Town made right decision on gas station
Editor:
I would like to comment on the Ocean View gas station proposal, which was recently voted down. Personally, I’m in favor of such a place nearby, but not there. The traffic is already horrendous.
I believe this debacle came about due to developers being allowed to plan and build nothing but houses, such as Savannah’s Landing, without some connecting commercial conveniences and because of them being allowed to enclose large acreage so as to not have a passing-through, arterial road. Such an artery in that general area could have been required to run due south and connect with the West Avenue beltway, approximately where the Deer’s Run development is now.
Both of these bordering developments are relatively new. The Village at Five Points in Lewes may not have to do that.
Now even more years ago, I believe the planning and zoning was good. Take, for example, the commercially zoned acreage at the corner of West Avenue and Parkerhouse Road. Another example would be the Plantation Park Marina at the corner of Parkerhouse Road and Double Bridges Road. A great place to rent a kayak, right? Well no, it’s not a marina. They built homes there instead. Curiously, they kept the name, though. Somewhere in this history, developers were allowed to change the plans — to our detriment.
It wasn’t too many years ago I remember reading about a planned shopping plaza on the West Avenue beltway, near the canal. It must have been scrapped. They’ve recently built houses there. So we’re still waiting out here. Until the inevitable comes, everyone in the south Ocean View area will continue to drive out and compete in the Route 26 bumper-car rides.
That’s a development that has some history to it.
Charles Crovo
Frankford
Meredith makes his point to council
Editor:
Because I am very concerned about the Ocean View Town Council’s plans to unnecessarily spend our tax dollars to modify the Public Safety Building so that the town’s administrative personnel can move to that building, I made the following presentation at the Citizens’ Privilege portion of the July council meeting:
I come before you as a concerned taxpaying citizen of the Town of Ocean View. Why is there such an urgency to move the town’s administrative offices to the Public Safety Building? To modify this building will be very expensive and a waste of my tax dollars. There is enough space in the current town hall building for all personnel to have sufficient work space, simply by rearranging the personnel.
For example, the town manager could be moved to one of the back offices, the financial director and the accounts payable clerk could be moved to the current town manager’s office. If necessary, a partition and possibly some modular furniture could be used in this room. The town clerk’s office and the administrative official’s office could remain as is. The remaining small office could be shared by the part-time Public Works personnel when they are hired.
Funds saved by this suggestion would enable the hiring of these needed part-time Public Works personnel. If this is not acceptable, one or two rooms could be added to the building, at approximately 1,000 square feet, for far less than the cost of modifying the Public Safety Building.
I don’t think that a small addition would require the digging of a retention pond, since it would be less than 5,000 square feet. However, if it does, such a pond will probably be required when you build the Public Works facility, and the two projects could be connected to the same pond.
I can’t understand how the proposed move makes any sense to a council that is concerned about the town’s financial situation. Why couldn’t the funding required for the proposed move be used to pay a major portion of the needed Public Works facility?
I will end with a couple of questions on this matter which I would like council to answer now or at the next public meeting:
Was a cost or price analysis done on this proposed move? Did the town’s engineering firm do the redesign of the Public Safety Building and, if so, did he subcontract to an architectural firm?
Should the plans for the redesign not have been competed? How much has already been spent on this project? What is the real reason for the proposed move?
It is certainly not to save the town money.
Gary L. Meredith
Ocean View
Lewes resident gives his thoughts on nation
Editor:
“There’s no place like America.” That one expression seems to codify the popular myth.
Maybe that was true once, but I am not so sure about that today. In light of the last eight years, America has been transformed. We don’t have to go much further than what we see with our own eyes.
The housing industry has been crippled; it was the only leg that the economy was standing on and the government ignored its role and its impact on the rest of the economy.
The mortgage market is a disaster. Another million homes went up for foreclosure. This will not only destroy the homeowner but ruin communities all over America. More and more, what you see are foreclosure signs up or “For Sale” signs; this is not a healthy sign for the economy.
More and more, America no longer makes things. There is no American TV maker anymore. Zenith, RCA and Magnavox are now owned by Asian companies. So is the IBM keypad PC. Our jobs move over the borders.
And to respond, we buy from Wal-Mart, which has forced more and more American companies to fold or move, taking their jobs with them.
And still we buy from Wal-Mart, reinforcing their message: Buy in China; Sell in America. They are America’s largest retailer, accounting for more than $400 billion in annual sales. If you added all of the value of all of the retailers in America, they would not add up to $400 billion.
And Wal-Mart’s purchasing policies have literally forced all of our suppliers overseas, mostly to China. We import $65 billion more from China than we export. The Chinese hold nearly $1 trillion of our debt. China, Japan, Saudi Arabia and England own America today.
That’s how we are financing a $1-trillion war; make no mistake about that!
I benefited from the programs of FDR and the GI Bill. Although the Democrats finally reintroduced the GI Bill, there is nothing left of FDR programs to put America back to work.
The jobs that are available are usually service-oriented and part-time. And to the pundits who are trying to tell us they are just as good as manufacturing jobs, be assured that they are lying. Service jobs do not have a multiplier effect on the economy, as manufacturing did, where $1 turned into $6.
Service-sector jobs don’t begin to replace manufacturing jobs, despite what they say in the “Greening of America.” Those top level “white collar” jobs we were supposed to be heir to have also disappeared to places like India, where the workers will strive for one quarter domestic wages.
Many of us have trained our own replacements because we were “overqualified” – read earning too much — only to have our jobs acquired by special Green Card holders.
To reassert our leadership, we need to have the best education in the world; but the only ones who do have that kind of access are the one’s who can afford $25,000 to $30,000 a year tuitions. There is no equal education any more.
The Republicans want to privatize it and the federal government has focused on No Child Left Behind because of Bush, which only teaches children how to prepare for a known test. It teaches nothing about learning.
To be a top-rated Western country, we should have a healthcare system that we can be proud of; yet, we don’t. We don’t even have a middling health care system. Most of the world’s healthcare systems do not put the burden on the people; ours does. And most people cannot afford to have a catastrophic illness. The fact is that in America today, 40 million people do not have access to decent health care.
Worse yet, although we account for 5 percent of the population, we account for 20 percent of the pollution. What does that augur for our wellbeing and health in the future? It signals that we have not seen the half of it.
Our advisors tell us not to drink tap water; we are told not to consume fish more than once a week. Our FDA does not inspect our food. People die because cattle are not inspected. Produce and fruit comes into this country untested. Our pets die from toxic materials in the dog food. Our kids get sick playing with lead-painted toys.
And nobody does anything to correct it.
More and more, people are coming down with strange cancers and other health conditions brought on by air and water pollution and neglect.
This is not the America I remember.
When I was young, the air was clear and the water drinkable. Today, you are warned to have your water checked regularly.
At the same time, the coal-burning monoliths continue to spout their residues into land and water, heating up the water and contributing to global warming, and nobody seems to care.
Our representatives don’t respond to our letters and the media seems indifferent to our plight.
No, this is not the America I grew up in, and it’s not the one I would like to remember.
I’m a veteran of a foreign war, as was my dad, who sacrificed everything to live here and save democracy from the “enemy.”
Well, today, for the first time in my life, I am thinking of packing my bags and moving.
If no one is going to do anything to save this country, our constitution and our democracy, then it is merely landscape undifferentiated from anywhere else in the world and it would behoove me, or you, to look for a home that will see that we don’t die in the streets from malnutrition and neglect and that my kids get a decent break.
I am tired of living in a monarchy where 1 percent of the population owns more than 65 percent of its wealth and the top-tier 5 percent own virtually everything. I don’t want to live in a country where the executive on the floor earns 400 times an hour what I make.
That’s not democracy; that’s a theocracy.
And if that means leaving, so be it.
Les Aaron
Lewes
Writer puts her support behind Markell
Editor:
I am glad to hear that the small towns in Delaware finally count! Jack Markell included my home town of Milton and all our Sussex towns in his announcement tour last week, and we were able to come out to see a great guy who is running for governor.
He seems like a smart man who has a vision for Delaware that includes better planned communities with access to public transportation, clean renewable energy to power our homes and businesses, more conservation of our farmland and open spaces, expanding employment opportunities by supporting innovation, supporting our rural economies as well as our urban ones, affordable health care for all Delawareans and my favorite — improving the education our children get in our public schools.
I like the fact that Jack has thought about all of these things and actually wrote a book to share this vision and his plans. I have read it, his ideas make sense. I will be voting for Jack Markell on Sept. 9.
Sarah W. Cooksey
Milton
Grandmother tells the story of the dune
Editor’s note: The following letter is addressed to Nancy Wright Greene’s granddaughter Nora and was forwarded to the Coastal Point for publication.
Grandpa and I are looking forward to seeing you next month for your annual visit to the beach. It will be so much fun having you and your brothers and all your cousins here and be able to play with them all day long. Uncle Dave will have his “candy store” as usual and you’ll be staying in the same big blue house.
But there is one thing different about the beach this year that I have to tell you about. You know how in the morning you and your mom and brothers like to get a donut and juice and go to the boardwalk by the bandstand and eat and sit on the bench and watch out over the water? Well that won’t be happening this year or ever again.
Yes, you can still get something to eat. But you will not see or hear the waves crashing or watch the lifeguards doing their exercise or watch children build sandcastles or see dolphins having fun in the surf. Instead, you will be looking at the rear end of a 16-foot sand dune with grass on it.
Some important people thought this was a good idea — a way to keep the water away from the houses and stores. But it seems that somebody ordered too much sand and it has changed Bethany Beach forever and destroyed what was once a beautiful scene.
Anyway, can’t wait to see you next month. Don’t worry, if we want a nice boardwalk with a view, we can always go to Rehoboth.
Nancy Wright “Grandma” Greene
Salt Pond