Delmar DustPan

The Delmar Nursing and Rehabilitaion Center on 101 East Delaware Avenue in Delmar Delaware.

This nursing home has been around since the early 1970's. I have not been able to find out when it was first built or what it was first called. The first name I knew it as was Shangrila Nursing Home. Nursing homes are like banks and they go thru a number of ownership changes. Since Shangrila it was The Harrison House, then the Chancellor Care Center. For the past year it has been the Delmar Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. It is licensed for 109 beds and it is one of the largest employers in Delmar.

Since it has become Delmar Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, a year ago, it has improved in the Delaware Nursing Home Annual Survey Rating Also at Delmar Nursing home Rating

There is a gender related theory that every man is a Carpenter and every woman is a Cook. As we know that is an incorrect theory as once again I have proven it's falsehood in building a bookshelf. To give the reader an insight into my lack of carpentry skills; when I was in Wicomico Senior High School in the 1950's the woodworking instructor, Mr Nicholas Guilliano, said on my presentation of the final woodworking project for the year "You know Howard this is the last year Woodworking is a requirement, after this year it is an elective and you will never have to take woodworking again". Guilliano was obviously a prophet, as over the last 40 some years I have made a mess out of a lot of lumber. Never less there is a corner of my house in which a small bookshelf would fit and the dimensions were such that I would have to have it built or build it myself. What is a bookshelf but a couple boards nailed together? After a day or so of cussing, banging, and bleeding it is complete. I will admit it is crude looking, however it fits well in my 90 year old house in which nothing is plumb, level, or square. As a result of my lack of skills in the manual arts I have the utmost respect for masons and carpenters. They must have the most fulfilling jobs of any of us. Long after they have passed away their works lives on. I am sure after I have passed away my daughters will look at this bookcase and wonder why I would ever build something like this.

Well it has finally happened a Delmarva Newspaper has the photograph of someone who achieved success by way of smarts instead of being an athletic game player. David Walter ,as everyone must know, won a "Jeopardy" Teen tournament. David Walter (17) is from Brandywine Hundreds, that in Delaware folks.

While sitting in a Doctor's waiting room yesterday, I thumbed thru the February issue of Metropolitan magazine and saw they had an article on Delmar. Well, actually, it was an article about Delmar businesses that had brought ads in their magazine and and they concocted an article to mention them in. Oh well, anything that mentions Delmar is always good.

In today's paper (The NewsJournal) was an article on Adam J. Levinson of Wilmington. Levinson committed fraud on the company he managed and was part owner of. He stole over $500,000 and spent it on a car, country club membership, Florida and Europe vacation trips, repairs to his home, and repayment of personal loans.

Chief District Judge Sue L. Robinson decided since his victim was a business entity that had resolved it differences with Levinson, (not according to the company) and jail time would cost both society and Levinson family and did not seen to serve a purpose in this case. She ordered Levinson to serve six months home confinement, perform 100 hours of community service and repay the company $177,000. Another example of a sentence that lacks a meaningful deterrent impact (according to Attorney Bob Stauffer) .

U.S. Attorney Colm F. Connolly said of the case: “Corporate executives who lie about the profitability of their companies to fool investors are thieves, pure and simple. For our economy to prosper, investors – whether financial institutions, companies, or individual shareholders – need to be able to trust and rely on the accuracy of financial reports in making informed investment decisions. When a corporate official takes advantage of investors’ trust in him and his company and deliberately falsifies financial records, he should expect to pay significant legal consequences.” Colm Connolly is of course known for his work on the Tom Capano case several years back.

One of the many candidates for the three open seats on the Salisbury, Maryland city council is John Atkins. No, not Delaware State Representative John C. Atkins who is famous for beating a DUI rap in Ocean City, this is John B. Atkins of Salisbury. No doubt his campaign will be marred often by the confusion of the two names. Duvalies made the mistake and I don't think ever corrected it. Now I can't imagine anyone wanting to be on the Salisbury City Council - let's face it it is very close to a clown show. I don't know what John's platform is and I haven't seen much advertising for him. The times I have talked with him he seemed like a good guy, like I said I don't know why he would want to run for Salisbury City Council. Anyway the primary is February 27th, if you live in Salisbury John deserves a look at.

Susan Picking Crab Legs
Susan has a birthday today. She is 19, the last year as a teenager.

I stopped by the 43rd Salisbury Coin Club show at the Wicomico County Youth and Civic Center today. In addition, the Eastern Shore Stamp Club and a Post Card show was being held. Great events and it looked like all were well attended. Amazing to see those Silver dollars we actually used as a dollar in the 1950's going for the prices they are asking. I wonder how much the crap we have as currency today will be sold for in the future. Should be worth as much as those German Marks from the 1920's and 30's.

Earlier this week Janet Parks, of Berlin, was arrested for alleged embezzlement from Fowler Construction Company. She allegedly embezzled between $63,000 to $100,000 from the company by issuing herself a credit card in the company's name. No doubt she will get 6 months in jail and the rest of the time will be probation. She will be required to pay the money back, which she probably won't do. White collar crime is the least punished crime. Had she had $63,000 of illegal drugs on her and she would do ten years, but the court system figures the only one she hurt was her employer so she will bearly notice the time she does. I would guess she was paid $25,000 to $30,000 a year and she stole $63,000 so she actually made out better than working if she just gets six month (six months of jail time would be the equivalent of $126,000 a year tax free. The embezzlement cases that make the newspapers is but a very small number of the actual cases that occur. Most people just want their money back. The bad thing is so many embezzlement cases are non profit groups, such as high school sport support groups, band support groups, PTA's, Boy scout and girl scout troops.

Rebecca turned 29 on February 7th. Happy birthday Rebecca!!!

On February 6, 2007 my wife's niece gave birth to a daughter, Elia Lynde Mason. Congratulations Jeremy and Rebecca Howard Mason!!

There has been a great deal of talk about the impact Blackwater Creek development will have on Delmar. With a planned 1,179 homes, a golf course, and some business it certainly will have an impact, but it will be a positive impact. The drama given by the Delmar town government is a bit over board however. To hear them talk next year we will see the full impact of this development. Lets put a little reality in here. Which 1,000 plus home development do you know of, that has ever been fully completed as planned? None that I know of, but perhaps a reader out there knows of one. Even Ocean Pines has been building for 40 years and is no where near complete. I think over the next ten years you will see perhaps 700 homes completed and that is if the housing market has improved over what it currently is. This will give everyone sufficient time to absorb the impact of Blackwater Creek. I would guess the golf course and first group of 100 homes is at least two years away if not three years away. After that an average (allowing for market conditions) of about 70 homes a year would be built.

I think everyone knows how approvals for developments are handled. They are worked on long before any official approval action starts. Agreements are made out of the public eye than one day it appears on the agenda of Planning and Zoning, than the next day it is approved in council session. That is the way annexation is handled in the Town of Delmar, so it should come as no great surprise to the town of Delmar that the same method was used by the Blackwater Creek developers in Sussex County. The real complain should be against governments that use executive sessions as a means to hide things from the citizens.

Let me say that I am not a friend of developers as I view them the same as I view Used Car salesman - rarely do you get the entire truth. This development will however becomes a reality and it is outside the Town jurisdiction so it is best to live with it and make the best of it. We don’t live in an isolated world so I certainly am aware Blackwater Creek will have an impact on us, that impact will not be immediate and we will have time to plan on how to handle it and take advantage of it.

The Post Office - Let’s fact it, with the developments already approved in the town limits of Delmar the Post Office will be over run. Add Blackwater Creek to it and it is just more problems. Those problems would occur anyway with the number of houses already approved by the Delmar Town Council for developments in the town limits. There was not a great outcry from the Town Council about the Post Office as long as they were the ones approving the increased usage so I think it is strange now for them to be using the Post Office as one of their reasons to fight against Blackwater Creek.

The school - Again, the impact of the approved developments in the Town limits of Delmar will require a new school to be built. As mentioned before on this blog the present school was too small the day it opened so I think we can figure it will continue to be too small as long as we live here. So lets look at the additional children Blackwater Creek will bring into the school. Somewhere, I think Diane Buckley mentioned that each housing unit would add .83 of a child to a school. I don’t know if that is right or not but using that number I would say in about two to three years perhaps 83 kids will come from Blackwater Creek to Delmar school. After three years, if the development has success, perhaps another 83 will be added each year. It certainly is less than the planned development impact of approved housing in the town limits of Delmar.

Lets be honest about the school in Delmar, does anyone really think that at the time the 6th grade was moved to Delmar that was not the first step to removing Delaware children from the Maryland school system. When that removal is complete it will be far more of an impact on Delmar than Blackwater Creek ever would have.

The Streets - The main street the residents and construction crews for Blackwater Creek will use will be State Street. I certainly think there will be an impact on that street, as there will be on RT 54 west of town. In addition the State of Maryland will be hit hard for traffic on Log Cabin Road and the continuation of Route 54 to Route 50. Noise, heavy trucks, increased traffic, it probably will take forever to cross State from Pennsylvania Avenue and the increased vibration will probably knock that Legates property on the corner of State and Pennsylvania over, which will be a blessing. State is however a public street and I think State and Route 54 is a State(s)/Counties maintained road, so beside increased traffic, which is the purpose of a street, what will be the cost to the Town?

The Police -The town council currently is not providing the police department with enough officers to handle the developments that will occur in the town limits of Delmar. As I have spoken of earlier you are not going to have 1,179 homes built tomorrow so in the next couple of years you may have to occasionally send a Delmar Police Officer out to Blackwater Creek. In my years in Delmar the problem has always been that the Delmar police officers view Delmar as too boring and look for reasons to leave the town limits to assist in whatever may be more interesting. I think if there is excess of police calls to Blackwater that will be the reason as opposed to a real need. I am under the impression the Delaware State police is the police agency that residents of Blackwater should call for problems.

The Fire Department/ Ambulance service - The Fire Department is too busy trying to get a substation in the southern part of Delmar to stop the Salisbury Fire Station from taking over their territory to be concerned over Blackwater Creek. They may make puffing noise about it but they know the development impact is far off. I assume besides new members from Blackwater Creek they will collect money to service Blackwater the same as they currently do from everyone else.

The Library - The library has a problem. It allows Maryland residents to join the library and receives nothing from Maryland for this so over half of the users are not supporting the Library. Most of the new development is on the Maryland side of town and is the cause of increased use. I however do not see where the library is over used, with the exception of the computers. Beyond the weekend traffic it is not overcrowded when I visit it. The library would like for the town of Delmar to contribute more than just free water and sewer and those few thousand dollars they contribute. Since it is not part of the town government any money, that comes from town taxes, the town gives to the library is an involuntary contribution by the tax payers and should be unlawful.

Business, Churches, VFW, American Legion, and other Organizations -
Lets face it business is going to improve with Blackwater Creek being built. Once it is built and as it is being built, the liqueur store and shops on State should boom. The question should not be how to stop Blackwater Creek but “how can I get a piece of the action it is going to bring”. Maybe it is time for that fast food muskrat restaurant. The VFW, American Legion, Churches, Lion Club etc are all going to increase in size and activity from Blackwater Creek and other developments.

As a summary I would content that most of these organizations, with the exception of the library, felt that they were kingpins and any developer should come running to them for approval. In this case the developer ignored them and now they are too late to do anything, so they are puffing air trying to make like they are protecting the citizens of Delmar when in truth they didn’t get off their asses fast enough. A simple matter of too little too late. No doubt some attempt will be made by these groups to file a court order to stop the development but the development will win out.

Although I will hate the traffic it will bring an influx of new people and new ideals from the people that will live in the developments in the town limits, Country Grove, and Blackwater Creek. Delmar will be greatly improved.