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.

The cost reduction prompted the company to make an offer to residential developments where it already had some business: If at least 50 percent of home owners signed up for trash and recycling collection, they would get a 20 percent reduction in their monthly fee.

The result is that residents of Forestbrook Glen in Newport, Beautree in North Wilmington, and three other developments are now paying $20 a month to get their trash picked up, down from $25 until last July. And Econo-haul has boosted its own business by signing up more customers, increasing revenue by around 30 percent compared to a year ago.

“We’ve done extremely well,” Maier said. “We’ve definitely seen savings with recycling.”

Delaware has made a big dent in its trash volume by requiring haulers to provide single-stream recycling for all single-family homes since last September. That means residents have been able to throw glass, most types of plastic containers, paper, metals, and plastic bags into the same container rather than separating them before pickup.

Maier, secretary and treasurer of the 14-truck company, said the lower rates he’s been able to pass on to some of his customers have in part been due to combining trash, recycling and yard-waste pickup into one weekly collection for those communities – enabling him to keep down costs for fuel and labor.

But the biggest cost reduction comes from taking between 21 and 25 percent less trash to the landfill where the tipping fee for haulers is $82 a ton. By contrast, haulers drop recyclables at a state-run transfer station for no charge, or in exchange for a payment that depends on the variable market price of recyclable materials.

Still, haulers’ lower tipping costs don’t necessarily lead to a cut in collection fees because some companies make additional trips to pick up the increased volume of recycling, increasing their costs and in some cases adding to consumers’ fees.

The new system – formally implemented on Sept. 15 but effectively in operation for several months before that – resulted in an immediate increase of 25 to 30 percent in the volume of recycled material, officials found.

Although hard data on the latest increase in recycling rates won’t be available until early next year, anecdotal evidence from haulers indicates the new law has succeeded in persuading most people to keep their recyclables out of the trash can, said Jim Short, an environmental scientist in the Division of Waste and Hazardous Substances at the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.

“These are very respectable numbers,” he said. “This is a significant change in behavior for the State of Delaware and there is still outreach and education to do.”

Short said the state aims for the “diversion rate” from trash to recycling to rise to around 40 percent for single-family homes. Statewide, the recycling rate was 34 percent before the new law went into effect.

The law differs from recycling codes in Pennsylvania and New Jersey in that it places the responsibility for implementation on hauling companies rather than residents, Short said. Violations will result initially in a discussion with the hauler, and subsequent fines of as much as $1,500 a day on a second conviction. No enforcement actions have been taken since the law went into effect, he said.

The single-family changes were the first in a three-stage implementation of the new law. The second phase comes on Jan. 1, 2013 when haulers will have to extend single-stream recycling to multifamily residences. The final phase, for commercial recycling, is effective on Jan.1, 2014. The law aims to boost the statewide recycling rate to 50 percent by 2015 and 60 percent by 2020.

Persuading apartment dwellers to boost their recycling rate will be more complicated than educating single-family homeowners who were approached individually by the hauling companies. In multifamily buildings, trash haulers will be charged with contacting the owner or property management company which will then inform tenants of the new requirement, Short said.

“The education component is all on the property management company,” he said.

It may also be harder for apartment dwellers to accumulate recyclable materials for collection because they have to deposit them in a parking-lot dumpster or put them in a chute, and because apartment buildings typically have more transient populations than single-family communities, Short said.

For the population as a whole, the rule of thumb in the recycling industry is that 80-90 percent of people can be persuaded to put 80-90 percent of their recyclables out for collection, provided they are given the right education, Short said. The remaining 10 percent or so are probably never going to become regular recyclers no matter how hard the authorities try to convert them.

“Ten percent of the people just don’t care, and they are not going to do it,” he said. “It’s unfortunate but it’s the reality. The juice is just not worth the squeeze.”

For haulers, there’s potentially money to be made from the sale of recycled materials.

Some take a bet on getting paid for recycled aluminum, corrugated cardboard or other materials while others simply dump the material without compensation, said Mike Parkowski, Manager of Business and Government Service at the Delaware Solid Waste Authority, a state agency that’s funded by waste-tipping fees.

Co-mingled recyclables collected at a New Castle County transfer station are trucked to Philadelphia or Camden, NJ for sorting. The material is currently sold for $24-$26 a ton. A new recycling facility in Delaware is under construction and is expected to be operational next year.

Trash companies welcome the new law because its statewide standard provides a “level playing field” for haulers, said Tom Houska, Delaware’s senior district manager for the trash giant Waste Management.

Alice Jacobsohn, director of the Maryland Delaware Solid Waste Association, said the industry lobbied for the new law which creates opportunities to open up recycling facilities or deliver to other markets while preventing the Delaware Solid Waste Authority from competing with private haulers.

For some residents, the new law has been a way to save money by shopping around for trash haulers rather than just assuming the monthly fee is a fixed cost.

With companies like Econo-haul touting the increased recycling business, more consumers are paying attention to who picks up their trash, and for how much, according to Parkowski.

He said the trash bill for his own home in New Castle County has dropped to $65 a quarter from $92 a quarter before the recycling law went into effect.

“Trash is like car insurance,” Parkowski said. “People don’t think to shop. If you have the same trash company for 10 or 15 years, you are probably overpaying.”

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The project, which backers say will allow ports in Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey to compete for business in an era of bigger cargo ships, would deepen a 102-mile stretch of the Delaware River and Bay from 40 to 45 feet, putting the terminals on an equal footing with other major East Coast ports that can take the bigger vessels.

Seventeen miles of the channel south of Claymont have already been deepened and supporters expect more dredging to be done near Philadelphia 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, who argue the work will damage the environment and fail to bring promised economic benefits.

Delaware’s two U.S. senators welcomed the Feb. 8 announcement from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that it had received $16.9 million to deepen the shipping channel.

“This project will have a significant, positive impact on Delaware and the region,” said Sen. Tom Carper, in a statement. “Investments like this one are critical to the long-term development of the Port of Wilmington and Delaware.”

Sen. Chris Coons agreed.

“Deepening the Delaware River will bring enormous benefits to our state and has the potential to create tens of thousands of jobs in our region,” Coons said in a statement. “It will help ensure the Port of Wilmington remains competitive as the Panama Canal expands, and will provide long-term security for the port as it works to leverage private investment.”

President Obama’s budget proposal includes another $31 million for the dredging. Including work already completed, the multi-year project is expected to cost approximately $300 million in state and federal funds.

The dredging is also backed by Governor Jack Markell, who joined with the state’s Congressional delegation last September and requested more money for the work from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the agency handling the project.

State quits lawsuit

Markell’s administration had previously joined a lawsuit against the Army Corps, arguing the project failed to meet state permitting requirements. The suit, in which the state joined with five environmental groups, failed in federal district court early in 2011. The other plaintiffs appealed, but the state withdrew, saying it did not want to put further resources into the case.

But the decision to abandon the legal challenge did not mean the administration changed its position about the benefits of the deepening project, said Brian Selander, a spokesman for Gov. Markell.

“There were compelling and competing arguments being made both for and against dredging before the project started,” Selander wrote in an email to DFM News. “Our argument before the courts centered not on the potential value of the project but around the need for it to adhere to state processes. The court ruled that dredging should go ahead without that additional environmental study or state process.”

Alan Levin, director of the Delaware Economic Development Office, acknowledged that, as a supporter of the deepening project, he had been at odds with his fellow cabinet member, Collin O’Mara, Gov. Markell’s Secretary of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. But, Levin said, the courts “took it out of our hands.”

Legal advice overruled?

According to Maya van Rossum of Delaware Riverkeeper, one of five environmental groups suing to block the project, the state withdrew after the Markell administration overruled objections from the Delaware Attorney General’s office.

Lawyers for the attorney general argued that giving in on the issue of the state’s permitting authority created a dangerous precedent that ran contrary to the intent of the federal Clean Water Act, which is based on joint federal and state authority for such projects, van Rossum said.

“The attorneys argued that once that legal authority is stopped, it’s very difficult for them to ever get that back,” she said.

Justin Miller, a spokesman for the Attorney General’s office, said the department would neither confirm nor deny van Rossum’s account because the information was privileged.

Critics question costs, benefits

Opponents of the project argue that dredging will do ecological and economic harm to oyster beds; damage wetlands; hurt local populations of horseshoe crabs that provide food for migrating shorebirds and blood for medical researchers, and threaten the
already-endangered Atlantic sturgeon.

“The deepening is not needed,” said van Rossum. “It’s a likely economic loser.”

In January, Delaware Riverkeeper renewed its attack on the plan, saying the Army Corps “cooked the books” by falsely claiming that deepening the channel would reduce the cost of bringing seaborne goods to the Philadelphia-area market.

The group argues that trucking goods to local customers from ports that can take smaller ships would be less expensive than the cost of the dredging project. It challenges the Army Corps’ economic analysis that benefits will outweigh costs by 1.64 to 1, and says the true ratio is around 1 to 1.

“The Corps’ economic analysis deserves to be on a Chinese menu under twice-cooked pork,” said Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a non-partisan federal budget watchdog group, in a statement. “The new report is being used to justify renewed funding for a project that doesn’t meet the federal government’s basic criteria for ensuring tax dollars are invested only in those projects that will generate clear economic value for the country.”

Ed Voigt, a spokesman for the Army Corps in Philadelphia, acknowledged the project’s benefits/costs ratio is lower than the 2.5 to 1 recommended by the White House’s Office of Management and Budget for projects that seek federal funding. But he said the OMB number is a guideline rather than a rule.

“Most projects will be 2.5 or more,” Voigt said. “There’s always going to be some that aren’t.”

Legal challenges could stop work

The Army Corps is likely to begin work on the next section, between Penn’s Landing in Philadelphia and Essington, in the summer, according to Dennis Rochford, President of the Maritime Exchange for the Delaware River and Bay, a non-profit trade association that promotes trade in the river’s port complex in Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

But resumption will depend on the Third Circuit’s decision, which Rochford – a board member of Delaware First Media – said he expects within weeks.

Delaware U.S. District Court Judge Sue Robinson ruled in early 2011 that the deepening project entailed maintenance rather than expansion, so the Army Corps was not required to seek a state permit for the work, as claimed by the plaintiffs. She determined that the state had no basis on which to prevent the dredging.

Following legal defeats in Delaware and New Jersey, the five environmental groups plus the State of New Jersey took their challenge to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, which heard oral arguments in January.

Jane Davenport, senior attorney with Delaware Riverkeeper, said that, whoever prevails at the Third Circuit, the case is likely to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Davenport said the high court may decide it wants to settle disputes over two sections of the Clean Water Act: whether the Army Corps is granted a waiver on the analysis of dredging spoils disposal and whether the Corps has to obtain a state dredging permit.

If the high court takes the case, it could prove decisive for other port-deepening projects up and down the East Coast, Davenport said.

A powerful economic driver

According to the Maritime Exchange, the Delaware River port complex contributes $6 billion to the regional economy. Its benefits include 75,000 jobs, $1.5 billion a year in wages and salaries, and $150 million a year in state and local taxes.

Opening up the Delaware channel to larger ships will also allow local ports to compete for new business, and will encourage private investment in port infrastructure such as a planned new container terminal in Philadelphia and improvements to the Port of Wilmington, Rochford said.

“If we don’t deepen our channel, we are going to lose business to those other ports,” he said.

Levin, Delaware’s economic development director, agreed. The Port of Wilmington has great potential because it is within five hours’ drive of 35 percent of the U.S. population, he noted, but if it can’t take larger ships, “those shippers will find other places to go.”

Rochford said the new federal money shows that local ports will be able to host the new generation of cargo carriers, especially those sailing through the expanded Panama Canal, where the biggest cargo carriers are known as Panamax ships.

“This funding sends a message to the global transportation community that Delaware River ports are not only competitive but ready, willing and able to do business in a post-Panamax ship world,” Rochford said.

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The recently opened Rodney Village Pharmacy in Dover is one of only 18 independently owned and operated drugstores in Delaware.

In recent months, Shayona Pharmacy debuted in Delmar, Nanticoke Pharmacy opened in Seaford and Rodney Village Pharmacy launched in Dover.

In July, First State Pharmacy set up shop in North Wilmington, founded by a pharmacist exiting Walgreens. Atlantic Apothecary opened in Smyrna, started by another former Walgreens druggist.

“People are yearning for great customer service,” says Chas McCormick, owner of First State. “They want to have a conversation with a pharmacist who knows them by name, which you can’t get at a corporate chain where the pharmacist is answering the phone and ringing up sales because the company won’t hire enough help.”

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. That will rise to 19 later this month, when Dover Community Pharmacy opens.

Chains hold the lion’s share of the market, with 77 Walgreens, 47 RiteAids and five CVS stores. Big box discounters, warehouse shopping clubs and supermarkets are part of the mix, as well. Walmart, Target, Costco, BJs, ShopRite and other retailers also operate in-store pharmacies.

“Delaware is unique in that it is so heavily dominated by chains,” says John Norton, NCPF spokesman. “North Dakota is on the other end of the spectrum because chains aren’t allowed there unless they are locally owned.”

In contrast, the split is nearly even in neighboring states, according to NCPF statistics. In New Jersey there are 733 chain stores and 716 independent pharmacies. In Pennsylvania, the tally is 1,097 chain stores and 1,004 independents. And in Maryland, there are 370 chain stores and 363 independents.

So how did the mix in Delaware get so lopsided? Carl June, owner of Cape Pharmacy in Lewes, says the swing started more than 40 years ago with two family-owned regional chains. Happy Harry’s began acquiring community drugstores in the northern part of the state. Edgehill Drugs, founded in Dover in 1957, bought up downstate pharmacies. Edgehill was acquired by RiteAid in 1999.

“A lot of pharmacists were about to retire and the chains went around snapping up stores,” says June, who has been in the business for 40 years.

Atlantic Apothecary in Smyrna - like First State Pharmacy in North Wilmington - is owned by a former Happy Harry

Both McCormick and Kevin Musto, owner of Atlantic Apothecary, are Happy Harry’s alumni. Both pharmacists say they would still be working for the company if it hadn’t been acquired by Walgreens.

“Pharmacists are putting in too many hours without enough help,” Musto says. “The idea is to streamline payroll in order to enhance corporate profits.”

Happy Harry’s operated under a different model, in keeping with CEO Alan Levin’s insistence on a high level of customer service. Pharmacist-managers were permitted to tweak the mix of merchandise in their stores in order to carry products requested by customers.

“Alan gave each store the autonomy to match the culture of their neighborhood,” McCormick says. “And if you had a concern, you could get on the phone and speak with him directly.”

Levin, now director of the Delaware Office of Economic Development, believes independents also will benefit from Walgreens’ recent split with Express Scripts, a decision that means America’s largest drugstore chain no longer accepts the insurance of an estimated 12 percent of its customers.

First State Pharmacy in North Wilmington emphasizes it takes Express Scripts - which Walgreens recently stopped accepting.

“It was a dumb move,” he says. “People who take their prescriptions some place else might not come back.”

Sheila Tucker, who owns Market Street Pharmacy in Wilmington, says she is seeing new faces at the counter.

“We have had a lot of people come to us because of Walgreens’ break,” she says. “It’s been very good for our business.”

For 20 years, she worked for various chains, growing increasingly frustrated with the emphasis on speed and productivity.

“They want the count, getting those scripts out, rather than patient care,” she says.

Tucker started looking for a pharmacy about the same time Greater Brandywine Village Revitalization Inc., a not-for-profit development group, came up with a wish list of businesses that would enhance the community. At the top was a neighborhood drugstore.

Market Street Pharmacy in Wilmington open as part of an effort to revitalize the Brandywine Village neighborhood.

She opened Market Street Pharmacy in a shuttered dollar store eight years ago. Tucker works hard, putting in 60 hours a week or more, helping seniors to manage their medications, frequently conferring with doctors to find the most cost-effective treatments. On her way home, she might drop off medicine to a sick mother at home with small children.

“It is incredibly rewarding to take care of people,” she says. “I love being on my own, not being run by a corporation.”

Tejas Sheth, owner of Georgetown Pharmacy, converted a Laundromat to a drugstore last fall.

“I had wanted to buy a pharmacy but there is more demand now for community pharmacies than there is supply,” he says. “So I had to find a building and start from scratch.”

Before he went into business, Sheth worked for CVS and Walmart.

“The co-payment is the same if a patient gets a prescription from CVS, Walmart or me,” he says. “I think people will come to us because we offer more.”

Sheth and many other independent pharmacists offer compounding, in which components are combined to create a unique medicine. He goes online to look for drug manufacturer’s coupons that patients can use to save money.

“The only thing we can’t compete on is hours,” he says. “Patients are always saying, ‘I wish you were open later at night, I wish you were open on Sundays.’”

Happy Harry’s was a hybrid of sorts, a community pharmacy that offered extended hours and such conveniences as a dairy case.

The first store opened in Wilmington in 1962. Back then, it was known simply as Discount Center. The founder, Harry Levin, renamed the stores Happy Harry’s Discount Drugs in 1965 when he opened his third store, a reference to the nickname customers gave the warm, friendly businessman.

After Levin’s death in 1987, his son Alan took the reins. Happy Harry’s continued to grow, dominating Delaware’s drugstore scene. When the company was sold to Walgreens in 2006, there were 75 locations in Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey.

At the time, there were only seven independent drug stores in Delaware. That doesn’t surprise Mark Freebery of Milford, president of the Delaware Pharmacists Society. A longtime pharmacist-manager for Happy Harry’s, he left Walgreens to teach at University of Maryland Eastern Shore School of Pharmacy.

“The pharmacists at Happy Harry’s were a very satisfied bunch,” he says. “They had adequate support staff and a mandate from the top to take care of people and when Walgreens came in that went away.”

Walgreens spokesman Robert Elfinger says staffing of pharmacy techs and other personnel varies according to the volume of each store.

He says the adjustment in going from a family-owned business to a large corporation is different for each individual, and is “a matter of personal preference.”

“Naturally, interaction with top management at a large company will be different than at a small business,” Elfinger says. “There are people who thrive while working for a large company and the added opportunities it provides, while others may prefer to work in a smaller environment.”

He says Walgreens is dedicated to making a positive impact for the people it serves.

“We are focused on making our stores more relevant to their local communities and bringing more decision-making to the local level,” Elfinger says.

Levin says he decided to sell Happy Harry’s because federal regulations and shrinking compensation from insurers were making it more cumbersome to do business. In 2006, he felt most comfortable accepting an offer from Deerfield, Ill.-based Walgreens.

“I had known the Walgreen family for years,” he says. “But today, no one in the family is active in the business and Walgreens is a very different company.”

Levin predicts independents will continue to gain ground on Walgreens, CVS and RiteAid.

“They are a great group of people and I am rooting for them,” he says.

He still gets his prescriptions filled at Walgreens in Greenville, where he has known the pharmacist for 15 years.

“But if she ever left, I would head to the nearest community drugstore,” he says.

Musto and McCormick have integrated much of the Happy Harry’s model into their pharmacies. Both are open on Sundays. McCormick, whose motto is “put the Happy back into your community pharmacy,” sells milk and other conveniences.

So, will the momentum continue? June, at Cape Pharmacy, says that will be determined in large part by what happens when older independent druggists retire.

“If there is no one in the family to take over, the plan must be to sell the business,” he says. “Chains have a lot more money than a young person just coming out pharmacy school.”

To bolster succession plans, the NCPF is heading to pharmacy schools to woo the next generation of druggists. The trade group is helping to establish junior partnerships in which young grads will get a small percentage of a business in anticipation of taking over the pharmacy some day.

“In the end, we believe they will have more satisfaction and make more money owning their own pharmacies,” Norton says.

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Governor’s Weekly Message

Governor Jack Markell

Full text of Governor Jack Markell’s weekly message:
We got some great news this week, when one of our major employers agreed to add several hundred new jobs here in Delaware. We try and stay focused, every day, on making our state a better place to start and grow a business.

Every time we tackle an issue together, we make sure that jobs are our top priority. We ask – “How can we do this in a way that can helps create jobs and improves our economy?”

But the truth is, no matter how hard we work, and no matter how focused we are, our state’s economic health is tied to the health of our region and our nation.

Governors across the country are coming together in Washington later in the week to talk about ways we can work together to get people working. As the Chairman of the National Governor’s Association, my friend Dave Heineman of Nebraska is making sure the NGA stays focused on developing best practices – particularly when it comes to helping small businesses succeed.

Having been elected by my colleagues to serve as Vice Chair, I’ll make sure that what we’ve done in Delaware gets heard and what’s working in other states gets a hard look to see if it could work here as well.

I’ll also be sharing with other Governors some of the great things our Delaware businesses are building and some of the services they have to offer, to see if they have companies in their states that might someday become clients of our companies. Although, candidly, I certainly wouldn’t mind if some of those out of state companies became interested enough in Delaware to become Delaware employers themselves.

A few of us will also have the chance to talk directly with the President, to make clear that the health of our national economy must remain our top priority now and that the single most important thing we can do to ensure our nation’s economic future is to stay committed to keeping our nation’s public schools strong–to make sure they’re ready and able to meet the challenge of graduating kids ready to compete and win against anyone, anywhere in the world.

For Governors, it seems like it matters a lot less where an idea or policy starts. What matters more is where that idea or policy can help us go. In that way, the NGA seems a lot like Delaware, where people look past differences and work together to keep their states – and Delaware – moving forward.

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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.

“We know (Bank of America) had some very difficult decisions to make because its been such a tough environment for this industry. And as they look around the country at all the places they can go, when they factored in all the various criteria, they decided at the end of the day the place they want to expand is here in Delaware,” Markell said.

The 500 jobs will be added to the North Carolina based bank’s Delaware operation over the next three years. Bank of America currently has an estimated 7000 Delaware employees, making it one of the state’s top private sector employers.

Bank of America’s Co-Chief Operating Officer David Darnell credited government officials at all levels in Delaware for paving the way to add to its operation in the First State.

“Governor Markell has always encouraged us to grow in Delaware. Along with the General Assembly, the congressional delegation and Mayor Baker, they have all created an exceptional environment for us to do business,” said Darnell in a statement. “While we continue to create a stronger, more efficient organization throughout our footprint, we are pleased to be able to do more in a community that is home to thousands of our people.”

Bank of America loves doing business in Delaware. We are committed to Delaware, the City of Wilmington and the surrounding communities,” Susan Faulkner, Bank of America’s Consumer and Small Business Product executive, added. “This doesn’t happen by accident. We are here because of the fantastic partnership Bank of America has with community leadership.”

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. “This is going to be a game-changer for the city of Wilmington.” Longwood will establish a separate non-profit organization, to be called the Community Education Building, to oversee the facility, he said.

Greg Meece, acting president of the Delaware Charter School Network and director of the Newark Charter School, called it “a huge shot in the arm for charter schools” and a great opportunity to bring in some high-performing groups” to operate charter schools in the state.

“I can’t wait to see the possibilities,” added Kendall Massett, executive director of the Delaware Charter School Network.

Du Pont, making several references to “schools” and “tenants,” indicated that the building is likely to become home to “multiple high-performing charter schools” but said they would have to withstand “a rigorous assessment process” to qualify for using the space.

Meece envisions the 282,000-square-foot building housing three or four schools. “They wouldn’t be just any charter,” he said. “They would have to demonstrate that their chances of success are high, either through a proven track record or having an outstanding plan.”

The building could provide classroom space for up to 2,000 students, said U.S. Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., who was present for Bank of America’s announcement.

Bank of America adds jobs, donates building in Delaware

Excerpts from announcement of job expansion and building donation to Delaware charter schools by Bank of America.

Candidates to use the site could include existing Delaware charter schools that are seeking larger quarters or desire to open a second site, groups with plans to open a new type of school, and operators of schools in other states who would like to bring their programs to Delaware, Meece and Massett said.

Both Meece and an aide to Wilmington Mayor James M. Baker speculated Thursday that Kuumba Academy could be a candidate for space in the new building. They said that Kuumba is interested in securing quarters larger than its current space at 519 Market Street. The school is well-regarded, having garnered a “superior” rating in the Delaware School Accountability System.

(Update Friday 2/17: Adding Kuumba’s confirmation of interest)

Kuumba Academy confirmed its interest Friday. The charter which serves 260 children from kindergarten through grade five, “definitely intends to file an application” to lease space in the building, Head of School Sally Maldonado said Friday. “In 10 years, we have seen our school transform into a high-performing charter school and we would like to serve a larger number of students,” she said.

Maldonado said Kuumba would like to expand to include sixth, seventh and eighth grades, bringing total enrollment up to about 400 students.

For the charter operators ultimately chosen to have space in the building, the Bank of America donation helps resolve a major problem — the need for funding to acquire a facility, Meece said. Charters, although they are public schools, do not have access to local school property taxes or to state bond issues to pay for their buildings. Acquisition costs and rental payments must come out of the same funds used to cover the cost of instruction, he said.

“This is a very creative solution to the biggest hurdle in any charter startup,” Meece said.

In the past, he said, several charter school operators with proven records of success in other states have decided not to seek authorization to open schools in Delaware because site-acquisition costs proved to be too much of a obstacle.

Schools housed in the building will have to pay rent, du Pont said.

Du Pont compared the Bank of America donation to the DuPont Co.’s donation in the late 1990s of one of its downtown buildings for use by nonprofit organizations. “The fear that day was that we’d renovate a building but nobody would show up,” he said, but the Community Services Building now houses the leadership teams of more than 80 nonprofit groups.

Du Pont also urged corporations and foundations to increase their support of Delaware’s charter schools. Annual per pupil spending in traditional public schools is now about $13,000, compared with about $10,000 in charter schools, he said. Philanthropic support to charter schools over the last four years has amounted to $100 to $150 annually per child, hardly enough to bridge the spending gap, he said.

Meece said he hopes that new building will include some shared space that charter schools can use for offices, meetings and perhaps to consolidate some management functions in order to increase efficiencies.

Massett added that having the opportunity to attend classes a modern building in a prime location can also serve as a powerful motivator to students. “The kids will be ableto enjoy what the city brings,” she said. “I think they do better when we do more for them in their environment.”

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Click here to see Judy Johnson

Johnson—a long time Wilmington resident—was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1975. He was the sixth Negro League player and first Delawarean to enter Cooperstown, following his election by the Negro Leagues Committee. Johnson batted over .300 for his career, but it was his defensive skills that led him to be called the top third baseman of his day in the Negro League. He won Negro League World Series titles with the Hilldale Daisies in 1925 and Pittsburgh Crawfords in 1935. After his playing days, Johnson was hired as a scout for the Philadelphia Athletics and was eventually offered a coaching position in 1954 becoming the first African American coach in the Major Leagues.

(The Baseball Hall of Fame has more on Judy Johnson’s career here and a video from their “Behind the Plaques” series here)

Johnson was elected to the Delaware Sports Hall of Fame in its inaugural 1976 class, and the Delaware Sports Museum features a major talking exhibit dedicated to Johnson. At Frawley Stadium, where the museum is housed and the minor league Wilmington Blue Rocks play, the field bears his name, as does a park at Second and DuPont Streets in Wilmington.

Still, Johnson’s feats on the diamond and later work as a coach and scout for the Philadelphia Athletics and Phillies remain largely unknown to most Delawareans. Friends like James Knott, who served as the voice of Johnson in the Delaware Sports Museum exhibit, and Joe Mitchell, who established the Judy Johnson Foundation, strive to share Johnson’s story—joining other individuals and organizations around the country working to preserve the history of the Negro Leagues. Approximately 100 men who played in the Negro Leagues are still alive today.

History Matters: Judy Johnson

DFM News examines the life and legacy of Negro League great and Baseball Hall of Famer Judy Johnson.

Preserving the legacy of Judy Johnson in Delaware has had challenges. Before Wilmington’s minor league baseball stadium (now Frawley Stadium) was named in 1993, many fought to have it named in honor of Judy Johnson; instead, they settled on having the playing field there bear his name. In November 1995, Johnson’s home in Marshallton was added to the Delaware Public Archives’ list of historically significant places in the First State, but today the historic home has gone through a series of owners and it has fallen into disrepair.

History Matters: Judy Johnson

DFM News examines the status of Judy Johnson’s long-time home and the effort to name Wilmington minor league stadium after Johnson.

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Public education is one of the largest expenditures in the state, and the spending plan outlined by Secretary of Education Dr. Lillian Lowery totals more than $1.172-billion, an increase of 3.5-percent from the current fiscal year.  Included in the spending package is what is called an Educational Sustainment Fund of $27.4-million.  The biggest single proposed addition to the state budget is directly related to jobs, replacing lost federal funding under the economic stimulus program that targeted teaching and other school building positions.

“The $27.4-million is to make sure that we maintain the quality educators we have in the classroom so we can sustain the programs that we have for our children,” Lowery said.

Lowery said the spending plan also includes salary step-increases for teachers and eligible staff and a proposed $750 salary increase for paraprofessionals.  The state is also testing students more frequently throughout the school year under a new assessment program, and is carrying out a number of initiatives through a four-year Race to the Top federal education reform grant.  Delaware was awarded $119-million through the competitive process in late 2010, and has spent $27.7-million.  Initiatives have included identifying ten Partnership Zone Schools and developing comprehensive plans for helping them improve performance, hiring of data coaches for teachers, and hiring of development coaches for principals and other school administrators.

Some of the questions and comments at the hearing centered on a desire for more flexibility in utilizing some of the funding made available at the local level.  Lowery said schools and districts do get some flexibility in utilizing their share of the $27.4-million Sustainment Fund.

“We are always talking about that.  We are in discussion about giving them more flexibility around the dollars” Lowery said.  “That’s the kind of conversation we’ll continue to have with our legislators as we think about how to best do that.”

Dept. of Education presentation to Joint Finance Committee

DOE Secretary Dr. Lillian M. Lowery says the proposed education budget for Fiscal Year 2013 includes money to address the loss of federal stimulus dollars for education jobs.

Download audio file (lowery1.mp3)

DOE Secretary Dr. Lillian M. Lowery responds to questions raised by some districts and schools about more spending flexibility .

Download audio file (lowery2.mp3)

The Delaware Economic Development Office, meanwhile, presented a budget plan that is relatively the same as FY ’12, totaling about $2.68-million.  Spending initiatives would support a variety of programs ranging from improving access to small business loans to supporting farmland irrigation (the Delaware Rural Irrigation Program, or DRIP), to working through the Council on Development Finance on identifying other worthy projects as they may come up.

“Our budget aims to accelerate economic opportunity and create jobs,” DEDO Director Alan Levin said.

Just in the past couple of years,  DEDO has been instrumental in luring such large-scale projects as Bloom Energy’s fuel-cell facility to be built at the former Chrysler plant in Newark (now owned by the University of Delaware),  Amazon’s decision to invest tens of millions of dollars into a new facility in Middletown, finding a new owner for the Delaware City refinery, and working with Capital One, M & T Bank, Discover and other institutions to preserve or expand jobs in the financial sector.

Although Fisker Automotive has laid off 26 workers at the former General Motors plant near Newport and delayed production of the hybrid Nina vehicle, Levin said “they’ve had some hiccups, if you will, but I think they’re going to get there.”

“Our focus now should be, yes, we care about the large employers and obviously want to continue to secure them.  But, I think the entrepreneurial spirit is really where we’d like to go,” Levin added.

Delaware’s tourism initiative also falls under DEDO.  Levin said the state is developing a comprehensive advertising and branding campaign with the goal of luring more out-of-state visitors to Delaware and boosting a sector that meant $2.1-billion to the state’s economy in 2010.

DEDO presentation to Joint Finance Committee

DEDO Director Alan Levin explains a key part of DEDO’s FY ’13 budget proposal involves luring more visitors to the state..

Download audio file (levin1.mp3)

DEDO Director Alan Levin says DEDO’s spending plan remains largely focused on creating job opportunities – though it many change its emphasis.

Download audio file (levin2.mp3)

At about this time a year ago, members of the JFC were dealing with dire numbers and facing difficult decisions about a number of popular – and necessary – programs.  A springtime surge in revenues allowed lawmakers to restore cuts, offer more grants-in-aid, and even reward state workers with a pay increase.

What about this year?  More answers will come when the Delaware Economic and Financial Advisory Council holds its first meeting of 2012 on March 19^th.

“Even though we’re not totally out of the woods economically, and we’re certainly not flush with money, the Governor has been able to do a number of things people have been looking for, for quite a while,”  JFC Chairman State Senator Harris McDowell (D-Wilmington North) said.

Representative J.J. Johnson (D-Jefferson Farms) said overall the JFC review has been a smoother process this year – at least so far.  “It’s best to know what type of funding you have up front, rather than at the end,” Johnson added.

Joint Finance Committee progress on FY ’13 budget

Joint Finance Committee chairman State Sen. Harris McDowell (D-Wilmington North) describes the budget review as quite different from a year ago

Download audio file (mcdowell1.mp3)

Joint Finance Committee chairman State Sen. Harris McDowell (D-Wilmington North) says lawmakers are prepared to adjust for changing revenues as they continue reviewing the Governor’s FY ’13 budget

Download audio file (mcdowell2.mp3)

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The state’s ranking fell from 18th place in the group’s 2011 report to 22nd this year, even though the General Assembly approved legislation last year after financial and management problems surfaced at two charter schools. Delaware “was surpassed by states that made more substantial changes to their charter laws,” the report stated.

According to the report, Delaware’s charter school law “needs significant improvement in several areas, including expanding authorizing options, beefing up its provisions for performance-based contracts, and ensuring equitable operational funding and equitable access to capital funding and facilities.”

For several years Delaware charter school officials have been seeking changes in state law to provide more equity in funding. Under current law, school districts send money to charter schools to cover a portion of the cost of educating students who live in those districts. The amount is based on the district’s per-pupil spending level in the previous year, which is almost always less than current year spending. Also, because charter schools do not levy property taxes, they do not have a source of local funds to finance construction projects, nor can their projects be included in [are they eligible to participate in] state bond issues, which typically cover 60 percent or more of construction costs. For many charter schools, this means they rent, buy or construct their facilities with funds that would otherwise be spent on instruction.

“We have some tremendous charter schools in the state that do a great job,” said Brian Selander, Gov. Markell’s chief strategy officer, in an email. “It’s not surprising that a report issued by an organization committed to expanding charter schools would come to the conclusion that states should be spending significantly more on charter schools.”

But Greg Meece, acting president of the Delaware Charter Schools Network and director of the Newark Charter School, took issue with Selander’s statement, saying “that kind of thinking is why Delaware is not rising in the rankings nationally.”

The Markell administration, Meece said, “is framing the argument in terms of giving [charter schools] more money. The argument is an equity issue – treating us the same as you do other public schools in Delaware.”

Meece also said that to “not provide at least a level playing field financially is a major reason why Delaware and other states are not moving up in the rankings, and are moving down. It’s just wrong.”

Meece said he has raised this issue with Markell on several occasions. “I talked to him last week about it,” he said Friday.

Another report issued last year, by the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA), sharply criticized the state Department of Education’s process [policies and procedures] for approving charter school applications and monitoring their operations.

The department subsequently received a $75,000 grant from NACSA, supplemented by $20,000 from the Rodel Foundation, to hire a consultant that will help create a new application form for charter schools, set new standards for measuring the schools and define how assessments will be conducted.

“The new application and performance framework are “under development” and the work will be completed by July, said John H. Carwell Jr., charter school officer in the Department of Education.

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Delaware Charter Schools Network Executive Director Kendall Massett interacts with students during her recent visit to Kuumba Academy in Wilmington.

Every employer would want to have a Kendall Massett on the payroll.

“I love my job. I love my job. I love my job,” she says. “I love getting up in the morning. This is not work to me.”

Massett, a 42-year-old mother of two who lives in Holly Oak, is bringing her enthusiasm to the Delaware Charter Schools Network, a nonprofit organization founded in 2001 to promote and advocate for the state’s 22 public charter schools.  She took over as the organization’s executive director in January.

Massett wasn’t thinking of a career in education when she was growing up outside Annapolis, Md., or when she studied management at North Carolina State University. After working as a restaurant manager and a hospitality industry consultant, she volunteered to help run the Brady Kohn Foundation, an organization that encourages pregnant women to donate their child’s umbilical cord blood, which would otherwise become medical waste, for potential use in life-saving stem cell transplant procedures.

While serving as the Kohn foundation’s unpaid president and working part-time in New Castle County for Community Blood Services, a New Jersey-based organization that manages cord blood donations, Massett participated in the 2010 class of Leadership Delaware, a nonprofit that trains about 20 men and women, aged 25 to 40, in a nine-month program that prepares them to serve in community, nonprofit, political, professional and corporate leadership positions.

At the time, she said, she hoped participating in Leadership Delaware would help her “figure out how I could make a difference in Delaware for the Brady Kohn Foundation.”

Then, during one of the leadership program’s weekly lectures, she heard Chuck Baldwin speak.

Baldwin, more properly called Command Master Chief Charles Baldwin, had a distinguished career in the U.S. Navy before moving into education. He served as a teacher and principal in the Christina School District before becoming one of the founders of the Delaware Military Academy charter school.

“He said something that resonated with me, touched me, and I knew I needed to do something,” Massett recalls. Baldwin talked about how, in the early days of Delaware Military Academy, his former colleagues from regular public schools didn’t want to visit DMA “because he stole their best kids from him.” She says Baldwin replied by saying “that’s wrong. Every child should be your best child…. Children will rise to the expectation that you set for them.”

Listening to Baldwin convinced Massett to redirect herself into a career in education. Near the end of her Leadership Delaware training, she had coffee with Baldwin and pointedly told him, “I want to work for you.”

That didn’t happen, but Baldwin, now president of the Charter School of Wilmington, did become her mentor, and they kept in touch, meeting regularly for coffee and to discuss education topics. Late last year, Baldwin learned that Susan Harris, then executive director of the Charter Schools Network, was resigning. He mentioned to Massett, she applied for the job, aced the interviews and started in her new position in late January.

“She’s something we definitely need,” Baldwin says. “She’s young, she’s concerned about education and she’s fearless. She’s not afraid to stand up to anybody.”

Says Greg Meece, acting president of the Delaware Charter Schools Network and director of the Newark Charter School, “Kendall is smart, she’s energetic, and she brings a real passion for the charter school movement from a parent’s perspective.”

With a staff of one, Meece adds, the network “can’t do everything we’d like to do, and what we do we have to do well.” Under Massett’s direction, he says, “we will be more strategic, more focused.”

New Delaware Charter Schools Network exec. director Kendall Massett

Excerpts of DFM News’ interview with Massett during a visit to Wilmington’s Kuumba Academy.

One important part of Massett’s job is to be a facilitator for individual charter schools, helping them solve their problems and directing them to find resources when they need help with finances, planning, legal issues, marketing, printing, ordering textbooks or uniforms, or just about anything else.

“We need someone to serve as a voice for charter schools,” Baldwin says. “She can work with school leaders, she can work with parents, she can work with students, she can work at all different levels.”

Meece points to Massett’s understanding of education from a parent’s perspective. Since parents choose charter schools for their children, charters have a built-in constituency of parents. However, what Delaware’s charters don’t have right now, Meece and Massett say, is a broader organization of parents who can speak out for charter schools as a group, not merely for the one school their children attend.

“I would like to create a network for parents,” Massett says. “Parents want to be involved but don’t know how.”

She’s also looking forward to working as an advocate at the state level, pressing for the needs of charter schools with state education officials and with members of the General Assembly.

To become an effective advocate, Massett set herself the goal of visiting the state’s 22 charter schools during her first three months on the job.

She is already seeing plenty she likes, like going to the Kuumba Academy in downtown Wilmington and watching an assembly where children in kindergarten through second grade celebrated achieving eight months of academic growth in five months. “The kindergarten kids had this chant, ‘Work hard. Get smart.’ And this second grader got a T-shirt for having the most growth in his class, and he was so excited running back to show the shirt to his mother. I still feel the pride for him,” she says.

While there can sometimes be prickly relationships between traditional public schools and their charter cousins, and between the adults who support one and blame the other for their program’s woes, Massett wants to be a collaborator who builds lasting relationships between the different programs and constituencies.

She believes she can be a strong public advocate on behalf of public schools, both charter and traditional. Meece and Baldwin are confident she has the skills to succeed in that role. One important purpose of charter schools, Massett points out, is to create successful programs so that they might be replicated not only in other charters but in traditional public schools as well.

“I believe all children deserve an excellent education, and I believe I can help children by finding out what their needs are and by working to give that to them,” she says.

Asked why she is now dedicating her career to education, Massett’s response is clear and simple: “Because I’m a mom.”

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According to the Delaware Department of Education, 1,442 students dropped out of school, 71 fewer than the year before, continuing a three-year decline to 3.7 percent of First State students dropping out of high school.

Some of those “dropouts,” may not have left school completely, administrators said.

If a student leaves the state or country and the receiving school does not make a request for the student’s records, it’s difficult for the original district to prove the student has relocated. So that is considered a dropout.

“We get a lot of students who move on us and we can’t even find them,” said Mervin Daugherty, superintendent of Red Clay Consolidated School District. “You still need to look at every student, but if we make an effort and we’re doing all we can, the schools should be penalized for that.”

Digging deeper into Delaware’s dropout rate

Red Clay Consolidated School Dist. superintendent Mervin Daugherty and Red Clay director of district and school services Burtie Watson

Sherry Gross, principal of Glasgow High School, said she withdrew 21 students from the school’s roll in two weeks, but believes many of those students will not be labeled as dropouts when reporting is complete. The chronic absences of those students, however, can negatively impact not only the attendance record of the building, but drag down performance development – at least on paper – through tests untaken.. Gross withdrew the students, who were all over 16, after they missed more than 10 consecutive days of school, home visits failed and registered letters to the students’ guardians went unanswered.

It’s unclear if those students or parents would go to such lengths to avoid school personnel, but in many cases students have moved out of state or out of the country where their Delaware student ID numbers would not be used. So those students fall off the grid.

“Say a student goes to a start-up charter in Baltimore, Maryland,” said Burtie Watson, director of district and school services for the Red Clay Consolidated School District. “If that school isn’t familiar with this process, we may never have a record that is where the student moved — even if they’re an honor student, or valedictorian.”

The Delaware Department of Education’s new computerized cohort management system is meant to streamline and standardize dropout records by using an online system that eliminates the need for school personnel to manually match up student ID numbers. However, Watson said the numbers compiled by the system and its rigid coding system can obfuscate what’s really happening with students.

“I understand the Department of Education is trying to get an accurate number,” Watson said, “ but it’s hard sometimes for us to verify where a kid is, though I’m not saying the spike is because all of the students went out of state or out of the country.”

Daugherty said reasons cited by himself and Watson are not meant to be excuses, but explanations as to why numbers can seem inflated. Over the last three years of reporting, for example, John C. Dickinson dropout numbers have fluctuated from 11 percent to 7 percent, back up to 12 percent.

Daugherty said Dickinson principal Byron Murphy “tried to hold on to students as long as he could,” in 2009-2010, meaning he wouldn’t allow them to withdraw nor did he withdraw chronically absent students from the rolls at the building level. When some students left in 2010-2011 anyway, it may have inflated that year’s dropout rates.

“You have to literally tell us you don’t want us before we stop offering help,” Daugherty said. Even after leaving school, staff try to meet with dropouts six weeks, sometimes six months after they leave school.

“I’m asking for the opportunity to think outside of the box,” Daugherty said. If students who followed alternative educational paths were not counted as dropouts, staff may be more comfortable recommending those alternatives.

He added that students who go to the James H. Groves Adult High School, enter Job Corps, or pursue a GED are also considered dropouts, although they aren’t terminating their education. Daugherty said he hopes legislators will consider alternative programs to keeping students in schools where they don’t want to be and future dropout reporting will reflect that.

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Less than two weeks later, Pres. Barack Obama made the State of the Union address and brought more attention to Heffernan’s bill than she ever expected.

“We also know that when students don’t walk away from their education, more of them walk the stage to get their diploma,” Obama said. “When students are not allowed to drop out, they do better. So tonight, I am proposing that every state — every state — requires that all students stay in high school until they graduate or turn 18.”

Heffernan’s bill was scheduled for consideration in the House Education Committee, but after some discussion, the former president of the Brandywine School District suggested the bill be tabled.

“I think it’s great to have this discussion (on the legislation), especially on the national level,” Heffernan said. “I requested to have it tabled so we can work on resolving questions. It will probably come back after the JFC (Joint Finance Committee) break (in March).”

She said she didn’t know Obama would mention the mandatory attendance issue during the State of the Union, but she was certainly excited that he did.

In its latest report, the Delaware Department of Education said that during the 2010-2011 academic year, 3.7 percent of the state’s high school population, 1,442 students, dropped out. Though that number has diminished over the last three years, administrators are still working to shrink those numbers even farther.

“Four years ago we had two of our high schools that were considered dropout factories, unfortunately — Dickinson and McKean,” said Burtie Watson, director of district and school services for Red Clay Consolidated School District. “We took a direct approach to try to reduce dropouts also looking at prevention and recovery efforts.” In three years the district’s dropout numbers have decreased by 20 percent.

Watson said he treats dropout risk systemically, starting in kindergarten. Heffernan’s proposed legislation would be another weapon in his arsenal.

“I think (the age for mandatory school attendance) should be raised to 18,” Watson said. “I think what we’re creating without that as a law is an underclass of kids who don’t graduate with a diploma. Aside from that, it gives us more time to work with kids providing them the things that they need to be successful at age 15, 16, 17.”

Watson said the change may lead to an increase in truancy numbers, but he would rather work on those numbers than continue to fight dropout rates. However, Sherry Gross, principal at Glasgow High School, said she doesn’t think opening more students up to truancy charges would be helpful.

“To be perfectly honest with you, the truancy court system, my personal feeling has been, it does not change the student’s practice of coming to school,” Gross said. “The staff and the school make the student want to come to school. Changing (the mandatory attendance age) will not only bog down the truancy system itself, it will not change the behavior of not coming to school.

“Attaching a student to someone in the building and making that building a better place for the student to be in is what changes the behavior.”

Gross said she believes improving the school, not passing legislation, will get students to stay until graduation.

Mandatory school attendance age and Delaware’s dropout rate.

Red Clay Consolidated School Dist. superintendent Mervin Daugherty and Red Clay director of district and school services Burtie Watson

Legislators and educators agree that the pending legislation needs to address alternatives offered to kids who don’t succeed at the traditional school level. For example, under current dropout reporting, students who leave traditional school to enter Job Corps, a GED program, or James H. Grove Adult High School, are counted as dropouts, even if teens complete their education or gain skills to succeed in the workplace.

Looking at the numbers, most students drop out of school in their freshman year. Many of those, officials say, are already 16 years old after having repeating a grade in elementary school. There can be a level of frustration or embarrassment in prior failures that lead to dropping out of school instead of risking more failure. Having a spectrum of alternatives for students could encourage them to follow through with completing their education.

“I’m hoping they allow for flexibility to come up with a plan (for students),” said Mervin Daugherty, superintendent of Red Clay Consolidated School District. “I’m not asking for more money. Just give us the flexibility to work with a student to come up with an alternative plan. If you’re going for your GED, why are they still counted as a dropout?

“I think we’re in a very unique opportunity for education, let’s look at every avenue. I think everyone is looking at data differently now. It’s not I need to be at this point here, it’s where did I grow? How do we help them get caught up? How do we help them succeed?”

Also, there’s the price tag of keeping students in school as many as two years longer than they may stay according to the current law. The fiscal notes on the legislation suggesting extending the mandatory school attendance age could cost more than $2 million by 2013, giving some legislators pause.

“There was some discussion about the fiscal implications,” Heffernan said. “My thoughts—and those of other supporters—up-front costs are much smaller than long-term costs. There’s the possibility of those dropouts ending up on welfare, Medicaid or in the legal system.”

“What happens if we keep going the path we’re headed? We’re going to keep the (current dropout) numbers and I think the resources are going to be even more expensive,” Daugherty said. “Are we saying that those students who don’t want to be in that traditional school should stay in school? No, but there should be an avenue of success for them. If not, we’re going to pay for it in multiple ways down the road that are not going to be good for our society.”

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In conjunction with the Pyle exhibition, the Delaware Art Museum is also focusing on the work of one of Pyle’s distant descendants – who has found a way to honor his famous relative’s larger than life works by making them a whole lot smaller.

DFM News’ Patrick Mairs visited the Delaware Art Museum to take a look at Dana Pyle’s Howard Pyle miniatures. 

No small feat: Reimagining Howard Pyle’s work

DFM News’ Patrick Mairs examines ‘Dana Pyle’s Howard Pyle Miniatures’

The “Howard Pyle: American Master Rediscovered” and “Dana Pyle’s Howard Pyle Miniatures” exhibitions are on display at the Delaware Art Museum until March 4th.

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Governor’s Weekly Message

Governor Jack Markell

Full text of Governor Jack Markell’s weekly message:

Dupont, Perdue, W-L Gore may be large employers now, but each began as the passionate project of some inspired entrepreneurs. People pushed forward by the powerful idea that they had something unique to offer the marketplace.

Every day, new entrepreneurs step forward, launching themselves into the hard, but critical work that comes from working for yourself.

This week, I joined business and academic leaders, as well as my fellow Governor and NGA Chairman Dave Heineman for the Kauffman Foundation’s 3rd Annual “State of Entrepreneurship Address.” It was clear from this collaborative discussion that some of the old debates and divides that mar economic policy discussions in other places just aren’t relevant at this point in history.

In the fight to help employers – particularly small businesses– grow, we need to stay focused on how states can enable – rather than inhibit – growth. We need to remain committed to making government more responsible, making our public schools stronger, and on creating a business environment that encourages growth and opportunity.

As you know, Delaware’s Economic Development Office is headed by Alan Levin, one of our state’s great entrepreneurial success stories with his work to build Happy Harry’s. What you might not know is that, each semester, our economic development office and others bring together dozens of existing and potential entrepreneurs to offer intensive training and guidance through the Kauffman Foundation’s FastTrac program. The curriculum offers important insight in areas critical to building a business.

I was lucky enough in my private sector career to be able to join a small company full of great people – people dedicated to each other with a shared, singular focus on helping the business and one another succeed. And while we did grow that company into a nationwide wireless network, I will always look back on those early days – on that chance to work together to put so many people directly to work – as some of the most challenging, interesting and rewarding experiences anybody could ever have.

Our state is full of so many active and budding entrepreneurs. Whether as a government committed to creating a climate for success or as individual consumers committed to supporting small businesses with how and what we buy, we need to support small businesses and their entrepreneurial spirit as we work together to keep Delaware, moving forward.

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“I looked at perhaps 10 places, and some of them were God-awful,” she recalled. “Three years ago, there was more available, and people were willing to deal.”

For the coming season, she took no chances. She booked in December 2011.

Panarello isn’t the only one getting a jump on a beach house. “Rentals are up 18 percent over last year,” said Michelle Esposito, the rental manager of Prudential Gallo Realtors in Rehoboth Beach. “We went through a period where there was so much on the rental market that guests waited to book. Seems like they want to plan early now.”

Esposito’s colleague over in the Lewes office, Adriane Gallagher, said her rentals are up about 15 percent.

That increase in early rentals may be a sign demand is catching up to supply in Sussex County. Statistics recently released by the Delaware Tourism Office show that between 2000 and 2010, the number of seasonal homes in Sussex County increased nearly 40 percent to just under 35,000 properties. Those seasonal homes account for just over 28 percent of all housing units in Sussex County, with a rental value of nearly $870 million dollars, according the Tourism office.

The Early Bird and the Bargain Hunter

While the agencies have enjoyed an influx of early birds, they still expect to hear from people interested in renting after the season starts. “I would still expect that our bookings in the middle of summer will continue to grow,” Gallagher said. “The problem will be availability, especially if guests wait until the last minute.”

That’s particularly true for guests who have certain demands, such as Internet access, pet-friendly accommodations, beach proximity or air conditioning.

During the economic crisis, repeat customers still comprised the bulk of many agencies’ bookings. John F. Kleinstuber and Associates in Fenwick Island, which handles more than 100 properties, gives returning clients first crack at its rentals.

On Nov. 10, Kleinstuber opens reservations only to customers who wish to book the same property during the same week of the year. On Nov. 14, current customers interested in a different property or another week can start making reservations. Those who’ve never booked with the agency before can do so starting Nov. 15.

This fall the calls poured in. “We had a huge opening of reservations,” said John Kleinstuber, whose father founded the agency in 1977. “The first couple of weeks were fantastic, and we had a large amount of our properties booked solid after that first week.”

Gallagher is receiving calls from customers she hasn’t heard from in several years. “It leads me to believe that the average consumer is loosening their belt a bit and ready to indulge in some luxuries, one of which is a vacation.”

Sharon Palmer-Stauffer would agree. “I think people are sick and tired of skimping on vacations,” said Palmer-Stauffer, vice president and manager of rental operations at Coldwell Banker Resort Realty, which has locations in Lewes and Rehoboth Beach.

Beach rental agents are accustomed to guests from Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. But in recent years, guests from New York and New Jersey have joined the ranks. It seems vacations at the beach in Delaware can be more cost-effective than stays at the Jersey shore, where rental prices are often higher and sunbathers may have to pay for beach tags.

The boost in early bookings could make things more difficult for the last-minute guest who waits to reserve a property in the hope of negotiating a deal. During the recent economic downturn, waiting until the last minute often proved an effective strategy.

Michelle Kramer-Fitzgerald of Wilmington knows the process firsthand. For 13 years, she and her friends have rented a beach house together for a week. “We wait until the very last minute to book,” said Kramer-Fitzgerald. They widen their search to Dewey and Rehoboth to increase their options. By being patient, they’ve landed up to 20 percent off the rental fee.

But she noticed a change in 2011.“There were definitely less choices in terms of places available and less folks willing to negotiate on price,” she said. “We still got a nice place but didn’t have the selection we had in the past.”

Kleinstuber said there were fewer last-minute reservations in Fenwick in 2011 than in 2010. Perhaps that’s because narrow Fenwick Island, which is sandwiched between the bay and the ocean, has a tighter supply of available homes than Lewes and Rehoboth, where vacation properties have spread west of Route 1. According to Esposito in Rehoboth, last-minute bookings in Rehoboth were about the same in 2011 and 2010.

Prices start to rise as renters demand more

Those willing to rent inland, change their desired dates or make do without amenities have more choices. But today, most renters want some luxuries. Must-haves include air conditioning, wireless Internet and a washer and dryer, Esposito said. Kleinstuber adds a dishwasher to the list.

“The times of the old, musty beach house are gone,” Esposito noted. “Guests want flat-screen TVs, Internet, fully equipped kitchens to save money on eating out—and they want to bring their pets!”

A pool has become a hot commodity. “We have a large demand for private homes with pools, and there are not too many here in Fenwick,” Kleinstuber said. “The few we have book quickly and for big bucks.”

Before opting to use it themselves in summer, Kleinstuber and his family rented out their Fenwick cottage. (They have a primary home in Bethany Beach.) “We put a pool in, and the next summer our rental went up 50 percent,” he said.

Properties with all the bells and whistles do well, and many of them sold out in 2011. That’s prompted some to raise their rates. “So far, the increases haven’t been met with resistance,” Gallagher said. In Fenwick, Kleinstuber noticed that about 25 percent of his owners raised their rates.

In Rehoboth, a rate increase often reflects a property upgrade and an amenity addition, Esposito said. Even so, it’s normally limited to up to $50 a week.

As always, location plays a part. “The in-town and beach properties are always going to rent at a premium,” Gallagher said of Lewes.

The bookings so far this year are fostering some optimism among agencies—and it has opened the door to new possibilities for owners. Palmer-Stauffer now markets homes to planners for corporate retreats and destination wedding parties.

Rentals, she said, are no longer limited to summer. “I think there is a lot more opportunity in this area for expanding the shoulder season,” she said. “Even in the dead of winter, people need to unwind.”

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Shoppers who come inside the former bed-and-breakfast inn will find an eclectic mix of artists’ work, including powerful equine paintings, opulent hand-made Santas, thought-provoking photography and fanciful purses fashioned from vintage cigar boxes. If customers want refreshment, they can stop by the in-house coffee shop.

“This has taken me from a hobby to a business,” says Raymond of New Castle. “Being part of a larger group gives my work far greater visibility.”

Esther Lovlie, who owns Penn’s Place with her husband Matthew, calls it “an artisan’s business incubator.”

“The consumer gets a one-of-the-kind product and the artisan gets a broader marketplace,” she says. “Having a store validates them.”

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’ Gallery in Milford, more than 30 artists immerse themselves in woodworking, stained glass, painting and other pursuits.

Sharing the work

At A Menagerie of Artisans, each artist pays monthly rent and is expected to work the equivalent of one day a week minding the collective store. The owners provide utilities, trash removal, Wi-Fi, and such amenities as a four-color printer. The Penn’s Place website includes blurbs about each artist, with a link to the artist’s website. The venue also provides space for a massage therapist, a tarot card reader, an archivist, an artisan who restores steamer trunks and a community room that is available for meetings and social events.

A Menagerie of Artisans at Penn’s Place in Olde New Castle (click to view slideshow)

Lovlie says the enterprise fulfills both her passion for art and for community preservation. She is trained as an opera singer and is president of the Historic New Castle Alliance, modeled after the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Main Street program.

Formerly the William Penn Guest House, the circa 1682 colonial-style structure on Delaware Street had been for sale for three years when the Lovelies came up with the idea of creating a gathering place for artists and the community. Her parents, Jean and Ron Norvell, helped the couple buy the property.

Currently, Penn’s Place is open Thursday through Sunday. The group also has been experimenting with opening on Tuesdays. The response from consumers has been positive and Lovlie says the goal is to be open more days a week as the roster of artisans grows.

Donna Teleis, a painter, says Penn’s Place gives her far greater visibility, which translates into access to paying customers.

“Even though I have a studio and gallery at home, it’s easier for people to find me here,” says Teleis, who lives in suburban Wilmington.

Like many of the artists, she has at least one job in the outside world. Teleis is an art therapist and trains horses. She can squeeze time out of her schedule to put in one day a week at Penn’s Place but would be hard pressed to do more.

“Sharing that responsibility with other artists is ideal for everyone,” she says. “No one person has to be here all day, every day.”

Because the artisans are part of a community, it’s essential to establish a compatible mix of skills and personalities.

“We don’t bring in anybody unless they meet with all the other artisans,” Lovlie says. “This is a very nice group of people.”

Artists’ collective energy brightens outlook for business

Owner Esther Lovlie and artisans discuss A Menagerie of Artisans at Penn’s Place in Old New Castle.

Continuing a Delaware tradition

Delaware has a rich history of attracting artists. Arden, established in 1900 by sculptor Frank Stephens and architect William Price, has long been a magnet for artists and musicians looking for a bridge between the creative right side of the brain and the analytical left side.

Bellefonte Arts in the Town of Bellefonte (click to view slideshow)

More than a century later, the new ventures are following much the same model, offering artists space where they can earn a living and enjoy the freedom to pursue their artistic inspiration.

At Bellefonte Arts, director Valerie White manages marketing and sales for the artists, whose talents include photography, watercolor painting and soap making. The venue also hosts a First Friday art loop and the Bellefonte Arts Festival, held the third Saturday in May
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“The ship needs a captain, so I’m here to steer the ship,” White says. “That allows the artists to focus on making art, what they are passionate about and what they do best.”

Budding artists can take classes at Bellefonte. There is a course on writing memoirs. White hosts poetry readings at the Bellefonte Café, located across the street.

Before the gallery opened in October, most of the artists worked and sold out of their homes or at art fairs and festivals. Bellefonte attracts a broad range of art lovers, generating group energy.

“The eclectic mix attracts more people,” White says. “We have robots made out of kitchen utensils. We have beautiful scarves. We have chain mail jewelry and metal bells made out of old oxygen canisters.”

Milford, an “Art Town”

Inspired by the Torpedo Factory, a vibrant arts center launched in 1974 in Alexandria, Va., woodworker Scott Angelucci first floated the idea of an artists’ community in Milford in 1990. But the notion didn’t gain enough traction to move forward.

Angelucci Studios & Artists Gallery (click to view slideshow)

“It was a great concept—but way ahead of the curve,” he recalls.

Angelucci operated a gallery in Lewes for several years. But it was difficult adjusting to the seasonal swings of a beach community.

“June through September, we would have great sales,” he recalls. “Then it would fall off sharply.”

In 2005, he moved his shop to a two-car garage in his hometown of Milford, the city straddling Kent and Sussex counties on the Mispillion River. His wife Gail set up a stained glass studio.

Angelucci was active in Downtown Milford, Inc., becoming the group’s president. He now serves on the board. Through the group, he received training from the Delaware Office of Economic Development on strategies for revitalizing downtowns, part of eight Main Street programs in Delaware.

Milford was selected for a project that would develop a brand, or marketing theme, to promote the community. The result: Milford bills itself as “River Town, Art Town, Home Town.”

With the arts now part of the town’s identity, Angelucci realized it was time to revisit his idea of creating a cooperative venue for artists, capitalizing on Milford’s easy access to Route 1. He persuaded the town to allow him to renovate a hardware store slated for demolition.

The site provided space for Angelucci’s shop, his wife’s stained glass studio and a studio for photographer Marc Clery.

Last December, the venture expanded into the building next door. The first floor is home to the Mispillion Art League and a gallery, where artists can show their work and take classes. The second floor, known as The Studios Upstairs, includes 10 studios which range in size from 10-by-12 feet to 20-by-15 feet.

The artists seek both the solitude of an individual studio and the camaraderie of being part of a creative colony.

They include full-time, professional painters and photographers, as well as those for whom art is an avid avocation. One space is rented by a surgeon who paints watercolors and his wife, who enjoys making tapestries. Joan Frense-Mulholland, known as the Pearl Lady, crafts high-end jewelry.

“Her studio has a Saks Fifth Avenue feel,” Angelucci says.

Across the board, art is enhancing Milford both culturally and commercially, he says.

“Art now offers a destination,” he says. “People come, knowing there will be a variety of art for them to see and enjoy.”

Artists’ collective energy brightens outlook for business

Owner Scott Angelucci discusses Angelucci’s Studios & Artists’ Gallery in Milford.

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But health care experts aren’t convinced any proposed changes now on the table will go far enough to stop scarcities in everything from cancer medications to drugs that treat ADHD.

“There is no single solution to this incredibly complex issue,” said Erin Fox, manager of Drug Information Service at the University of Utah Hospitals & Clinics, which tracks drug availability across the country. Last year, there were 267 drugs on the shortage list, up from 211 in 2010, and more than double the total a decade ago, according to the University of Utah Drug Information Service.

Click to view drug shortages by the numbers. Source: University of Utah Drug Information Service

Of the bills introduced to deal with the problem, including Carney’s bill HR 3839, also known as The Drug Shortage Prevention Act, there is no legislation “targeted at improving manufacturing,” which Fox believes is the main issue.

Carney’s bipartisan bill, introduced late last month with co-sponsor U.S. Rep. Larry Bucshon (R-IN), focuses on expediting the drug review process and opening up the lines of communication between the Federal Drug administration, drug makers and healthcare providers.

“One of the goals of the Drug Shortage Prevention Act is to encourage manufacturers to make investments in increasing their capacity,” Carney said. “Expediting the FDA approval process and authorizing the Drug Enforcement Agency to change its existing quota system are critical to accomplishing that goal.”

Carney’s proposed legislation joins a list of governmental attempts and bills to stem the shortages. In October, President Obama signed an executive order, which included having the FDA broaden drug shortage reporting and speed up the medication regulatory review process.

“With regard to President Obama’s executive order,” Carney said, “my legislation reinforces or makes mandatory some pieces of that order. For instance, the executive order calls on FDA to use current authority to expedite reviews in order to prevent or mitigate shortages. The Drug Shortage Prevention Act requires expedited review of applications by manufacturers who want to begin producing drugs that are vulnerable to shortage or in shortage, as well as applications to make changes to existing supply chains for drugs already in production and on the shortage list.”

Some state officials are hopeful Carney’s bill could make a difference. Dr. Rick Hong, medical director for public health preparedness in Delaware’s Division of Public Health. said the Act, “may alleviate the situation through a more efficient process, improved communication, and earlier detection of impending supply issues for a more proactive response.”

Indeed, knowing in advance if drugs are going to be in short supply will go a long way in helping medical providers deal with any shortfalls.

“This bill has some great points about improving the regulatory side of shortages,” said Fox, adding that the FDA’s has done an “incredible” job when drug makers voluntarily choose to work with the agency. That collaboration, she pointed out, led to the prevention of 195 drug shortages last year.

But this can only go so far. “Increased communication and regulatory streamlining are great and will certainly help with this problem, but the root cause is at the manufacturing level and right now we don’t have a good understanding about why manufacturing is in such bad shape,” she stressed.

Carney said one of the goals of his legislation “is to encourage manufacturers to make investments in increasing their capacity. Expediting the FDA approval process and authorizing the Drug Enforcement Agency to change its existing quota system are critical to accomplishing that goal.”

Many drug experts see the Drug Shortage Prevention Act as a crucial piece of the puzzle, but maintain it doesn’t address the heart of the problem.

“The bill does nothing to address the economics of drug shortages,” said Joseph Hill, director of federal legislative affairs for the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, based in Bethesda, MD. “It’s something that we think we really have to learn more about, for example, if these products are not profitable, why aren’t they? There have been a number of theories about that but until we see data we think it’s kind of a shot in the dark.”

A host of issues have contributed to the drug shortages, which have intensified in the last few years. International turmoil has affected supply because 80 percent of the raw materials for many drugs come from overseas, including China and India, he explained. There has also been a consolidation in the pharmaceutical industry, and some manufacturers have opted to stop making certain drugs because they just weren’t as profitable as they’d hoped, according to Allen Vaida, executive vice president of the Institute for Safe Medication Practices in Horsham, PA.

One big problem, he added, is there’s no government agency or medical board that has the authority to make sure manufacturers don’t just stop producing critical drugs used in the United States without notice.

Carney’s bill, and legislation sponsored by Sen. Amy Klobuchar, (D-MN) and Sen. Robert Casey (D-PA), would give government more authority in this regard, but there’s no big stick.

“The legislation provides incentives, not mandates, for manufacturers to make critical drugs,” Carney explained. “It also calls for the Dept. of Health & Human Services to study the development of a national drug shortage contingency plan, and whether a national stockpile of drugs vulnerable to shortages should be created in order to avoid a major health threat.”

Whether such a stockpile would alleviate shortages is unclear.

“I am not sure about a federal stockpile since many of these drug shortages are occurring due to a variety of reasons, one of which is the total lack of redundancy in the system for the manufacture of many of these drugs,” said Vaida. “So there could be many drugs that didn’t make the stockpile list but all of sudden become unavailable due to a manufacture’s lack of quality control or a raw material shortage and without having a backup manufacture or other plants within that company to produce the drug we have a national shortage.”

Gregory Conko, senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington, said it appears Carney’s “heart is in the right place,” but “the legislation, if enacted, would likely have little positive impact on the problem of drug shortages.”

Conko said there are three positives to the bill:

1. provisions for notifying the public and the drug supply chain of impending shortages;
2. expedited review by the FDA of applications to begin or expand manufacture of a critical drug, and improved communication within the FDA;
3. studying the feasibility of a federal stockpile of critical drugs.

But the bill, he added, doesn’t address the issue of thin profit margins for generic drugs that he said comprise the vast majority of the drugs that are in short supply. “And because of the low prices, even those who are making the drug, tend to make the bare minimum supply that meets current demand,” he said. “So, if one manufacturer’s production facility goes down for any reason, there’s often not enough slack in the production system for other manufacturers to make up the difference.”

In the end, everyone, including Carney, agrees it will take a lot more to put an end to shortages.

“The Drug Shortage Prevention Act will not solve all of the problems causing drug shortages, but it’s an important first step, and one that has support from both sides of the aisle,” Carney noted.

See DFM News’ previous coverage of the drug shortage issue here

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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.

“We have temporarily delayed work at the plant based on ongoing discussions with the DOE regarding funding for the Project Nina program,” the company said in a statement issued from its Anaheim, Calif., headquarters. “As a result we have laid off 26 people.”
Some other employees were laid off at the California location.

Ornisher said Fisker was five or six months later than planned in obtaining emissions certification for the Karma, which is currently made in Finland. He declined to say by how much the company missed the production and sales targets it had agreed with the DOE, or whether it was late in meeting them.

Until Fisker and the DOE are able to agree new “milestones”, the government money will not be available, Ornisher said.

“We can’t keep putting money into Delaware until we’ve agreed on the rest of the money from the DOE,” Ornisher told DFM News.

The delay is another setback for the hybrid-electric car company which said in January it was replacing battery packs on its $103,000 Karma model because it had discovered a hose clamp that might cause a fire if incorrectly installed.

Fisker’s attempt to snuff out concerns about the Karma battery follows three widely publicized fires or near-fires during testing in the battery of GM’s flagship hybrid-electric Chevy Volt. Both cars use lithium ion batteries although they are made by different manufacturers.

Project Nina was due to begin producing prototypes late this year and to begin selling to the public in mid-2013. The original schedule planned on full production by 2014, creating about 1,500 jobs. The car is projected to cost $50,000-$60,000.

Ornisher declined to say how long talks with the DOE might last, or what the company statement meant by “temporarily”, saying only that the DOE loan program has strict requirements. “It’s a very rigorous process of due diligence,” he said.

The negotiations are about setting new standards for the company to meet, and do not cover the amount of the loan or its repayment terms, Ornisher said.

He insisted the company still plans to go ahead with Project Nina, and that it’s just a matter of when, not if, the project becomes a reality. He said Fisker hopes to rehire the workers it has laid off.

“A flex model of expanding and contracting staffing for development of new cars is routine in the automotive industry,” the company statement said. “Project Nina is already well-advanced. Much of the engineering, design and development is near complete and we expect to ramp up operations again quickly.”

Meanwhile, the company is also seeking additional private funding to add to the $850 million in private equity it has raised so far, and may end up with a combination of private and public money. “We are looking at alternative sources as well,” Ornisher said.

Of the agreed $529 million DOE loan, Fisker has received $193 million, mostly for the Karma program.

According to Alan Levin, Director of the Delaware Economic Development Office, Fisker and the DOE have in fact agreed new terms and are now waiting to finalize a pact.

“My understanding is that they have come to terms on those new milestones,” Levin told DFM News. “It’s just getting it final.” He said he did not know what the new standards might be.

Levin denied the DOE had been overzealous in its scrutiny of Fisker’s start up operation but said that having agreed the loan, the agency should have kept the money coming. “I believe that having made the commitment, the DOE should have paid the funds,” he said.

Levin acknowledged Fisker had been about a year behind its production targets but always had been transparent with the government.

Despite the fresh uncertainties, Levin expressed confidence that the Nina will be produced in Wilmington, albeit later than expected.

Brian Selander, a spokesman for Gov. Jack Markell said in an email: “We are frustrated that Fisker and the Department of Energy have been unable to come to terms on revisions to their loan agreement in time to avoid this. We do remain hopeful they will double their efforts to get people back to work at the Boxwood facility as soon as possible.”

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Governor’s Weekly Message

Governor Jack Markell

Full text of Governor Jack Markell’s weekly message:

Around the country, Delaware’s known for a lot of things – For our history, as America’s first state,

And for our industries – as one of the nation’s financial centers, and a launching pad for scientific innovation.

Most Delawareans, and a growing number of Americans, know that our largest industry is actually agriculture- which drives around $8 billion dollar of economic impact each year.

Last week, we introduced a balanced budget proposal that made clear that jobs, education and governing responsibly remain our state’s top priorities. It helped chart a path forward in each area, including support for our state’s Young Farmers’ program.

Shortly after that unveiling, I had the chance to join our US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, who was in town to address the annual Agricultural Industry Dinner, to share his support for our critical ag. industry and to explain a bit about the President’s efforts in Washington to keep the national economy moving.

Both before and during the dinner, we spoke with pride about our state’s 2,480 farms and cover more than 40% of our state’s total area- over 490,000 acres.

And we talked about the Delaware values of hard work, cooperation, diligence and focus that are part of everything we do.

It was inspiring to hear how much the Secretary knew about our state’s great farmers, how important he considered our role in the nation’s food supply and how he shared our optimism for the growing role our farms and farmers would play in exporting Delaware agriculture abroad.

You know, you always hope people leave our great state with a positive impression.

In this case, that hope was rewarded.

When asked what he took away from his time here, the Secretary said he was moved by so many of the great people he met, and by: “the opportunity to hear directly from Delawareans on how we work together to build a nation where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same rules.”

He pledged that “together we will keep our nation moving forward and rebuild an economy where hard work pays off and responsibility is rewarded.”

To me, it sounded like he was pledging to try and bring to Washington the kind of work we get to do each day here in Delaware, where – whether it’s in farms or finance, Selbyville or Smyrna – we keep working together to keep Delaware, moving forward.

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“There was the downtown appliance store and a Sears or another department store, and everyone came downtown to do all their shopping,” said Jonathan B. Justice, associate professor in the University of Delaware’s school of public policy and administration. “That’s gone.”

As the 1960s progressed, city residents migrated toward suburbia. Strip centers, malls and highways lured shoppers away from downtown districts, and the big retailers soon followed.

Today, Delaware’s small downtowns are in the midst of restructuring and redefining their offerings. “They need to figure out the most commercial use for the space, then recruit or help start the appropriate kinds of ventures,” Justice said.

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.

Even in a sputtering economy, these programs are making progress. It isn’t easy, particularly in the rural towns whose downtowns once served as an area’s center of commerce.

The “Main Street Approach.” One giant step towards revitalization

The National Trust for Historic Preservation launched the Main Street program in 1977, partly to save commercial architecture in towns experiencing an economic decline.

The program’s “Four-Point Approach” focuses on organization and partnerships; promotions that create a positive image; the creation of a pleasing, inviting atmosphere; and economic restructuring.

To receive the Main Street accreditation, the district must meet the National Trust Main Street Center’s 10 criteria, which include an adequate operating budget, an historic preservation ethic, ongoing training for staff and volunteers, a paid professional manager and an active board.

In Delaware, there are eight Main Street groups: Greater Brandywine Village, the area north of the Market Street bridge to 24th Street, and from Jefferson Street east to Carter Street; Downtown Visions, dedicated to the Wilmington Downtown Business Improvement District; Main Street Delaware City; the Downtown Dover Partnership; Downtown Milford Inc.; the Downtown Newark Partnership; Rehoboth Beach Main Street; and Main Street Middletown.

Downtown Delaware, which coordinates the state’s Main Street program, has a “commercial district affiliate status” for non-accredited towns that want to access training and resources, but lack the ability to meet the Main Street criteria.

Diane Laird, state coordinator of Downtown Delaware, part of the Delaware Economic Development Office, said the diverse towns have a few things in common.

“They are proactively guiding downtown business development and proactively guiding a positive future, where people can enjoy shopping locally and be part of a community through parades and other events,” she said. “They all have assets they are trying to build, whether it’s a river or the beach or cultivating an interest in the arts.”

Different needs. One size doesn’t fit all.

An attraction doesn’t market itself. Milford may boast the Mispillion River, but Milford is what Lee Nelson calls “an interior Delaware town,” which is set off from the traffic heading to and from the beach.

“North of Milford we have routes 113 and 1 splitting,” said Nelson, director of Downtown Milford, Inc. “Traffic flows around both sides but not through the center of town.” He’s hoping signage and Southern Delaware Tourism’s efforts to pull beach visitors inland will help, as well as the town’s own promotional efforts.

Middletown faces a similar scenario, except without the river attraction. Founded as a stopping point on a trade route, the town has witnessed the growth of surrounding suburbia over the past 20 years.

Rehoboth may have the beach at its back, but its resort status can become a detriment come late fall. “Our goal is to generate business, interest and traffic in winter months,” said Annmarie Westerfield, executive director of Rehoboth Beach Main Street. “There are fantastic things to do.” Getting the word out, she said, is her job.

Dover’s claim to fame is its role as the state capital. It also possesses an attractive—and historical—open space, The Green.

Newark has the University of Delaware. Admittedly, it is a town with a built-in population that wants services, subs, suds and sundries. “It was never destitute, but it definitely wasn’t as vibrant, appealing, successful, interesting or popular as it is today,” said Maureen Feeney Roser of the Downtown Newark Partnership.

Different structures. One shared vision.

Downtown Newark Partnership, a public-private organization, was created in 1998 to serve as an umbrella for stakeholders. “Before, you had different entities—the city of Newark, UD, the Newark Business Association and the Newark Parking Authority—working on aspects of downtown to suit their own needs, which was great, but no one was working together and they were often at odds with each other,” said Feeney Roser. “The partnership created a unique environment where we could all work together to enhance downtown.”

A city of Newark employee, Feeney Roser is both the administrator of the Downtown Newark Partnership and assistant director of planning and development. It was recently announced that she will replace the city planner, Roy Lopata, who’s retiring.

Much of the Downtown Dover Partnership's revitalization focus is on West Loockerman Street.
(Click to view Dover Downtown slideshow)

Dover has a similar arrangement. The Downtown Dover Partnership, formed in 2008, brought Dover’s Main Street program, the city’s parking authority and the Downtown Development Corp. under one umbrella. The marriage, which a study recommended, addressed any redundant efforts and provided a better focus, said Bill Neaton, director of DDP. The three staff members are city of Dover employees. One is devoted to the Main Street program.

DDP receives funds from parking and also from a business improvement district tax. Yet it also has another source: unlike most Main Street programs, the Downtown Dover Partnership actively purchases, renovates and leases property. “We own several millions of dollars worth of property, and we have a variety of good tenants,” Neaton said. The partnership is in the process of renovating the facades of 22-24 W. Loockerman St., which is accessed by both Loockerman and North streets.

DDP plans to turn the old ACME site on Governors Avenue into a four-story, multi-use building with retail space and residences.

Some Main Street programs are separate entities but receive support from their towns. For instance, Middletown funds the salary of Middletown Main Street’s manager, Tracy Skrobot, and provides office space.

The commercial district affiliates, meanwhile, are volunteers with an interest in their downtowns.

Many challenges. One commitment to overcoming them.

Their structures and their primary needs might be distinct, but the programs all share similar concerns, which some representatives aired at a January meeting, sponsored by Downtown Delaware.

“I got a ton of ideas,” said Westerfield, who became Rehoboth’s director in August. “We’re all interested in beautifying the town. And when one business goes out, how do you generate interest to get a new business in the area?”

Making the area visually appealing—to both shoppers and businesses—is a primary goal of the Main Street program. Most offer façade improvement grants. Newark has a public art program. Milford recently completed streetscaping that includes new trees, grates benches, bicycle racks and trash receptacles. The “Milford in Bloom” project put planters on light poles for seasonal flowers.

In Dover, a $3 million bond bill will go toward parking consolidation, new sidewalks and crosswalks and the creation of Loockerman Way, a plaza on previously vacant space.

Economic development is a tad trickier, even in Dover. “The thing that works for us is the expansion and renovation of downtown properties, but we don’t have the resources to do it all,” Neaton acknowledged. “We have to come up with innovative ways to attract developers.” The banks’ tightfisted approach to lending hasn’t helped.

Finding the right mix is a balancing act. Neaton would like to see more restaurants, while eateries have been prolific on Newark’s Main Street.

Revitalizing Delaware’s downtowns, one Main Street at a time

Downtown Dover Partnership director Bill Neaton discusses the group’s work to revitalize downtown Dover.

Rehoboth has the right mix, Westerfield maintained, but encouraging businesses to stay open in the shoulder seasons and off-season—and getting them enough business to make it worthwhile—can be problematic.

To generate store traffic, the Downtown Newark Partnership created a gift card program, which earned the “Most Successful Economic Restructuring Story” award at the 2010 Delaware-Maryland Revitalization Conference.

Newark has successfully integrated independent and nationally known chains, partly due to its college crowds. But space constraints tempt few chains to Milford and Middeltown. “We look for independent coffee shops, salons and boutiques,” Nelson said. Milford has added about six new businesses in the past few months.

Middletown's Main Street seeks its place in a town that's seen extensive growth over the last 20 years.
(Click to view Middletown Main Street slideshow).

Like Milford, Middletown faces space issues. New construction, meanwhile, is a rarity. “We try to stay away from teardowns,” Skrobot said. “I personally don’t want to see it.” The business owner must be comfortable inhabiting an historic structure with all its quirks and codes.

To attract visitors, both Middletown and Milford are promoting their arts scenes. Middletown plays up the Everett Theatre and the Gilbert W. Perry, Jr. Center for the Arts. In Milford, Nelson’s wife, artist Anne Jenkins, last summer opened a gallery. She joined such arts establishments as the Music School of Delaware’s Milford location, the Mispillion Art League and the Second Street Players.

Since promotion is part of the Main Street program’s four-pronged approach, the towns all host and promote events. Rehoboth has won kudos for its Chocolate Festival, scheduled this year for March 3. From June 3-9, the city will celebrate a restaurant week to whet the seasonal crowd’s appetites.

Milford has been holding “Magic Mondays” in the Milford Senior Center. The events, which feature magicians, run through March 12. In downtown Dover, “First Fridays”—held on the first Friday of the month—feature entertainment and artists in merchants’ stores. Skrobot is gearing up for Middletown Main Street’s Shrimp Festival on March 10 and its annual designer show house, open on weekends from April 13 to May 20.

Newark officials pride themselves on having a “killer promotion” nearly every month to draw visitors.
(Click to view Newark Main Street slideshow)

Perhaps no town gets as involved as Newark, which has a “killer promotion” every month but February and August, Feeney Roser said. Just give them time.

Since Downtown Newark Partnership’s start, Newark has broadened its appeal to multiple ages with such establishments as the upscale Stone Balloon Winehouse. “Even so,” Feeney Roser said, “out-of-towners may see downtown Newark as ‘only a place for college students.’”

Directors up and down the state are accustomed to parking complaints. The DNP just did a study that found there was more than adequate parking, “so we will be advertising that,” Feeney Roser said.

Skrobot said many people complain when they can’t find a spot in front of the store or theater. “I say, “Well gosh, sometimes you have to park pretty far at the mall.’” They grudgingly agree.

In Milford, many visitors don’t realize there’s parking behind some stores. Both Skrobot and Nelson have made signage a priority. Dover is adding more spaces.

Parking problems are a given in Rehoboth during the summer. Rehoboth is working on a parking system that allows visitors to put more money in the meter with a phone app. “It’s easier than having to run back and put more money in,” Westerfield said.

Like other Main Street managers, she understands that change does not come fast. To be sure, holding onto optimism is part of the job.

“It relies on unusual levels of both skill and flat-out energy, and the pay tends to be pretty low,” said Justice of the University of Delaware. “Happily, these organizations have a pretty good record of success, and they attract people who have enthusiasm.”

They’re also willing to help each other. “To get together and brainstorm helps me and other managers,” said Skrobot, referring to the Downtown Delaware event. “It was wonderful to see how everyone implements their programs…I don’t feel I’m alone.”

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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.

The finding could cut up to two years off the time needed to develop Atlantic-coast wind farms because potential builders won’t have to submit a time-consuming Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) at the leasing stage, according to Jim Lanard, president of the Offshore Wind Development Coalition, an industry group.

In Delaware’s section of coastal waters, the ruling gives developer NRG Bluewater Wind a better chance of securing a lease because it has been designated by the federal government as the sole bidder on that wind energy area, unlike in areas off other states where leases are expected to attract multiple bidders, Lanard said.

“NRG is in a very good position to proceed with obtaining the lease,” Lanard said.

That may mean a reprieve for the Bluewater project which appeared doomed in January when NRG pulled out of a 200 megawatt power-purchase agreement with Delmarva Power – the first such deal in the fledgling U.S. offshore wind industry — saying it had been unable to attract investors after the withdrawal of federal loan guarantees and tax credits for production and investment.

The wind farm, containing up to 150 turbines 13 miles off Rehoboth Beach, could generate enough power for 54,000 homes.

NRG spokesman Dave Gaier said the company – which retained development rights over the Mid-Atlantic Wind Park despite ending the Delmarva deal — is “very pleased” with the DOI’s announcement, and expects to negotiate a lease by mid-year.

The ruling allows the DOI’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to “move forward in earnest” with the offshore leasing process in Delaware and other states, and establishes a template for offshore leases, which will help all developers understand the issues, Gaier said.

“This is a critical step in the establishment of the U.S. offshore wind industry, which will create thousands of highly skilled jobs and allow for billions of dollars in investment,” the Offshore Wind Development Coalition said in a statement. “The FONSI has the potential to reduce the permitting time for offshore wind farms by as much as two years.”

The determination enables the DOI to issue leases to qualified developers who would then be able to assess a site’s potential to host an offshore wind farm and determine the best engineering and design requirements, the industry group said.

The decision is part of the agency’s “Smart From the Start” program, designed to expedite offshore wind projects on the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf. It follows public and industry comments on a draft proposal covering site conditions.

“We are moving toward commercial-scale offshore wind energy leasing in the mid-Atlantic and adding the necessary tools to offer those leases,” said Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Director Tommy Beaudreau, in a statement. He said the study considered areas where wind-energy potential is significant and where environmental impacts and conflicts with other uses such as shipping can be minimized.

Any wind-farm proposals would still need an EIS for the construction and operation phase of development, and that would have to include the project’s potential impact on marine mammals, notably the endangered North American Right Whale, Lanard said.

Meanwhile, the finding may also increase interest from other developers, including those in Europe, where NRG has been seeking investors who are more likely to be familiar with offshore wind energy than their American counterparts. “This keeps the developers interested,” Lanard said. “I think you are going to see more putting their toe in the water.”

Senator Tom Carper (D-Delaware) predicted the announcement will make Delaware a leader in U.S. offshore wind development.

“Our state has been aggressively pursuing offshore wind deployment and this announcement will allow the Department of Interior to enter into negotiations with NRG to secure a formal lease for offshore wind off of Delaware’s coast,” Sen. Carper said in an email to DFM News. “Once the negotiations for the lease are finalized, Delaware will have the first lease in the country from the ‘Smart from the Start’ program. That will put Delaware at the head of the line for offshore wind energy, along with Massachusetts.”

Brian Selander, a spokesman for Gov. Jack Markell (D-Delaware), declined to comment on whether the DOI’s determination makes a Delaware wind farm any more likely to happen, but said the announcement is a vote of confidence for offshore wind energy in general.

“The finding helps make the case that offshore wind can play a part in the nation’s energy future,” Selander wrote in an email.

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The Dennison Branch is still open, albeit with less focus on “readin’, ’ritin’ and ’rithmetic,” and not nearly as crowded as in years past. And Vickery, the program director for Girls Inc., is spending more time on the road.

For a week in January, she taught in the special intersession program at Maple Lane Elementary School in Claymont. She does weekly programs during the school day at Townsend Elementary, provides an after-school enrichment program at Brandywine Springs Elementary and oversees a weekly after-school gymnastics program at Downes Elementary in Newark.

Next year, she is likely to be spending even more time in schools.

“We need to go where the girls are,” explained Brenda Algar, the Girls Inc. executive director. “We’re taking what we’ve been doing forever, and we’re taking it into the schools.”

Girls Inc. began as the Girls Club more than 60 years ago, and has been a fixture in Browntown almost ever since. It has served more than 50,000 girls between the ages of 6 and 18, usually between 1,500 and 2,000 a year. While its headquarters remains a focal point of the community, Algar has been striving to put more emphasis on the “of Delaware” portion of the organization’s name ever since she arrived here from Maine in December 2008.

“Historically, we haven’t done much in Kent County, especially the lower portion, and in Sussex,” Algar said. But that is about to change.

In February, Girls Inc. will bring “My Girlfirend Zelda,” a four-week self-esteem program for girls ages 6-10 to South Dover Elementary School.

By early fall, and perhaps as soon as this summer, Girls Inc. will roll out its Latina Initiative, a statewide program whose early emphasis will be on serving the needs of Hispanic girls in Sussex County. Girls Inc. has received a grant from the Arsht-Cannon Foundation, which primarily supports programs that benefit immigrant families, to plan the program’s implementation and hopes to receive a second grant when operations begin, Algar said.

“We’re looking to create a continuum of services and to partner with other agencies in Sussex County,” she said.

One confirmed partner is the Sussex Child Health Promotion Coalition, an independent coalition of about 170 organizations founded in collaboration with Nemours Health and Prevention Services.

Girls Inc. will be “a very important addition” to providers of youth services in Sussex County, said Peggy Geisler, the coalition’s director. “In Sussex, we have a lot of sports-related organizations, but a majority of organizations focus on activities for males rather than females,” she said. “There are not a lot of activities for at-risk girls.”

The Latina Initiative, Algar said, features a collection of programs developed by the Girls Inc. national organization that have been made “culturally sensitive” and translated into Spanish. “We’re going to embrace that curriculum and add some of our own touches,” she said.

After one or more locations are chosen to offer the programs — the Georgetown and Seaford areas are under consideration — new staff will be hired in Sussex to provide the instruction, she said.

In both Kent and Sussex, the new Girls Inc. model will rely on building partnerships with schools and other nonprofits and sharing facilities with these organizations, Algar said.

Going “where the girls are,” Algar said, might mean “one night a week you’ll be in a church basement, one night you might be at Dover Air Force Base, one night you’ll be at a community center.”

“You don’t need to build a building,” Geisler said.

As part of the national Girls Inc. network, the Delaware organization has access to educational programming that has been developed at the Girls Inc. research center in Indianapolis. Girls learn differently than boys and the programming is both age-appropriate and designed to match their learning styles, Algar said.

For example, at Townsend Elementary School, Vickery is currently offering a weekly program called “Media and Me” to a group of second and third graders who signed up for the class as one of their “talent development” options, Townsend teacher Maureen Emmett said. Unlike most Girls Inc. offerings, there is a handful of boys taking the class, but that’s because the school doesn’t have any boys-only programs in that time period.

In the class, Vickery, with Emmett as her partner, serves up a mix of discussions, YouTube videos and art projects to show the girls the differences between real and make-believe, with a focus on how advertising, television, film and the print media create stereotypes of beauty and subtly (sometimes not so subtly) try to persuade girls to adopt such glamorous looks as their own.

“Mrs. Vickery opens children’s minds to the world of stereotyping,” Emmett said.

Girls Inc. goes into schools to help at-risk girls.

Girls Inc.’s “Media and Me” program at Townsend Elementary is helping raise awareness of media stereotypes.

At Maple Lane Elementary, Vickery recently offered a program called Operation SMART, which stands for Science, Math and Relevant Technology, during the school’s “intersession,” a four-day break in the school’s extended year calendar when students voluntarily attend to participate in enrichment activities.

“Before STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education became a buzzword, Girls Inc. had been teaching girls the importance of science and math,” Algar said.

The program, which focused on building bridges, gave the girls “a background they might not receive in the regular curriculum,” and opened to them the possibility of a career in engineering, said Yulanda Murray, principal at Maple Lane.

Murray is impressed with the diversity of enrichment programs available through Girls Inc. During an earlier intersession, she said, Vickery presented a series of lessons on Native American history.

“Her programs always hit the different modalities — visual, historic, something the children can produce or make.” She said. “It always makes for memorable moments for students and creates a level of interest.”

While Girls Inc. intends to extend its reach by going “where the girls are,” for now it will continue to offer afternoon and evening programs at the Dennison Branch and after-school programs in rented space at the Claymont Community Center, Algar said.

“We’re working with a very vulnerable group of girls, helping them meet their potential, helping them see their possibilities, showing them that life is about choices,” Algar said. “Our mission is to help girls become strong, smart and bold.

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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; not to mention the long-awaited introduction of Sunday liquor sales.

These developments could make drinking folks think Delaware is turning into a progressive state when it comes to liquor laws.

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. The state has a long way to go before it rivals Nevada, where bars are open 24/7 and public intoxication is legal.

“I don’t see any neo-prohibitionist movement, but I don’t see any pro-liquor movement either,” explained Adam Balick, an attorney who does alcohol beverage licenses throughout Delaware, and was a former Deputy Attorney General for the State of Delaware. “The movement we see is incremental, not fast.”

Recent changes to the liquor landscape, he continued, are about an industry and government trying to respond to changes in the marketplace and the general economic environment.

Indeed, despite opposition to the Dogfish Head expansion in the community, lawmakers gave the thumbs up. After the approval was announced, Councilwoman Marion Jones told the News Journal that: “Milton has to consider the economic changes that have happened all around them. Either change with them or get left behind.” Dogfish Head employs more than 100 people in the town.

H.B. 236 would create a special liquor license for Delaware concert halls like World Cafe Live at the Queen Theater

In Wilmington, the opening of the Queen Theater last year was heralded as an economic boon for a city struggling with high unemployment and a lack of venues to bring suburbanites downtown. Anything that might threaten the concert hall, including the lack of an appropriate liquor license, would be bad news for Wilmington.

That’s why lawmakers want to alter the liquor laws to include a special category. Rep. Helene Keeley (D-Wilmington South) introduced H.B. 236, an Act to amend Title 4 of the Delaware Code relating to alcoholic liquors to include a distinction for concert halls like the Queen, which was granted a special temporary liquor license.

An excerpt from the bill:

“Concert Hall” shall mean an indoor facility used to host live entertainment that is owned, leased, under easement, and/or operated by any person and that has a capacity of at least 600 patrons for any single event. In order for a facility to be licensed as a concert hall, the facility shall host a minimum of 250 live music events in any calendar year and shall be open at least five days per week. A facility meeting this definition may license the entire building, including patio, with the concert hall license.

At this time, it’s unclear whether the bill will pass; but other changes to Title 4 have already made it through, including allowing retailers and importers of alcoholic beverages to donate liquor to nonprofits, signed into law last summer. A year earlier, a bill permitting the tasting and sampling of beer, no matter how long it’s been in the marketplace, made it through the legislature.

Not all liquor-focused bills have had such luck.

Rep. John Viola (D-Newark) sponsored H.B. 193 in 2009 to allow the sale of wine and beer in grocery stores, but the bill died. Delaware is only one of about five states that prohibit such sales, he noted. “The grocery stores of today aren’t the grocery stores of yesteryear,” he explained. “Most now have a florist, a bakery, a pharmacy.”

Another bill that’s been difficult to pass is one permitting the interstate sale of wine for consumers who want to buy direct from producers in other states. The bill, first introduced by Rep. Deborah Hudson (R-Fairthorne), in the last session only to see it fail, was introduced by Hudson last April and is stuck in committee.

In both cases, much of the opposition came from the business community; small liquor stores in particular who feared such changes would eat into their sales.

It’s not unexpected for Delaware to be behind the times when it comes to opening up restrictions on alcohol.

“Delaware has never been the most liberal,” said David Hanson, author of Alcohol: Problems and Solutions blog, and the professor emeritus of sociology of the State University of New York at Potsdam.

In a blog post about the First State, he wrote:

The temperance movement has a long tradition in Delaware. Well before National Prohibition was established in 1920, much of Delaware had already become dry. By referendum, Kent and Sussex counties had adopted their own prohibition as early as 1907. New Castle followed, and only the city of Wilmington was still wet when Prohibition was imposed across the country.

Times have changed.

Hanson stressed that Delaware, as with many other states that had tough liquor laws, has been forced to make revisions in the last decade. “In general, blue laws and dry counties are becoming more liberal,” he explained, because of societal changes and the ubiquitous nature of alcohol today, including wine and beer at supermarkets.

“But you’ve got cross currents,” he maintained. There’s also a movement by a number of states to make it more difficult to obtain alcohol and that’s come in the shape of higher taxes and also restrictions on where liquor companies can advertise, he said.

Overall, he added, Delaware has come a long way since Prohibition.

Not far enough for some. “I don’t think we’re moving ahead as fast as we should,” Rep. Viola said about liberalizing liquor laws. “The time has come. We have to come into the 21st Century.”

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On a recent morning, the New Castle teenager brought her six-week-old daughter to school. Diamond placed the baby on a table in the school office, sniffed her ruffled turquoise pantaloons and wrinkled her nose.

“Time for a change,” she said.

At Diamond’s school, the Delaware Adolescent Program, Inc., or DAPI, how to change a diaper is part of the curriculum, along with English, science, math and social studies.

“You get a basic education, plus they teach you how to take care of a baby,” says Sonya Pinkston, Diamond’s grandmother and guardian.

The elder Pinkston also went to DAPI. She is now 49 and a great-grandmother.

“I got pregnant when I was 16 and girls did not have the option of staying in school back then,” she says. “It simply was not done.”

Founded in 1969, the private, nonprofit organization is the only statewide comprehensive school-based program in the nation for pregnant and parenting teens and their families.

A lot has changed in the 43 years since DAPI opened its doors. Expectant adolescents are the topic of reality TV shows, Teen Mom and 16 and Pregnant. Much of the stigma of having a baby out of wedlock has diminished, with pregnant girls remaining in class and attending the prom.

Yet DAPI has remained relevant. There are locations in New Castle, Kent and Sussex counties. Each site educates 18-25 girls a year. There is a waiting list.

“It’s a safe haven and a good place for learning,” says Golden Ford-Jones, director of the Wilmington campus on Van Buren Street.

Tatiana Minus (left) of Newark is a senior mentor to Kayvonna Turner (right) of Wilmington.

DAPI’s objective is to keep the girls in school, enabling them to keep up with their studies so they can make a seamless transition back to traditional schools. Girls who enter the program as seniors have a graduation rate that is near 100 percent.

“We had a girl last year who was far behind and was not able to make up enough credits,” Ford-Jones says. “So we allowed her to come back this year so that we can help her to get her diploma.”

Girls in the program have been as young as 11. This year’s roster includes two sisters. Three of the girls are in seventh grade.

America Martinez, 13, came to DAPI from Henry B. du Pont Middle School in Hockessin. In her sixth month of pregnancy, she has a sweet, round baby face—and a baby bump beneath her gray coat.

“I am interested in science, crafts, the outdoors,” she says. “Here I can talk about those things—or just about anything.”

America has been matched with a volunteer mentor who encourages her to focus on her studies.

She also receives instruction on maternal health. The staff nurse, Pat Undercuffler, explains the changes the girls can expect in their bodies. There are cots where girls who are in early stages of pregnancy can rest after a bout of morning sickness. Girls who are in their final weeks can put their feet up or lay down when their backs hurt.

The Wilmington center used to operate a van, which provided rides to school for students as far afield as Middletown. But the service became too expensive, so girls now are responsible for arranging their own transportation.

There is a day care center at the DAPI site in Camden, where new moms can bring their babies during the school day. The centers in Wilmington and Georgetown have “baby days,” designated times once or twice a month when students can bring their infants to school.

Some of the fathers, teens themselves, want to play active roles in the lives of their babies and the mothers. The parents of one young dad have agreed to care for his baby on weekdays while the mother attends school.

Other girls became pregnant as a result of casual encounters.

“They don’t know the father’s name, or they only know a nickname,” Ford-Jones says. “We do not judge them.”

The birth rate for teens in the United States is nine times higher than other industrialized countries, according to the United Nations. In the U.S., 39 of every 1,000 women aged 15-19 had a baby, according to 2008 statistics. In contrast, the rate was 13 teens for every thousand in Canada. In Germany, it was eight; and in the Netherlands, four teens out of 1,000 gave birth.

In fact, one in three American women gets pregnant before age 20, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Black and Hispanic teens are twice as likely to get pregnant as white teens. Eight in 10 pregnancies are unplanned.

Delaware has the sixth highest rate in the nation for teen births, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health think tank.

Sometimes, the girls feel overwhelmed. A few act out in class or get in fist fights with other girls.

“We don’t suspend students,” Ford-Jones says. “Often, getting suspended is what they want.”

Girls who are bi-polar or have attention deficit disorder can’t take their medications due to their pregnancies. Some girls come to school hungry, grateful for the hot breakfasts and lunches served each day.

Still, hardships do not exempt girls from having to give back to the community. DAPI students help others through such activities as reading to Head Start students.

“After a girl has chosen to become a mother I have to look at her in a different light,” Ford-Jones says. “I expect more of her.”

Her tiny office is crowded with toys that graduates of the program have donated to the babies that will soon be born. DAPI depends on donations and grants, including a nutrition grant from the Nemours Foundation and state Grants-in-Aid, and also reaches out to a patchwork of benefactors.

“We’re at legislative hall, saying ‘we’re still here and we need the dollars,’” she says.

United Way helps with funds. A.I. du Pont Hospital for Children donates car seats and portable playpens. The Junior League of Wilmington provided seating for a gathering room. First & Central Presbyterian Church in Wilmington decorated a Christmas giving tree with baby wipes and other items for young moms. On June 10, Sen. Chris Coons and his wife Annie will headline DAPI’s annual fundraiser at White Clay Creek Country Club.

“We are always looking for ways to help these young ladies,” Ford-Jones says.

Marisol Valdez, 15, gave birth to her daughter, Olivia, three months ago. She could have continued her studies at A.I. du Pont High School after she learned she was pregnant but opted to come to DAPI.

“Regular school is crowded,” she says. “If you are pregnant, everyone looks at you weird.”

A few days after delivery, Marisol was back at her studies through DAPI’s homebound program. A month later, she returned to class at the center. Soon, Marisol will return to A.I., where she is in 10th grade. She is intent on graduating.

“My mother and my sister help with the baby, so I have a lot of support at home,” she says. “I want to go to college for dental assisting.”

Reyna Bagwell of North Carolina has developed valuable computer skills at DAPI.

Many DAPI students go on to higher education and good careers, Ford-Jones says.

Sonya Pinkston went on to earn an associate’s degree at Delaware Technical & Community College. She recently completed a degree in biblical studies.

“I am always hammering away about the importance of staying in school,” she says. “That is what makes the difference in doing well in life.”

As for Diamond, she is eager to return to class at Delcastle Technical High School. She misses her friends.

“She is young and has been home with a baby,” her grandmother says. “Now, she appreciates school.”

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Governor’s Weekly Message

Governor Jack Markell

Full text of Governor Jack Markell’s weekly message:

Someone said to me after my State of the State address last week that it seems like I spend most of my time focused on jobs, schools and governing responsibly. That so much of what we do – whether its budget or policy – seems to focus largely on those three issues.

And they’re right. Those are our primary focus – whether we were solving the largest budget shortfall in history a few years back or pulling together the budget recommendation we unveiled this week.

Budgets are about priorities – our budget proposal makes clear that our top priorities are encouraging economic growth, making our public schools stronger, and ensuring that we are governing effectively.

It’s why we’ve done things like slash the state’s vehicle fleet, renegotiated state leases, cut over 1,000 positions in government, and brought people together to find real savings around our state’s pension and employee health costs.

It’s why we keep looking for ways to save money, and why focusing on curbing the rapidly rising costs of Medicaid will be so important this year, so we don’t lose the ability in the future to invest in areas like education and jobs.

These priorities are why the largest new investments our budget proposal makes go to public schools, including funding for 111 new positions in our schools and classrooms. Great schools are an important factor in our ability to attract new jobs to Delaware. And great schools that graduate kids ready to succeed are critical to our – and those kids’ – economic future.

Our focus on getting people back to work is why our budget replenishes the strategic fund so we can have more stories to tell like the expansions at places like Amazon, Mountaire, Johnson Controls or PBF Energy. It’s why we’ve focused the investments in our capital budget on projects that both get people to work building them and improve our quality of life, so our state can remain a great place to build a business and raise a family.

I look forward to working with the members of the General Assembly, particularly the members of the Joint Finance Committee, over the coming months to make progress on these shared priorities and to enact a reasonable, responsible budget, one that rises to meet some of the challenges we face and positions our state well – to help people get back to work, invest in stronger public schools, govern responsibly, and keep Delaware, moving forward.

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Gov. Markell’s budget plan is balanced without any increased or additional taxes or fees.

“This budget is very much like what I talked about in the State of the State speech last week,” stated Markell. “It’s about investing in jobs, it’s about investing in schools, and it’s about governing responsibility. Governing responsibly means being a good steward of the taxpayer dollars, and that’s exactly what you’re going to see in this budget.”

The $3.55 billion proposed general operating fund budget is a 1 percent increase over the $3.51 billion FY12 budget.

Additionally, the governor offered a capital budget proposal of $448 million for FY13 and set aside $40.2 million for grant-in-aid.

Senator Harris McDowell (D-Wilmington North), who co-chairs the budget writing Joint Finance Committee, applauded the governor’s focus on jobs, education, social services, and efficient government.

“It represents a really good set of priorities consistent with his entire term in office—to work really hard on things really help us at the core,” said McDowell.

McDowell’s fellow Democrat, Senator David Sokola (D-Newark), added, “I think it’s responsible. I think he hits the areas that are critical needs as well as those areas that have potential to develop opportunities for Delaware in both the near- and the long-term future.”

On the Republican side of the aisle, Representative Ruth Briggs-King (R-Georgetown), who is also on the Joint Finance Committee, said she heard “pretty much the same message we heard last year,” but added that she expects to see “a bigger demand to meet the needs in social services and other services we provide.”

House Minority Leader Greg Lavelle (R-Sharpley) noted that “any budget that only increases 1 percent is not bad from my perspective,” but he remains concerned that the proposal continues the trend of the state spending whatever new revenue it gets.

The largest single spending increase in the operating budget comes in education. The proposal allocates $27.4 million to cover the loss of federal stimulus money provided by Education Jobs Act fund.

“This was funding that was made available by the federal government that is no longer made available,” explained Ann Visalli, director of the Office of Management and Budget. “It targeted teachers in the classrooms, school building employees, and we are pleased to recommend that funding.”

Sen. Sokola, who chairs the Senate Education Committee, says Markell’s budget reflects the effort to strongly but realistically fund education in the state.

“One thing that we’ve worked on for the last three years is a recognition that the federal money was going to go away eventually, just like the Race to the Top money is going to eventually go away,” said Sokola. “So, we’re trying to build the capacity to continue the most essential components.”

Markell suggests $8.7 million to hire 111 teachers, along with additional support staff, to accommodate the growth in the public school student population and $8.8 million to cover salary step increases for employees of public schools and Delaware Technical and Community College (DTCC). The governor’s budget also seeks $750,000 for salary increases to paraprofessionals and $1.5 million to support grants to low-achieving non-Title I schools.

Education also earns a large share of Markell’s capital budget proposal, which sets aside just over $16 million for major and minor capital improvement to schools and another $9 million for higher education in the form of $3 million each to the University of Delaware, Delaware State University, and DTCC.

Governor Jack Markell’s proposed FY 2013 budget

Excerpts from Gov. Markell’s budget presentation

The governor’s budget plan also calls for significant spending on health and social services, specifically Medicaid. Markell repeated the call he made in his State of the State address to allocate an additional $21.7 million to deal with increasing Medicaid costs. The budget also works in about $4 million in cuts to the program. But Markell said he believes, as he outlined in the State of the State, that the state’s priority should be aggressively pursuing savings by finding efficiencies in the system.

“Efficiencies first,” Markell told reporters following his budget presentation.

McDowell says the work to find those efficiencies has begun, with a task force that met last summer. The task force “has presented a number of places we can find efficiencies. What I don’t know is how many of those may already be incorporated in [the governor’s] budget numbers.”

But Rep. Briggs-King believes the final budget may need to go beyond the savings found in efficiencies to address the rising cost of Medicaid.

“We have expanded our Medicaid beyond the federal requirements, and this might be the year that we have to look at bringing it back in line with what we can afford,” Briggs-King said.

The budget allocates additional funds to social services, including an additional $3.5 million commitment to early-childhood education, $1.5 million to the State Rental Assistance program and $6.8 million for additional community placements and special school graduates in the Division of Developmental Disabilities Services.

“This is really about meeting our commitment to Delawareans who, frankly, need our help,” Markell said.

Governor Jack Markell’s proposed FY 2013 budget

Reaction to Gov. Markell’s budget proposal from state legislators

As part of his commitment to job creation, the governor seeks to replenish the state’s Strategic Fund with $30 million from the capital budget. That figure is slightly lower than last year’s $31 million commitment, but Markell said it is enough “to do a lot to put people back to work.”

Other highlights from the operating budget include: nearly $20 million to maintain the pay raise for state employees and pension increase for state retirees from the current year’s budget; $1.6 million for Delaware State Police salary step increases; $700,000 to the Inspire scholarship at DSU and $200,000 to the SEED scholarship program.

The governor’s capital budget also features just over $8 million to continue work on a new state police Troop 3 facility in Camden and to begin work on a new Troop 7 in Lewes, nearly $10 million for improvements at the Young Correctional facility in Wilmington, and just over $13 million to improve the state biking and hiking trails, as Markell called for in his State of the State address.

Discussion of cuts was largely absent from the budget presentation. When asked, Markell cited open space and farmland preservation. Those programs, which wound up with $20 million combined in the 2012 budget, are budgeted for a total of only $4 million in 2013. OMB director Visalli says there are others as well.

“I’m sure you’ll hear questions [from state agencies] about things that may seem small but added together gave us the ability to fund the things we had to fund in this year’s budget,” said Visalli. “We had to not only take cuts out of some agencies, but not fund increases that were requested.”

The governor’s FY13 presentation also marked a first: the inclusion of a detailed discussion of the Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) budget and the Transportation Trust Fund. DelDOT Secretary Shailen Bhatt laid out a budget he calls “robust, realistic, and responsible” to deal with the agency’s $1.2 million debt and the debt service that eats up 36 percent of the Transportation Fund’s recommended $346 million operating budget. The recommended budget also features a $180 million capital budget, which is limited to a more realistic list of projects that can move forward rather than a wish list of projects that were included in previous budgets.

Briggs-King said Secretary Bhatt’s presentation was a step in the right direction for DelDOT in addressing two of her key concerns.

“The No. 1 issue was transparency and No. 2 a strategic plan,” said Briggs-King. “I’m encouraged by the word, now I just want to see the follow-through.”

Sokola agreed. “It’s important to [present the budgets] together like that and to recognize what [DelDOT is] doing differently than was done in the past, and that they have a clear vision for the future that’s sustainable.”

The legislature begins its work to draft the fiscal year 2013 budget when the Joint Finance Committee opens the six weeks of hearings next week.

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