|
From YourSITE.com County Shortly after being elected president of the Sussex County Council, Dale Dukes vowed to work toward shortening the time it takes for the council to vote on change of zone requests. Dukes said during council's regular meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2004, that he had already spoken with Planning and Zoning Commission chair John Allen about just that. "I know they're extremely busy," Dukes said of the planning commission. Dukes said he would strive to shorten the amount of time it takes to get the change of zone requests on the planning commission's agenda and to get the requests before the council. Dukes, who has served as council president several times in his 16 years on the council, also said he wants the council to behave more civilly toward each other during meetings. Council member Vance Phillips said, "there has been several meetings where the level of professionalism has deteriorated." Dukes replied "I totally agree." Council member George Cole, a Republican who has never been elected president despite being the longest-serving member on the current council, expressed his frustration with the way the three Democratic members have passed the office back and forth in recent years. "It's like a club with these guys," Cole said. He and Phillips are the only Republicans on the council. Dukes and Phillips sided with each other later in the meeting, during discussion of payment to an architectural firm the county has agreed to hire for several upcoming projects. Both men said they felt $457,000 was too much to pay L. Robert Kimball & Associates of West Chester, Pa. for design work on the proposed new Emergency Operations Center and a proposed records storage facility. County Administrator Robert Stickels defended the cost, saying "this is the price of an expanding population in the county." Stickels said the county emergency operations department has outgrown its current facility and that "what we’ve got now is ridiculous," in terms of records storage. Stickels said the proposed storage facility, to be built next to the new airport building, would likely match the architecture of that building. Dukes responded that he questions "whether we need to go high and grand." "If you want to build a pole shed, we can do that. We can put up a chicken manure building," Stickels said. Phillips, while recognizing the county has adhered to state regulations in selecting Kimball for the work, said "there is something inherently flawed in this whole process." The council voted to give Kimball the go-ahead on the EOC design for $350,000, but will hold off on the storage building plans, which would cost $77,000. The council also discussed hiring an outside firm, Cabe Associates, to help the county's overworked engineering department. The council agreed to allow developers to choose between two options: either pay $5,200 (per 100 lot project) and have Cabe handle their application quickly, or pay $3,000 and have the county's engineering department handle it when it can get to it. In other business, the council:
© Copyright 2003 by YourSITE.com |