Delmar DustPan

I see there is some activity at the Old Mill Crab House In Delmar. It has an opening date of March 12th.

For those looking for a job, application day is February 23rd between 1 to 6, so show up in person and apply.

From the Bi-State Weekly 1958

BARBARA A. HASTINGS GRADUATES FROM BUSINESS COLLEGE

Miss Barbara Ann Hastings, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles W. Hastings of 905 State Street, Delmar, was a member of the semiannual graduating class of Goldey Beacon School of Business, Wilmington, Delaware, at exercises held on Friday, February 14.

The class consisted of 111 students, 13 of whom were veterans who studied under the Korean Educational Bill. The principal speaker at the exercises was Edwin P. Neilan, president of Equitable Security Trust Company, Wilmington.

Miss Hastings received an Associate in arts degree in the Executive Secretarial program.

It should be pointed out that the fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskavedekatriaphobia. We have another Friday the 13th next month and another in November. Altho 2009, the year of the Ox, is a power sign to the Chinese it is a year that only patience, tireless in your work, and capable of enduring any amount of hardship without complaint. No wonder it has three Friday the 13ths in it, it is too test us.

As we all drive thru Delmar we can see new things being done at the micro brewery in town. They have a blog called Evolution Craft Brewing Company which is, at the moment about half Twitter orientated. They are keeping us posted on construction and other "prep" work for a microbrewery.

Well my youngest daughter, Susan, turned 21 yesterday. She has always wanted to go to the casinos in Atlantic City and I have a niece who lives there, that I have not seen in years, so I combined the two events and we went went to Atlantic City yesterday.

I have not been on the Cape May - Lewes ferry in about ten years. The wind was strong. I think it would blow you off the ferry if you stayed outside in it. The best thing we could do was find a seat and sit down for the 80 minute ride. It was a rocking ride. The ferry holds 100 cars and a thousand passengers. Yesterday there were about 30 cars and maybe 60 passengers.

We hit about four Casinos. My niece, Tracy, works in Trump's Marina and was able to teach Susan how to play some of the games. As I have said before gambling holds no interest to me so I didn't play. Susan won about $45, which is better than losing $45.

We briefly went out on the boardwalk but, again, the wind would almost knock you over.

Naturally we had to go to Margate to see Lucy the Elephant

Wandered over from Lucy to the beach only to have the wind whip the sand into our faces.

Overall it was a good day for Susan and me. Susan is ready to hit the casinos again.

February 13, 1945 - The Allies began massive bombing raids on Dresden, Germany, starting a four day firestorm visible for 200 miles that engulfed the historic old city, killing an estimated 40,000 persons. If anything would be considered a war crime this bombing certainly would be.

It is interesting that the current fires in Australia has killed less than 200 people and the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said it amounted to "mass murder".

Marion "Moe" Bandy was born today in 1944. He had a few well known songs in the 1970's such as; Just Started Hatin' Cheatin' Songs Today, It Was So Easy to Find an Unhappy Woman, Bandy the Rodeo Clown, Hank Williams You Changed My Life, and Here I Am Drunk Again. Today he runs the Moe Bandy Americana Theatre in Branson, MO.

Students from Black Belt World in Delmar attended the Four Seasons Tournament held at the Heritage Shores in Bridgeville, DE on January 25th. This is the first of 4 tournaments for the year in which student accumulate points for year end awards. Students participated in events such as sparring, breaking, forms, demo & weapons. Students in photograph are as follows from left to right: Front row; Danny Williams, Gavin Arther, Vershawn Spence -Middle row; Michael Thompson, Christopher Elliott, Elijah Majors, Griffin Walls - Back Row; Kevin Bradshaw, Jonathon Smith, Jerone Medico, Storm Heckle, Dakota Scott- Top Right; Master Eric Thompson. These students placed top in their divisions and received martial arts weapons, not shown in photograph, instead of the traditional trophies.

Today, American inventor Thomas Edison (1847-1931) was born in Milan, Ohio. Throughout his lifetime he would acquire over 1,200 patents including the incandescent bulb, phonograph and movie camera.

Certainly the light bulb, phonograph and movie camera are amazing inventions but the one that has always amazed me is wax paper. I had always assumed wax paper had always existed so to me it is outstanding that someone invented it. As it turned out Edison like many people built on the works of others and took credit for them when in truth he was not the original one who invented it, wax paper being one of them.

"Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety nine percent perspiration."
Quote Thomas Edison

Today in 2006, Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and wounded Texas attorney Harry Whittington during a quail hunt in Texas.

Today in 1858, A French girl, Bernadette Soubirous, claimed to have seen a vision of the Virgin Mary near Lourdes, France.

Since today is the birthday of Thomas Edison and last night was a MAPP presentation of the transmission line they are proposing to built let me combine the two, historically, and talk about Edison and the DC/AC power wars.

In the early days of electrical power, direct current (DC) power, was used. Many of the farms in this area had the famous DELCO DC power system on them. All cities of the time used DC power. Edison backed DC power and his inventions worked off DC. In the 1880's an assistant of Edison's, Nikola Tesla, developed a way to use alternating current (AC) and it overcame the problem of transmitting the correct voltage over a long distant. George Westinghouse, American entrepreneur and engineer, backed Tesla and started the conversion from DC to AC thru out the country. This lead to the Edison - Westinghouse Wars.

Edison freaked out and in his fervor to come out ahead on the debate, Edison ordered dogs, cats and other animals electrocuted with AC in order to show the public the perils of AC current. In a media event, Edison also had Topsy the Elephant electrocuted by AC current after the rogue elephant had killed three men including her trainer.

As we know today Edison lost this battle with Westinghouse and we use AC current instead of DC current today.

The Mid-Atlantic Power Pathway (MAPP) project is proposing to add three High Voltage Direct Current lines (one megawatt of power on each line) to the existing AC transmission line. They will be 640KV DC lines. There will be a converter station at Calvert Cliffs Power Plant that will convert the AC to DC. The lines will go under the Chesapeake Bay and continue to New Jersey, crossing Delaware and will go pass Delmar. There will be additional converter stations at Vienna and Indian River to tap off the DC power and convert it AC for power consumption in that area.

High voltage direct current (HVDC) systems are used for bulk transmission of energy from distant generating stations or for interconnection of separate alternating-current systems. These HVDC systems use solid state devices that were unavailable during the edison/westinghouse era. Power is still converted to and from alternating current at each side of the modern HVDC link. The advantages of HVDC over AC systems for bulk transmission include higher power ratings for a given line (important since installing new lines and even upgrading old ones is extremely expensive) and better control of power flows, especially in transient and emergency conditions that can often lead to blackouts.

North of us is an example, the Cross Sound Cable, which is a 24-mile long HVDC submarine cable capable of transporting up to 330 Megawatts of direct current power in either direction between New Haven, Connecticut, to Shoreham, New York, on Long Island’s north shore. The cable is buried beneath the sea bed of the New Haven Federal Navigation Channel and Long Island Sound.

I see over on the DelDot Road Closures and Restrictions website Delmar's downtown section is on the list of Streets with restrictions beginning February 17th.

02/17/2009 to 05/17/2009 North Pennsylvania Avenue from Route 54/State Street to Grove Street (Town of Delmar Streetscape Improvements) Int. lane closures from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. for shoulder work, replacement of sidewalks, installing of ADA ramps, and hot mix overlay.

I attended the MAPP meeting tonight at the Delmar Fire Hall. As to be expected in Delmar it was poorly attended. About twenty people were there and a number of them drove in from other areas to listen to the presentation and ask questions. Once again they only had 30 chairs set up, in this case they guessed at the right number of chairs.

View of the crowd
I have posted before about this MAPP project. As far as the Delmar part of the power line, it will follow the existing right of way near Race Track road, north of the Delmar town limits. The main appearance change is the support posts will go from about 65 feet to 160 feet. Due to this there may be an issue with helicopters and low flying planes. Three high voltage Direct Current (DC) lines will be added to the existing AC line.

Vice Mayor Houlihan was the only elected official I saw at the meeting, at least he cares about Delmar.

Vince Maione, MAPP Project Manager gave the presentation tonight. Again it started about 6:30, lasted about 20 minutes and there was about 20 minutes of questions from the 20 people there.

A couple MAPP people answering questions.

A few additional things I found out is the right of way is about 150 ft wide but the poles are going to 160 feet high. The height is determined by an electrical consideration in isolating the power line from the earth. If they fall over they will fall out of the right of way.

Since the power lines are DC instead of AC they may effect compass reading in the Vincenty of the lines.

The current power line north of Delmar was built about 40 years ago.

For those people on the right of way the MAPP real estate people will be talking to them individually.

They are looking at having to acquire 27 to 30 miles of new Right of Way in Dorchester County. Dorchester County will be the area of the greatest resistance to this power line. A group, Dorchester Citizens for Safe Energy, has been formed to opposition to the project

They will need to acquire another 8 miles of right of way in New Castle County. Where it will go the 3 or so miles over the water to Salem Nuclear Plant.

50% of the power on the line will stay on Delmarva.

Opponents of the project seem to fall into two groups. One is afraid it will encourage more coal burning in states farther west and on Delmarva. The second group is afraid of the potential health risks to people and the effect of the power lines on the environment.



Upcoming meetings in Dorchester County are;

Thursday, February 19, 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Taylors Island Fire Hall, Rt. 16, Taylors Island, MD

Tuesday, February 24, 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m, Church Creek Fire Hall, Rt. 16, Church Creek, MD

Thursday, February 26, 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., E.A. Murphy Community Center, 104 Race St. Vienna, MD

From the Feb 10th, 1961 Edition of the Bi-State Weekly

For those interested in the Mid-Atlantic Power Pathway (MAPP) project there is a meeting Tuesday, February 10 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Delmar Fire Hall Bi-State Blvd. & Grove St. Delmar, Delaware. The powerlines that currently goes past Delmar will be enlarged to handle the new power requirements proposed by this Mid-Atlantic Power Pathway (MAPP) project.

Besides the need for these powerline there are other considerations such as the recent financing problems of the Blue Water wind turbine operation, the Indian River power station, possible eminent domain issues, and Carol A. Overland, Overland Law Office — Utility Regulatory and Land Use Advocacy on her blog points out a number of other issues. Her blog is a nice offset to the spin from Pepco on the Mid-Atlantic Power Pathway.

So come on out, you will at least get a snack and some pens and note pads.

The Greater Delmar Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring an Open Skate Night at the Old Skateland Building at 1305 N. Division Street in Salisbury MD on Friday February 13th. It is from 7 P.M. to 10 P.M. and cost $5.00 per person at the door - skates included. You do not have to be from Delmar to skate.

On Feb. 10, 1962, the Soviet Union exchanged captured American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers for captured Soviet spy Rudolph Ivanovich Abel. For those too young to know who they were, Francis Powers an American U-2 reconnaissance plane pilot who was shot down while making a high-altitude reconnaissance flight over the Soviet Union in May, 1960. He had plead guilty to espionage and was sentenced to ten years. Colonel Abel, a Russian spy, was convicted in the United States of espionage charges in 1957 and given a thirty-year sentence.

In classic 1960's style cold war drama, Powers and Abel were exchanged in the middle of the Glienicker Bridge at 2:52 A. M.. The Glienicker Bridge is between Wansee and Potsdam and the border between East Germany and West Berlin runs through the middle of the bridge.

It was sort of like the prisoner exchanges between the State of Maryland and the State of Delaware that occur in the middle of State Street in Delmar.

After the exchange Powers worked for Lockheed as a test pilot until 1970. He then became an airborne traffic reporter. In 1977 his helicopter ran out of fuel and crashed killing him and his camera man. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Colonel Rudolph Ivanovich Abel, whose real name was Vilyam Genrikhovich Fisher died in 1971. The alias he used, "Rudolf I. Abel", was one of five he used during his spying years in the United States, and was the one that signaled to his superiors that he had been captured. He continued with the alias for the rest of his life, and his gravestone is inscribed with both his birth name and his adopted alias. He died on November 15, 1971 and is buried at Donskoi Monastery, Moscow, Russian Federation.

The Delmar, Maryland Council meeting was held tonight. It was a very quick meeting. It started at 7 PM and was over with by 7:25 PM., allowing me to come home and watch prime time TV. There was one other person, beside myself, in the "Public". Commissioner Marlena Hodgins was missing from the meeting. Mayor P. Douglas Niblett, Deputy Mayor C. Luther Hitchens, Commissioner Carl Anderton, Jr. and Commissioner Carrie Williams were present.


Some items of interest; Commissioner Williams told us Wicomico County Parks and Recreation was $100,000 short on their budget and would cut the program they ran in State Street Park in the summer for the youths of Delmar. Later in the meeting Mayor Niblett suggested the town look into funding that program.

Commissioner Anderton said he contacted Sperry Van Ness, the Realtor who has been representing Timco Worldwide in the proposed produce warehouse on Maryland Avenue. He said he set up a meeting with them to discuss the issues that were brought up in the last meeting, of odor, traffic and the loading dock. An hour before the meeting Timco Worldwide decided they would go in a different direction and drop the ideal of using the warehouse.

I came across this Cajun joke on Mostly Cajun and had to share it with you.


Boudreaux smelled like beer when he sat down on a park bench next to a priest.

His shirt was stained, his face was plastered with red lipstick, and a half-empty bottle of gin was sticking out of his torn coat pocket. He just barely held a bloodshot eye open as he soaked up the sun. He picked up a folded newspaper from the bench and was reading.

After a few minutes Boudreaux turned to the priest and asked, “Mais, Father, what causes dat arthritis?”

The priest regards his familiar but not too faithful parishioner and sees an opportunity for a little spiritual guidance. He replies, “My son, it’s caused by loose living, being with cheap, wicked women, too much alcohol, contempt for your fellow man, sleeping around with prostitutes and lack of a bath.”

Boudreaux was a bit shaken. He muttered in response, “Mais, I’ll be damned, father.” He sat staring, obviously processing what he’d just heard.

The priest, thinking about what he had said, nudged Boudreaux and apologized. “Boudreaux, me, I’m very sorry. I didn’t mean to come down on you like dat. How long have you had arthritis?”

Boudreaux answered, “Me, I don’t got it, Father. I was just reading here in de paper that the Pope does.”

MORAL: Make sure you understand the question before offering the answer

From the February 1957 Bi-State Weekly
A view of Railroad Avenue looking toward Grove street about 1918. The picture was probably taken from the upper porch of the Whayland building.

The photo I took of the newspaper photo is not the best as it was down in the folds of a page but I think you will get the general view of it.

The flag on the right side is a service flag that has a star for each person Delmar sent into the military during WWI.

Those who served were;
Royce Hancock, Herman L. Elliott, W. Eugene Mills, Walter L. Mills, William E. Ritchie, Dr. Walter Bacon, Glen Cordrey, Raymond Gibbs, Willie Jones, Harry T. Jones, George Moore, Carlton James, Harper K. Wright, Michael R. Elliott, S. Harrison Jones, Elmer J. Davis, Henry Hoffmeister, Marvel Baker, James Lynch, Walter Ennis, Julian Hardesty, George Sparrow, Vaughn Hastings, James Pape, Henry Pape, Howard Gordy, Homer P. Culver, George Cordrey, Marion Hastings, Edgar Hastings, Dr. Walter Hastings, Clarence Lowden, Omar Hancock, E. E. Powell, Sherman Oliphant, A. L. Copeland, Hubert German, Ray Corbett Sturgis, Howard Ward, Charlie Wilson, A. L. Godfrey, George Baker, Lee Baker, Herman Baker, Harry Burrows, Garretson Brown, Herbert Hearne, Wilbur Hearn, Paul White, Clarence Wilson, Herman Bradford, Brooks Pusey, Frank Clark, Harry Cugler, John E. Cherix, Charles Gray, Ray Hastings, Charlie Merritt, Rawlins Pardee, Sewell Rayne, Anna Stephens, Raymond Marvel, Thomas Palmer, W. C. leCates, Ross Wainwright, Willie Hill, Arthur Boyce, Ray Smith, Norman Morris, Moxey Gray, Leon Mills, Glen Rayne, D, J. Marvel, Clarence Davis, Vernon Waller, C. C. Mears, R. R. Ellis, Harry H. Watson, George Ellegood.

Deborah Gudis, 58, was charged on Friday with four counts of theft $500 plus value and other offenses. She worked as an office manager in an Easton, Maryland doctor's office (Dr. Cheryl Ortel) between June 2003 to August 2008. She is charged with stealing $106,000 from him. She was released on her own recognizance.

The Salisbury Coin and Postcard Show is going on today at the Wicomico Youth and Civic Center. I stopped by for a while. My purchase was cheap compared to what some people were buying. It is a well attended event with people going in with their "look For" list in one hand and their coin value book in the other hand. I have to say coins, stamps and postcards are always hard to look at in these shows because the items are usually in albums and only one person at a time can look thru the album. At the price of some of thses items the buyer always like to have a long talk with the seller which again holds up the other people looking at the items on the table.