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

My father is a man who finds satisfaction through the joys of repetition. Specifically, he seems to gather solace through repeating the same quotes over and over again — either to stress the significance of his message to the recipient, or to just strengthen his belief in the words he regurgitates.

“Is your name McCann or McCan’t,” he’ll ask when one expresses doubt about the ability to perform a task. “It’s all about P.M.A. — Positive Mental Attitude,” when he catches someone looking down. Or, probably the one that causes the most groans, “Did anybody ever tell you life was fair?”

No, indeed, nobody ever did tell me life was fair. However, it seems that life is sometimes less fair to some than others. Case in point, the White family near Dagsboro.

This is a good, and genuinely kind, family that I’ve gotten the fortunate opportunity to know a little bit over the past few years because of less-than-fortunate circumstances. Their youngest son, Russell, joined the United States Marine Corps to do his part to fight terrorism after the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001. Russell trained hard, joined the brotherhood of Marines and was sent off to Afghanistan to join in the struggle.

He was killed on June 20, 2004 — and he was 19.

A grateful nation mourned the loss of another American serviceman, while a saddened family and group of friends felt the more personal sting of the abbreviated life of a loved one. Russell was “the local kid” to some, the former Indian River High School football player to others and the happy-go-lucky kid with the playful streak to those who knew him best. And he was gone.

Reports of the incident that took Russell’s life were sketchy. There was talk of an accident involving the cleaning of a weapon and a subsequent accidental discharge, and various other theories. There was no certainty to the cause of the event, and, like any family would, the Whites wanted answers. Information eventually trickled in and another Marine was identified as the shooter, an accident created by either cleaning his weapon or showboating with his firearm, depending on which attorney is currently speaking.

That Marine, Lance Cpl. Frederico Pimienta, was to face court martial charges at Camp Lejeune, N.C. last June. However, he took off the day before the trial. In his physical absence, the court martial board convicted him of involuntary manslaughter and making a false statement to investigators, and sentenced him to 12 years of incarceration, as well as a dishonorable discharge.

But he was gone, as was the opportunity for a least a semblance of closure for the White family.

Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) personnel quickly took the lead in the hunt for Pimienta, and after 30 days of being unaccounted for, Pimienta also faced charges of violating Article 85 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice — desertion.

“It’s a sad case,” said NCIS Special Agent Rob O’Dwyer, speaking by phone from his office at Camp Lejeune. “We get Marines who flee all the time, but obviously this was a lot more high-profile because of the nature of his original crime.”

It was of highest profile in the White household. Frustrated, and eager to do anything to help bring an end to the situation, Russell’s father, Gregg White, hired private investigators to aid in the search and kept in regular contact with federal investigators.

On Wednesday, Feb. 15, Pimienta was taken into custody in Spain.

“This is a huge relief,” said Gregg White. “Kudos to the NCIS for all they did. Now we can just celebrate Russell’s life. We feel Russell is at peace now, and we can move forward in remembering him, instead of concentrating on this other stuff.”

O’Dwyer, the lead investigator in the case for NCIS, was also upbeat.

“We’re very happy [Pimienta’s in custody],” said O’Dwyer. “This has to be a big relief for the White family ... A lot of people contributed during this investigation, and there’s a lot of satisfaction for all of them right now.”

Gregg White said he and his wife, Tricia, would definitely be going to the next trial for Pimienta — and that Tricia wants to speak to Pimienta personally. For now, though, there is at least a some sense of peace for the White family.

“The last eight months have been horrible,” said Gregg White. “I don’t think I could ever begin to thank our family, friends and the community for all their support and prayers. Our prayers have been answered with him being caught.”

That only seems fair.

Not the time now to change plans

The bids for the job have been presented and the financing decided. It would seem that all is a “go” for the new Ocean View police station.

Well, maybe.

Cliff Mitchell, a member of the Ocean View Long Range Financial Planning Committee, recently restated his belief that the town does not need as big a police station as is being planned. He allowed that bids did indeed come in lower than expected for the project, but feared that the building was not economically practical for the town’s needs.

Fair enough. It is indeed a big police station, and the town’s land-use plan does not call for a significant amount of growth within the current boundaries. And, in the interest of fairness, it is important to note that Mitchell is not just showing “buyer’s remorse” about the substantial project — he has been consistent in his views from the start.

However, it is probably now past the time for this argument. Bids have been solicited and offered, the police department has been assured the station will be coming in its proposed form and plans have been made. It is time now to move forward and ensure that the project is done within budget and in a timely manner.

We do not fault Mitchell for his stance. In fact, for the case of ongoing conversation amongst officials and future fiduciary responsibility, we feel his continued stance will only benefit the town.

But there is a reason the police department wanted the bigger station, as well as rationale for town council and financial planning members to go along with the plan, and it doesn’t all directly involve Ocean View.

Millville and other towns to the west are unquestionably growing in the coming years. And, for the foreseeable future, that big draw of an ocean continues to be to the east of Ocean View. That means more and more people are going to be going through town, and more and more people are going to be utilizing everything the town has to offer.

That is going to call for more services, and more space to house said services.

Representative says health care needs help
Editor:

There are few issues facing our state as pressing or serious as affordable health care. Fortunately, most people in our state are covered by health insurance plans provided by their employers.

But for a disturbing number of Delaware families, the cost of buying health coverage makes it unattainable. What is just as troubling is that the number of families facing this dilemma is growing. State officials believe as many as 97,000 Delawareans are without healthcare coverage — a jump of 12,000 from the previous year.

Many of these people are self-employed or work for small businesses. I attempted to address this unfortunate reality through the introduction of House Bill 372 in 2004. The measure, which sought to allow small and medium-sized businesses to get coverage by buying into the state’s healthcare plan, died in the House Appropriations Committee.

When the 143rd General Assembly session began in 2005, I re-introduced my proposal. Like its predecessor, House Bill 66 would allow businesses to purchase coverage through the state’s group health insurance program. The benefit is obvious. By being part of a pool of more than 100,000 people (i.e. - state workers, their families, etc.) these businesses could purchase coverage at lower premiums than otherwise would have been the case.

Under HB 66, businesses would be responsible for paying all costs associated with their premiums. The legislation stipulates that there would be no cost to the state - no Delaware taxpayer would face any additional burden.

The concept embodied by HB 66 is already in use. In fact, thousands of people who are not full-time state employees already obtain their healthcare coverage in this fashion. Volunteer fire companies, county workers, municipal employees and other groups are all eligible under existing law to buy their healthcare coverage by piggy-backing onto the state plan. If this system has proven workable for these individuals, I do not see any legitimate reason why those employed by small businesses should not be able do the same.

The no-cost aspect of my legislation contrasts sharply with a bill backed by Insurance Commissioner Matt Denn. SB 146 seeks to set up a large pool of uninsured individuals and small businesses that could purchase coverage collectively at cheaper rates. While this measure was introduced after both of my bills, it is not an improvement. It creates additional state bureaucracy by setting up a new state agency to administer the program and a Delaware Reinsurance Fund that would reimburse insurance companies in cases where families needed unusually expensive health care. Taxpayers would have to shell out an estimated $12.4 million in the program’s first full year of operation.

When the General Assembly returns to work in mid-March, I plan to fine-tune my legislation. One amendment I’ll be introducing will limit eligibility in the program to businesses with 50 employees or fewer. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 90 percent of the businesses with more than 50 employees currently provide some type of healthcare benefits to their workers. Thus, this amendment will target the bill to deal with the group that needs this benefit most.

Another amendment would mandate certain state residency requirements and better define how people could get in and out of the program.

I urge anyone who supports my proposal to contact their state legislators. Tell them to release House Bill 66 from the House Economic, Banking and Insurance Committee and allow it to be debated and voted on in the House and Senate. I firmly believe that if this happens, the merits of this bill will carry it forward. There are nearly 100,000 Delawareans who direly need this bill to get the fair consideration it deserves.

State Rep. Joe Booth
37th District

Delaware on a bad roll on many fronts
Editor:

Just reading the daily news on a regular basis is getting to be a very depressing thing. Every day there are signs that there is an undercurrent system of good-old-boy and -girl networks that flow from county councils to the legislature and up to the governor.

This tangle of interests covers the real intent of the elected officials we have put in office, and that is to benefit themselves, their friends and relatives and developers who are planning to make a gigantic slum of Delaware down to the very coast. There are few elected officials who stay clear of that web and it is our duty to determine who they are and to continue to elect them only.

The latest signs are the collapse of DelDOT’s funding which is at zero, the threat of a 60 percent increase in electric rates throughout the state, and the proposal to increase density in housing developments in Sussex County. These and other effects of dense overdevelopment will eventually cost every resident higher taxes.

They all fall under the development cloud. This is due to the general decrease in consideration for long-time residents of Kent and Sussex. The Sussex County Council seems to be mesmerized by the greedy developers who maneuver the Positive Growth Alliance into cooperation with the Council to approve developments that stagger the imagination in the most unfit and unlikely locations.

The most amazing is the thousands of units developers are proposing to swamp poor little old Milton with and destroy its peaceful little-town character. No consideration is made to those who oppose this; the Council merely tolerates their opposition and keeps steering the developers toward a development conformation that they can appear to approve. The don’t know how to say “No” and make it stick. It makes you wonder why.

To make matters worse, the Council is composed of members who do not live in the most heavily populated eastern part of Sussex County, but they heavily dictate the stagnant traffic conditions and overdevelopment that now permeate living there. They refuse to give the residents there an equal voice on the Council, aided by their friend Thurman Adams in the legislature, who will not allow a vote on permitting election of two more council members which may give voice to eastern Sussex.

This is just an unfair lack of action on Adams’ part. It effectively denies a voting voice on the Council to those living near the coast.

The concentration of western Sussex council members wants to continue to dictate to the entire county. They are presently planning to play the same overdevelopment game on the eastern part of Sussex with their plans to add sewage systems and other infrastructure that will then allow heavy development there. The plans are already in place, and when the sewage goes in, the “For Sale” signs go up — and who knows who on the Council or their buddies will personally profit by it?

The chief driver of all of this mess is that overdevelopment is behind all of the above problems. A 60 percent increase in electric rates cannot be attributed to a like increase in crude oil. Could it be so Delmarva Power can cover the cost of past and future electric utilities it must provide to the developers? How many other costs are being dropped and continue to be dropped onto the tax load on current residents to allow the continuing development scams to go on?

Keep in mind: they cannot happen or continue without the cooperation of some those of our elected administration, top to bottom. It is left to us to determine who they are, for they exist behind the scenes.

It seems to be up to us to look out for our best interests and not to depend on those we have elected to do this for us.

Charles N. Valenti
Rehoboth Beach

School board needs our throughts and prayers
Editor:

One thing that is inevitable in this game called life is change. When I was a little girl, there was absolutes. Right was right and wrong was wrong. Black was black and white was white. Now there is so many gray areas in everything. Common sense has slowly drifted out of so many things and not for our good.

Where did our country start? It started with Godly men and women who stood up for truth, righteousness and common sense. Our forefathers believed in our precious Creator and honored Him. Christianity was the strong root system which started this precious nation. Our leaders were strong men of God who went by the book — the Bible — and followed its truth and wisdom which produces godly morals and values.

It’s a fact that all of our historic documents from the Declaration of Independence to the Gettysburg Address have ref1ected Christianity, righteousness and well being for our country. If our nation didn’t have this Godly foundation, why is “In God We Trust” printed on our money? Why would a display of the Ten Commandments be on the facade of the Supreme Court?

When I was in school, we said the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag, which quoted that we were “One Nation Under God.” No questions asked, it was the American thing to do. We were even shown a film of the Nativity at Christmas time, which celebrated the birth of Jesus Christ.

Needless to say, there is an increasing atheistic/secularist assault on our Judeo-Christian heritage which threatens our beliefs, our rights and our freedom and the future of our precious children. We as true Americans arc not fooled by the myth of “separation of church and state.” Bottom line, it’s been misinterpreted, as it docs not mean separation of God and government.

Needless to say, there is so much judicial abuse all over this country for no legitimate reason. And now even in Sussex County. Our school board is being threatened and possibly sued because a prayer was prayed at the graduation service. If there was ever a time for us to take a stand and support our school board in every way possible, now is the time.

I’m asking you precious men and women of God to please pray about this situation and support our school board in every way possible. We cannot allow fear to cause us to bow down to our enemy in any way and we won’t. We have our Godly rights and values and we will win this battle, no matter what.

Connie Lathbury
Dagsboro