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Local powerlifter takes home gold
Snow left beautiful mark on area
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JANUARY 17, 2025
THE LOCAL VOICE OF YOUR COMMUNITY.
Volume 22, Issue 3
FREE
Lloyd tables moratorium proposal
Good Earth purchased by a familiar face
By Susan Canfora Staff Reporter
By Kerin Magill Staff Reporter
After listening to public comments for nearly two hours — with most speakers and fellow council members opposed to a building moratorium proposed by newly elected Sussex County Councilman Matt Lloyd — Lloyd asked that the matter be tabled until the end of January. He didn’t mention tabling the matter during the Tuesday, Jan. 14, meeting, but afterward told the Coastal Point, “Using information we learned today, reviewing that, talking to council individually and conveying the urgency, that was my decision. “I don’t want to accept any delays, but this is the reality of the pace of government. I don’t go down a path if I don’t think it has an end point. I am happy about what got said by the stakeholders and the business community, because we all learned a lot. They talked
Melissa Hekl is having a moment. The owner of Melissa’s Dinner & Lounge in Millville, Hekl is currently waiting for construction to begin on the restaurant’s new building. While that’s waiting in the wings, Hekl has made another big move: She is the new owner of Good Earth Market & Restaurant in Clarksville. Good Earth owner and founder Susan Ryan turned over the reins at Good Earth on Jan. 1. The Coastal Point sat down with both women this week to talk about the transition. For Ryan. Hekl’s passion for learning more about the restaurant business was a “spark” that got her thinking about turning over leadership of Good Earth, which she opened 21 years ago. Before opening Melissa’s, Hekl had worked for several years for Ryan at Good Earth. “Running a business like this is not easy,” Ryan said. “We have, at any given time, 47 to 50 full- and parttime employees. We’re open seven days a week, year-round. We close two days a year... When Melissa started expressing interest in learning more, taking over more,” Ryan said, “that was a spark for me” to begin thinking about the possibility of turning the business over to her. “It just started really casually,” Ryan said. “I love, love, love that drive Coastal Point • Kerin Magill and ambition,” she said. “When that’s paired with talent, you really can’t go From left, Sue Ryan and Melissa outside Good Earth Market & Organic Farm. She wrong.” bought the iconic Millville spot on Jan. 1 of this year. Laughing, Ryan added that restauneeds to run,” Ryan said of Hekl. rant ownership “is a young man’s game” ager. “Then Melissa’s came along,” which Melissa’s, Hekl said, “was the perand that she started Good Earth — was a partnership between her and fect steppingstone” for her, because at first as a market and later with its full the time it was “low commitment” due sit-down restaurant — at 38. Hekl, 32, Ryan. Melissa’s opened in July 2022. The to a short-term lease for the building. moved to Delaware in 2019 and building in which Melissa’s was located “It kind of gave her an opportunity started working at Good Earth two was razed late last year, with plans for a to dip her toe” as a restaurant owner, months later. new restaurant at the same Route 26 Hekl started at Good Earth as a server and then was promoted to man- location well under way. See CHANGE page 5 “She’s like a thoroughbred — she
See MORATORIUM page 3
Garvin retires from DNREC after eight years By Mike Smith Staff Reporter DNREC Secretary Shawn M. Garvin is leaving public service. Garvin has served as the leading environmental control officer in the state for eight years, after taking office March of 2017, and prior to that was regional administrator for EPA Region 3 in Philadelphia, starting in 2009. His immediate successor as of Jan. 8, was set to be DNREC Deputy Secretary Lisa Borin Ogden, who has served with him at DNREC since the early days of now-former Gov. John Carney’s administration. Ogden has been an integral part of the DNREC operations throughout his tenure, he noted. See GARVIN page 5
Changing of the guard