Millville

As of Friday evening, Hurricane Sandy was on track to directly hit Delaware and the Mid-Atlantic in the days ahead, based on forecasts, threatening to lash the region with up to two days’ worth of hurricane-force winds, a 10-foot-high combined surge and tide, and torrential rains that could measure as much as a foot deep in some places.

Take Saturday to prepare, advised Gov. Jack Markell, in light of expected high winds and heavy rain from Hurricane Sandy from Sunday through the early part of next week.

“It is forecasted to be a long-lasting event,” he said on Friday, noting that rain, wind and flooding likely. “The duration is what we are most concerned about.”

UPDATED Sunday, Oct. 28, 11:30 a.m.
Cancellations due to Hurricane Sandy include the following:

Both the Indian River School District and Sussex Technical School District have closed schools and offices on Monday, Oct. 29, and Tuesday, Oct. 31.

All University of Delaware classes are suspended Monday, Oct. 29, and officials were strongly encouraging students to go home.

Delaware Senate District 20 candidate Rick Eakle (D) on Friday asked his fellow Sussex County candidates in the Nov. 6 elections to put aside their political differences ahead of the anticipated arrival of Hurricane Sandy and gather to plan together ways they can help coastal residents weather the storm.

State and local emergency officials are urging residents of coastal Delaware to be alert and prepare as Hurricane Sandy tracks up the Atlantic in the coming days and poses a risk of potential severe weather, up to and including possibly making landfall in the immediate area.

Local theater lovers who may be staying in nights because they’d rather not drive to Georgetown, Rehoboth or Milford to catch a local play, can now make plans to get gussied up, because the Bethany Area Repertory Theater (BART) is hitting the local theater scene.

With little fanfare — albeit some applause — the Millville Town Council this week quietly approved a resolution revoking Millville By The Sea’s status as a special development district, or SDD. The resolution they passed terminated the Millville By The Sea (MBTS) Special Development District and the MBTS Special Fund created on Feb. 10, 2009. It also revoked the related pledge of the proceeds of the MBTS Special Tax to the MBTS Special Fund.

The fourth annual Great Pumpkin Festival in Millville is fast approaching — it will be held on Saturday, Oct. 6, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the grounds of the Millville Volunteer Fire Company’s fire hall.

The Millville Town Council has decided to wait before acting on a request by Rich Bloch of Dicken’s Parlour Theatre to serve food on the premises.

Beebe Medical Center representatives on Monday afternoon notified the public that visitor IDs were being checked after a former patient allegedly threatened two physicians affiliated with the hospital through a telephone message that was left sometime during the weekend and received on Monday morning.

In a letter dated Sept. 20, 2012, Charles D. Ellison Jr., vice president of Miller & Smith — the developers of Millville By the Sea — wrote to Millville Town Manager Debbie Botchie and Mayor Gerry Hocker, saying that Miller & Smith “will not be pursuing the implementation of the Special Development District (SDD) for Millville by the Sea at this time.”

In a letter dated Sept. 20, 2012, Charles D. Ellison, Jr.

Thomas Jack “Tim” Droney, 74, of Millville, passed away peacefully at home on Sunday, Sept. 9, after a brief illness. Droney, a regular presence in the town of Millville, had served on the town council for more than 20 years and was a Board of Adjustment member at the time of his death. He had also held the position of mayor for a short time.

Starting this month, Dickens Parlour Theatre will be offering a concert series during the off-season months.

Although summer is gradually fading into September, back-to-school days and the beginning of fall still offer plenty of locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables.

Millville will be looking quite different soon, with a Dollar General to be located off of Route 26.

Millville just continues to move forward.

Millville Town Council heard and saw firsthand about the town’s issue with non-conforming signage at a lengthy workshop last week that included a PowerPoint presentation showing pictures of how many of the signs in the town do not conform to standards.

Ocean View bicyclists, beware!

This week the town of Millville reached a resolution with the Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT), regarding an agreement for the Town to donate Town-owned right-of-way interests necessary to the Route 26 improvements project.

Normally quiet Millville residents, who number an average of three or four for a typical council meeting each month, came out in droves at their town council workshop this week to voice their opposition to a Special Development District (SDD) tax. And those that couldn’t make it wrote letters — all of which were read into the record.

Switching from a seasonal emergency room to a year-round non-emergency walk-in healthcare center has not been without some bumps in the road at Beebe Medical Center’s new walk-in facility in Millville.

Construction on Route 26 is unlikely to begin until spring of 2013 at the earliest, but DelDOT is already starting public outreach. Select community members along Atlantic Avenue have received invitations to join the Delaware Department of Transportation SR 26 Working Group.

The Millville Town Council voted this week to approve the final site plan for Bishop’s Landing (formerly known as Barrington Park), for Dove Barrington Development LLC. Steve Marsh, an engineer with GMB of Salisbury, Md., spoke on behalf of developer Beazer Homes and said that the revision to the site plan approved in April of 2011 included 457 units on 129 acres — a net reduction of 13 units.

Last week, Mariner’s Bethel United Methodist Church hosted the First State Work Camp, in which approximately 500 volunteers from seven different states and 12 churches traveled to Delaware to help do home repairs for locals in need.

Captain Jack Sparrow may have been the one who first introduced us to the Black Pearl on the high seas, but Bill Fox has brought his own Black Pearl to the streets of Fenwick Island. The customized mini-school bus has been decked out to resemble the fictional pirate ship from the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies, but there’s nothing treacherous about this ride. In fact, the twin goals of fun and safety were what brought the idea to fruition.

Homeowners in Sussex County are being invited to a free public workshop on June 27 on financial assistance available to replace failing septic systems. The workshop will be held from 3 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, June 27, at the First State Community Action Agency, 308 North Railroad Avenue, Georgetown.

About 50 people attended an information session hosted by state Rep. Gerald Hocker and Sen. George Bunting this week to answer any questions people had about Beebe Medical Center’s new walk-in center in Millville, and the fact that there will no longer be a seasonal emergency center in operation at the location.

The Town of Millville heard from Millville Volunteer Fire Company President Greg Tietmeyer, and Public Information Officer Bob Powell at their meeting this week, regarding the Town of Millville’s donations to the fire company. The men were requesting that Millville take another look at the language in Delaware code that limits real estate transfer tax monies to going toward “public safety.”

The Sussex County Council this week approved a conditional use for a borrow pit east of Irons Lane Road and north of Old Mill Road in the Clarksville/Millville area, on a vote of 3-2, with council members George Cole and Joan Deaver dissenting.