for Concern in F.I.
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for Concern in F.I. |
It's not surprising that there's now a group calling itself the Fenwick Island Concerned Citizens. What's surprising, if anything, is that it took this long for such a group to be formed. Concerned citizens' groups are certainly nothing new in these parts. Sometimes, it's seemingly silly stuff that gets people to organize. In South Bethany, a group of residents banded together a few years ago to protest, of all things, a Grotto Pizza restaurant. They were afraid of the trash the restaurant would generate and that you could go in there and drink a beer with your pizza. (Which is pretty ironic considering that South Bethany is the only place in Delaware where it's legal to drink alcohol on the beach!) They weren't successful in their bid to ban Grotto's from their town -- and I suspect most of them have even been there to eat a time or two. In Rehoboth Beach, a highly active, highly organized group called the Citizens Coalition has had some success in bringing sanity to the Route 1 corridor development. In Bethany Beach, business owners went up against the town council last year to fight a change in parking regulations they felt was harmful to them. That one's still in the courts. Sussex County Sheriff Robert Reed has been backed in his battle to bring police powers to his department by a devoted group of residents who have held press conferences and raised money for Reed's legal fight. So now, some of the residents of Fenwick Island are rising up to show their displeasure with their elected officials, who are quite busy these days, what with a lawsuit filed by Police Chief George Dickerson, preparing for Dickerson's termination hearing on Feb. 12, an investigation by the Department of Justice into alleged misuse of COPS grants, failure to file and pay employees' withholding taxes since 1999, awaiting news of audits that weren't performed for the last four years, and dealing with budget problems. This group of residents -- including at least three former town council members -- made itself known just before the end of 2002. The Concerned Citizens sent out a letter expressing concerns about the town -- this was before the news that the town has not paid state employee withholding taxes for four years. The group was criticized at the last regular town council meeting (as opposed to the weekly "special" meetings they seem to be having) for not sending the letter to all residents. One resident, Lynn Andrews, even called the group "elitist." Even though the group used a list, provided by a local realtor, which was apparently not complete, the FICC still received more than 100 responses. Most, according to Chris Clark, one of the founding members of FICC, agreed with the group's stated opinion that the council should not impose a 7.5 percent rental tax on commercial property at this time. Although the letters had no effect on the council's decision last month to impose a tax (reduced to 3 percent), the group has not rolled over in defeat. Citizens groups tend to rise up when residents begin to feel disenfranchised by their government. For some time, a lot of folks in Fenwick Island have felt their concerns have not been heard. It all boils down to one word: Arrogance. The majority of council members have shown little concern for how their actions and attitudes are perceived by the public. Guess what? Smirks and condescending remarks from the dais don't do much to instill confidence. They do go a long way toward invoking anger among the citizenry. Nobody likes to be played the fool. The Fenwick Island Concerned Citizens, meanwhile, have allied themselves with council newcomer Vicki Carmean. In August, the retired schoolteacher was the top vote-getter in the town election -- which should have been a harbinger of things to come. Since then, Carmean has endured the wrath of other council members as she questions "business as usual" -- particularly when it's against the law. She's been chastised in public and lambasted in private by other council members for taking a stand against hypocrisies, large and small, committed in the past few months by her fellow council members. Last week, Carmean sat at a meeting of about 10 FICC members and told them what she'd learned just days before: that the town has failed to pay its employee withholding taxes for the past four years. She'd been told, she said, nearly a month after most of the rest of the council, and then was told to keep it quiet. That just didn't sit right with her, and she did what she felt she had to do: she told the residents about it and filed a Freedom of Information Act complaint against the town council for keeping her in the dark. (Note to council member Peter Frederick: A FOIA complaint is not the same as a FOIA request. Complaints are filed when a citizen believes the Freedom of Information Act has been violated. A request is a routine form filled out when a citizen wishes to see a particular document.) If there's anywhere in Delaware the citizens ought to be concerned, it's Fenwick Island. News from the resort town gets worse as the weeks go by, and you just know it's going to be like a bout with the Sussex County Crud -- it's bound to get even worse before it gets better. Concerned Citizens? If anything, the group's moniker seems a bit tame. It just doesn't express the outrage that exists in the resort town. How about, "Fenwick Island Citizens are Mad as Hell and Aren't Going to Take it Anymore?" |
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