Sports
Fun
Local softball teams chase dreams
Locals grab spotlight at Freeman
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JULY 14, 2023
THE LOCAL VOICE OF YOUR COMMUNITY.
Volume 20, Issue 28
FREE
IRSD wrestles with mandates on mental health By Mike Smith Staff Reporter The Indian River School District will not reallocate its budget or raise taxes through a referendum to fund new statewide Delaware Department of Education mandates on counselor-to-student ratios for mental health. The IRSD board recently refused to
Ocean View ordinance bans cannabis-related businesses in town
expand or match an Opportunity Fund grant from the State to allow “counselors to keep pace with new requirements for elementary students” to have more resources, according to school administrators in IRSD student special services. James Fritz, recently elevated to vice president of the IRSD board, led the anti-tax and anti-mandate charge to
torpedo the IRSD board’s authority to add funding from existing accounts or to take the matter to a public referendum. “We have always relied on the [existing] public referendum funding to make our budgets work,” he said at the Board of Education meeting in June. “We are 70 cents lower than the next school district in what we ask of the public, in
terms of IRSD schools, doing more with less. “Our present debt service is simply the building funds for the new Sussex Central High School, and that debt is being paid down,” said Fritz. “All of the school bonds are being paid off,” he noted in refusing to take on additional See IRSD page 3
Our little slice of Heaven
By Susan Canfora Staff Reporter The Ocean View Town Council this week introduced an ordinance amending the town code and stipulating that no license shall be issued by the Town for the operation of marijuana cultivation, facilities, manufacturing, testing, retail stores or smoking lounges within town limits. The ordinance states that the Town has all powers under the constitution of the state to adopt ordinances “for the protection and promotion of the health, safety and welfare of its residents.” The Delaware General Assembly passed House Bill 2 this year, concerning the control of marijuana, and the bill includes provisions for municipalities to prohibit those activities within their town limits.
Funding for emergency school exit approved The council this week unanimously approved increasing funding for the construction of a footbridge behind See TOWN page 2
Coastal Point • Marian Dowling
A small group gathered on the beach in Bethany Beach recently to take in a sunrise, and were offered yet another example that we don’t take a back seat to anyone in terms of the sun waking up each morning.
Frankford’s Bruette part of law-enforcement family By Kerin Magill Staff Reporter Cpl. Beth Bruette might be new to the Frankford police department, but she is no stranger to the Sussex County
law enforcement community. Bruette joined the four-person police department — which also includes Chief Kevin Smith, and officers Megan Loulou and Kevin Dorney — earlier this summer. In an interview at Frank-
ford Town Hall last week, she said she already feels at home. While she served with the Delaware State Police, in Troop 4 in Georgetown and Troop 5 in Bridgeville, before joining the Frankford force, Bruette’s public
service began years before that, as a firefighter in Wilmington. During her 12 years of service as a See BRUETTE page 5