Delaware General Assembly Pre-Game Show: Tuesday, March 15, 2022

I’ve been writing about the ethical sewer that is the Fort DuPont project since 2014.  With no, no, impact on the General Assembly.  Other advocates, armed with all sorts of empirical evidence on the irreparable harm the project could cause, have  become part of the effort. With no, no, impact on the General Assembly.

The latest example of the impact we haven’t had is on today’s Senate Agenda.  Under the guise of a charter change.  Charter changes routinely move through w/o any oversight because if a legislator dares to challenge such a charter change, they believe they will be the next one in the barrel, and their communities could suffer.  Which brings us to SB 238.  Sponsored as always, by only Sen. Poore and Rep. Longhurst. The bill enables Delaware City to monetize the as-yet-unbuilt RV Park that will destroy tidal wetlands that are supposed to be protected:

A Preliminary Land Use Service (PLUS) report on the Campground plan was completed by the office of State Planning Coordination in July, 2019. This report stated: “Tidal wetlands comprise a majority of the proposed project area. Non-tidal wetlands are also present.”

The parcel search above shows the Grassdale triangle with the planned roads for the RV Campground marked in white and a rendering of wetlands protected by both the federal and state governments. This map clearly demonstrates how the Campgrounds would be encroaching on and removing protected wetlands.

Additional perspective is provided by the winter landscape taken from Reedy Point Rd with the Branch Canal in the distance. This photo delineates the wetlands because the tall grass obscures the snow. This image validates the conclusion of the Plus report that most of Grassdale is wetlands.

When the Delaware City Council met to approve the Grassdale plan on 12/2/2020, they passed a motion to require the minimum 100-foot buffer as required by both the state and county. This motion required that the plan would be brought back to Council for re-consideration if the 100-foot buffer was reduced.

However, at that point, the Fort DuPont complex had already been re-zoned providing for only 25-foot buffers. The campground developer made clear from the beginning that the 100-foot buffer was a non-starter and FDRPC supported their position.

I suppose now’s a good time to point out that the FDRPC is chaired by Bryon Short, the legislator-turned-lobbyist who was the father of the House Business Lapdog Committee.  I cannot think of a more appropriate chair, as the fix has been in on this project from the beginning, and he is the perfect willing dupe.  In the (inevitably vain) hope that some legislator, any legislator, will give a shit, I’m once again providing a bleepload of articles laying out the corruption that has been the defining operating principle of this project from the beginning:

How A Potential Boondoggle Became a Full-Fledged Boondoggle

‘Stop DE Corruption’: DNREC Must Be Regulator Of Fort DuPont Project, NOT Facilitator Of Environmental Degradation

Shawn Garvin Brings ‘Teh Weak’.

Why the Grassdale Sale Can and Should be Reversed

Ten Reasons the Grassdale Sale was Illegal

Failure of Executive Leadership

Proposed RV Campground Will Destroy Tidal Wetlands.

Legislators, it’s time to pay attention to what’s happening here.  Two governors have demonstrated they don’t give a shit. The DNREC secretary has proven he doesn’t give a shit.  The two legislators and their cronies who have pushed the project this far have demonstrated their ethical bankruptcy.  Not to mention, turning Delaware City into, well, not Disneyland, but Krusty The Klown’s Amusement Park, is batshit crazy: “Come and enjoy none of the comforts of home, unless you too enjoy living next to an oil refinery, and snorkel through the Tanger Outlets at the Underground City At Fort DuPont.” Sound irresistible to you?

Which is not the point.  The point is that this project is an environmental disaster and a huge waste of state money and resources.  If you don’t stop this, nobody will.  Do you give a shit yet?

Enough. I’ve said my piece.

Back to today’s Senate Agenda.

Yep.  We’re gonna attract military retirees to Delaware to further drain state resources. It’s gonna happen.  Hey, at least they may go out to ‘our restaurants’. That’s something.

I suppose I should stop here and explain why I’m perhaps more irritated than usual.  The answer: I’m not allowed to have coffee!  Getting a new hip tomorrow, and both coffee and booze are out. No problem cutting out alcohol, but coffee???!!!  All I can say is, if you see me out driving today, get the hell out of my way!

There’s nothing on today’s House Agenda to make me angry or, for that matter, to make me care.  Wanna make something out of it?

There’s only one committee meeting today, and only one bill.  HB 335 (Schwartzkopf) essentially cleans up some unnecessary glitches on the reapportionment bill.  When district lines are overlaid, you sometimes find out that you’ve created an election district with nobody in it.  This bill simply corrects that.

Back tomorrow (gonna try to write the piece tonight since I need to be at the hospital at 8 am).  Not that any of you bleepin’ bleeps care!!