Let’s try something new. In a given week, I come across several newsy nuggets. They are valuable, even if not all are worthy of a full feature story. So, here’s the first of what may become a regular dump of news items from my notebook.
County awards millions to developers:
The New Castle County Council awarded more than $4 million to developers for affordable housing projects during a meeting Tuesday that also featured one council member criticizing Wilmington for its own efforts at housing people living on the margins.
Highlighting the awards was a $3.5 million grant to a company led by developer George Beer for the construction of 80 “units” of low-income senior housing near the high-end community of Hockessin.
Beer did not respond to a request for comment, and so the total cost and other details of the project are not clear.
The grants follow a string of government spending on housing during the previous three years, including $135 million spent by the state toward rental assistance, and a $20-million county purchase of a Sheraton hotel located along a New Castle highway that suffers frequent floods.
County officials converted the hotel, which they renamed the Hope Center, into a shelter for housing and health services. Today, they pay the building’s previous owners, Hersha Hospitality Management, to operate the facility. Last year, those costs were nearly $2.5 million.
Also during Tuesday’s meeting, the county council approved an additional $142,000 for the Hope Center — money had originated with the City of Wilmington.
Following the approval, Councilman Penrose Hollins took the floor to recount recent meetings he held with Wilmington officials where he urged them to implement affordable housing programs, similar to those in place at the county.
Hollins said city council members were not receptive to his pitch, so he then scheduled a meeting with Mayor Mike Purzycki.
“I won’t go through details of our meeting with the mayor,” he said, “but I can tell you I don’t think it was very productive.”
Hollins further asserted that there’s “a monopoly in Wilmington in terms of development, (and) who gets the dollars.”
During an interview after the council meeting, Hollins elaborated on his arguments, saying Wilmington needs to mandate that new residential buildings include affordable apartments.
“You can’t just have Buccini/Pollin building for one segment of the population,” he said.
When asked then if the Buccini/Pollin Group was the “monopoly” company he referred to during the earlier comments, Hollins demurred.
“I didn’t tell you that. You said that on your own,” he said.
Officials from Wilmington’s mayor’s office did not respond Friday to a request to comment.
Other county news
Also during Tuesday’s meeting, the council allocated $50,000 to county police for the purchase of handheld x-ray imagers, produced by Viken Detection. The company says the devices can “reveal concealed narcotics, currency, and other contraband,” by scanning through steel, aluminum, wood, drywall, and rubber.
I filed a Freedom of Information request to county police seeking their use policies and training manuals for the device. The request is pending.
This month, New Castle County is seeking bids from contractors to build an indoor track and field arena. It is not clear where the facility will be located. The bid proposal follows a $1 million allocation for an indoor track and field arena inserted into the county budget earlier this year by County Executive Matt Meyer.
For nearly three years, a group called Indoor Track Delaware has advocated for the construction of such of facility to be used by high schools and travel sports leagues. The group is led by Charles Klous, a longtime banker who now serves as vice president of a senior care company, according to his Linkedin page.
Last week, New Castle County resolved a dispute with the Riverfront Development Corporation over that quasi-governmental organization’s tax-exempt status.
Last year, county attorney Wilson Davis said there was no basis for the RDC to be free from paying property taxes, according to a story from The News Journal. The RDC challenged the determination and its impact on 10 parcels of land the organization purchased in recent years.
Last week, Wilson’s office reversed its previous opinion, stating “we are satisfied that all the criteria set forth in the County Codes for a charitable tax exemption are met on each (RDC) Property.”
Speaking of the Riverfront Development Corporation
The RDC board of directors held their quarterly meeting on Friday. There, they announced that the pedestrian trail along the Wilmington Riverfront will be extended down the Christina River and up beyond its confluence with the Brandywine River to the Mayor Sills Bridge.
The RDC will soon apply for federal transportation dollars to pay for the project’s planning, and “it will probably be two years before shovels are in the ground,” RDC Executive Director Megan McGlinchey said.
The total project cost is estimated at $32 million.
The RDC also is continuing its land purchases with an imminent deal to acquire 400 South Market Street in Wilmington - a parcel that has a nearly $24,000 outstanding property tax bill. It is unclear whether that bill would be wiped clean following the sale, given the RDC’s tax-exempt status.
Also during the RDC meeting Friday, board members said the organization settled a dispute with the Salvation Army over a land swap deal that prompted the charity to move to its current location next to the Delaware Blue Coats arena.
I filed a FOIA for those settlement documents.
Contact Karl Baker at kbaker6@protonmail.com or on Signal at 206-595-0057.