Music in sewers unexpected topic at State of the County

More than 300 people representing 200 businesses attended Tuesday’s State of the County presentation at the University of Delaware.

The New Castle Chamber of Commerce ‘s second annual State of the County included a number of revealing, and often unexpected, moments:

• The county plays classical music through its sewers to see how well the sound travels and uses that information to decide whether sewer work is needed, saving time, trouble and overall expense, New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer told the 327 people who attended.
• Delaware now is ranked No. 7 among states for pedestrian deaths on highways. That’s down from it’s longtime No. 2 ranking, said Paul Moser, a planner for DelDOT. Delaware is also one of two states actively reducing the pedestrian death numbers, he said, thanks to better intersections, bike paths and other state programs.
• Logan Herring, chief executive officer of the WRK Group, said it has 125 homes occupied on Wilmington’s East Side and will soon be starting to build another 257 homes. On Aug. 8 at 9:30 a.m., it will break ground on a new $50 million, 81,000-square-foot Kingswood Community Center to replace the one that now holds a senior citizen program, Early Learning Academy and space for neighborhood programs.

Herring described how the son in one of the first families to move into a new home told him mom that his bed was so much more comfortable in the new house. It was the same bed, his mother told him.

He called it a universal response to moving into a new place.

“You feel dignified, you feel empowered, you feel inspired and feel like you’re ready to take on the day,” Herring said.

Hogan said he had found the notion that the WRK is gentrifying the area, but doesn’t any more.

“We are gentrifying, but we’re doing it without displacement,” he said.

County highlights

Meyer, who is running for governor, said it was hard to believe he’s at the end of his eighth year in office and will be moving on.

Among the highlights, he said, was increasing county tax reserves by $100 million while increasing spending on projects — some of which was possible because of the federal COVID recovery funds.

The rise in reserves allowed him to call for a one-time county tax cut, a different situation than in 2018 when his budget called for tax hikes.

Meyer also said he was proud to have funded the Hope Center, which he said had helped 5,000 homeless people, if only for one night.

The county exec said he was warned by his people not to discuss the county’s sewage system , or poo, but he wanted to describe modern sewer management.

Sewer systems are expensive and include thousands of miles of underground pipe, he said.

Typically, he said, a county just waits until there’s a break or another problem and fixes it, an expensive way to manage the system.

But, Meyer said, the county sewage department managers had learned that they could open a manhole and pipe in classical music — “It doesn’t have to be classical, but classical music works best.”

Down the line, another manhole is opened and a sensor grades the quality of the music coming through.

“If it’s an eight, nine or 10, it’s fine,” Meyer said. “If it’s a five, six or seven, they know it needs to be checked out. And if it’s one, two, three or four, we need to get guys down there right away.

“So it’s technologies like that that are making our operation of your county more efficient and quite frankly keeping your sewer fees low.”

IN THE NEWS: Winterthur’s Artisan Market returns this week

Among other points made during the morning sessions on transportation, innovation and housing:

• Delaware got an $800,000 federal grant to see if a train line from Wilmington to Maryland, using freight rails, is feasible. The money will essentially set up a study that will then need to be funded. Joseph Barr, the director of the network development for Amtrak’s northeast system said the only section of rail travel from Boston to Washington, D.C., that does not have commuter traffic is from Newark to Perryville, Maryland.
• Bayard Hogans, president of Enstructure — the private part of the public-private deals at work at the port — said the doubling of Port Delaware’s South Cargo Terminal and building of the Container Terminal at Edgemoor has one goal; “Building a major East Coast gateway.”
• Delaware consumers use 80% more energy than is produced in the state, said Dora Cheatham, vice president of sales and commercialization for First State Hydrogen Inc. The regional  MACH II federally funded hydrogen hub will help create more clean hydrogen in processes that won’t release carbon into the environment, she said. Most of Delaware’s energy comes from Pennsylvania, she said. It’s one reason behind the state’s “aggressive” plan to insist that companies provided energy get 40% of it from renewable sources.
• The Town of Whitehall is about to launch construction of its second of four villages, said EDIS CEO Brian DiSabatino. In addition to a school, a ChristianaCare medical office and a beer garden, it soon will have a First State Ballet studio, a Pizzeria Metro location and soon will announce a market and deli that will be open to all of southern New Castle Castle, he said.