Sussex County News

Sussex County offices will close for a two-hour period on Friday, Dec. 9, to allow employees to attend the annual Mildred King Luncheon. County offices will close from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. on that date. Members of the public with business to conduct at County facilities are being asked to plan accordingly for the temporary closure. County offices will re-open promptly at 1 p.m.

Selbyville police arrested Jeffrey Paddock, 49, of Ocean View on Wednesday, Nov. 23, for his alleged involvement in a string of local burglaries.

The Sussex County Council at their meeting this week adopted a policy regarding economic development incentives. Outgoing County Administrator David Baker said that the policy pertains to supplemental economic incentives for businesses, with the goal of growing jobs in Sussex County.

The Sussex County Council voted at their meeting Nov. 29 to extend for another year the County’s dog-control contract with the Delaware Animal Care & Control/Kent County SPCA, starting Jan. 1, 2012, and going until Dec. 31, 2012. The county receives 24/7 dispatch coverage for staff, vehicles and services that include the pick-up of stray animals and vaccinations.

The 28th annual Caroling on the Circle event is set for 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 5, in downtown Georgetown. The kickoff to the event this year started earlier than in year’s past, with a call for canned goods starting more than five weeks ago, since the event doubles as a food drive for Sussex County’s hungry and food-insecure.

No decision has been made about a proposed organic/yard waste composting facility near Millville. The Sussex County Council deferred action after a Nov. 15 public hearing on a conditional-use application from Jeremy W. Smith of Ocean View. The county’s Planning and Zoning Commission had also deferred action on Oct. 27, at the first public hearing on the application, and deferred action again on Thursday, Nov. 17.

The Sussex County Council, at its Tuesday, Nov. 15, meeting, adopted a redistricting ordinance and accompanying maps that establish new council districts through 2021, after last year’s U.S. Census showed significant growth and shifts in the population between 2000 and 2010.

Representatives from the Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) spoke to members of the Bethany-Fenwick Chamber of Commerce on Nov. 3 about the progress of both the Indian River Inlet Bridge project and the Route 26 Mainline improvements project.

The Delaware State Police are asking the public to be on the lookout for two suspicious male subjects who have reportedly followed several female juveniles in the Keenwick by the Bay development near Fenwick Island.

Dressed in hardhats, gloves and reflective vests, a group of 20 civilians crossed the new Indian River Inlet Bridge, from end to end, for the first time. They grinned as a DelDOT tour guide led them across the newly completed 10-foot closure pour, which connected the two halves of the new bridge. Motorists had become accustomed to seeing the incomplete north and south sections move closer together until Oct. 18, when the closure pour was completed.

On Wednesday, Nov. 9, Delaware will join all other states in conducting the first nationwide Emergency Alert System (EAS) test. At 2 p.m., radio, television and cable stations will broadcast the familiar alert warning sound. Following the alert sound, the recorded message on broadcast media will state, “This is a test.” The audio message will be the same for both radio and television.

The Sussex County Planning & Zoning Commission this week deferred a decision after a public hearing on a conditional-use application from Jeremy W. Smith of Ocean View. Smith’s application is for a yard waste and composting facility, proposed to be located on 17 acres within a 39-acre parcel of land west of White’s Neck Road and south of Old Mill Road, near Millville.

Sussex County Council President Michael Vincent reported Tuesday that he had spoken with Councilman Vance Phillips.

With continuing concern about jobs in Sussex County, county council members on Oct. 25 discussed potential economic development incentives designed to bring new companies, and new jobs, to the county.

“Manufacturing is alive and well in Sussex County.” So said Craig Hollenbeck, president of Craig Technologies out of Seaford, Del. Hollenbeck joined two other business owners, Robert F. Rider Jr., president and CEO of O.A. Newton in Bridgeville, and Sher Valenzuela, vice president of First State Manufacturing Inc., as part of the “Made in Sussex” panel at the Sussex County Today and Tomorrow conference, held recently at Delaware Technical Community College in Georgetown.

This year’s Sussex County Today and Tomorrow Conference — an annual conference held in Georgetown that gathers more than 300 Sussex County business owners, educators and others interested in meeting their peers and discussing county issues and successes – had a theme of “connections that work.”

Delaware’s Department of Transportation has announced that beginning this evening, Wednesday, Nov. 2, there will be a shift in traffic patterns on Route 1 just north of the Indian River Inlet Bridge. The shift will be implemented to ensure continued road safety due to dune erosion adjacent to the northbound lanes, they said.

Sussex County Councilman Vance Phillips was reported to be recovering in a Virginia medical center on Monday, following a single-engine plane crash near Lynchburg, Va., that occurred around dusk on Sunday evening.

Both the northbound and southbound lanes of Route 1, near the Indian River Inlet will close at approximately 9 p.m. tonight, due to high storm tides, report  officials from the Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT).

Sussex County residents have until noon on Friday, Oct. 28, to enter their comments on the county’s proposed redistricting plan, due to a typographical error in the county council’s meeting agenda heading into their Oct. 25 meeting and hearing on the subject. The public comment period for the plan was set to end with the hearing at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, but it has been extended until noon Friday, to make sure those who thought the hearing was that evening can still comment.

While AT&T appeals a Sussex County Board of Adjustments decision not to permit a cellular antenna tower on a parcel just south of Bethany Beach town limits, and as a temporary tower remains on the site pending that appeal, the company has asked the Bethany Beach Town Council to consider allowing it to install its antennas on the town’s water standpipe off Collins Street.

Starting a new business can be difficult, but a group of Sussex County officials and businesspeople are aiming to make it easier – and help boost economic development in the county – by offering a little help to would-be entrepreneurs. The Sussex Economic Development Action Committee (SEDAC) is hoping to combat what can be an intimidating market with their free monthly business development consultations, which kicked off at the end of September.

The Inland Bays Foundation had its first official meeting in October as an established 501(c)3 organization. Their mission is “to advocate and promote the restoration of the Inland Bays watershed by conducting public outreach and education, tracking restoration efforts, encouraging scientific inquiry and sponsoring needed research, in order to establish a long-term process for the protection and enhancement of the Inland Bays.”

Sussex County officials are planning an informational session for county council members to hear about sewer rate increases that are being reported around the county.

Community leaders, individuals forging paths in business and education, and elected officials will join together to raise public awareness of business connections that work at the 18th annual Sussex County Today & Tomorrow Conference on Wednesday, Oct. 26, from 7:15 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Carter Partnership Center at Delaware Technical Community College in Georgetown.