Delmar DustPan

It was one of the more interesting council meetings. For those who may not have attended a Council meeting in a while, the Delaware Council decided to go to one meeting a month. Instead of a Delaware Council meeting and a Joint Council meeting now there is only one meeting a month and that is the Joint meeting. If you are only interested in the Delaware side it means you have to listen to the Maryland side of town problems also. There was about 40 to 50 people in attendance. Mostly were interested in the Woods Creek parking problem. The attitude of Mayor Outten and Mayor Nibblett dislike for the public attending meetings stood out. Any meeting that may go beyond 9PM seems to disturb them. When I attend the current meetings I think back to the "Old" days when Jimmy Smith was Mayor and we had two meetings a month and it was not unusual for them to run to 11 o clock at night, this current groups does not seem that interested in public discussions.

The Delaware side had a reading of Ordinance 139 which has to do with the process of fining people for not keeping their property neat. This Ordinance was bought up in the last joint Meeting. It was not read then, nor was it published in any newspaper. Mayor Outten again tried to get out of reading it but public comment finally put him in a position where he read it. I think the reason he didn't want to read it was it might delay the Mayor and council from getting out of the meeting early. I asked why if the Town had Ordinances for the Public to keep their property neat why didn't the Town clean the trash out of the gutters. I got the usual vague answers about the cost of services going up. I am sure the Delaware side of Town has not had the streets sweep in two years. The streets and gutters are the town responsibility and when we pay taxes we should expect those services to be provided.

John Johnson, President of the Chamber of Commerce, spoke for about ten minutes about ways to improve Delmar. He has apparently written a letter to the Mayors and councils about this. Many in the audience expressed a desire to have the letter read but both Mayors blow the audience and John Johnson off by saying there was not time to read it. They said it would be publish in the Town newsletter that would be forthcoming. Of note the meeting broke up at 9PM when the councils said they had an executive session to go into. It seems to me in an effort to keep things public the letter John Johnson wrote could have been read. This group we have in office seem more interested in getting out of a meeting instead of having a meeting.

The Woods Creek Parking issue was what most people were there for. It is a no win situation for all of the Wood Creek residents. Back when Wood Creek was being laidout there was a workshop with our town engineer Gerry Friedel (Davis Bowen and Friedel Inc). Gerry Friedel was also the Wood Creek engineer which seemed to me to be was a conflict of interest. At that time he said Wood Creek wanted to reduce the roads to 19 feet. He didn't have a problem with it and naturally the Mayors and councils went along with him. Luther Hitchens was there and he said the fire department didn't have a problem as they could get a Fire truck down those street. Well things have changed. It seems no one considered people parking on the street and now there is problem. Maryland Commissioner Carl Anderton has looked into the situation and I will say I was impressed with the job he did. It is however a situation where no one will be happy because the Town let down the citizens by allowing this to happen in the first place. Once again a Real estate developer told the Town how things would be. For a temporary period there will be nine parking spaces and no parking on the street outside of these areas.

As I said the meeting broke up at nine PM due to an executive session. Maryland Commissioner Carrie Williams said she had some comments but would hold them for now. I guess she didn't want to go beyond the critical 9PM cutoff time. I will be interested in hearing what both Williams and Anderton continue to say in the future as they both seem like good Commissioners.

Last night at the joint Council Meeting Trice, Geary and Myers, the town independent auditors, give their audit report for the year ending June 30, 2005. Now I know it is eight months after the ending of that year but the slowest is typical of government entities. To me the highpoints were; Cash in the bank is up from $464,027 in 2004 to $1,157,821 in 2005 and Revenue over expenses (Profit) is $521,718. Both are indicators of a strong Utility operation. It is also irritating that we would be doing so well and not give a rate reduction to the users of the utility system. For years we have paid for the exceed capacity of the water and sewer system in Delmar with the hopes that when additional people moved into the town our rates would go down. They have not. The Town Manager appears to be against it and God only knows what the Delaware and Maryland mayors think as they seem to have private plans they are not sharing with the public. At the end of 2005 we had over a half million dollars in the Utility Commission that was not needed to pay expenses.

Last night at the Utility Commission I recommended Tidewater Utilities as the private partner we would use to build and operate a Waste Water treatment plant east of US13. In John Outten on going attempts to be Mayor of a larger spot on the map his annexation is slowing down due to the lack of sewage capacity on the present Waste Water Treatment plant. Artesian and Tidewater Utilities, two Delaware Private Water Companies, were invited to propose how they might build and operate a waste water treatment plant for the newly annexed areas. Both companies are about equal. I would say Artesian is an older Delaware company and a little stronger, but in the presentation Tidewater had done more reseach in the proposed area. Based on that, I recommended Tidewater. After the meeting broke up last night I was talking to Allen Fleetwood of Artesian and I explained my reasons for selecting Tidewater. He said he understood however, Artesian was not given as much time to prepare for the presentation as Tidewater was given and that was the reason for the lack of depth at their presentation. So was Tidewater given an unfair advantage by Town hall in the time they had to prepare for the presentation or is Artesian just crying over sour grapes?

Based on the Delaware Sex Offender Registry the town of Delmar has 12 sex offenders living in it and one that works in the town limits. Out of the 12, 4 list addresses in Stage Village Trailer park.

The twelve are; Dennis Baldwin, Alvin Bales, Jesse Bowen, Carlos Bryant, Catherine Carey, Bryan Garnett, Charles Harris, Wayne Holmes, Scott Horseman, Tito Jones, Jeremy Kopp, and William Powell. Mario Ditomasso lives in Milton but works in Delmar.

In today's paper there were three separate large articles about rape and sex offense. Now in the case of Wicomico County Public Information Officer George Roache if it wasn't for the free lunch given by the Detention Center to anyone who walks thru the Dinning Hall door, George Roache would have probably never found his way to the Detention Center. The free lunch program costs the county about $36,000 a year. What was suppose to be perk for Correctional Officers turned into a free lunch for anyone. Next we will hear about how rough the budget is and how they desperately need more money. Public Safety in Wicomico County has the same waste and duplication as the Board of Education.

The other two rape cases involved 15 year olds and 9 year olds. It took the Wicomico County Sheriff's office a month to arrest the 15 year old. The 9 year old however has gone 6 months before he was arrested and was allowed to turn himself in. What is wrong with the Seaford Police Department on that one?

In the Sunday edition of the Daily Times there was an article about the ACLU examining election districts in Somerset County. There has been similar talks in Snow Hill. Some 20 years ago Somerset County redistricted their voting districts so as to ensure a black person was elected. It would appear no black person was elected. Now in order to even make another attempt they want to redistrict again. Hell, why doesn't the Federal Government just appoint a black person as representive of the district. Obviously any democratic voting system is a sham anyway since they have gerrymanded the voting districts around. The reason a black person is not voted in as often as the Naacp would like is because black people do not vote as often as non-black people. Simple as that. For those who doubt this, stand outside a voting station and compare the number of black people who vote to the number of non-blacks. Then compare your voting ratio to the percentage of blacks in that voting district. I am sure with the pathetic turnout of voters everywhere if black voters were to vote in a block they could put anyone they wanted into office. They only have to vote.

Brokeback Mountain is a movie I have not seen, nor is the likelyhood high I will see it. However another Blog called "Reluctant Nomad" had this grocery list for it and I thought it amusing enough to share with you.

Brokeback Mountain
Grocery lists for Ennis & Jack, summer 1962 on Brokeback Mountain
WEEK ONE
Beans, Bacon, Coffee, Whiskey

WEEK TWO
Beans, Ham, Coffee, Whiskey

WEEK THREE
Beans, Bacon, Coffee, Whiskey, K-Y

WEEK FOUR
Beans, Pancetta, Coffee (espresso grind), Whiskey, 2 tubes K-Y

WEEK FIVE
Fresh Java beans, Jasmine rice, Prosciutto, approx. 8 ounces, thinly sliced, Medallions of veal, Porcini mushrooms, 1/2 pint of heavy whipping cream, 1 Cub Scout uniform, size 42 long, 5-6 bottles good Chardonnay, 1 large bottle Astro-glide, dildo

WEEK SIX
Yukon Gold potatoes, Heavy whipping cream, Asparagus (very thin), Eggs, Lemons, Gruyere cheese (well aged), Walnuts, Arugula, Unsalted Butter, Olive oil, Balsamic vinegar, 6 yards white silk organdy, 6 yards pale ivory taffeta, Case of Chardonnay, Large tin Crisco and tub of Albolene, gloves, moisturizer, toner and cleanser

As A reminder the Planning and Zoning meeting is tomorrow night (Thursday the 23th) at 7 Pm. On the 27th at 6:30 is the Utiliy meting and at 7Pm is the joint council meeting. Since we no longer have a Delmar Delaware council meeting you will have to listen to the Maryland side of town woes mixed in with the Delaware problems.

Crocus have been blooming for the last week. Photo is not that good. Daffodils are on the verge of blooming.

While waiting in traffic this morning I noticed the "new' bridge they built to replace the "old" wooden bridge in the park. What a piece of shit. Compared to the old bridge it lacks any grace whatsoever. The only saving grace I can say about the new bridge is it looks better than that piece of shit pedestrian bridge next to Snow Hill Road.

Since I am always telling myself it is time to lose weight whenever I read the blog Graceful Yoga and Transitioning to Raw Food both makes you feel guilty about eating too much. My wife made eclairs last night that were excellent. Both Blogs are on Blogspot.com. A sampling of their more recent posts; from : "Graceful Yoga"

Quinoa
Thrusday:

9am grapefruit, coffee (with stevia and chocolate soymilk)

10:30 slice of rye bread toast with margarine and vegan parmesan (nutritional yeast blended with soaked almonds and sea salt)

1pm: yummy lunch: Portobello mushroom marinated in roasted garlic and balsamic vinegar, roasted and topped with a bit of ketchup, lettuce and tomato. Salad with lettuce, cherry tomato, broccoli, cauliflower, sprouted sunflower seeds and lemon juice.,

40min walk in the woods

3pm apple slices some with almond butter some with PB, and hemp seeds, glass of chocolate soymilk

7pm: This is the best Quinoa I have ever made. I cooked the quinoa in leftover seitan simmering broth (veggie broth, teriyaki sauce, onion flakes, peppercorns and bay leaf) topped with sautéed veggies (olive oil, onion, garlic, broccoli, red bell pepper, mushrooms, carrots, herbamare seasoning and pepper, fresh basil); 1 small baked sweet potato

Dessert: cappuccino cup with carob fudge sauce

Quinoa is a complete protein and loaded with magnesium here is an interesting fact World’s Healthiest Foods website, “Most commonly considered a grain, quinoa is actually a relative of leafy green vegetables like spinach and Swiss chard.” To read more about this “grain” click on the title above.

A sampling from "Transitioning to Raw Food":

I made it to bed before 9:30 last night. Twinkle woke me up rousting about at 5 something so I hollered at her and went back to sleep. I got up who knows when but it was in time to get ready for Sabbath School and church.

The weather had other ideas. When I looked outside it seemed okay but as soon as I put my foot on the step, I knew it wasn't. It was a solid sheet of ice. Not the kind you can walk on. I waited until a more reasonable hour and called one of the other organists. She wasn't sure she was going to be at church, either, so I called the pastor. He said for me to stay safe and make the best decision so I elected to stay at home.

Breakfast was OJ and some pineapple and then a banana/blueberry/spinach smoothie. Later on, I had a pear and after that, it was an organic orange the size of a small grapefruit.

I got out my spiral slicer and made some turnip "pasta". I have it soaking in lemon water even as I write. I need to have another fruit meal before I have my veggie meal so I'm going to fix a banana/kale smoothie. I may have some tomatoes, too.

I'll be checking back in later. This isn't it for the day yet.


Well that should make everyone else guilty too.

The handicap curbing/sidewalk is on Jones Terrace. Jones Terrace is the street where the Mayor lives and has recently been repaved. The street has no sidewalks, nor do any of the streets in Delmar Manor have sidewalks. So why would you have a handicap corner sidewalk that does not connect to any other sidewalk? I can't imagine a person in a wheelchair rolling across some one's yard so they can come off the handicap corner into the street. They usually roll down the street if there is no sidewalks. More taxpayer money spent oddly.

This brings to my mind the whole issue of sidewalks in Delmar. The "old" section of Delmar for the most part have sidewalks yet in the annexed areas, as Delmar manor, they have no sidewalks. There should be a requirement that all streets have sidewalks. It would be discrimintory if it is any other way. The residents in the 'Old" section of Delmar had to pay for sidewalks, so why shouldn't all the new housing developments be required to have sidewalks.

Delmar Manor was an interesting annexation. It was a housing development built as I recall in the 1950's. It was annexed into town at that time. The Mayor and Council and the builder of Delmar Manor had a disagreement. The Mayor told them Delmar manor would not be considered part of Delmar. For a 20 to 30 year period Delmar Manor houses were never taxed as being part of Delmar. This continued until the 1980's when there was another offical annexation of Delmar Manor into Delmar.

Jemmy, a stray cat who came to our house a number of years ago, died on February 15th. Jemmy was being treated for thyroid and blood pressure but due to her age was unable to overcome it. A private service and burial was held yesterday.

Susan turned 18 on Sunday. Hard to believe.

Delmar High School has great looking benches in front of their building. I assume they have been there awhile but I just had a reason to stop by the High School last week, so it was first time I saw them. The photo doesn't do justice to the orange color. Some benches are blue some are orange, all are very nice looking.

Last night my neighbor's car was hit by someone. As you can see some damage was done. It would seem after 9 PM at night there is an entirely different element on the streets of Delmar. It was reported to the police and they were by about 7AM this morning.

In todays Daily Times there was an article about a surplus of $13 Million in Wicomico County for FY2005. Remarkable. I have always been a supporter of Pat Petersen, the county Finance Director, but items pointed out in the article about delays in the county audit due to software and billing problems do concern me. As I recall these problems have been going on for about two years and should have been fixed at least a year ago. Well anyway there is 13 million dollars in money for the county council to spent madly and rapidily. I am sure they will. It will be like the old days for them when they acted like hogs at a trough feeding. God Bless Voice for getting the Revenue Cap put thru in 2000. Now it would be nice if someone is elected as county executive that acts like they got testicles and can stand up to the Board of Education and their run away spending.

As an additional note I heard on TV last night that Rehoboth Beach is going to hire some foreign policemen for the summer. See my previous post on hiring foreign correctional officers.

Last night my neighbor Joe died of a heartattack. He has been my neighbor for over 25 years. He was an active fire company member. He was my age and retired less than a year ago from the railroad. He will sorely be missed.

This weekend we have purchased more take out food than usual. We had a pizza from Delmar Pizza which always has good food. The problem is you can't find a place to park to pick the pizza up. I don't know how the stores between Delmar Pizza and Bonaza have any customers. Parking is such a problem at lunch time and supper time. Goodfellas Pizza is suppose to open February 15th. I wonder if a number of their customers won't be people who won't go to Delmar Pizza because they can't find a parking spot there.

We also purchased subs from the junior class at Delmar High schools. They were not very good subs. The roll was good but the meat and cheese was lacking.

Come tomorrow I am going to clean the living room.

Today in the Daily Times was an article about the Drill Academy and the refusal of the Maryland State Police and the Wicomico County Sheriff's Office to release to the public the records of the investigation of the Drill Academy. This is foolish of them as the questions concerning the Drill Academy and who created the mess are not going to go away. Wicomico County seems to like to investigate matters than keep the results under their hats. The county officials and employees are there to serve the public and it is time for the responsible people to be held accountable. It was their arrogant in ignoring the taxpayers of Wicomico County that created VOICE.

Once again today an oversized hamster will look for it shadow. Punxsutawey Phil will join 10,000 to 30,000 party people in Pennsylvania to predict the weather.

Perhaps with slightly less party people my neighbor Brenda will have a birthday today. Out of sympathy for her I will not say her age, but it is old. Brenda's Birthday and Groundhog day - a coincidence - I think not.

In addition to having a birthday Brenda has the additional distinction of being the oldest living Miss SkipJack Queen. Years and Years ago when she was a young thing and living in Deal's Island she was crown Miss SkipJack for the labor day skipjack races held there.

Absolute bullshit.