Delmar DustPan

The Town of Delmar Delaware and Maryland are working on their budgets for next year. If you have any suggestions for a particular project or just some comments on spending money in the town you should contact one of your elected officials and tell them. They are just a phone call away.

The Delmar School District has a member at large board position open this year. Anyone who wishes to file for this elected position needs to do so by Friday, March 5th. This position has a term that ends June 30, 2015. The election will be May 11th. School Board Member Candidate Filing Forms may be obtained from the Department of Elections for Sussex County in person in the office of the department, by mail or fax.

Well the news this morning seems to be the Daily Times article about Cpl. Ronald Anthony Marzec, Delmar Policeman, who was cited with failure to control speed to avoid a collision and leaving the scene of an unattended property damage accident. This incident happened on January 10th and there was no mention of it in the public part of the Police Commission on January 11th. I guess this is another Delmar police cover up. I have been receiving emails from anonymous people saying I should post something about it but I knew nothing about it and I dislike using a tip some one who signs theirself anonymous gives me.

Interestingly I was in the process of writing up a news article from the State Register from 1994 about when Ronald Marzec and Patrica Campbell were hired in to the Delmar police Department.

As long term readers of this blog know I have two daughters. The oldest went to the University of Delaware in Newark. At UD it was just money money money. They sent her a notice a week before graduation that they would not let her graduate unless she paid a $5 fine at the library (after I had spent about $70,000 in tuition, room, board, books etc for four years). Anyway the youngest didn’t want to go to the University of Delaware and asked if she could find a college that had similar rates as UD could she go there? Didn’t matter to me I was paying the same so she picked Edinboro University, someplace I had never heard of.

Before we left to move her in the only money we had paid the college was a 70 or 80 dollar application fee. We moved her into her dorm room, she got ID’s and a meal card and no one stopped and said wait you haven’t paid for room, board, or tuition yet. At the end of second day I went around and paid the $10,000 for her to be there for the semester and they actually said you can wait a couple more days until we get a lab charge on her bill and pay the entire amount than. If it had been the University of Delaware they would not have let you do anything unless they had their money at least two weeks before you showed up to move in. Just a world of difference.

Last Sunday night the dorm she was in, referred to as Highlands 2, had a pipe burst on the fourth floor and the entire four stories of the building had water damage. They evacuated 180 students and found housing for them in another older smaller dorm building a short distance away.

Being the youngest she tends to whine more than the older one so she was complaining to us about how the new room was smaller than the old room and the bathroom was at the end of the hall and shared by everyone on that hall. Now when I was her age I lived in a tent city with 50 other men and we shit in a hole in the ground in a bamboo thicket so I did not have the same sympathy for her as her mother did. It was an emergency situation and it sounds like the college did the best they could.

Since this situation will last several weeks as they renovate the Highland 2 building I was concerned about the differences in boarding rates for the old room versus the new room. From UD experiences I could see a big argument in getting an adjustment between the two. They have posted on their website that they will make an automatic adjustment to the boarding rate for the students. Plus each student will receive a $100 VISA card for relocation expenses in having to move out and when they move back to the Highland 2 building will receive another $100 VISA card for moving expenses. Wow after UD I am awe struck. No arguments with the administration. No feeling of being shafted and nothing you can do about it. I guess that is one of the things a college can do when they don’t have the highest paid College President in the United States – they have some playing room with their money or maybe the Edinboro College people aren’t dip shits like the University of Delaware.

DNREC reminds residents that ocean dunes in state parks are closed to sledding, snowboarding

With snow in the forecast, the DNREC Division of Parks and Recreation is asking the public to help protect the dunes in Delaware’s ocean parks by reminding residents and visitors that dunes should not be used for sledding or snowboarding.

Dunes contain fragile habitat and provide protection for the beaches and the communities that border them. Recent storms have already caused some damage this winter.

Except for marked crossings, dunes are closed year-round to pedestrian traffic and activities in Cape Henlopen and Delaware Seashore state parks.

The three schools named were separate school districts and combined into the Laurel School District.

From State Register
THREE RURAL SCHOOLS SOLD HERE SATURDAY
The final chapter in the story of the "little Red School House" was written here Saturday afternoon, when the Laurel Special School District sold at auction, three rural schools, that had been consolidated with Laurel in recent years. The sale was largely attended and bidding was spirited in spite of the fact that title to the real estate was questionable in most instances. In most cases deeds to the land occupied by the schools were more than 100 years old but stated the land was to be used only for school purposes.

The Ellis Grove School, was purchased by Charles E Marvel for $765 Vaughan School by Allison Whaley for $900; and Dorothy School by Trinity church for $300. the latter school adjoins the church and Trinity Officials plan to use it for a community house.

The Delaware Ghost Hunters will be to the Laurel Library on February 10th

A former Manager of Mr. Mulch, a landscaping Company, in Middletown is charged with embezzling nearly $80,000 over three years from the company, as reported by the News Journal today. Mr Andrew Chambers was released on $6,000 secured bond.

Now as far as I know Bill Hitch, former Laurel School District financial Director, has been charged with nothing. He is not out on bond. He is a free man with no charges against him. Yet he admitted, if we believe the Laurel school district, that he took unauthorized funds. So why isn't he charged? Like I said before this is a big cover up from the same people that are telling you (the Laurel School District taxpayers) that if you let them double your tax rate they will handle the money responsibly.

I think I should address the unholy three in Laurel once again. I would hate for the Bill Hitch problem to disappear due to lack of attention. As we know Laurel wants to replace School buildings as they are considered by some to be old and not worth repairing. Not just one school building but all of them and the new buildings would all be aimed at the technology God since we know technology is a good long lasting place to put taxpayer's money. Frank Calio has put out an excellent piece on the school referendum coming up on Wednesday, February 10th. I will admit my interest is in Bill Hitch and my only interest in the Laurel School Board and their replacement of all the schools at one time ($137 million) is if it is passed it will merely encourage every other school district to try for the same thing. It is like seeing that roach run across the floor if you don't step on it now come tomorrow there will be fifty in your house.

Frank Calio say's What I like about the project is we clean house one time. I know years down the road I’m not going to be hit with a new school every other year. Well the truth of the matter is if this passes probably Frank and I will both be dead by the time another Laurel School building referendum comes up (plus we are old enough to get certain Exemption in taxes), but those of you who are under 40 will be faced with high taxes for the next 20 years and than you will have all the "NEW" school building falling apart and ALL of them having to be replaced again. Vote NO, only do one school building at a time.

Tom Wagner's audit department is doing an investigation/audit of the Bill Hitch problem. Now as far as I am concerned Tom Wagner is prone to sightly (only slightly, I am not saying he is unethical) adjusting the audit outcomes and timing for political reasons. I wonder if he will delay the results of the audit until after the referendum vote on February 10th.

And since I have a stockpile of 1929 material let me post this picture and comments of the Laurel High School in 1929

Even in 1929 they were asking for money to repair this school.

Over at Elbert's he has some comments from Justin Bennett about Christine O'Donnell. As you may remember Christine O'Donnell ran against Mike Castle in the last election. She didn't run very hard but I guess with the campaign war chest Castle has it is hard to mount an effective campaign against him. I don't recall her being down in our neck of woods and I didn't see her at some of the festivals and events she said she would be at. As you may remember she is the one who promised Elbert she would put him on her Sussex County Think Tank if she won. He has photo of him with her.

Update:
The question was asked where was the Mayflower Grill located. Frankly I thought I would go down town Salisbury and find it but everything has been remodeled. I went to the Wicomico County Library and found the address in 1948 which was 116 West Main. Well 116 West Main is where the Plaza Gateway Building is today but in looking at the photo it looks more like the Mayflower was in what is currently Richard Duvall (noted ex-blogger and write-in candidate) law office. What do you think?

In looking at the old photo; to the left of the Mayflower is the old Salisbury Times Office. The blurred rectangle under the Beer sign which looks like it could be today an ATM machine was a box in the wall where they sold the Salisbury Times. The newspapers just sit in the box in the wall and you put a nickle in the slot and took one. There was no magic release locking mechanism to get the paper, they were stacked in there and the newspaper people assumed you were honest and would be a nickle in the slot. Well it didn't take long for my brother, Robert, and I to figure out if mom pulled over to the curb in the car and sent one of us boys to fetch a paper we could slip the nickle in our pocket and just pretend we were dropping a coin into the coin slot, grab the newspaper and haul ass back to the car and no one was the wiser and we were a nickle richer.

With the weather we have been having it is hard to believe but the Spring training for the Wilmington Youth Rowing Association will start on February 22nd. They may have to chip some ice to get those shells in the water. An open house will be held February 20th at their club house. The first race will be April 10th - the Baltimore Invitational Regatta in Baltimore.

The Iditarod Race will start March 6th. This month they are organizing 1,800 volunteers (who pay to be a volunteer) for the 70 mushers and 1,000 dogs that will be in the race. Of note; only 22 towns in Alaska have a population greater then 1,800.

Musher food drops will begin later this month, the food will be transported by the Iditarod Air Force. Each musher sends out about 2,000 pounds of supplies for the food drops. The supplies are usually;
400 pounds of dry dog food

600-1000 pounds of meats and fats for the dogs

150 pounds of human food and drinks

50 pounds of personal gear (gloves, socks, mittens, extra boot liners, etc.)

40 pounds of dog booties (A set of booties for every dog in the team at every planned rest stop and check point.)

100 pounds of extra equipment for sleds, runner plastic, spare parts, etc.

10 pounds of batteries for musher headlamps

Jeff King, a well known mushers, does a blog and it can be found here.

The Wildcat Culinary Club will be hosting its 2nd Annual Restaurant Night on Thursday, February 18th, 2010. This event is a great opportunity for the club to show off their culinary skills while gaining a better understanding of and appreciation for all aspects of operating a restaurant. Doors will be open @ 4:30 p.m. for seating and carry outs. The menu will be:

Homemade Lasagna

Pot Roast with Potatoes and Carrots

Brown Sugar Glazed Ham with Scalloped Potatoes

Marinated Chicken Breast and Stuffing Bake



All dinners will be served with a vegetable and coffee or iced tea for $8.50 per person adult, $7.75 senior citizens, $7.50 DMSHS students. A children’s (10 and under) menu will also be available for $4.50. Advanced tickets will be available beginning Tuesday, January 26th from any culinary student or in the front office of DMSHS.

Today in 2003 seven more astronauts were killed when the Space Shuttle Columbia broken up as it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere. Mission Specialist Kalpana Chawla, Commander Rick Husband, Mission Specialists Laurel Clark and David Brown, Pilot Willie McCool, Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon and Payload Commander Michael Anderson were the astronauts.


The space shuttle had flown 27 times before it broke apart. Back on March 19, 1981, during preparations for a ground test, two workers were asphyxiated while working in Columbia's nitrogen-purged aft engine compartment, resulting in their deaths. The Columbia Accident Investigation Board determined that a hole punctured in the leading edge on one of Columbia's wings was the cause of the break up.

President George W. Bush's Speech Columbia Crew Memorial Service
Johnson Space Center 4 February 2003

Their mission was almost complete and we lost them so close to home. The men and women of the Columbia had journeyed more than 6 million miles and were minutes away from arrival and reunion. The loss was sudden and terrible, and for their families the grief is heavy.

Our nation shares in your sorrow and in your pride.

We remember not only one moment of tragedy, but seven lives of great purpose and achievement.

To leave behind Earth and air and gravity is an ancient dream of humanity. For these seven it was a dream fulfilled. Each of these astronauts had the daring and discipline required of their calling.

Each of them knew that great endeavors are inseparable from great risk. And each of them accepted those risks willingly, even joyfully, in the cause of discovery.

Rick Husband was a boy of four when he first thought of being an astronaut. As a man and having become an astronaut, he found it was even more important to love his family and serve his Lord.

One of Rick's favorite hymns was "How Great Thou Art," which offers these words of praise: "I see the stars. I hear the mighty thunder. Thy power throughout the universe displayed."

David Brown was first drawn to the stars as a little boy with a telescope in his backyard. He admired astronauts, but as he said: "I thought they were movie stars. I thought I was kind of a normal kid."

David grew up to be a physician, an aviator who could land on the deck of a carrier in the middle of the night and a shuttle astronaut. His brother asked him several weeks ago, what would happen if something went wrong on their mission? David replied, "This program will go on."

Michael Anderson always wanted to fly planes and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Air Force. Along the way, he became a role model, especially for his two daughters and for the many children he spoke to in schools.

He said to them, "Whatever you want to be in life, you're training for it now."

He also told his minister, "If this thing doesn't come out right, don't worry about me, I'm just going on higher."

Laurel Salton Clark was a physician and a flight surgeon who loved adventure, loved her work, loved her husband and her son. A friend who heard Laurel speaking to mission control said, "There was a smile in her voice."

Laurel conducted some of the experiments as Columbia orbited the Earth and described seeing new life emerge from a tiny cocoon. "Life," she said, "continues in a lot of places, and life is a magical thing."

None of our astronauts traveled a longer path to space than Kalpana Chawla. She left India as a student, but she would see the nation of her birth, all of it, from hundreds of miles above.

When the sad news reached her hometown, an administrator at her high school recalled, "She always said she wanted to reach the stars." She went there and beyond.

Kalpana's native country mourns her today and so does her adopted land.

Ilan Ramon also flew above his home, the land of Israel. He said, "The quiet that envelops space makes the beauty even more powerful, and I only hope that the quiet can one day spread to my country."

Ilan was a patriot, the devoted son of a Holocaust survivor, served his country in two wars.

"Ilan," said his wife Rona, "left us at his peak moment, in his favorite place, with people he loved."

The Columbia's pilot was Commander Willy McCool, whom friends knew as the most steady and dependable of men. In Lubbock today, they're thinking back to the Eagle Scout who became a distinguished naval officer and a fearless test pilot.

One friend remembers Willy this way, "He was blessed, and we were blessed to know him."

Our whole nation was blessed to have such men and women serving in our space program. Their loss is deeply felt, especially in this place where so many of you called them friends, the people in NASA are being tested once again.

In your grief, you are responding as your friends would have wished, with focus, professionalism and unbroken faith in the mission of this agency.

Captain Brown was correct, America's space program will go on. This course of exploration and discovery is not an option we choose. It is a desire written in the human heart where that part of creation seeks to understand all creation.

We find the best among us, send them forth into unmapped darkness and pray they will return. They go in peace for all mankind, and all mankind is in their debt.

Yet, some explorers do not return, and the law settles unfairly on a few.

The families here today shared in the courage of those they loved, but now they must face life and grief without them. The sorrow is lonely, but you are not alone.

In time, you will find comfort and the grace to see you through. And in God's own time, we can pray that the day of your reunion will come.

And to the children who miss your mom or dad so much today, you need to know, they love you, and that love will always be with you.

They were proud of you, and you can be proud of them for the rest of your life.

The final days of their own lives were spent looking down upon this Earth, and now, on every continent, in every land they can see, the names of these astronauts is known and remembered.

They will always have an honored place in the memory of this country, and today, I offer the respect and gratitude of the people of the United States.

May God bless you all.

Perhaps we should all re-think Ford Motor Company. After all they didn't ask for Government assistance (at least not directly) and they have been winning several awards from the F-150 being North America truck of the year to the Ford Taurus being named International Car of the Year at the LA Auto Show.

Altho all those acronyms for FORD: Fix Or Repair Daily, Found On Road Dead, Found On Rubbish Dumps, Fails On Rainy Days, Fails On Race Day, and the list goes on, may have been true (maybe still are a little) the company and vehicles seems to be improved (at least in comparisons to the other losers).

I have been beating 1929 advertisements to death for the last couple of days, I still have enough for a couple more days, but I do want to mention these two.

The Model T was first sold in 1908. In 1927 they introduced the second generation of the Model A. Ford however did not let their customers down and advertised extensively not only the new Model A but the repair rates (labor only) to keep the Model T in good running shape.

The repair ads were in part due to automobile sales declining by a third in the nine months before the 1929 stockmarket crash and on October 24 the Stock market crash begun. Investors called October 29 "Black Tuesday. Stockmarket Losses for the month will total $16 billion, an astronomical sum in those days, today it is an amount lost in a day or given as bonuses to bankers. Click on ads to enlarge them.

While looking at the Restaurant Inspection reports I decided to also take a look at the Drinking Water Notices posted by the Delaware Division of Public Health. These notices tell of issues with the drinking water supply. There were no notices in Delmar. Laurel as usual had a couple; Bargain Bill's corrected their problem with nitrate, Colonial Estates Mobile Homes is on the list of notices for Coliform Bacteria, and the Tastee Freez has High nitrate levels.

I took a look at the Restaurant Inspections reports listed by by the Delaware Division of Public Health (listed on sidebar) and I was surprised to see a couple violations in Delmar. Bistro 54 was written up for an employee health problem and Growth of Organisms on 11/17/09, the problems had been corrected in the followup inspection on 11/24/09. Delmar Pizza had a violation of a plumbing problem on 11/17/09 which was corrected by the followup inspection of 12/02/09. On 12/02/09 the Delmar Fire Company was inspection and no violations were found.

Tomorrow in Illinois the primary will be held. In 2007 Illinois lawmakers moved the primary to February in order to bolster Obama's chances in the 2008 "Super Tuesday" sweepstakes. It is the earliest in the nation for the 2010 election cycle. A Governor slot (former Gov. Rod Blagojevichand) a Senate Seat (Obama's) is up for grabs, plus others.

Illinois is possibly the only state in the Union that is in worse shape than California with a $13 billion deficit being projected for fiscal 2011. Plus Illinois smells of corruption from the Blagojevich years.

This year no one is happy with their elected officials anywhere and happily the anti-incumbent mode is extreme so in a Democratic State such as Illinois the Republicans are making the most of the corruption and fiance problems - not that they are any better.

Delmar News From the State Register January 18 1929

Mrs. Chas. Smith of Baltimore, Mrs. W. T. Smith of Cape Charles, Va., and daughter of Ellis College, Philadelphia, Prof. W. A. Bowland of McDonogh School Baltimore, with wife and daughter, were guests of Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Parker and family on Sunday.

Delmar Lodge, No. 582, Loyal Order of Moose has adorned its lodge room with a beautiful mounted moose head 54 inches across the antlers. This added attraction was purchased from a trapper in Alaska a few weeks ago. It necessitated the removal of a window before its installation could be made. The head is placed over the dictator chair and has received much comment.

Our town still has many cases of flu. The Delaware school reported over a hundred scholars absent last week. Local physicians claim there are equally as many patients as during the epidemic of 1918.

Russell Barrall, a member of the crew of the battleship Utah is spending sometime with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Walter Barrall.

Miss Kathrine Spry, a senior in the Delaware High School, while playing basket ball at Bishopville, Md, last Tuesday night fell striking her head on the floor knocking her unconscious and a state in which she remained for several hours. She was rushed to Salisbury hospital for treatment and where she remained until Friday when she was brought to her home. It is reported she is slowly improving.

Lloyd Hudson of this town, but who has been working for the Pennsylvania railroad Co, at Jersey City for sometime met with a painful accident a few days ago while on duty at that place. It appears that Hudson was between two cars when other cars rolled up and struck them which resulted in breaking his right foot in two places. He was rushed to a hospital for treatment where he still remains but will be brought to his home in Delmar as soon as his condition permits.

I was reading in the News Journal that Odessa is looking at a vacant building tax based on the one Wilmington has. Wilmington currently charges annually $500 for buildings empty one year, $1,000 for those vacant two years, $2,000 for three to four years, $3,500 for five to nine years and $5,000 for 10-year vacancies. Delmar needs something like that.

I picked up this article from "Slumlord Watch" (on the sidebar) about a vacant house in Cleveland having a gas leak and the resulting explosion left at least 15 families homeless. Another reason to put pressure on the owners of vacant houses.

Hopes she gets it all done before I have to go out there