This year, more than 150 Delaware deaths were suspected overdoses. And 2017 isn’t done.

So, Salem United Methodist Church and Selbyville Police Department partnered to host a community meeting on Thursday, Sept. 28, at 6 p.m. at Salem Center, the community hall behind the church sanctuary.

The Fire Marshal might have frowned at the number of people squeezed into Roxana Fire Hall on Sept. 19. But Route 54 residents hovered just under the 274 occupancy limit, showing just how concerned they are about traffic issues in their corner of Sussex County.

Frankford may be facing a referendum in the coming weeks to substantially increase their property taxes, as it looks to team up with the Town of Dagsboro to unify their police departments.

Last week, the Towns of Dagsboro and Frankford held two public forums to discuss the possibility of a unified police department.

Coastal Point • Maria Counts: Dagsboro Patrolman Tyler Bare, third from left, receives his American Police Hall of Fame Silver Star for Bravery award. With Bare, from left, is Staff Sgt. Harry Litten, Chief Floyd Toomey and Dagsboro Mayor Brian Baull.Going into dangerous situations is not an unusual situation for Dagsboro Police Patrolman Tyler A. Bare.

After graduating from high school, Bare joined the United States Marine Corps, serving as an MP, and completing a tour in Afghanistan.

Now a patrolman with the Dagsboro Police Department, Bare continues to go into dangerous situations on the home front.

Such was the case on June 6, when SusCom put out a call for officers to aid a Delaware animal control officer who was being actively attacked by a Pitbull terrier. Bare was the first on the scene.

“The dog was violently attacking an animal control officer to the point of near unconsciousness when Patrolman Bare arrived on the scene,” said Dagsboro Police Chief Floyd Toomey on Sept. 18. “He tried to kick the dog and the dog didn’t have any response to that at all.

After a recent annexation, the Town of Millville is about 31 acres bigger and could someday be 95 houses heavier.

On Sept. 12, Millville Town Council approved annexation of 31.32 acres on Windmill Drive and Dukes Drive.

Residents of Millville by the Sea should be looking for an email survey soon, regarding traffic in the community. The developer needs public input for traffic issues before moving forward with the next MBTS neighborhood.

CierkowskiThe Ocean View Police Department is seeking the public’s help in locating Brent Cierkowski, 26, of Ocean View, in connection with lawn-ornament thefts in the area.

“They’re stealing whatever’s not tied down, unfortunately. And, it’s something they’ve been able to take to yard sales and flea markets and other locations and sell them readily,” said Ocean View Police Chief Ken McLaughlin.

Cierkowski, who is still wanted by police, has warrants charging him with two counts of theft under $1,500 where the victim is 62 year of age or older, two counts of theft under $1,500, three counts of trespass 3rd, one count of conspiracy 2nd, and two counts of conspiracy 3rd.

“Some of these lawn ornaments had some value. They were the concrete-type lawn ornaments. You see these concrete benches, things like that,” said McLaughlin.

Local Girl Scout troops are hosting “Small Town, Big Heroes” on Saturday, Sept. 23 as a unique way to offer safety information for families and to pay tribute to the “everyday heroes” – police officers, firefighters and other public safety officials.

The Sussex County Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to extend their lease of the James Farm Ecological Preserve to the Center for the Inland Bays.

The 150-acre property, located on Cedar Neck Road just outside of Ocean View, offers visitors the change to enjoy seven different distinct habitats, walking trails and beach.

The Big Chill Beach Club will be the site of the annual Brews By the Bay fundraiser this year.

The James Farm Ecological Preserve is one of the community’s special treasures.

There is a lot of buzz around these fruited plains focused on the concept that we are now a nation divided.

Sussex County has fallen and it can’t get up

Editor:

The Woodlands of Pepper’s Creek property owners attended this week’s Dagsboro Town Council meeting to voice their concerns related to developer Fernmoor Homes renting out properties within the community.

Band cards are back!

For the new school year, Indian River High School Band Boosters have printed a new batch of discount band cards, which are available for $10 each.

People can show their card for discounts at about 35 area businesses, for pizza, fine dining, movies, music, pet shops, flowers, towing, toys, bowling and more. The card is good until Sept. 30, 2018.

Enough with the cars — try seeing Sussex County by bike.

The fourth annual Tour de Sussex returns on Saturday, Sept. 23, at 8 a.m., rain or shine. It’s sponsored by Delaware Technical Community College. Proceeds will provide scholarships for Workforce Development students.

During the Civil War, there were a number of events that occurred that were considered “turning points,” or indicators that one side or the other had taken a significant step toward victory. One such event was a battle in Maryland in September 1862 that the South called “Sharpsburg” after the closest town, and the North labeled “Antietam” for a creek on the battleground.

Coastal Point • Submitted: The West Cottage.West Cottage, c. 1934

Originally built by Olive West, a granddaughter of George H. West, the West Cottage was lovingly remodeled 10 years ago in keeping with the expert craftsmanship of its ancestor.

The two-story, 3 bedroom traditional colonial, is located on a large lot overlooking the Ocean View Town Park. For many years, the home served as a guest house, like today’s bed-and-breakfast inns, and current owner George W. Hermance, possesses a 1936 guest book naming some of the depression day lodgers.

While owner Hermance purchased the house furnished just a few weeks ago, his artistic eye and training as a landscape architect attracted him to this classic home and sizeable grounds. Tour-goers will be able to see a black-and-white photo of the original home, the guest book, original paintings by its current owner, and idyllic views from the home’s big windows and decks.

Coastal Point • Susan Walls: An IR runner hits the gap to gain some yards in 39-21 loss to Polytech on Friday, Sept. 15.A week after their 21-20 surprise season opener victory over Caravel Academy in the Blue/Gold Kickoff Classic, Indian River’s varsity football found themselves 39-21 prey to the Polytech Panthers last Friday at home. The Panthers’ special teams scooped up the opening kick off and returned it to the Indians end zone. A swift extra point kick gave the Panthers an early 7-0 lead.

IR’s punt return team quickly answered with their own punt return and kick, tying it seven all with 7:59 minutes remaining in the first quarter. The Panthers’ punt-return team got them to mid-field for the start of a tie-breaking drive that ended with senior wide receiver Douglas Reed grabbing a pass near the end zone that he carried across the goal line. The extra point kick split the goal posts giving the Panthers a 14-7 lead.

The Panther offense got another six points, but missed the point-after kick. With 6:50 remaining in the first half, IR scored on another punt return and point after, making it 20-14 Panthers — where it stayed until the first half expired.

Coastal Point • File Photo : Bethany Beach FIrst Responders Tri-Du-Aquabike partcipants learn to enter and exit the ocean during training for the event back in 2013.Athletes of all age and skill level will descend upon Bethany Beach this weekend for the 6th annual Bethany Beach First Responders Tri-Du-Aquabike.

The event was created to support the first responders of the Bethany Beach Volunteer Fire Department.

“All the proceeds go to the Bethany Beach first responders at Station 70,” said Race Director Rick Hundley, noting the event has raised close to $100,000 since its inception.

While the event itself will take place on Sunday, Sept. 24, with transition area opening at 5:30 a.m., activities will begin this Friday with a welcoming party at The Starboard in Dewey Beach.

There have been some — not many — folks who took pickleball lessons but later slowed down their participation. When I spoke with them, I mostly heard expected answers: a new grandchild, a pulled muscle, etc. But several told me that they didn’t feel they were getting any better, or were not athletic enough.

Two-lane highways are under volume pressure as more houses and vehicles bring people to coastal Delaware. There will be a public meeting to discuss traffic conditions along Route 54 (Lighthouse Road) on Tuesday, Sept. 19, at 12:30 p.m. at the Roxana Volunteer Fire Company’s fire hall.

If Frankford and Dagsboro unify their police departments, Frankford residents could pay more than $200 per year in additional town taxes, beyond what they currently pay, according to figures presented at an informational meeting in the Frankford fire hall on Tuesday, Sept. 12.

Ocean View Town Hall on Tuesday evening was packed with Fairway Village residents who had attended the town council meeting that night to voice their concerns about the community’s developer.

After the Town of South Bethany rejected claims from some its police officers of unfair pay and promotion practices, both sides have now released legal paperwork in the matter.

Coastal Point • File Photo : The now-annual Cops & Goblins event in Ocean View is a great opportunity for kids to celebrate Halloween in a safe atmosphere, and allows the community to get to know the Ocean View police a little more.Three years ago, the Ocean View Police Department took a seed of an idea and created the community-oriented Halloween event known as Cops & Goblins.

“Chief came to me one day a few years ago and said, ‘Rhys, I have an idea,’” recalled Sgt. Rhys Bradshaw. “‘I’ve been thinking about creating a Halloween event — something free for the kids in the community.’

“Where I grew up in New Jersey, Halloween was an event. We went out and trick-or-treated all through the neighborhoods. You don’t see that much around here,” Bradshaw said.

The free event hosts families in Ocean View’s John West Park for a few hours, offering families a safe environment for trick-or-treating while having positive interactions with local law-enforcement officers.

Coastal Point • Susan Lyons: Piet Oudolf, designer of the meadowlands of the Delaware Botanic Gardens at Pepper Creek, signs copies of his book during a work day at the Gardens last week.How does a soybean field become a world-class garden? One plant at a time.

Although work has continued quietly at Delaware Botanic Gardens at Pepper Creek for a few years, this week was especially noteworthy, as volunteers planted the first part of the gardens’ meadowlands, designed by world-renowned designer Piet Oudolf.

“It was a huge operation. We have had about 50 volunteers. They came from everywhere … from Boston to Tennessee,” said Executive Director Sheryl Swed. “When Piet comes, he takes a look to see if it’s perfect, or he does tweaking.”

Just outside Dagsboro, some onlookers thrilled to see the Dutch designer pick up a rake to help shape the grass mounds. Others begged an autograph or two.

“My idea was to make a perennial meadow with the use of many natives, but in my own way. I have a very impressionistic style,” Oudolf said while examining the grounds.

The 1.5-acre meadow is a controlled mass of plants, shaped rather like a figure 8 or an ampersand. The thick pathways curve through the meadow, the plants clearly delineated from the walkway.

“The whole layout is so that people can meander and walk through the garden,” Oudolf said. “Every turn is a different perspective. … You want people to feel like they discovered something.”

‘Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it.’

— Albus Dumbledore, in ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,’ by J. K. Rowling

The Town of Frankford has been relying on Delaware State Police coverage since the resignation of former police chief Mark Hudson in July. Even before Hudson’s departure, there were some concerns that there simply wasn’t enough police coverage in the town, particularly with the area-wide rise in heroin-related crimes.

Dagsboro Police Chief Floyd Toomey may have found a solution.

There are certain things that just “feel right” in life.

Of course, these comforts are somewhat personalized. What feels natural and comfortable to one person might not be another person’s cup of tea.

Reader proud of Operation SEAs the Day

Editor:

We were minding our own business, driving east on 54 last Friday, when first we noticed all the pedestrians waving flags, and then we saw strobing police lights and heard the horns. All the cars stopped as the parade came towards us. We soon realized it had to do with SEAs the Day.

Coastal Point • Submitted : Some of the Thank A Police Offer Day on Delmarva crew spent time offering their appreciation to officers of the Dagsboro Police Department last year.While many may only encounter police officers when they’ve been speeding or have a taillight out, one organization is asking the public to recognize the dangers of policing and take the time this weekend to thank their local law-enforcement officers.

“From my standpoint, you go to work, I go to work — neither one of us is doing jobs where we may get shot at, where we may get yelled at, where we may get disrespected at,” said Andrea Baumann, a Sussex County resident overseeing Thank A Police Officer Day on Delmarva.

“They work a lot of hours, they see a lot of things, and then … they still have to, at the end of the day, after handling some horrific things that most of us would have nightmares about, be a normal person — husband, wife, father or mother — to their own families… I feel even just making a small gesture is acknowledging what they do, and maybe silently saying, ‘Thank you. We appreciate what you do out there,’ can make a difference.”

This Saturday, Sept. 16, is National Thank A Police Officer Day, created in 2012 by the Whole Truth Project, an organization “dedicated to protecting innocent police officers, wrongfully accused of police misconduct in wrongful conviction lawsuits and other civil rights cases.”

Coastal Point • Tyler Valliant : BART members, from top left, Bob Ravida, Bill Fuchs, Corinne Condon, Brian Geary, Emily Abbott, Aisha Tharp, Corinne McMahon and E.J. Panico, will perform in ‘The Mousetrap’ at Woodsong Country Inn &?Retreat.Can you keep a secret? Bethany Area Repertory Theatre (BART) is performing Agatha Christie’s mystery “The Mousetrap” in a new, tucked-away location.

The community theater group has found a new home at Woodsong Country Inn & Retreat, near Frankford.

Having traditionally performed at Dickens Parlour Theatre in Millville, BART is bidding the tiny theater a fond farewell to find a larger stage. The Woodsong bed-and-breakfast had room to spare and allows BART to have a summer season.

Performances of “The Mousetrap” will be held on Sept. 21, 22, 23, 29 and 30 at 7:30 p.m., with a matinee on Sept. 24 at 2 p.m.

Coastal Point • Submitted: The Holt Dukes Wadley House, built around 1884, will be featured on the Ocean View Historical Society’s inaugural tour of historic homes on Oct. 7.Above the wicker table in the living room of the c. 1884 Holt Dukes Wadley House is a picture of its early owners, Henry and Jenny (Eunice Jane Short) Holt. Jenny was an avid churchgoer, so Henry bought and moved the old Ocean View Presbyterian Church to their back yard to make room for the current Presbyterian Church sanctuary.

The church joined several outbuildings on the property, including a chicken coop, outhouse, summer kitchen and old barn. Many of the structures were donated to the Lewes Historical Society prior to the Ocean View Historical Society’s formation, but the Holt Dukes Wadley House will be among the historic homes in the area featured on the Ocean View Historical Society’s inaugural Coastal Towns Historic Homes Tour on Saturday, Oct. 7.

Tour goers can walk through the colonial-style home, which tradition has it was the first house in Ocean View to acquire indoor plumbing. Large front and side porches provide spots for current owners George and Nancy Dukes Wadley to “soak in” the Sussex sunshine. The owners described the home’s interior as “early attic,” with no TVs anywhere, so the inside ambience is somewhat true to its post-Civil War origins.

Special to the Coastal Point • Bruce Walls: Siera Johnson blocks a shot.A young Indian River High School girls’ volleyball team opened their 2017 season by surprising an older, more experienced Caesar Rodney team, 3-2, on Tuesday, Sept. 12, on their home court in Dagsboro.

IR took the first set 25-19. CR, who had beaten Concord High School the prior Friday night, responded with a 25-21 win in the second set. IR fought back, winning the third set 25-19. CR held on, winning the fourth set 25-18, but IR sealed the win in the final set, 15-13.

Leading the Indians’ charge was freshman Raychel Ehlers, who was 14-4-0-4-0 for the night.

“I’m proud of the way we played tonight,” Ehlers said. “It was our first game of the season, and we came out strong. I knew I did good and hit the ball hard, but it was a team effort.”

Special to the Coastal Point • Vaughn Baker: The Ocean View Crew’s Steve Melofchik gets ready to hit a serve from behind the baseline.This year is the 50th anniversary of the first pickleball court, and the 2017 tournament in Ocean City, Md., celebrated that event. Here are some lines from the poem to honor that event:

It was the year 1967, we all were feeling GroovE…

The hippies created their very own lingo,

The words of which never appeared in bingo,

Hippies had their own symbol, the famous Peace sign,

Which they stole from England, too stoned to self design,

Spent much of their time in flip-flops at 9th Street in the sand,

Listening to great music like Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, Hello GoodBye, Penny Lane,

Strawberry Fields Forever, All You Need Is Love, all hits main…

The first permanent pickleball court was built, the game itself two years before,

Only the Lord above knows where and why they came up with the pickle score

Earlier this week, 25 Very Important Families (VIFs) joined the Bethany Beach community. Some would argue they’re the most important visitors to the area in the whole year.

Last month, Dagsboro Police Chief Floyd Toomey presented some information to the Frankford Town Council about what it would take to join the two towns’ police forces.

When opening their property tax bills this summer, many local residents expected their taxes to increase because of the March public-school referendum. But the Indian River School District’s successful referendum isn’t the only reason that taxes increased.

A family vacation to the beach is not always within reach for the family of military veterans, whose focus is often on paying the bills and the overall health of the family.

Enter Operation SEAs the Day.

With the new school year having begun on Tuesday, Sept. 5, the Indian River School District is putting the finishing touches on its administration lineup. Although most of the transition was completed before July, a few new opportunities recently opened up for IR staff. Last-minute changes were made at several schools:

Coastal Point • Laura Walter: Ana Calles’ crown holds dozens of glittering rhinestones that represent the beauty, poise, intelligence and quick thinking she displayed at the 2017 Miss Hispanic Delaware pageant.Selbyville is home to a new pageant winner and community leader: 17-year-old Ana Calles was crowned Miss Hispanic Delaware this week.

“It’s still very surreal to me, because it’s just something that I’ve been wanting for a long time, and that it’s actually manifested into reality — it’s very surreal,” Calles said.

She has just begun 11th grade at Indian River High School. As the pageant’s only downstate contestant, Calles said she was happy to stand out geographically, despite the necessity of the two-hour drive to the Baby Grand theater in Wilmington’s Grand Opera House for rehearsals and the competition.

Calles represented Mexico in the Aug. 26 program, which celebrates Hispanic culture and is designed to help young ladies develop poise and communication skills. Calles has lived in Selbyville all her life, except for a few years in Mexico when she was younger.

“I was nervous throughout the whole day, but after our opening-number dance, I felt more confident and comfortable on stage,” she said of her very first pageant.

Calles had dreamed of competing for years, but her family had just suffered the painful impact of losing her mother in April.

“I just wanted to make her proud her proud, overall, even though I know just competing made her proud,” Calles said. “I know she was with me that night. I could feel her.”

Coastal Point • Tyler Valliant: Reine Jesel recently celebrated his 100th birthday, surrounded by friends and family at this favorite morning coffee joint, the Selbyville McDonald’s.On almost any morning in the Selbyville McDonald’s, a group of older men can be found laughing together over breakfast.

In the far corner this week, one white-haired fellow with bright eyes and a big grin enjoyed a special spotlight. After all, Reine Jesel had just celebrated his 100th birthday.

He still drives himself to McDonald’s six days a week for a black coffee to read the daily paper (no eyeglasses required). He won’t need to renew his driver license until he’s 105.

“I’m fortunate,” he said.

Most of his life was spent in New Jersey, working as a general contractor in the construction business. He was 85 when he and his wife, Shirley, moved to the outskirts of Frankford about 15 years ago.

It’s here.

What has been affectionately coined as “Locals’ Summer,” kicked off Monday afternoon, and people from around the community crawled out of their coccoons, hit the beach and visited local shops and restaurants again after the unofficial end of summer that is marked by Labor Day weekend.

Anheuser-Busch, a titan amongst titans in the beer industry, announced last week that it was stopping the distribution of beer at its Georgia brewery to produce water for those suffering in floods in Texas.