NERD HUMOR is no more

Finally got a picture of the repainted railroad bridge over Rt 141 just south of Rt 52. This view is the view driving south. There used to be a giant NERD HUMOR graffiti on the bridge but it has been painted over by the graffiti brigade.

Bob Weiner, our New Castle County councilmember, got his wish and got it painted over. The article says that the owner of the bridge, East Penn Railroad Co., didn't have the money to repaint the bridge and that the materials and time were donated, that seems fishy to me. They are installing a fence to make it harder for someone to get out onto the bridge and graffiti it.

The owner should use the bridge for advertising. It is in a very visible spot and high traffic location, perhaps an electronic sign would make it easy to change the advertisements. I am just suggesting this to get Bob's goat, he is not to hip on advertising, especially electronic signs, or chickens.

It's clean now, how long will it stay that way?

Where are people moving to?

Forbes has an interesting interactive map compiled from IRS data about county to county moves in 2008. I used it to generate this map of moves to and from New Castle County, Delaware.

Red lines represent moves out of the county and black lines moves into the county. The connections are interesting. There is a lot of red to very populous cities, folks are leaving New Castle County to go to New York, Seattle, San Francisco, LA, Dallas, and Houston. Presumably some are retiring to the Florida counties and to Las Vegas and Arizona. There also seem to be some moves, possibly due to the chemical industry to the Texas coast, New Orleans, Buffalo and Rochester.

There is expected inflow from obvious places like New York, and Philadelphia. I also see what I think is college inflow from Penn State area, Univ of Wisconsin, Univ of Minnesota, Univ of Michigan. All of these are my suppositions. The full data is available at the links below.

(via Metafilter, via Forbes, data via Data.gov: Inflow data from IRS, Outflow data from IRS)

Update on easing restrictions on raising chickens in New Castle County

I have received an e-mail last week from Nellie Manlove who is Council member Tansey's legislative aide, that the ordinance to ease restrictions on raising chickens in New Castle County will be discussed (.pdf agenda) at the Council's Land Use Committee meeting on Tuesday 9/15 at 3:00pm. This is open to the public and public comment is encouraged. It takes place in the 8th floor Council Conference Room of the City/County Building, 800 N French Street, Wilmington, 19801.

I expect to attend the Land Use Committee meeting tomorrow at 3pm, though I am not sure what to say or what is expected. I certainly can speak in support of the change to the ordinance. My concern is that I am not a Land Use professional so I am not sure what the objections to the change in the amendment are.

I stand by my earlier comments that the county ordinances already allow chickens (and other farm animals) on parcels of greater than one acre, and that this easing of the restriction is a small change addressed primarily at raising hens.

From a common sense perspective it seems that the council members might need to know the following to be swayed to adopt the easing of the restrictions to allow raising up to 4 hens (no roosters) on parcels of at least one acre no nearer than 25ft to property lines in New Castle County.

1.) Why was the first restriction against farm animals on parcels smaller than one acre first enacted.

2.) Is there a reason we cannot just discuss chickens (really just hens) and not open up the discussion to all farm animals.

3.) How many parcels in New castle County are one acre or more and could have chickens right now, and how many do have chickens right now. How many are a half acre or more, or would be added to the parcels allowed to have chickens? This would help us know the scope of the change and its effect. I suspect that there though there are probably a lot of parcels with 0.5 acre or more, we should consider only those that will be added as the change, and how many of those really have people that would want to raise hens. That is the new set of hens that anyone could raise an objection to.

4.) Are there other concerns. Health concerns, noise concerns, nuisance concerns, and doesn't New Castle County already have regulations for those. Thus should anyone who raises chickens and causes these issues can be addressed through existing ordinances.

5.) How many other counties or similar sized municipalities in the country have similar restrictions or ordinances? Is there something we can learn from them?

The ordinance should then come up for a vote at the 9/22 Council meeting, which takes place at 7:00pm in the 1st Floor Council Chambers, also in the City/County Building.

What do you say in support of an ordinance at a Council Land Use Committee meeting? Anybody gave any suggestions?

Help to get backyard chicken raising restrictions lifted in New Castle County Delaware

Currently in New Castle County, Delaware you can only raise chickens in your backyard if you have more than 1 acre of property. Mr. William Tansey has introduced Ordinance 09-974 (.pdf link) to ease restrictions on raising chickens in backyards of New Castle County. His reasonable change allows residents to raise up to 4 hens (no roosters) on property with at least 0.5 acres.

The council is set to vote on this ordinance change on Tuesday, Sept 8th, but many are already coming out against. We must change their minds. Please help me and your New Castle County neighbors by contacting your New Castle County Council member (click on their picture for contact info) by phone or e-mail today to tell them that you would like them to support this change.

I have included the e-mail that I am sending to every council member and their legislative aids below. I myself live in the 2nd district. Please feel free to use or modify my letter as needed.

Dear Councilmember (insert member name here),

Mr. William Tansey has introduced Ordinance 09-974 to ease restrictions on raising chickens in backyards of New Castle County. His reasonable change allows residents to raise up to 4 hens (no roosters) on property with at least 0.5 acres. I stand in full support of this reasonable rule regarding raising chickens in a suburban environment and I hope that you will support this change by voting for it at the next council meeting on September 8th.

In a state on the Delmarva peninsula, historically known for raising poultry, it is unfortunate that residents of New Castle County currently have such a restrictive ordinance preventing them from participating in the chicken raising tradition and allowing them to grow some of their own food. New Castle County also has the chance to join other forward looking communities by your support of an easing of this restriction.

I urge you to support ordinance 09-074 to allow the raising of up to 4 hens on property with more than 0.5 acres. I will look forward to your response on this matter.

Sincerely,
Richard Koehler
New Castle County Constituent

Comment if you send an e-mail or make a phone call. I would really like to get this passed, for the reasons stated in the letter above.

Let Delawareans have their Blue Hens!










List of council members, e-mail, office phone, legislative aids, e-mail and phone (all 302 area code below).

Council District	Name	E-mail	Office Phone
Council President	Paul G. Clark	pgclark@nccde.org	395-8340
CP Legislative Aid	Lynne Phifer	LPhifer@nccde.org	395-8360
1st District	Joseph Reda	jmreda@nccde.org	395-8341
1st Legislative Aid	Christine Roberts	croberts@nccde.org	395-8361
2nd District	Robert S. Weiner	rsweiner@nccde.org	395-8342
2nd Legislative Aid	Louis Hinkle	lhinkle@nccde.org	395-8362
3rd District	William Tansey	wtansey@nccde.org	395-8363
3rd Legislative Aid	Nellie Manlove	nmanlove@nccde.org	395-8363
4th District	Penrose Hollins	phollins@nccde.org	395-8344
4th Legislative Aid	Nique Traylor	ntraylor@nccde.org	395-8364
5th District	Lisa Diller	ediller@nccde.org	395-8345
5th Legislative Aid	Renee Bensley	rbensley@nccde.org	395-8365
6th District	William Powers	wepowersjr@nccde.org	395-8346
6th Legislative Aid	Ruby Dillmore	rdillmore@nccde.org	395-8366
7th District	George Smiley	gsmiley@nccde.org	395-8347
7th Legislative Aid	Tara Finnigan	tfinnigan@nccde.org	395-8367
8th District	John Cartier	jjcartier@nccde.org	395-8348
8th Legislative Aid	Christina Bloemendaal	ctbloemendaal@nccde.org	395-8368
9th District	Timothy Sheldon	tpsheldon@nccde.org	395-8349
9th Legislative Aid	Stephanie Rizzo		395-8369
10th District	Jea P. Street	jpstreet@nccde.org	395-8350
10th Legislative Aid	Charneece Jackson	cljackson@nccde.org	395-8370
11th District	David Tackett	dltackett@nccde.org	395-8351
11th Legislative Aid	Susanne Hussey	shussey@nccde.org	395-8371
12th District	Bill Bell	jwbell@nccde.org	395-8352
12th Legislative Aid	Joseph A. Cochran	jacochran@nccde.org	395-8372

I scream, you scream, we all scream for a reinstated Ice Cream Festival.

New Castle County is cancelling the Ice Cream Festival! This festival is probably one of the most famous and popular events to happen at Rockwood park in Wilmington. Started as a fundraising event for the mansion it was taken over by the Park system. That takeover was controversial in and of itself but now the budget problems have killed the event completely.

The article says the changes to the event calendar will save the county $341,000 but they are facing a deficit growing to $49 million in 2009. These two numbers bear no relation to each other. You only need 143 more opportunities like cancelling the ice cream festival to close the gap on the deficit. Perhaps we should be focusing on the larger ticket items. I have tried to interpret the New Castle budget, I invite you to do so yourself. They estimate they will take in $328 million this year. Perhaps they could find some way to restore the Festival.

No more Ice Cream Festival, no more fireworks?

The three comment threads (1, 2, 3) following the various articles (Cancelled events and frozen paychecks, Cancelled Ice Cream Festival, 17% tax hike) mentioning the budget and cancellation are overwhelmingly against cancellation and disgusted with County government.

For instance: -

"It becomes more clear every day that the citizens in New Castle County need to cancel the employment of the current County Executive, County Council President and the Council Person..."

I like this explanation -

"maybe he is lactose intolerant..."

Or maybe a comment on past excesses:

"Anyone remember how Tom Gordon gave away $15 million to the City of Wilmington? I think we need to put the blame where it really is...the lavish spending of Coons' predecessor. "

I remember. The county remembers. How pathetic is it when the county is now asking the City of Wilmington for money. Those two governments seem to now be in a race to be the worst managed.

I have pointed out that the citizens of the county continue to elect the same corrupt or incompetent officials to County office. Coons was around when Gordon and Freeberry pulled their stunts and now he has demonstrated that he cannot run the County.

Hey Delawareans, doesn't this upset you?

tags: Delaware, politics, corruption , Wilmington, fireworks, Rockwood Park, Ice Cream