The Coastal Point encourages the exchange of ideas. Letters to the editor must be signed by the author with phone number included for purposes of verification. Please send your letters to P.O. Box 1324, Ocean View, DE 19970.

Darin J. McCann

I’m a curious sort.

It’s probably why I got into this business in the first place — this ridiculous urge I’ve always had to ask “why” one last time, when everyone else is satisfied with the answer given. The truth be told, I get on Sam Harvey all the time for asking “why” too many times, when I probably would have gone ahead and asked “why” one more time if I was in his position.

It’s a great and powerful word, this “why.” As adults, we find ourselves getting frustrated when children or teenagers continually pepper us with the all-powerful word, but it is only through “why” we ever learn anything at all. In homage to my favorite three-letter word, I present this following column — as well as an oft-frightening peek into the workings of my troubled brain.

Why is almost every man I meet named Harry losing his hair? Harry Steele, the esteemed Bethany Beach council member who chooses not to be part of the American workforce anymore, is a significant exception, but he has a whole host of other items I could pick on if I so chose. Maybe that will be in a later column.

Why does the state see the bottleneck at Christiana Mall as more important than the situations on Routes 54 and 26? Is some senator having a hard time picking up his daughter from Rave?

Why isn’t there just some committee that picks Supreme Court nominees and gives them to the president for final say? No matter which direction President Bush went with his nominee on Tuesday night, there were bound to be people lining up to try and tear down someone who has done nothing but build an illustrious career. Seems counter-productive to me.

Why haven’t I ever seen cats getting, well, their feline grooves on? This might explain why I’ve always been a dog person.

Why are we spending all this money on doing studies regarding affordable housing in the area? Wouldn’t that money be better spent going to ... oh, I don’t know, affordable housing?

Why are insurgents attacking our troops under religous pretenses and claims of American occupation when our troops are trying to give them religious freedom and get things safe so they can come home?

Why does my first taste of an Irish whiskey on a Friday night make me want to go skipping through meadows with show tunes blaring in my head ...

But I digress.

Why is it so easy to build a 1,000-home development around here, but so hard to get a fence put up at your home?

Why does the national media spend so much time covering some freak teacher who went to jail for having relations with one of her students, but so little time covering the teacher who volunteers 20 hours of personal time a week to help struggling students?

Why do I feel like a doofus when walking along the boardwalk in Bethany Beach anymore? There used to be a time I would take off my shirt and John Travolta myself down the boardwalk. Now I throw on my baggiest sweatshirt and hope the wind doesn’t kick up to make it form-fitting.

Why did Cinderella Man fare so poorly in the box office? Could it really just be chalked up to a summer release date? That was a great movie, even if I always feel like Screech from Saved By the Bell after I watch a Russell Crowe performance.

Why do people get so worked up about the traffic and the crowds around here in the summer? Don’t they know it’s coming?

Why can’t the Orioles get a hit with a runner in scoring position? They’re killing me.

Why do we consistently look for reasons the terrorists are doing what they’re doing around the world? We say it’s because of American and British policies, or involvement in Iraq, or because it is their only recourse against those who oppress them. Can’t we all just say they’re a bunch of sick puppies who use killing and fear to control others?

Why is this “Into the West” series only six episodes long? I feel like I could sit through about another 12 hours of this thing — no problem.

Why do I feel like this “global warming” thing might actually be happening? I’ve kind of chalked it up to fear and scientific hoo-ha until the last week or so, but since I started sweating more than an intern picking up a pencil in Bill Clinton’s private office, I’ve changed my tune. Man, it’s been hot.

Why does Sussex County Council behave like they’re untouchable. Oh, that’s right, they apparently are.

Why do I get paid to sit around and write this garbage? You just have to love this country.

Roads are more dangerous

The entire community has been buzzing about the hit-and-run incident on Route 26 last Friday night involving a young man from Belarus, who was struck by a car while riding his bike along Route 26.

Opinions have bounced from the roads not being wide enough for bicyclists to the perils of driving while impaired to the proliferation of bicyclists riding down dark roads at night. While the scope of conversation has been wide, the collective feeling of empathy for the young man seriously injured that night has been unified.

Let’s not just look at this as an unfortunate incident, however.

As Ocean City, Md. and Rehoboth Beach have learned all too often, increased traffic and population results in bicyclists and pedestrians sometimes being struck by vehicles. Both of those cities have been proactive in trying to get the word of using caution out to as many people as possible.

We now are seeing conditions similar to those in the other vacationer spots. Locals may grumble about the increased traffic and drivers may gripe about the increased numbers of bicyclists taking up valuable lane space, but it’s also time to just suck it up and look at the facts:

Whether or not we like it, there is increased traffic, and there are more bicyclists on the road.

Once we arrive at that obvious conclusion, maybe we can maintain our focus on our surroundings while navigating local roads. This does not only go for bicyclists, either. There are more pedestrians on the roads, hence more people not using crosswalks when crossing the street. There are also more motorcycles on the road, meaning more vehicles that might not be spotted with a quick glance in the mirror.

Let’s be vigilant when driving, and be conscious of others.

People can be heard on traffic concerns
Editor:

Citizens of Dagsboro who are concerned and worried about traffic and the risk of over-development need to attend the next meeting of the Dagsboro Town Council on Monday, July 25, at 7 p.m. in the Bethel Center, next to the Bethel United Methodist Church on Clayton Street.

This will be your only chance to be heard on two proposed developments: (1) a 513-unit development (General’s Green) on land formerly owned by the Layfield family, with entrances on Clayton and Main Streets; and (2) an 88-unit development (Pepper Creek Village) on land formerly owned by the Tingle family on South Main Street, near the old Indian River High School.

If you cannot attend in person, please consider writing a letter to express your opinion to the Dagsboro Town Council, P.O. Box 420, Dagsboro. This is your only chance to be heard — until the town election for three council seats (now held by Brad Connor, James Kollock and Clay Hall) in December 2005.

Cindy Quillen
Dagsboro

Sen. Adams and the Sussex County Council
Editor:

When recently asked about concerns Sussex County residents were expressing regarding the county overdevelopment Sen. Thurman Adams replied, “Most of them (resort area residents), or at least most of the ones who are talking about it, have been here four or five years. They forgot what brought them here and they are trying to make Sussex County like the places they came from.”

It would seem however that Sen. Adams needs to be reminded it’s the Sussex County Council majority and not the county residents that have doing their best (or worst), to make Sussex County like the overdeveloped cities areas these residents came from.

Moreover, it is not just new coastal residents that are concerned with what is happening to the county.

A recent survey taken by Rep. Joe Booth indicated 70 percent of his constituents favored revamping the Sussex County Council, with little difference being noted between the responses of his central Sussex constituents and those in the Lewes area on this issue.

Since a portion of Booth’s constituents are also Thurman Adams’ constituents, perhaps the good senator should be paying more attention as many of these mid-county voters are longtime county residents as well.

The senator also needs to be reminded that about two years ago (May ’03) Joe Conaway, previous Sussex County administrator and now mayor and fellow Bridgeville resident of Sen. Adams, ranted and railed against the unappreciative “new people” who were concerned about inadequate representation on the county council.

He framed the issue at the time as one between new people and outsiders vs. everybody else (read long-time county residents). He continued with that argument until it was pointed out that Washington, D.C., newspapers were currently running sales ads for town houses located on Long Neck Road, “just 30 minutes from the beach.”

The observation was then made that it seemed quite hypocritical for Mr. Conaway to be castigating the “new” people who came down here asking for better representation when he, as a practicing Realtor, was actively supporting the very builders and developers that were encouraging these “new” people to come and live in eastern Sussex.

The point being that Sen. Adams’ 2005 comments segmenting anyone who objects to what is happening to Sussex County sound hauntingly similar to Mayor Conaway’s 2003 comments, and are as unsubstantiated today as his were then.

The concern for most of us is that while Conaway is a mayor of one town, Adams is Senate president pro-tem for the entire state. That they seem to share seemingly such biased and parochial views on how to handle Sussex County’s biggest problem is quite disturbing.

For instance, Sen. Adams gave the following as one of his excuses for withholding SB 100 (HB 170’s companion bill) from a senate vote: “Right now the Democrats control the council. If one of the elections last year had gone the other way, I don’t think we’d be hearing this now. But since the Democrats control the Senate we are not going to open the door to let the other side take the council.”

Aside from the fact that most powerful legislator in the state allows himself to get embroiled in a partisan county council political issue while disregarding his greater responsibility to 170,000 Sussex residents, this explanation doesn’t suffice on several counts.

The effort to get better representation for Sussex is a non-partisan effort, not a partisan one as Sen. Adams and opponents of HB 170 and SB 100 would have you believe.

For example, the 34 House representatives that passed HB 170 consisted of members from both parties, as did the four members who voted against the bill consist of members from both parties as well.

How much more non-partisan can a vote get? Those four members did have one thing in common, however, as they were all from the western part of the county, the same as Sen. Adams and Mayor Conaway.

The 2004 election Sen. Adams referred to, in which incumbent Lynn Rogers defeated the challenger Jud Bennett by three votes out of over 17,000 votes, would not have put this issue at rest even if the vote had gone the other way.

That’s because Bennett’s election by itself would not have changed the council’s voting dynamics enough to affect the final vote outcome on the critical issues. That’s due to the irony that one Republican on the council, Vance Phillips, almost always votes with the three Democrats on most development issues, creating a 4 -1 majority.

Bennett’s election could have made it a 3-2 majority on some of those development votes but the outcome would be the same. Sen. Adams is well aware of how Councilman Philips votes in these situations and thus knows partisan politics is not what drives the Sussex County Council development decisions.

It becomes increasingly clear that the Sussex land-management problem is not a partisan Democratic vs. Republican issue, it is not a new resident vs. long time-resident issue nor is it east vs. west county issue.

These are nothing more than smokescreens being blown at the rest of us by council members, the PGA and a few legislators in an effort to divert our attention from what has always been the real cause of Sussex over-development — that is, the council members themselves.

We need look no further for the major culprits in this charade called Sussex County land management. While councilmen Dukes, Rogers, Jones and Phillips were busy approving pro-development decisions, their personal businesses were busy selling building material, signage, metal products and real estate, respectively, to developers, builders and other contractors involved in those developments they were approving.

Whether that constitutes chargeable conflict of interest I will leave to those better qualified than I to decide. In essence, the residents of the county can trace our crisis directly to the insatiable greed of those gentlemen.

But, why in the world, as the Senate leader and the most powerful legislator in the state, did Thurman Adams ever allow himself to become embroiled in county politics, first by refusing to let his fellow senators decide the fate of SB 100 rather than substituting his own bias for their 20 votes — and then by trying to provide “cover” for the current county council members with such transparent excuses?

It seems he greatly damages his own credibility as well as the reputation of the position he holds by doing so.

Allen Ide
Millsboro

Reader happy that ABCC made decision
Editor:

I would like to applaud the Alcohol Beverage Control Commission on their wise and correct decision to grant a tavern license for Scotty’s Tavern in West Fenwick Station on Route 54.

A local tavern is as American as baseball, apple pie and the stars and stripes.

For those who may object on religious grounds to a local place to imbibe in peace, I refer them to the Bible: “Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts. Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more…” — (Proverbs 31:06-07).

Tom Neidenbach
Selbyville

Thank you DelDOT for new traffic light
Editor:

This past spring, DelDOT installed a new light at West Avenue and Route 26 in Ocean View. Green left-turn arrows were added at the same time, for traffic traveling in both directions on West and Central avenues.

This past Friday, we had a traffic accident (with injuries) at Woodland and SR26, as a motorist attempted to cross SR26. These improvements may cause a minute or two delay, but it sure is comforting to me to be able to get onto or across SR 26 in a safe manner.

Thank you Mr. Hayward and the entire DelDOT staff.

Bill Wichman
Ocean View

ACTS fills many needs to community
Editor:

Are you aware that ACTS (Atlantic Community Thrift Shop) is much more than a place to recycle clothing and furniture?

The store in Clarksville also provides community support far beyond personal garments and household goods. For instance, in June, ACTS funded advertisements on WGMD (Delmarva’s News and Information Station, 92.7 F.M.) to support WGMD’s Alcohol and Drug Addiction campaign.

Through local volunteer Steve Rapley, a partnership between ACTS and WGMD was set up to advertise Mariner’s Bethel United Methodist Church’s Celebrate Recovery program. Celebrate Recovery operates through God’s healing power as the group learns and practices eight recovery principles and twelve Christ-centered steps.

The two-hour program, designed for anyone with any kind of hurt, habit, or hang-ups, includes songs, prayer, sharing, questions and fellowship. Sometimes a testimony is given, other times a concept such as denial or forgiveness is presented and discussed. The group is divided into male and female groups. Babysitting is provided at no cost.

Thanks to ACTS, WGMD and Steve, but most of all thanks to each of you who come to Mariner’s at 81 Central Avenue (corner of Route 26 and Central Avenue) in Ocean View on Friday nights from 7  to9 p.m. to check out Celebrate Recovery.

Mary Ann Starita
Frankford