The Coastal Point encourages the exchange of ideas. Letters to the editor must be signed by the author with phone number included for purposes of verification. Please send your letters to P.O. Box 1324, Ocean View, DE 19970.

Darin J. McCann

Wow, talk about bad timing.

Picture, if you will, the end of a pretty tough deadline at Coastal Point headquarters last Wednesday night. The final pages had been sent off to the printer, Shaun Lambert was doing the mystical things he does on his computer when a paper goes to bed, M. Patricia Titus was speaking in tongues after proofing more than 100 pages and I was quietly tending to the tiny holes scattered across my body — remnants of various forks tossed in my direction from an increasingly irritated Susan Lyons throughout the evening.

It’s actually a nice time, those minutes we await confirmation from our printer that the pages have arrived safe and sound. A collective sigh of relief is palpable throughout the air, and I scan back through the front page and the ViewPoint section one last time to make sure things are how we want them. I recall last Wednesday night clearly because I remember giggling to myself about something I penned about Sam Harvey in a piece lampooning London being awarded the 2012 Olympic Games.

Fast forward to last Thursday morning.

News reports filled the air with coverage of the bombings in London that morning. Body counts rose, and I tried to buy some time with our printer so I could change the subject of my column. No luck. The paper was already printed, and I was bracing myself to be viewed as the most arrogant and insensitive piece of dirt since ... no, I was fairly certain I was going to be in my own class on this one.

Once word got to us that the paper was being delivered I started dying my head and practicing an accent so I could quietly skip the country before moral vigilantes got a hold of me in the parking lot. I called my father, looking for sage advice on how to steer through this mess, and he gave me his typical, and quite Irish, input.

“Well,” he said, drawing out his words a bit. “When you’re a smart*** for a living, things can come back and get you.”

Thanks, Dad.

Tearing through my belongings, praying to find a sweat sock soaked in Bushmills or a fake mustache in my desk, reality struck me full-bore: I’m kind of feeling sorry for myself for no reason. I mean, I wasn’t the victim here — those poor people trying to get to work in London were. And I wasn’t the perpetrator — those pencil-brained psychotic terrorists were.

The only thing I could rightfully claim in this situation was embarrassment over my poor timing.

Shoot, that’s nothing. I’ve been embarrassed more often than Bob Saget or “Stone Cold” Susan Argo on their worst days. There was this one time, when she first started working here, that Stone Cold ...

But I digress.

Let me give you a little taste of some of my finer moments:

• Student at St. John’s College High School in Washington, D.C. In 1984, this was an all-boys school with a military flavor, so many of the other students, as well as the majority of Christian Brothers and retired Army personnel who taught at the school, leaned to the macho side of things. Your faithful columnist fainted (it was far too pathetic a fall to earn the distinction of “passing out”) during a military drill after school. Let’s just say I heard a few comments in the months that followed — and got in a few hallway scuffles as a result.

• Further back in time, I was playing Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) basketball as a youth. For those of you unaware of CYO leagues, the talent is usually less than some of the public leagues in D.C., but the dirty shots and physical play is usually a little more persistent. Regardless, my beloved grandfather drove several hours to visit us and decided to take in our game. Your faithful columnist took an inbounds pass, eluded defenders downcourt and sank a beautiful jumper. Maybe I left something out in the telling of this story. Ah, yes. The defenders were in reality my teammates. It seems I took the ball and went the wrong direction, scoring for the opposing team. Until his dying day, my grandfather looked at me like he expected me to start licking windows at the zoo or something.

• California, the state of a million head cases, and the site of my first newspaper experience. There was a girl I really had a crush on in the Sacramento area, and she turned me down more often than a salad salesman at an overeater’s conference. Her excuse was that I was too immature. At this same time, overzealous 49ers fans in the area were getting excited about their team’s upcoming match-up against the San Diego Chargers in the Super Bowl. Growing tired of their moronic gloating, I made a few bets with some friends on the game. Well, the 49ers won, and I had to pay my debt. There, in the middle of our favorite neighborhood bar, I had my head shaved by my friends while the rest of the crowd chanted obscenities in my direction. And, of course, the girl I was so infatuated with decided at that very time to take me up on one of my million advances and meet me at the bar.

I, um, went home alone that night.

Still state's punching bag

Road projects in this area have been put on hold. Yes, work to be done on Routes 54 and 26, as well as Clayton Avenue in Frankford, will be pushed back due to financial considerations.

Oh, and this just in, a study done by several travel-oriented organizations rated our little community as the third worst in the entire nation for summertime traffic delays caused by bottlenecks. To clarify, our horrendous traffic ranking is based on pure traffic issues, not taking into effect accidents or European workers on bikes or even those out-of-state drivers many locals love to bemoan.

In a nutshell, our roads are woefully inadequate for the flow of traffic we have.

This year’s $834.9 million bond bill, which funds construction projects throughout the state, did include $393.1 million for road projects, as mentioned in an article in the July 8 Coastal Point. However, $280 million is tabbed for work at the I-95/Route 1 intersection near Christiana Mall, near Newark.

Does this sound familiar?

Once again, the money generated by the tourism industry of our little corner of the world that goes to the state is greatly appreciated, but hardly ever returned. It is not an overstatement to say our roads have reached crisis levels, yet our only mode of relief is being waved ahead of us once again like a tantalizing carrot on a stick — only to be pulled away like a football before Charlie Brown launches his best kicking foot forward.

In short, we got pushed aside again.

Now, the good news is work will continue forth on the Indian River Inlet bridge. The bad news is it won’t help us out at all, and will actually hurt traffic when they make it one lane each way. Ever try getting to Beebe during an emergency? Try it with one lane.

Are we noticing a pattern here?

Route 26 needs help now with traffic
Editor’s note: The following letter was sent to the Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT), directed to vehicular traffic planning, and to the Bethany Beach town manager’s office. It was forwarded to the Coastal Point for publication.

I have watched with interest, fear and foreboding the development of both the summer and winter traffic patterns on the soon to be, if not already, “notorious highway 26.”

This road is the only east west entry and egress from Bethany Beach, Ocean View, Millville and a multitude of ever-increasing small developments that have sprung up in the “country-side outside of these larger municipalities.”

My wife and I live in Bethany Beach and are forced by logic and now by gasoline consumption to use 26 for most of our travel both locally and when leaving our local area. While the summer traffic (June 15 through Labor Day) has been atrocious for the past 25 years, this year has been by far the worst.

I attribute this leap backward from progress to the new traffic light installed in early June at the corner of West Avenue and Highway 26, one block east of the light at Highway 26 and Central Avenue in Ocean View. All traffic, whether east or west bound, must deal with both lights within one block of each other.

And since the lights are not coordinated, or coordinated by some mystical code, this double light just adds to the sometimes miles of backup along 26 both eastbound and westbound. The back up frequently reaches to the intersection of Highway 1 to the east; and to the traffic light on Highway 17 to the west.

I don’t know the logic used to install the new light at West Avenue but regardless of the logicused or the engineering studies utilized — It ain’t working!

I suggest that the light at 26 and West Avenue be either removed (preferably with the reinstatement of manual traffic control by Ocean View, Millville or State Police for the 30 minutes each Sunday morning when members of the Church of Christ exit their Sunday-morning worship) or changed to flashing amber except for the same hours as suggested above.

I realize that 26 is slated for overhaul in 2007 or 2008 but it seems to me that the intersection of 26 and Central will always be a problem, growing only larger year by year as more people move to new developments east of the Assawoman Canal.

The ever-expanding population of our area makes some major modification of this intersection almost mandatory.

(Soon, we may not have to worry about tourists. Their experience with this summer’s traffic may convince them that Ocean City, Rehoboth/Lewes, or Dewey Beach are better alternatives — certainly their beaches are presently far superior to what we can offer in Bethany Beach or along the shore from Dewey to Fenwick.)

I am sure that you have file cabinets full of complaints and maybe a few suggestions about what to do with 26. While I hope my letter gets a little consideration before being filed away to be forgotten, maybe something can be done about this twin traffic barrier before next summer.

Roger L. Street
Bethany Beach

Bethany parade Committee says thanks
Editor:

I am writing this letter on behalf of all committee members to express a special thanks to all those who devoted their time to make this 21st parade a special event.

We would like to extend a special thanks to Bethany Beach officials, their staff and town employees, Bethany Beach Police Department, Bethany Beach Volunteer Fire Company and Ladies Auxiliary, the fire police, the Public Works Department and their crew.

Thank you also to St. Ann’s Church and the Christian Center for the use of their facilities and grounds. A special thanks to those who sold T-shirts and who purchased them, and to Jennifer Carter, a very talented local artist, for her help in the design of the T-shirts and her donation of a painting for the grand prize winner.

Without the support of all of these parade components for the months leading up to and after the parade, this event could not be a success. In addition, thanks to the local businesses who provided trucks for our musical groups, which are G & E Hocker’s, Millsboro Ford and 84 Lumber.

Although the town of Bethany Beach does not provide financial assistance, they do support us with a great deal of logistical help. The funds to cover the cost of this event were realized from donations by civic-minded friends in the community and the sale of T-shirts. Thank you for your generous support.

A special thanks to the scores of bicyclists who used their decorating talents and then entertained all along the parade route, and to the number of community groups and businesses who entered floats, and, of course, to the walking organizations.

In addition, thanks to those who participated in the horseshoe throwing contest.

From everyone connected with this annual fun and successful show of small town Americana, our sincere thanks.

Philip C. Rossi
Bethany Beach
4th of July Parade Chairman

Art League thanks those who helped
Editor:

On behalf of the Art League of Ocean City (ALOC) we would like to thank everyone involved with our first Sand Castle Home Tour. We would not have had such a successful event without their help.

There are too many names to list separately — but as groups we would like to thank the hostesses, parking attendants, advertisers, house artists, donors, the media, the Town of Ocean City and all other ALOC volunteers.

We would especially like to thank the 10 home owners who so generously opened their “sand castles” for us. All of these people made it possible for the ALOC to raise in excess of $10,000 that will go toward the building fund.

The ALOC currently is housed in a small, inefficient facility owned by the Town of Ocean City. Members of the ALOC are grateful to the town but the dream is to build an art facility that will accommodate exhibitions, workshops, storage, classes, etc.

The ALOC has been able to provide varied art experiences for the community under less-than-ideal circumstances. However, outreach to area youth is somewhat limited, as is adequate exhibition space because of building restrictions.

Plans are under way for our second annual Sand Castle Home Tour. We would be happy to receive comments and suggestions from anyone who attended this year. Seeing our event through your eyes will help us make the next effort an even greater success.

E-mail us at ocart@interco.net or call (410) 524-9433. For additional information on the ALOC, visit our Web site at www.artleagueofoceancity.org.

Art League of Ocean City
Sand Castle Home Tour Committee

It’s not representation. It’s about accountability
Editor:

Adding more members to the Sussex County Council is not necessarily the solution to Sussex County’s uncontrolled growth. Growth in Sussex County is inevitable, and that isn’t all bad. However, new homes bring additional residents and the requirement for additional infrastructure and services.

Sussex County is already behind the power curve on sewer systems. We can not continue to rely on septic systems. At the rate we are going, Sussex and septic will soon become synonyms.

The only rational solution to the county’s increased sewage processing requirements is centralized sewer systems throughout the county. Why not build them, or as a minimum, lay the required pipe, as part of the development process?

Primary roads are already overloaded. Secondary roads are next. The council’s answer to the problem of congestion is to blame the state. Why can’t the county work with the state to improve the highways and roads as part of a coordinated development plan?

Builders and developers should be required to fund a portion of the costs for the support system they are profiting from. After all, they can pass the costs on to buyers, and that is only fair. Newcomers should expect to pay their share of costs for services.

The county commissioners brag that they haven’t raised taxes in years.

Funding county operations on the income from property transfer fees is nothing to brag about. How many miles of sewer lines haven’t been planned, much less built? How much right-of-way has been purchased or road improvements planned? (Oh, I forgot. That’s the state’s problem. Since when is Sussex County not part of the state?)

Growth is good. However, the virtually uncontrolled growth we see today, with little or no thought to the impact of development on services, traffic, etc., is totally unacceptable. It is not only unacceptable. It is irresponsible.

Since the Sussex County commission has final approval authority, it is their collective responsibility to ensure that development will not have an adverse impact on the immediate neighborhood or the county as a whole.

The county council has the authority and ability to take action as appropriate to control growth, and improve support systems and services for all residents of the county.

Sen. Adams sees the representation issue as a power grab by the Republicans. The current county council, supported by Sen. Adams, is concerned about losing power. The Progressive Growth Alliance, which has joined in fray, is concerned about losing money.

Citizens for Better Sussex, a non-partisan group, wants the council to be more responsive to the needs of Eastern Sussex County and has focused on increasing the number of council members. So do I.

However, as a tax payer and voter, I see the issue is really one of accountability. We taxpayers and voters of Sussex County are entitled to rational, reasonable, responsible representation on the county council and we aren’t getting it.

The solution is simple. Write to the council as a whole. Voice your opinion, and if they don’t change their ways, replace them.

Homer A. Purdy
Millsboro