Why Should Delaware Care?
Government works best when its citizens are knowledgeable and engaged. Delaware’s government has scores of commissions, working groups, agencies and legislative committees. All must hold meetings that are open to the public. Below we highlight a few of those meetings that are happening this week.
Below are some of the most important or interesting public meetings happening around the state this week.
- Transportation Infrastructure Investment Fund hears requests
- Primary election absentee ballot counting begins
- Dueling Port of Wilmington oversight boards hear updates
Transportation Infrastructure Investment Fund hears requests
The Transportation Infrastructure Investment Fund Council will meet Tuesday morning to consider four requests for grant funding.
The fund supports road or infrastructure projects that tie into major economic development projects to get them to fruition faster.
The council will consider applications from the city of Dover, Delmar Business Center LLC, DuPont Properties LLC in Dagsboro, and Wine Worx Real Estate Holdings LLC in Millsboro. The details of the projects will be made public in the hearings.
The TIIF council will meet Tuesday, Aug. 18m at 10 a.m. in the Delaware Conference Room of the DelDOT Administration Building, located at 800 Bay Road in Dover. For more info and a link to remote viewing, click here.
Primary election preparations begin
Kent County officials will begin scanning absentee ballots for this year’s primary election on Monday afternoon.
Officials will not formally count votes until after polls close on Election Day, 8 p.m. on September 15. But the process of preparing those ballots for counting will begin at 2 p.m. Monday.
The preparation meeting will reconvene daily until all votes have been processed.
New Castle County election officials will follow suit and begin the absentee ballot scanning process on Friday morning.
The preparations begin just less than a month before Delaware’s primary election, which will decide more than half of all statewide or statehouse races as they lack a general election challenge.
The November midterm elections will be the least competitive for statewide races in years, a Spotlight Delaware analysis found.
📍 The Department of Elections will meet at 2 p.m. Monday inside its Kent County office, located at 100 Enterprise Place, Suite 5, in Dover. For more information, click here.
📍 The Department of Elections will meet at 9:30 a.m. Friday inside its New Castle County office, located at 820 N. French St., Suite 400 in Wilmington. For more information, click here.
Public can comment on Delmarva rate hike
The public will get an opportunity Wednesday to comment on Delmarva Power’s latest rate hike request, which could raise an average monthly utility bill by nearly $7.
After months of political pressure over rising electric bills, Delaware energy regulators rebuffed Delmarva Power by approving only part of the utility’s scaled-back rate increase request on an interim basis.
All rate hikes for regulated utilities are reimbursed rather than front-funded, and requires a company to argue why it deserves to be reimbursed. Interim rates are used to support a utility while it makes its case, and, if it loses, then customers are reimbursed.
Delmarva has requested a $68.6 million annual rate increase, but it did voluntarily scale back how much of that increase it sought to collect while the case is pending. The Public Service Commission reduced that amount even further, authorizing an interim increase of about $34.3 million.
If ultimately successful though, ratepayers could see the full impact on their bills starting as soon as later this year.
The Public Service Commission will hear public comment on the Delmarva Power request at a public hearing starting at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Cannon Building, located at 861 Silver Lake Blvd. in Dover. For more information or the option to attend remotely, click here.
Dueling port oversight boards to meet
Both of Delaware’s oversight boards for the Port of Wilmington are set to meet today to receive operational updates and hear from members of the public.
The General Assembly’s Port of Wilmington Expansion Task Force will meet first at noon today.
The group, chaired by Sen. Darius Brown (D-New Castle) and Rep. Frank Cooke (D-Wilmington) is slated to hear updates from the interim executive director of the Diamond State Port Corporation as well as from Enstructure, the private terminal operator for the Port of Wilmington and its embattled Edgemoor expansion project.
The Diamond State Port Corporation’s board of directors will then hold its own meeting beginning at 2 p.m. today.
The board will go into a closed door session for the first hour of its meeting, then board members will also hear an update from Enstructure.
Both meetings also are set to include public comment sessions to receive input from attendees.
📍 The Port of Wilmington Expansion Task Force will meet at 12 p.m. Monday inside Buck Library, located at 661 South Dupont Hwy in New Castle. For more information, including on virtual attendance, click here.
📍 The Diamond State Port Corporation board of directors will meet at 2 p.m. Monday, also inside Buck Library, located at 661 South Dupont Hwy in New Castle. For more information, including on virtual attendance, click here.
Interfaith Council to discuss immigration issues
The Delaware Interfaith Council’s Immigration Working Group will meet on Tuesday evening near Wilmington.
The council, created more than a decade ago to bridge state agencies and faith communities to tackle education, housing, and health challenges, will discuss emerging issues related to immigrants.
In many immigrant communities, especially Haitian and Hispanic communities, pastors play a leadership role in how to respond to state and federal initiatives. Delaware’s key refugee resettlement program is also led by a faith-based organization, Jewish Federation Services.
The Delaware Interfaith Council Immigration Working Group will meet from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Route 9 Library and Innovation Center, located at 3022 New Castle Ave. in New Castle. For more information or remote viewing, click here.
Hearing to discuss marijuana cultivation site
The Office of the Marijuana Commissioner will hold a public hearing Wednesday to discuss a proposed cultivation site and whether it should be permitted.
The site, located at 593 Gravesend Road near Smyrna, would be used to grow marijuana for sale in the state’s medicinal and recreational markets, but would not be a site of sales.
The hearing is the result of a local petition in opposition to the facility, but the discretion of whether to approve it falls to Marijuana Commissioner Joshua Sanderlin.
The hearing will be held at 1 p.m. Wednesday at the Office of the Marijuana Commissioner, located at 1128 S. Bradford St. in Dover. There is no remote viewing or commenting option for this meeting. For more information, click here.
