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Anyone who closed their eyes in Ocean View Town Council chambers this week, clicked their heels and repeated, “There’s no place like home; there’s no place like home,” might just have thought they had been transported back to 2006, as debate again focused on the censure of Councilman Bill Wichmann.

Students in the Indian River School District can rest assured that they will not be in school come July making up snow days. On March 1, the Indian River Board of Education met at a special emergency meeting to discuss and approve changes to their 2009-2010 academic calendar. As of March 1, students in the district had missed 11 days of school due to closings, 10 of which were weather-related.

Ocean View officials welcomed state Rep. Gerald Hocker and Sen. George Bunting to a discussion this week on the town’s proposed charter changes. The town has been in the process of compiling proposed changes over the past year and half and, before the updated charter is proposed for passage in the Delaware General Assembly, a public hearing and input from the Senate attorney is still expected.

The Ocean View Town Council this week voted to grant the Millville Volunteer Fire Company monies from the town’s Emergency Services Enhancement Fund.

Fenwick Island has officially launched its new Web site. At last month’s town council meeting, Town Manager Win Abbott explained that Town Clerk Agnes DiPietrantonio had entered the town into a competition, and they had won first prize, which was a total overhaul of the town’s Web site at no charge to the town.

This year, for the second time in five years, the Lewes Polar Bear Plunge was rescheduled due to inclement weather. But as the ice and snow finally melt away, organizers this week were making preparations for high anticipation and quite possibly the event’s biggest turnout to date. Plungers, runners and spectators can expect a fun-filled, weekend-long celebration benefiting Special Olympics Delaware, starting Friday, March 12.

Frankford’s own Josephine “Jo” Richardson was recently chosen as WBOC-TV’s 2010 Jefferson Award winner. The Jefferson Awards are a national recognition system honoring community and public service in America. Richardson will now represent the area at the national-level Jefferson Awards in June. Richardson and 15 other local Jefferson Award winners were honored last week in Salisbury, Md.

“We are addressing you as students, but we are recognizing you as teachers,” explained Col. Robert M. Coupe of the Delaware State Police to an auditorium filled with high school students at Sussex Central High School last week, as the Disaster Preparedness Coalition introduced their 2010 Disaster Preparedness DVD – one subtitled in Spanish and one subtitled in English.

The Rehoboth Beach Writers’ Guild will host its fifth annual Writers at the Beach Conference next month, on March 25-28. The four-day event, held to raise money for mitochondrial disease, will be held at the Atlantic Sands Hotel in Rehoboth Beach.

This past winter, the Shamrock Shanty made a move for Fenwick Island, and with St. Patrick’s Day nearly arrived, store owner Pat Griffith won’t even need the luck o’ the Irish this season, as business is already taking off.

The house lights dim. The audience is hushed. The stage lights fade to their brightest as I prepare mentally to shine my brightest. I take a step forward into the spotlight as my heart rate accelerates, and, suddenly, I feel radiant. All eyes are on me as I feel my gown flowing on the ground, adding silkiness and glamour to every step I take. It was at this moment, during my evening-wear walk at the Miss Delaware’s Outstanding Teen Pageant at the end of February, that I realized: When you feel beautiful, the world is your stage.

Understanding the game of poker on a full table can be quite a daunting task – reading your opponents, playing in and out of position, calculating pot odds. But what if you find yourself heads-up, facing only one opponent. Once you’ve made it to heads-up play in a game of poker, be it Texas Hold’em, Stud, Omaha or any other form of the game, playing styles and strategies can change tremendously.

In less than two weeks, the Lady Indians’ soccer team will pick up where they left off last season, with hopes of advancing past the second round of the state championship, where Ursuline awaited in 2009 to vanquish the Indians’ post-season dreams. This year, Indian River is returning plenty of talent, but they’re doing it without some integral athletes from last season’s squad.

Indian River softball coach Chris Megee will have his hands full this season as he looks to fill the cleats left empty last year by the graduation of shortstop Lindsay McCabe. As the season quickly approaches, young talent and new faces are filling out the lineup for the Lady Indians, in hopes of bringing conference and state titles to the program.

My pocket vibrates, and I can sense that it is the text message that I have been anxiously awaiting: the wind and waves are cooperating and it is go-time. I always get nervous and excited for winter sessions. The waves are the best of the year, but the last day I went out, the air and water temperatures were a balmy 38 degrees.

The Delaware Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) recently welcomed Christina Motoyoshi to its staff as their new director of development. Motoyoshi brings with her a wealth of knowledge from the corporate and non-profit world, and a love of animals.

On Friday, Feb. 19, Nogiko Kertesz took her two shih-tzus, Skoshi and Daise-Mae, for a walk in their neighborhood in Bayside.