Millville News

Millville is getting another bank. After some confusion and the approval of two variances last week, Artisans’ Bank officials expect to begin building the company’s newest branch at the intersection of Atlantic Avenue and Cedar Drive, adjacent to the Millville Town Center, late this spring or early summer.

Herb Dulin remembers when poker was “taboo.” Groups of friends would gather in side rooms or basements to play the game, but it was not plastered on television screens worldwide or popular in the mainstream. A lot has changed.

After an extra effort made to notify surrounding property owners of the request for the Town of Millville to annex a 168-acre parcel as a final phase of Millville by the Sea, town officials were rewarded on Feb. 15 with a comparative wealth of interested parties.

Millville town officials on Tuesday sought after ways to cut spending and discussed raising comparatively low tax rates to cover a potential 2008-fiscal-year budget shortfall. The need to add staff or take some positions full-time and extra engineering costs that come with development have especially stressed town spending proposals.

In a clear indication of how much the town has grown and is expected to grow in the coming years, Millville Town Council members at their Feb. 13 meeting voted to expand the town’s existing staff from two full-time positions, one part-time position and a contractor to three full-time positions and two part-time ones.

Early progress on the 3,000-home Millville By the Sea master-planned community (MPC) in Millville is “moving along very well,” according to Bob Harris of the Millville Group, one of several developers on the project and the managing entity of the construction. Harris made the report to Millville Town Council members at a workshop on Tuesday, Feb. 6.

County officials approved a plan on Feb. 8 to build 197 single-family homes on environmentally sensitive land northwest of Millville and across the street from a larger development approved last month.

Millville will not hold a general election in 2007, with all three of the town council seats open for candidates this year going uncontested as last Friday’s deadline to file for council candidacy passed.

Alice Hajjar has been commuting to the Eastern Shore beaches for many years now. Formerly a human resources consultant, her passion for dancing is becoming more of a true calling with each passing day. Though a Frederick, Md., resident, she has now found time to introduce her love of ballroom dancing to the Delmarva area, most recently in Ocean View.

The fate of a long-anticipated project to widen Route 26 from the Assawoman Canal to unincorporated Clarksville now parallels that of a package of fee and tax increases introduced by Gov. Ruth Ann Minner in her 2008-fiscal-year budget proposal last month, state officials have said recently.

Whether Millville will have a general election this year remained unclear this week, as the filing deadline for town council candidacy — today, Friday, Feb. 2 — loomed. But there will be voting in the town on March 3, regardless, with a referendum set for property owners to vote on a possible de-annexation of portions of the Lord Baltimore Elementary School property.

An early morning fire on Friday, Jan.19, left six members of the Morris family unharmed, but without a home, when their house at 32647 Omar Road was destroyed in the blaze. The Millville Fire Department was dispatched to the call at 3:03 a.m. and was first on the scene.

It was the first of the Millville Annexation Committee’s regular meetings — now set on the third Thursday of every month — and it was an important one in the town’s future.

When Willia Peoples, owner of the Millville Pet Stop, arrived at work on Friday, she was not filled with the cheer that normally comes with an impending three-day holiday weekend. Vandals had poured detergent into the outdoor man-made pond that sits in front of the shop’s grooming station, killing 64 koi fish and causing more than $5,000 in damage.

After a long series of proposals, meetings, hearings and approvals — and with many more pending — Delaware’s largest-ever-approved development was scheduled to break ground at 1 p.m. yesterday in Millville.

Millville Town Council members on Dec. 12 gave their unanimous approval to the preliminary plan for Windhurst Manor, a 114-townhome subdivision on 24.5 acres off the west side of Windmill Drive. The “Martin-Howard” property was annexed into the town and granted zoning approval in April.

Millville Town Council members met with town planning firm URS again on Nov. 30, for another in its series of full reviews of draft ordinances for the town. URS’s Kyle Gulbronson brought a full slate of supplemental ordinances for the council members to review that Thursday, dealing with issues such as permitted construction hours, sizes for accessory structures and wetlands buffers.

A 33-year-old Millville resident died Monday from injuries resulting from a morning accident on southbound Route 1 between Dewey and Bethany Beach.

This Thanksgiving weekend will mark the 12th annual Southeastern Delaware Artists Studio Tour (SEDAST), when 15 of the top artists and crafters in the state open their studios to the public.

Village of Bear Trap Dunes’ home owners are looking beyond this holiday week toward the coming holiday season, and are again decorating their houses with lights, Christmas trees and décor, as part of plans to host the fourth Bear Trap-sponsored Holiday Home Tour.

After a one-year layoff following a successful event in 2004, seven homes are participating in this year’s Dec. 2 tour.

For those near-Millville residents who’ve tired of explaining that they live “out in the county,” between points A and B — bad news. It will now cost $750 to be considered for townieship.

Locals who get sick or suffer a minor injury over the weekend now have somewhere to go. Starting Nov. 3, the Beebe Weekend Walk-In Medical Center in Millville is now open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday’s and Saturday’s and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays to deal with such problems.

Local and statewide residents can now save money on generic drug costs. Almost mirroring a Wal-Mart plan launched in Tampa, Fla. almost two months ago, Giant is using its Super Giant Delaware stores as a test for a $3.99 generic drug plan.

Millville officials sat down Nov. 8 for the first in a series of marathon discussions about the town’s zoning ordinances, beginning a page-by-page review of a draft ordinance from consulting planner Kyle Gulbronson of URS.

More than 200 people packed the pews of St. George’s United Methodist Church on Sunday afternoon, Oct. 22, to celebrate the 190th year anniversary of the ministry. The real joy for those at the event was not only in gathering together past and present members of the church — it was also in celebrating the enduring strength of the Methodist community.