THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 2008
VOL. 13 NO. 8
50 cents
NEWS HEADLINES SPANISH VISITORS - Fourteen students from Madrid will visit Sussex. So far only seven have a place to stay. Page 3 SCHOOL UNIFORMS - The Seaford School Board is taking steps toward requiring its students to wear school uniforms. Page 5 WORLD WAR II VETERANS - These military men had to fight more than just the enemy. Page 8 PLANS HIT SNAG - Plans for a borrow pit near Hardscrabble meet opposition from local homeowners. Page 9 WADE IN - You won’t believe the depths the governor will sink to in order to make a point. Page 10 PROTECTED SPECIES - Strict regulations would ban most activity June to December to protect the eagles. Page 19 HERITAGE SHORES - The Bridgeville Commission receives the Heritage Shores special tax report. Page 20 ARSON PROBE - The State Fire Marshal’s office is investigating a series of arsons. Page 37 SECOND ROUND PICK Seaford graduate Derrik Gibson was drafted by the Boston Red Sox in the second round of the Major League Baseball amateur draft. Page 49 SPRING SCRAPBOOK - The Seaford Star looks back at the varsity spring sports season with Seaford, Woodbridge, and Sussex Tech photos. Page 51
INSIDE THE STAR BUSINESS BULLETIN BOARD CHURCH CLASSIFIEDS EDUCATION ENTERTAINMENT FINAL WORD FRANK CALIO GENE BLEILE GOURMET HEALTH LETTERS
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MOVIES 7 OBITUARIES 28 36 ON THE RECORD PAT MURPHY 25 PEOPLE 58 POLICE JOURNAL 37 PUZZLES 36 SNAPSHOTS 64 SPORTS 49-56 TIDES 7 TODD CROFFORD 27 VETERANS OF WWII 8
This photo, taken Wednesday morning, shows the construction progress being made. Photo by Daniel Richardson
Galestown Pond is being refilled almost two years By Ann Wilmer Galestown residents, who have been keeping a close eye on the project’s progress, watched as water from Gales Creek began to backfill the millpond on Tuesday. Until the water started accumulating in the 30-acre pond bed, it was mostly dry and covered with vegetation, most of which does not belong there. Soon it will be submerged. Residents are almost sure that, by the second anniversary of the deluge that swept away the dam in 2006, things will be getting back to normal. Although the roadway that connects
the two sides of the little town of Galestown will not be open to vehicular traffic until August, residents have been eager to see water flowing again. For now, neither farmers, emergency workers, nor town residents can use the “temporary” road, although Linda Roy Walls, president of the Galestown Millpond Association, said she saw a kid ride across it on his bicycle last weekend and found it heartwarming. From the onset of project planning, the deadline for completion has continually advanced making the time needed to restore the dam, pond and road-
way take longer and longer. Frustration has frayed the edges of the most persistent goodwill at times, but residents have been very, very patient and while no one can claim that the project has kept to any kind of schedule, it has kept moving forward. “Every delay has been accompanied by rumors,” Walls said, “some of which are outrageous.” But some of the delays have been understandable, she added. Although area residents have fished and swam in the pond for decades, property owners whose land Continued to page 16
Expansion of city police department moves forward By Lynn R. Parks Engineering costs for the design of an expansion and renovation of the Seaford Police Department are more than the city originally anticipated. The city council Tuesday night approved a nearly 50-percent increase in payment to engineering firm George, Miles and Buhr. The original contract with George, Miles and Buhr, approved by the council in January, was for $105,000. Tuesday night, the council approved a new contract for $153,000. George, Miles and Buhr senior vice president Judy Schwartz told the council that the design work proved to be more complicated than she had anticipated. “This was not a simple design process,” she said. “As we identified all
the pieces of equipment that the department needs and tried to fit them into the building, they were just not fitting.” Schwartz said that the department’s communications room, home to the city’s 911 center, will have to be expanded beyond what was planned to accommodate all the equipment. That expansion will use an adjacent space that had been planned for an equipment room. The equipment room will be in what was intended as storage space. In addition, the project required several systems that were not anticipated in the first contract. The state fire marshal required that the building have a sprinkler room, something that was not included in the original plans. The new sprinkler system meant that the fire alarm system, which could not be expanded to accom-
modate the new sprinkler system, will have to be replaced. A grounding consultant recommended the installation of a lightning protection system. And a new locking system, that provides security and at the same time meets state fire marshal requirements that escape routes not be blocked in case of emergency, has to be put in. All of these changes resulted in addition meeting and design time, Schwartz said. Assistant city manager Charles Anderson told the city council that designing the police department renovation “was a learning experience for us all.” “We had no concept how difficult it would be,” he added. Anderson said that a request for bids on construction of the project is expected to go out within the next month or two.