Local News

The Millville Town Council discussed the first draft of next year’s budget at great length last week, hashing out details ranging from Pumpkin Festival expenses to holiday decorations. The main points discussed included possibly not continuing to designate 25 percent of their gross rental receipts tax to a “startup police fund” that has accrued about $340,000 to date.

Selbyville will test two newly drilled town wells again, after a test in one showed a spike in methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE). Erik Retzlaff, an associate with Davis, Bowen & Friedel Inc., who works for the town, said the wells will be re-sampled by independent laboratories and the Town will “go from there.”

For those who lived in 19th-century Ireland, civil war was not a stranger. The Irish struggle for independence from the British Crown dated from 1798, when Theobald Wolfe Tone and the United Irishmen emulated the American and French revolutions by rebelling, unsuccessfully, against British rule in Ireland.

This Easter, local families can fill their baskets with goodies made by the Millville Volunteer Fire Company’s Ladies Auxiliary.

Indian River High School boys’ lacrosse players have begun their second official year as a team, and this time, it counts. After playing as a JV team in 2012, IR will send its first varsity team into the fray.

Though she’s only in her early 20s, Heather Whippie knows cancer can hit anyone, and it can affect everyone. So she’s trying something new to fight back. Whippie will bicycle across the U.S. in the 4K for Cancer, from Baltimore, Md., to San Francisco, Calif.

Several days of rain pushed Indian River athletes indoors last week, but on a sunny Tuesday, the girls’ tennis team was back on the courts, playing for the final slots on this year’s roster.

Although they’re adjusting to the loss of several starting players, the Indian River boys’ tennis team is looking to repeat some of their many victories from 2012.

By M. Patricia Titus
With its history firmly rooted in the presence of church groups in the resort town, modern-day Bethany Beach is now having to consider how much of a break it wants to give to religious groups when it comes to town fees.

Earlier this week, Ocean View Councilman Geoff Christ asked council to consider forming a committee of council members to address Ocean View Police Chief Ken McLaughlin’s employment contract renewal.

Indian River School District will officially welcome full-day kindergarten to all elementary schools in the 2013-14 school year.

Students from three local schools are coming together musically, showcasing their talents to benefit future generations. Indian River and Sussex Tech high schools, plus Southern Delaware School of the Arts, will present the second annual Music for a Positive Difference concert, benefiting Kody’s Kids, on March 23.

Each year, Ocean City, Md.’s St. Patrick’s Day parade takes place on the Saturday before the holiday. This year, March 17 is a Sunday, and parade coordinator Buck Mann is anticipating the 2013 event will draw a large crowd.

South Bethany Town Council voted unanimously last week to approve a grant agreement with engineering firm URS, stating that the firm would help write a grant proposal to the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC), with the understanding that URS would be given the surveying contract if the grant was awarded.

The first annual Warrior Paddle Race is scheduled for May 18 in the waters off the Veterans of Foreign War (VFW) Post #7234 in Ocean View. Race shirts will be provided to the first 100 registrants. The day includes a three-mile stand-up paddle (SUP) race, a six- mile SUP race, a one-mile open kayak race (bay and surf), a three- mile open kayak race (bay and surf), a kid’s half-mile race and a social paddle.

The Blood Bank of Delmarva is a non-profit community service organization that provides blood and blood products to 16 hospitals on the Delmarva Peninsula. More than 77,000 blood donations are needed in the area each year, for about 20,000 patients across the Delmarva Peninsula.

It’s St. Patrick’s Day weekend, but those in a charitable frame of mind can consider giving some green to “St. Baldrick” by supporting a local woman, Ann Margaret Donato — who plans to shave her head in the name of research on childhood cancer.

The fields were still sopping wet after a nor’easter blew through Delmarva on March 6, reducing Indian River girls soccer play day to one field. But it was just enough to get their toes wet for the 2013 season.

As part of the Rehoboth Beach Film Society’s monthly screening series, “A Royal Affair” will be shown on Thursday, March 21, at 7 p.m. in the banquet room at DiFebo’s Bistro at Bear Trap Dunes.

Great minds are roaming the halls Sussex County schools. The Sussex County Science Fair displayed the experiments of nearly 80 students, grades 7 to 12, sending Indian River High School students home with six awards on March 4.

The James Nixon and Thomas Milhous families emigrated from Ireland in the early 18th century and settled on land within a few miles of each other in Brandywine Hundred, Delaware Colony, and Chester County, Pennsylvania Colony. Over time, Nixon acquired slaves and nearly 300 acres of land in Delaware.

The citizens of Bethany Beach will get a chance to weigh in on a proposal to redevelop the Bethany Arms Motel into a flagship hotel when the town council holds a public hearing on Friday, March 15, at 4 p.m., to hear comment on six proposed changes to town code that would be needed to let the project go forward.

Last week, the Delaware Supreme Court heard an appeal filed by New Cingular Wireless PCS to allow erection of an AT&T cell phone tower on property just south of Bethany Beach.

Bill Olsen has been involved in Ocean View politics for nearly 20 years, having moved to the area in 1995.

A musical tradition of more than 20 years will return to the Indian River High School stage at the annual IR Variety Show, on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 15 and 16.

Students will perform songs by Kelly Clarkson, Rascal Flatts, Mumford & Sons, Whitney Houston, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift and more. Comedy skits, dance acts and a jazz saxophone solo will spice up the lineup.

The Ocean View Planning & Zoning Commission voted unanimously this week to recommend an ordinance amending the Town’s 2010 Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP) and residential and commercial zoning around the Foxwoods community.

The local campus of the University of Delaware is welcoming more than just college students to explore the College of Earth, Ocean and Environment (CEOE). Free guided tours are being offered once again at the research facility. School groups are especially being encouraged to take advantage of the springtime opportunity in Lewes.

What do you mean, “I haven’t purchased a ticket yet”?

The Millsboro Downtown Partnership will be holding its 2nd Annual Quarter Auction on Friday, March 15, to help raise money for the nonprofit organization.

Last summer, Bethany Dental Associates welcomed dentist Matt Baran into their practice as their newest general dentist. Baran completed his undergraduate degree at Bucknell University and graduated from Temple University, where he did his dental training, and completed his residency at York Hospital in June of last year.