Joe Maier cut his trash-collection fee for hundreds of customers by 20 percent starting last summer while boosting his own revenue by a third, thanks to Delaware’s new recycling law requiring haulers to provide single-stream recycling for all single-family homes.

Maier’s firm, Econo-haul Inc. of Newark, has cut its own cost of dumping trash by 25 percent simply by collecting a lot more recyclables from its customers and taking a lot less waste to the landfill.

Dredging the Delaware River ship channel, a multimillion-dollar project delayed for over a decade by environmental opposition, lawsuits and permitting disputes, has edged closer to reality. This month, the federal government set aside another $16.9 million for the dredging – a move applauded by Delaware’s Congressional delegation.
Seventeen miles of the channel south of Claymont have already been deepened and more dredging may be done this summer. But the project could be halted if the Third Circuit Court of Appeals rules in favor of a suit brought by environmentalists and the State of New Jersey. Delaware pursued similar legal action before abandoning its legal challenge last year.

Community drugstores are opening their doors across Delaware, as entrepreneurial pharmacists are eager to prove they can take better care of customers than the chains that dominate the First State’s pharmacy market.
Of the 149 designated drugstores in Delaware, only 18—or 12 percent—are independently owned and operated, according to the National Community Pharmacists Foundation, a Washington D.C.-based trade group.
Chains hold the lion’s share of the market, with 77 Walgreens, 47 RiteAids and five CVS stores.

Bank of America intends to increase its Delaware workforce by 500 jobs. The banking giant is also donating one of its Wilmington office buildings for use by existing or newly-created charter schools in the state. Bank of America officials and Governor Jack Markell (D) made the announcement Thursday in Wilmington.

Gov. Markell says the decision to add jobs in Delaware is an endorsement of the quality of the state’s workforce and Delaware’s commitment to the type of jobs the financial services industry supports.
Thére du Pont, president of the Longwood Foundation, saluted Bank of America for making “an impressive, thoughtful, impactful donation” of an office building at 12th and French Streets for use by charter schools. Longwood will establish a separate non-profit organization, to be called the Community Education Building, to oversee the facility.

For the past five years, Mary Alice Panarello of Wilmington has booked six weeks at the beach spanning the month of August, a premium period. The first three years were spent in a single-family cottage near the Rehoboth Avenue circle. But last year, she learned that the agency had booked the property to someone else for the entire summer. Left scrambling, she finally found a condo in a multi-unit building.

For the coming season, she took no chances. She booked in December 2011. And Panarello isn’t the only one getting a jump on a beach house.

For years, Carol Raymond crafted sun catchers, small panels, and jewelry from stained glass, earning pin money at craft fairs. Now her colorful creations catch the eye of potential customers walking the streets of New Castle’s historic district, thanks to the display space she has in an artists’ co-op called A Menagerie of Artisans at Penn’s Place.
Throughout the state, commercial and creative collaborations among artists through co-ops and other ventures are burgeoning. At Bellefonte Arts, more than 50 artists showcase hand-crafted works, ranging from fabric bowls to raku pottery. At Angelucci Studios & Artists Galleries in Milford, more than 30 artists immerse themselves in woodworking, stained glass, painting and other pursuits.

Fisker Automotive has laid off 26 workers in Wilmington and will delay construction of its Project Nina hybrid-electric car factory there because it has to renegotiate the terms of a loan with the U.S. Department of Energy, the company said on Monday.

Fisker missed DOE deadlines on emissions certification, production and sales of its existing Karma model so has to set new “milestones” with the federal government in order to qualify for $336 million in loans relating to its new car – dubbed Project Nina – to be built on the site of the old GM plant on Boxwood Road, said Fisker spokesman Roger Ornisher.

In 1964, when singer Petulia Clark belted out the lyrics to “Downtown,” the line, “Everything’s waiting for you,” still held some truth.

Today, Delaware’s small downtowns are in the midst of restructuring and redefining their offerings.
To get help, eight towns and city neighborhoods have turned to the Main Street program, a National Trust for Historic Preservation initiative. Some, like downtown Newark, have experienced notable success. In 2011, the city received the Great American Main Street Award. Rehoboth Beach Main Street won the award in 2009.

Prospects for a wind farm off Delaware flickered back to life on Thursday when the federal government said it found no major environmental or socioeconomic barriers to issuing wind-energy leases off the mid-Atlantic coast.

The U.S. Department of the Interior issued a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for Wind Energy Areas off Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and New Jersey, where some developers are considering building wind farms.

There’s been a flurry of good news lately for Delawareans who like to enjoy alcoholic beverages.

Earlier this month, town leaders in Milton gave the go ahead to an expansion of the Dogfish Head Brewery. On January 5, a bill was introduced to create a special type of liquor license for the Queen Theater in downtown Wilmington, much like the special licenses created by the General Assembly for Dover International Speedway and Frawley Stadium. And the state laws governing beer tasting have become more liberal in recent years.

While things are getting a bit more permissive, the First State is still behind the times when it comes to opening up the booze floodgates.