New Castle DIGEST 💬
Recent News & Media, Local Chat and Upcoming Events (May-June)
I. May News Round-Up 📰
A Midsummer Special Mayoral Election
New Castilians will head back to the polls this Summer to choose a new Mayor, after the unexpected resignation of William Blest on May 9 following his election in April. At meetings on 5/25, City Council officially set the date for Saturday, August 5, and the Board of Elections selected New Castle Senior Center as the location once again.
Of two Ordinances on the Agenda for 5/25 - one instituting in-person-only candidate filing for city offices and the other amending the Downtown Gateway District - neither received a motion to be read, and thus neither was even considered. While no comments were made on the latter, Mr. Platt expressed great frustration at having no support for the election ordinance, lamenting that "as of now, there are no rules" specifically governing the manner of filing and claiming that this has led the city to "treat people differently" during the last election. He referenced a letter from William Robinett and suggested that Mr. Zeltt had been denied the opportunity to file electronically (which the latter denied).
Suzanne Souder expressed concern that the Ordinance seemed rushed and could be better thought out, asking to table any discussion of changing the rules around elections until the Council could do so with less haste and more dispassion than seems possible in the wake of one contentious election and the start of a new one. She and Council members Day, Zeltt and Zubaca all also affirmed support for electronic filing being an option in any rules that are put into place.
Highlights of the budget presented by Mr. Barthel include funding for:
a dog park at the Hermitage Natural Area,
a new mobile stage/band shell for the city,
the Office of Tourism Coordinator (filled at the meeting with Wilmington small business leader Sara A. Crawford),
paving of the Chestnut Street lot, and
new police car leases to supplement NCPD’s fleet.
Members had many questions. Beyond the numbers themselves, Mr. Zeltt questioned whether the budget document could include more supporting information on line items likely to draw questions from Council and the public. The budget was not passed and will receive further consideration next month.
May Market 2023 Sells Out of Plants, Breaks Records
While last year’s May Market marked the event’s historic 80th Anniversary, this year’s May Market made some new history, selling every single plant on offer for the first time in memory and becoming the most financially successful ever held.
It wasn’t just marketplace metrics that spoke of the fundraiser’s success, however. May Market was busy non-stop, thanks to stunning weather (in contrast to last year’s nor’easter!) and a huge online response to the event, which drew shoppers from as far away as Lewes, DE, and Chadds Ford, PA. Boasting many species that are hard to find at other flower markets and even big garden centers, New Castle’s annual plant (and home goods) sale has become a destination event regionally.
Arasapha Garden Club chair Linda Suskie - who also chairs the event and literally ‘wrote the book’ (article) on May Market - was thrilled with the success but focused on a different measure. “My #1 goal for May Market is for everyone to have a good time,” she said. “Raising money is #2. I was struck by how many people posted on Facebook [about] how much fun they had at May Market and how warmly and respectfully they were treated. That's more important to me than how much money we made.”
This year's proceeds will go a long way in supporting Arasapha's signature projects, which include supporting the beautiful, historic gardens at the Dutch and Amstel Houses, supporting New Castle Public Library's garden education programs, supporting the re-greening of New Castle's streetscape with new trees, and beautifying the New Castle's historic district every December with all-natural decorated wreaths and greens.
Congratulations to Arasapha, its partners and its also-record-breaking army of volunteers for a fun charity event that was remarkably successful, by any metric.
For info and images from A Day in Old New Castle, see below!
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Sara Crawford Selected to Promote New Castle
After a long search with several tangents, City Council has hired Sara A. Crawford as New Castle's new Tourism Coordinator, filling a position created by Resolution in August 2022.
Crawford is a Wilmington-based professional with very diverse experience. She is an 'experience curator' who has worked in fashion, founding Anara Original, and currently runs the Women's Business Center at True Access Capital. In 2020, Crawford was honored as one of Delaware Business Times' DBT40 - Forty Dynamic Leaders Under 40 - for her various projects supportive of local Creatives and small business owners, especially including women entrepreneurs.
Recommended to Council by city administrator Bill Barthel, Ms. Crawford was interviewed by Mr. Platt and Ms. Souder, who stated she was impressed by the candidate's strong local contacts and a great recommendation from a past employer. Questions from Mr. Zubaca during the meeting confirmed Crawford's experience with grant-writing and providing coordination between multiple organizations.
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Sea Level Rise Task Force Offers Info for the Public
The Sea Level Rise Task Force held a Public Information Meeting this month to share some of its findings over the past year… and a host of useful information, maps and charts to help local property owners and residents consider their own exposure and risk levels related to higher water and more frequent storm surges.
You can view and download the substantive PDF summary of the presentation, with links to online resources and tools that residents can use, here.
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City Council Gives Approval to Zoning Change Needed for “The Flats”
Following a very well-attended, marathon Public Hearing on May 9, City Council approved Ordinance 536, rezoning two parcels along the river north of downtown from industrial to residential, in order to pave the way for continued development of 130-150 Lukens Drive into 'The Flats at River's Edge.'
Some residents, arriving for the 6:30 hearing, were angered by the duration of the developer's presentation, followed by comments from the City Planner... after which, at 8:30, Public Comments (of three minutes each) actually got started. City Topics caught up with one of the residents who had to leave before she was able to comment, who described the proceeding as "ridiculous" and "not fair," suggesting it was a tactic meant to thin out the crowd. While the Notice of Public Hearing gave no indication of a lengthy presentation, many veterans of previous Public Hearings on major developments were not surprised.
You can view the presentation made to Council by Mr. Tucker here. You can read the Planning Commission’s recommendation that Council pass Ordinance 536 here.
Resident opinions on the project were fairly mixed. Many from the Buttonwood community spoke to express concern about any changes to how the gate currently cutting off the end of Buttonwood Road might be used. (The developer plans to upgrade the gate for use by EMS only, as is the practice now.)
Other residents expressed concerns about the traffic impacts and skepticism of the developer's projections. One pointed to the disparity between a projected 4.7% increase in tax revenue, compared with the projected 16% increase in population. However, roughly half of those who spoke expressed support for the project, if conditional or reserved in some cases.
After Public Comments, Tucker and his team were given the opportunity to offer a rebuttal and final comments, which focused again on how much worse the likely alternative to housing might be. Ultimately, Council voted 5-0 to approve Ordinance 536, with several conditions included to compel further adjustments and due diligence by the applicant.
Bicycle Rentals Come to the Wharf
The Delaware Street Wharf is now home to a half dozen bicycles, locked to a new rack along the railing, which are available to rent through Maryland-based Fin Outdoor Recreation.
Would be-riders can use a phone app to ‘unlock’ the bikes from the Fin rack for use along the Jack A. Markell Trail and other areas geo-tagged within the app. The hourly fee is roughly $10, following a $10 'unlock fee'. One dollar ($1) of each unlock fee goes to the City. Bikes must be returned to where they were rented from.
Council approved the rental bike rack installation at their November 2022 meeting following a presentation from Kelly Benson, the entrepreneur behind the start-up. More info is at the Fin website.
II. ICYMI: Local Media Spotlight 📸
With lots of nice weather and the first big events of the season coming off beautifully, May offered lots of chances for folks to get outside and fun things for them to do - and our Socials reflected that!
Since we already highlighted May Market above, let’s start with this year’s wonderful Day in Old New Castle, organized by the steadfast community organizers of New Castle Community Partnership. It was a beautiful day and it’s an event that just begs to be photographed - or otherwise made into art, as the Paint-Historic-Old-New-Castle competition put on by Dennis Young’s Mo’zArt Gallery showed, with a record 25 artists fanning out to immortalize the day.
Check out more of our photos from A Day in Old New Castle in our album here.
On one very nice day, we made a stop at the historic Buttonwood School to check out the building and grounds, which remain a beautiful example of the educational legacy of Pierre S. duPont, who funded the construction of schools like it in Black communities throughout Delaware prior to integration.
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Finally, the highlights of what we’ve been following this month, from the long-awaited completion of GWFC’s new boat ramp, to a great Spring Native Plant Exchange at the Hermitage, a swarm of bees helped to a new home by Fort Casimir Honey Company, and beauty at the Read House and in the Dutch House Garden…
III. Chatting with GWFC’s Fire Chief 🔥
David Majewski, Jr., has held numerous leadership roles at Good Will Fire Company since joining roughly fifteen years ago, including Captain, Assistant Chief, and now Fire Chief. He has received several awards for Meritorious Service, including two from the New Castle County Fire Chiefs Association for “life saving actions at the scene of an explosion and a water rescue” (per the GWFC website).
Majewski is an earnest, friendly guy, frequently seen around town at community events and meetings, or walking from Washington Park to downtown (or elsewhere) and back with his dog. Asked if he’d sit down to answer a few questions about the Fire Company for the Digest, the chief responded eagerly that he enjoyed talking about little more. Read on to get to know him a bit, and to discover what that happy ‘little more’ includes!
City Topics: Can you describe a ‘day in the life’ of a local fire chief? What goes into your role, and how does it fit into the overall operations of Good Will?
Chief David Majewski, Jr.: A ‘day in the life’ is a difficult question, mostly because every day is different. Even though the fire chief’s position is a volunteer position within the company, it’s really a full time job on top of my existing full time job. Most days include checking in with the on duty crews at some point in the morning to find out their plans for the day, discuss career and volunteer staffing levels, and relaying information from the days they were off.
On the days I am off, I prefer to do this in person as it gives me a chance to generally check in and chat with everyone face to face. On days that I am working, it’s at minimum a few text messages or a phone call. After speaking with the crews, there is always some aspect of administrative work to be completed. These tasks include items such as scheduling and handling vacation requests, fire and EMS reports, event planning, and countless others.
Due to shift work at my full time job, I try to pick a day or two that is dedicated to staff the station and take care of the bulk of my work. This allows me to squeeze in a “day off” here and there for me. Finally, there is always the opportunity to respond to emergencies throughout the day and night.
Good Will Fire Company has career staff but still relies on volunteers. What are your approaches for recruiting new members of both types, especially with labor tight of late for many institutions?
As a combination fire department recruiting both volunteer and part time staff members, we need to be creative. Recruiting part time staff members is difficult because the amount of fire and EMS jobs available in Delaware currently highly outweighs the number of people available to work them. We have a constantly open application process and rely a lot on recommendations. Current Career and Part Time staff members will often refer people they know to us because they think they will be a good fit within our organization.
As a company, we need to remain competitive with pay while also maintaining a welcoming and successful culture. In addition, we provide opportunities for advancement to our part time staff and invest in their success. Finally, when there is a full time opening at Good Will, the current part time staff have first opportunity to apply for the job. Many Good Will part time staff members have gone on to work for places such as Philadelphia Fire Department, Baltimore City Fire Department, Stockton (CA) Fire Department, and the New York City Fire Department.
Recruiting for volunteer membership is a bit harder. Many people today are simply not interested in volunteering. For younger people, if they do not see an immediately attainable career at the end of their training, they aren’t interested. This forces us to become creative with our recruiting. Social media, promotional videos, and participating in community events for recruiting are just a few of the ways we are trying to find those needles in the haystack to join our team.
While we were setting up this interview, you mentioned that "the only things I enjoy talking about more than the Fire Company are my family and my pup!" How do you balance such a busy, on-call-all-the-time position with a day job and family life?
Family life is very fluid and often a bit hectic, but very important. My wife, Jamie, and I were married in January of this year. We rescued our pup, Kelly, a black lab in January of 2022 and she has been the queen of the household ever since. Jamie and I both work shift work schedules that are almost exactly opposite of each other. This is great for Kelly because one of us is almost always off to spend time with her. We plan to do things together on our days off, which usually include taking Kelly to play ball, swim, or just a nice long walk. Thankfully, Jamie works in emergency services as well so she understands some of the chaos that comes with the Fire Chief’s position. She is my biggest supporter and, when she needs to be, critic.
With hot summer months coming on soon, are there certain hazards you expect to be dealing with more?
Every year, the hot weather brings its own challenges of fire, rescue, and EMS related emergencies. We will see an increase in glass and mulch fires, water related emergencies (watercraft incidents and searches), and medical emergencies like heat exhaustion. To prevent incidents from occurring, please remember that the burning ban is in effect through September 30th. In depth information about the burning ban can be found on DNREC’s webpage.
What is your current take on the on-again, off-again discussion around upgraded municipal facilities? Do GWFC’s current facilities meet company needs?
The Fire Company has been included in some of the recent discussions about a municipal facility. Building and operating a shared fire, police, and municipal facility would pose challenges with space, security, and accessibility. Currently, the fire company is involved in our own feasibility study to review the current facility, determine our current needs, and attempt to project where our organization will be in the long term. Our overall goal is to ensure our members and staff have a safe, clean, and welcoming facility to operate from.
Captain Moore recently addressed concerns around local train traffic following the derailment in Ohio, discussing plans in place for calling on county and state agencies for assistance in the event of a serious incident. In general - whether it be train disasters, the next 'Croda,’ or whatever - what tools does GWFC have to mobilize a response, keep the public informed, and deal with catastrophic events?
The recent East Palestine train derailment and subsequent disaster has drawn a lot of attention to the preparedness topic. To boil it down, no single fire company in New Castle County, nor the State of Delaware, is prepared to single handedly handle a disaster of that size. However, there are plans in place for that.
Since 2001, the New Castle County Incident Response Plan (IRP) has been in place. This plan is a mutual aid agreement that sets a predetermined amount of equipment and apparatus to be dispatched to any incident ranging from an everyday fire alarm to a multiple alarm incident and everything in-between. In addition, the State of Delaware has a State Emergency Response Team, or SERT. This team exists in tiered levels to either provide support to the local incident commander or to mobilize create a unified command of state, federal, and local officials and provide resources from each of those levels.
To keep the public informed, we rely heavily on our social media pages. Most often, information about incidents will appear after the incident has occurred. However, we do our best to post time sensitive information such as active, long duration incidents, extended road closures, and safety recommendations.
Finally, if needed, we will utilize the local, county, and state emergency management public information officers to assist with preparing and releasing official statements. In addition, the New Castle County Emergency Communications Department has the ability to initiate a reverse 911 selected areas that need to receive an immediate message.
Lastly, how do groups like the Ladies' Auxiliary contribute to this important community service? What does "getting involved with the fire house" look like in New Castle?
The Good Will Ladies Auxiliary supports the fire company with two primary functions: operational support and fundraising. Operationally, the Ladies Auxiliary will assist with meetings, classes, training, community events, and more where requested. Typically, they are tasked with handling the meals for these events. Financially, the Ladies Auxiliary conducts a few fundraisers each year to assist the Fire Company with raising funds to support the operations of the Company.
Thanks to Chief Majewski for taking the time to answer our questions!
To learn more about GWFC, check out the Good Will Fire Company website, which has a live ‘run log’ showing current and recent dispatches, and a wealth of info about recruitment and how to support this vital service. Or follow GWFC on Facebook & Insta.
IV. Community Event Calendar 📅
Check out the Community Calendar on our website for a farther view of the local event scene and to catch additional events as they are added, plus the list of monthly/ongoing events!
Coming Up in JUNE 2023
6/3 - Family Fun Night at New Castle Little League complex, 5pm.
6/6 - Trustees of the New Castle Common Meeting, Penn Farm, 7pm (Public).
6/8 - NC Historical Society’s Annual Garden Party, Amstel House, 6-8pm.
An evening of music and good company in the 85-year-old Colonial Revival garden. Tickets include light summer fare and an open bar. Not just for NCHS Members!6/9-10 - Separation Day 2023, by the City of New Castle (with Event Allies).
The annual celebration of Delaware’s independence, starting with a Party on the Wharf on Friday Evening. Saturday festivities include a parade at noon, Hearth Cooking at the Amstel House, a Vintage Market and Festival in Battery Park all afternoon with live music, and fireworks at night!
6/10 - Kickball for a Cause at New Castle Little League, 10am. Info here.
6/10-11 - Separation Day Book Sale at the New Castle Public Library.
Saturday from 9-1 and Sunday from 12-4, browse thousands of gently used titles at the Library Friends’ biggest book sale of the year, benefiting the Library.6/11 - St. Anthony’s Day Celebration, hosted by the St. Anthony Society.
6/13 - Regular City Council Meeting at the NC Senior Center, 7pm.
6/14 - Edible Landscaping Virtual Program presented over Zoom, 6:30pm.
Presented by NC Public Library and Arasapha Garden Club. More info here.6/15 - Amstel Live: Working for the Weekend, at Amstel House, 6:30pm.
Looking at occupations and professions of the past… including some “good, working class victuals and beverages for you to sample!” Ticket Info here; must be 21+ to attend.6/15 - DE Freedom Ride: A Juneteenth Celebration along the Jack Markell Trail.
Annual 15 (or 8.5) mile ride retracing the path of the Underground Railroad through New Castle County along a portion of the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway.6/17 - Opening Reception: Artist Sterling Funches at the Library, 1-5pm.
NCPL will host a new collection of sunset and landscape photography by the local artist, who will meet and greet patrons at the Reception. Light refreshments.6/17 - Cowboys & Cowgirls CowDown, at Penn Farm Barn, 7pm.
Churches Take A Corner (CTAC) fundraiser featuring food & drinks, western line dancing, hat contests & more… $50 tickets support CTAC’s 2023 scholarship fund.
6/18 - Seeds of Recovery Family Fun Day at FBCDE, 1pm.
Carnival-style event celebrating and supporting local treatment and recovery services. Games, treats, prizes, bouncy houses for the kids… all free and open to the public.6/24 - A Little Night Music: Notes on the Beach at the Library (Garden), 6pm.
Notes on the Beach present a retrospective of "The Rat Pack and Their Music." Event is for all ages… remember to bring a lawn chair or blanket!