Dagsboro News

The opening day of the Bethany Beach Farmers’ Market was just peachy for the local farmers, farm families and food producers who came out to sell their produces directly to the public on Sunday, July 1.

State legislators approved a sweeping revenue package with the 2008 fiscal year budget this weekend, raising $572 million over the next six years to help cover a $1.5 billion shortfall in the capital transportation program and, perhaps, saving some roadway projects that were left in jeopardy.

The skies over coastal Delaware will light up over the Fourth of July holiday with a variety of pyrotechnics displays.

But not all of them will be legal.

After weeks of anticipation and months of work, the inaugural Bethany Beach Farmers’ Market is set to open, from 8 a.m. to noon on Sunday, July 1, in the Mercantile Peninsula Bank parking lot in town.

The 25-member working group made up of civic leaders coming Millsboro south to Selbyville have officially recommended building a highway that will bypass U.S. 113 from north of Millsboro to south of Frankford.

State legislation up for approval this week would allow state transportation officials to begin work on the much-anticipated Indian River Inlet Bridge project that was delayed again in late April.

Traveling north on Route 20 in Dagsboro, it’s hard to miss the 2,500 peach trees that line 25 acres on the roadway’s east side. The Bennetts’ peach trees, where locals have picked their own peaches since the mid-80’s — coupled with the Parsons’ produce stand and farm just north — are two symbols of the farming tradition that continues to envelop this area’s back roads.

Behind his parents’ home off Route 20 in Dagsboro, Tyler Parsons snatched up a rake and went to work, seemingly determined to carry on his family’s farming tradition. But problems remain. Tyler is unfocused, and is just as determined to slip off for occasional naps during the work day.

Dagsboro resident Andy Stasny is truly one in a million. A retired pharmacist, computer specialist and Navy veteran, he now focuses his free time on theater, and he said he wouldn’t have it any other way.

A 21-year-old Dagsboro man was again detained Tuesday after pleading not guilty in federal court to 11 counts relating to the receipt and possession of child pornography.

On Monday night, Jan. 22, the Dagsboro Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) recommended to the town council approval of the final site plan for the Woodlands of Pepper’s Creek, a community consisting of 48 twin-homes just off Main Street.

Terry Hearn and Norwood Truitt were sworn in at Monday’s Dagsboro Town Council meeting for the two-year term, replacing Andy Engh and Kurt Czapp, who held council positions for six and four years, respectively.

John Douds claims that he had no idea growing up that he would be working in the postal business, but the newly appointed Dagsboro postmaster said he couldn’t ask for a better career.

Dagsboro voters will head to the polls next Saturday, Dec. 2, to choose who will fill two seats on the town council. Councilmen Kurt Czapp and Andy Enghe are not running for re-election, freeing their seats for newcomers. The two-year terms will begin Dec. 18, with a swearing in at that night’s council meeting.

Dagsboro Town Council members discussed further the implementation of their Comprehensive Plan, approved in 2003, at the town meeting on Sept. 25. Representatives of town planning firm URS were present at the meeting to help explain the new town-center zoning district and displayed two updated town maps.

Accusations flew in a heated town council meeting at the Dagsboro Bethel Center on Monday, Sept. 25. Barbara Edick presented the council with a petition with more than 100 citizens’ signatures in favor of getting rid of the town’s police commissioner, Herb Disharoon.

Although a Dagsboro man’s driving was not the primary cause of a fatal accident near Berlin, Md. about 9:45 p.m. on Aug. 17, he could still be charged with crimes related to the crash, Maryland police said.

Dagsboro resident Robert Delp died last Thursday night from injuries sustained in a June 8 Frankford-area accident that killed four others and injured three.
Delp was taken off of life support at a Washington hospital about 5:41 p.m. on June 29, according to Delaware State Police spokesman Master Cpl. Jeff Oldham.

Two Dagsboro ordinances will be revisited in the form of public hearings at the town’s July council meeting. The ordinances passed on March 20 established an impact fee, charging developers $1,500 per EDU, and a 3 percent building permit fee. Both have drawn complaints from area builders and developers, which might lead to lawsuits, according to at least one area developer.

Dagsboro’s Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) worked to align two maps at the May 3 commission meeting. Discrepancies had stalled William Mills’ plans for commercial development north of Warrington Street, one month earlier.

The project is caught between: (1) the town’s current zoning map, and (2) the Comprehensive Plan’s future-land-use map.

Dagsboro Town Council hangs together. However, it seems the political divide between incumbent council members and the three candidates swept into office as a quasi-party in December 2005 is still a long way from closing.

Dagsboro residents and elected officials heard from a whole squad of technical folk at a special meeting on April 10 — four representatives from Sussex County’s engineering department and three from county-affiliated engineering firm Stearns & Wheler.

They’d come to discuss sewer capacity, and when that many engineers gather in a room, you know there’s a project afoot.

Dagsboro’s Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) has been mainly occupied with residential projects of late since its reactivation in November 2005. But commission members added a commercial project to their list in recent weeks, with William Mills’ application for several retail buildings near the intersection at Warrington and Sussex streets on the north end of town.

Or did they?

Dagsboro Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) Chair Marge Eckerd reported strong progress at the March 27 town council meeting on the commission’s checklist of matters to be addressed before the town’s building moratorium expires in late July.

Dagsboro Town Council may have steered the town’s finances out of the red and into the black in a single special meeting, March 20, with the installation of some significant fee increases.