capano, an attorney, was convicted of killing Anne Marie Fahey back in 1996. I always found it interesting that he was convicted without ever producing a dead body. He was another person who bullied his way around Delaware thinking he was above moral and legal law. Now it would seem because the jury voted 11-1 that the murder was premeditated the Delaware Supreme Court has order a new resentencing. No doubt this will result in a life sentence instead of death. I have no doubt that eventually he will be freed. We have all seen this type of people constantly escaping any type of justice. Oliver North comes readly to mind. More locally is Frank Gulley, previous mayor on the Maryland side of town. In Frank's case he is receiving justice for his acts toward his stepdaughter. As for as I know he is still in Jail and should be.
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Delmar Apathy
One of many things that disturb me in the lack of public turnout to town meetings. Now last night at the police Commission meeting I seem to have to been the only one to attend it. Crime in Delmar is increasing and issues with the police have always existed. This would have been the time to make public comment and influence the direction the police force is taking. With the annexation that has taken place on the Maryland side of town and the new annexation on the Delaware side of Town, that Mayor Outten will push through, you would think new residents would be interested in attending. Twenty years ago when I was a councilman and mayor, the number of people who attended town meetings was about the same - one or two at best. If the only people who show up to meetings are real estate developers than the only side of the story the Town council will hear is the Real Estate Developer side. The council will go along with what they say. Most people seem to think that if they express their opinion on the street to a councilperson than that is the same as attending a meeting and making comment to the entire council. It is not. I can only encourage everyone to attend the meetings and find out what is going on in Delmar before an issue is voted on and decided. To appear before the council to disagree with a decided matter has considerably less influence than showing up and disagreeing before the issue is put to a vote. With the lack of newspaper coverage we have of Delmar meetings the only way to find out what is happening is to attend the meetings. I know the meetings are frequently long and boring and at times it appear the mayor and council are not interested and have already made their minds up on a matter, but it is part of a citizen's duty to control the direction the town should go in.
The apathy extends to the number of people who turn out to vote in town elections. I have always felt that if you had 50 people in Delmar who would vote in the direction you were interested in you could fill the town council and mayor position and control the town. By not voting you ensure this will happen.
The apathy extends to the number of people who turn out to vote in town elections. I have always felt that if you had 50 people in Delmar who would vote in the direction you were interested in you could fill the town council and mayor position and control the town. By not voting you ensure this will happen.
Early Police Commission Meeting
I attended the Police Commission meeting in Delmar last night. In spite of it advertised time of 6:30 when I walked in at 6:25 the meeting was well in progress. I was the only member of the public to sign the "sign in" log, so I guess if there is no public you can start whenever you want. I will be curious to see in the offical minutes what time will be shown as the start time. I guess the advertised start time is just a suggested start time like the suggested selling price on merchandise. Anyway Town Manager Sara Bynum King, Delaware Mayor John Outten, Delaware Councilperson Diane Buckley, and Maryland Mayor Douglas Niblett were the Police Commission. Police Chief Hal Sayler discussed the shift schedule and overtime while I was there. This seem to be a constant discussion item in all the public safety organizations discussions elsewhere I have attended. He than gave the Commission a report on his resouce needs for the next five years and that ended the meeting.
Monday, January 09, 2006
Delmar Monopoly
I stopped by Delmar Liquor store today to get my lottery ticket. They are doing a great job on the building. I think Dave Trice owns it. Makes the old down town buildings across the railroad track really look bad. I understand he is looking at renting the back part of the building to a cigarette outlet. Alcohol and tobacco certainly go together.
The Police Commission meets tonight at 6:30.
Since the Maryland and Delaware elected town officials have decided to drop having separate town meeting and go for one long drawn out joint meeting, I have not been attending them. I did stop by town hall today and pick up copies of the last approved minutes (November 1) of the Joint Council meeting. Two items are interesting first Stan Benson, a Planning and Zoning Commission member, asked why the Town's Web Page was not updated (see a previous post I did on the Town website) . Town Manager Sara Bynum King said changes to the computer capability were required before the website could be complete. Now I certainly plea ignorance on a number of things, website maintenance being one of them. I would think with the number of Town employees we have one of them should know something about it. If not an employee, someone in the Town I am sure would volunteer. Website design is one thing, but I would think maintenance would be easier.
The second item may be more serious. In the November 1st joint council meeting Mayor (I have never seen an annexation I didn't like) Outten appointed his wife Rochelle Outten to the Planning and Zoning Commission. This assures him of having an additional vote and input on any new annexation the Town of Delmar Delaware may entertain. This should certainly smooth the way for developers to pass on the expense of building to the taxpayers of Delmar. We will wait and see how this goes.
The Police Commission meets tonight at 6:30.
Since the Maryland and Delaware elected town officials have decided to drop having separate town meeting and go for one long drawn out joint meeting, I have not been attending them. I did stop by town hall today and pick up copies of the last approved minutes (November 1) of the Joint Council meeting. Two items are interesting first Stan Benson, a Planning and Zoning Commission member, asked why the Town's Web Page was not updated (see a previous post I did on the Town website) . Town Manager Sara Bynum King said changes to the computer capability were required before the website could be complete. Now I certainly plea ignorance on a number of things, website maintenance being one of them. I would think with the number of Town employees we have one of them should know something about it. If not an employee, someone in the Town I am sure would volunteer. Website design is one thing, but I would think maintenance would be easier.
The second item may be more serious. In the November 1st joint council meeting Mayor (I have never seen an annexation I didn't like) Outten appointed his wife Rochelle Outten to the Planning and Zoning Commission. This assures him of having an additional vote and input on any new annexation the Town of Delmar Delaware may entertain. This should certainly smooth the way for developers to pass on the expense of building to the taxpayers of Delmar. We will wait and see how this goes.
Sunday, January 08, 2006
Food Lion
I stopped by Food Lion today to pick up a few items. They refurbished Food Lion a while back and made a mess of it. It looks nice but it has less basic food selection and higher prices. Instead of increasing customers the change has probably drove more to Wal Mart to shop.
The checkout clerks attitude really varies. The High School and College Students that work there for the most part I don't mind. Frankly, they are young enough you don't expect anything of them. The older women that works there do bother me. They not friendly, and a couple seem to go around acting like they have a corn cob stuck up their ass. The older ones are the ones the should set an example for the younger ones. I think things were better when Mr. Owens was manager. Now there was someone who didn't have a life. You could go in at 8 in the morning and he was there. You could go in at 8 at night and he was there. You could go in at 2 in the morning and he was there. If I was an employer he is the one I would hire as he gave at least 110%. Speaking of Food Lion employee with no life; Casie is one. Casie works on College breaks and Food Lion is her life.
The checkout clerks attitude really varies. The High School and College Students that work there for the most part I don't mind. Frankly, they are young enough you don't expect anything of them. The older women that works there do bother me. They not friendly, and a couple seem to go around acting like they have a corn cob stuck up their ass. The older ones are the ones the should set an example for the younger ones. I think things were better when Mr. Owens was manager. Now there was someone who didn't have a life. You could go in at 8 in the morning and he was there. You could go in at 8 at night and he was there. You could go in at 2 in the morning and he was there. If I was an employer he is the one I would hire as he gave at least 110%. Speaking of Food Lion employee with no life; Casie is one. Casie works on College breaks and Food Lion is her life.
Kenny and Erin Got Married
Congratulations to Kenny and Erin who got married yesterday. I understand it was a very nice wedding and reception. My oldest daughter Megan came home from college to attend. Megan should be going back to college today. She is excite over her internship with the family court system in Wilmington.
Weight Loss Miracle
No not me, I am just as fat as ever. A friend of our's, Gale, has succeeded in losing ten pounds. She it did it thru walking four miles a day and, that dreaded word, dieting. Considering it follows right after the Christmas holiday eating marathon, it truely is a miracle. If she can do it, God knows I can, so I guess it back to pumping iron (those 5 pound dumbars).
Friday, January 06, 2006
FREE LUNCHES FOR WICOMICO COUNTY EMPLOYEES
The DUVAFILES (http://duvafiles.blogspot.com) on the 4th had a comment on the free lunches given Wicomico County Detention Center employees. For the five years I was an employee of Wicomico County at the Detention center it was true. The county pays about $35,000 a year to provide lunches to Detention center employees. Not just employees but pretty much anyone who goes into the officer's dinning room at lunch time and gets in the serving line can be served.
DELMAR TOWN WEBSITE
I looked at the Town of Delmar website (http://town.delmar.md.us) this morning and found it still had not been updated. Back in March or April of 2005 I brought this to the attention of Sara Bynum King, our town manager. At that time she said once the budget was approved attention would be given to the website. Obviously she did not tell me the truth. A properly done website can be an asset to the community. One that has three year old data on it is not only useless but reflects poorly on the town.
Trip to Delaware Public Archives
Yesterday I fired up my old Dodge Omni and drove to Dover to research records at the Delaware Public Archives. I gassed up in Laurel at $2.239 a gallon for regular. I should have waited until I got to Seaford and gassed up at the "Tru Blu" station which was selling regular for $2.189 a gallon.
I have been on a five year break from my family tree research. In the last five years remarkable free access to the internet genealogy data has been made available. I have never been able to justify paying the $300 a year membership to access the genealogy internet websites. I discovered the Delaware Public archives has free access to a genealogy website and the Wicomico County Free Library allows you to enter their website than pass through to another genealogy website. Now I can do some research from home. All the hours I spent trying to read microfilm records of census data and going blind doing it can now be done in a few minutes.
I have been on a five year break from my family tree research. In the last five years remarkable free access to the internet genealogy data has been made available. I have never been able to justify paying the $300 a year membership to access the genealogy internet websites. I discovered the Delaware Public archives has free access to a genealogy website and the Wicomico County Free Library allows you to enter their website than pass through to another genealogy website. Now I can do some research from home. All the hours I spent trying to read microfilm records of census data and going blind doing it can now be done in a few minutes.
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
West Virginia Miners
My heart goes out to the relatives of the miners killed in Tallmansville, West Virginia. It looks like the reporters there and on the network TV's are trying to stir up something. When people are griefing I doubt they need a microphone shoveled in their face asking them questions. The reporter I saw on CBS at the church site looked like some freak they shipped down from New York City. Heavy eye makeup etc, didn't look like someone from West Virginia.
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
Trash Day
The weather is still mild. The Delmar school system had a one hour fog delay.
Today is Trash Day in Delmar, Delaware. Not a day of talking trash - well maybe a little - but trash pickup day. Being a natural born scavenger, trash day and my morning walks are a great combination. The truth is the trash days following Christmas and New Years are poor pickings. The trash is mostly gift boxes, packaging, old wreaths, etc. It does however give you an insight into what the people of Delmar did between the last trash day and today. The trash today was mostly Christmas packaging material with a large amount of home improvement trash (drywall joint compound buckets, molding, scraps of boards, etc) and the usual Pizza boxes, empty beer cans and liqueor bottles (Delmar is not a wine sipping town - it is a straight blue collar town).
Until last July the Town Trash was picked up by the Town employees. The Town has now contracted with a private contractor - BFI- to pick up the trash. It is a vast improvement over the town picking up trash. Let's face it, as a resident you haul the trashcans to the sidewalk on trash day and by evening time you expect for it to be gone. When the Town picked up the trash about half the time they would reject it for one reason or another. If you had three trashcans and one had a trash bag protruding over the top of the trashcan the Town would leave all three trashcans with a note saying it did not meet their trash collection regulations. BFI just picks up the trash and it is gone. The other difference between municipal employees trash pickup and a private contractor trash pickup is the number of people involved. The Town had six town employees riding the trash truck. One was just the driver and the other five hung on the sides of the trash truck. BFI has two people, one drives until the next group of trash cans than jumps out and helps the other one load trash. So with six town employees freed up from trash collection for over six months why does the Town still look like a dump?
Today is Trash Day in Delmar, Delaware. Not a day of talking trash - well maybe a little - but trash pickup day. Being a natural born scavenger, trash day and my morning walks are a great combination. The truth is the trash days following Christmas and New Years are poor pickings. The trash is mostly gift boxes, packaging, old wreaths, etc. It does however give you an insight into what the people of Delmar did between the last trash day and today. The trash today was mostly Christmas packaging material with a large amount of home improvement trash (drywall joint compound buckets, molding, scraps of boards, etc) and the usual Pizza boxes, empty beer cans and liqueor bottles (Delmar is not a wine sipping town - it is a straight blue collar town).
Until last July the Town Trash was picked up by the Town employees. The Town has now contracted with a private contractor - BFI- to pick up the trash. It is a vast improvement over the town picking up trash. Let's face it, as a resident you haul the trashcans to the sidewalk on trash day and by evening time you expect for it to be gone. When the Town picked up the trash about half the time they would reject it for one reason or another. If you had three trashcans and one had a trash bag protruding over the top of the trashcan the Town would leave all three trashcans with a note saying it did not meet their trash collection regulations. BFI just picks up the trash and it is gone. The other difference between municipal employees trash pickup and a private contractor trash pickup is the number of people involved. The Town had six town employees riding the trash truck. One was just the driver and the other five hung on the sides of the trash truck. BFI has two people, one drives until the next group of trash cans than jumps out and helps the other one load trash. So with six town employees freed up from trash collection for over six months why does the Town still look like a dump?
Monday, January 02, 2006
First Illegitimate Baby of the Year
Our local paper and TV station reported the first local baby of 2006 being born. Once again the child seem to be illegitimate. Over the past 20 years only about 1 in 4 babies reported as first born of the New Year in our local area seem to have parents that are married. It certainly is not the child's fault but the parents can certainly be faulted. There is a continuing lack of responsibility on the part of people, who based on age should be adults but continue to act as irresponsible children.
For a few years I worked at the local jail. I continually would receive phone calls from mothers asking how they could improve their son's living conditions in jail. I was sorely tempted to tell them to leave their son alone and let him assume responsibility for his actions and perhaps he would finally become a man as opposed to a constant whinner who called his mother to get him out of trouble. I am not talking about the person with one arrest, but people who at age 21 had been in jail five times already.
My oldest daughter is returning to the University of Delaware today. With luck she will graduate this spring. Her mother and I will have paid over $50,000 for her 4 years of education. We have had to make numerous sacrifices for her to be there. A friend of my daughter was pregnant at 16. The state and federal government paid for her college education because she was a single mother. She finally dropped out of college when she was pregnant the second time. No doubt the government will continue to provide for her and her child so her, nor the fathers of her children, will have to accept any responsibility for their actions.
For a few years I worked at the local jail. I continually would receive phone calls from mothers asking how they could improve their son's living conditions in jail. I was sorely tempted to tell them to leave their son alone and let him assume responsibility for his actions and perhaps he would finally become a man as opposed to a constant whinner who called his mother to get him out of trouble. I am not talking about the person with one arrest, but people who at age 21 had been in jail five times already.
My oldest daughter is returning to the University of Delaware today. With luck she will graduate this spring. Her mother and I will have paid over $50,000 for her 4 years of education. We have had to make numerous sacrifices for her to be there. A friend of my daughter was pregnant at 16. The state and federal government paid for her college education because she was a single mother. She finally dropped out of college when she was pregnant the second time. No doubt the government will continue to provide for her and her child so her, nor the fathers of her children, will have to accept any responsibility for their actions.
Sunday, January 01, 2006
New Year's Day
It is a pleasant day in Delmar today. As with most New Year days, it is quiet with little movement from the populous. The weather is excellent, temperatures in the 50's with very little breeze, that should be good for my fuel oil bill. In my morning walk in Delmar I saw most Christmas displays are still up. Since it is warm today I suppose later this afternoon I will see some people taking them down. Some people, who still have "real" christmas trees have put them by the sidewalk for Tuesday's trash pickup. The leaves and other trash is still in the streets, as the Town of Delmar has not sweep the streets in well over a year. I noticed some people have sweep the street gutters in front of their houses. I think it is somewhat wimpy of them since they have paid the town for street maintenance but they don't have the backbone to stand up and demand the town provide the services. It is like people who home school their children because they find the public school system is unacceptable. Instead of changing the school system they continue paying both the school taxes and the expense of home schooling. In my walk this morning I encountered a rabbit standing in the middle of the sidwalk. It didn't run away until I was within four feet of it. I was starting to have recollections of Jimmy Carter being attacked by the rabbit until the creature ran away.
