Sports
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Grise remembered for grit, kindness
Old Timer’s Day returns this weekend
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JUNE 19, 2026
THE LOCAL VOICE OF YOUR COMMUNITY.
County approves school impact fee
Volume 23, Issue 25
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Dedicated dad
By Susan Canfora Staff Reporter Calling Tuesday “a monumental day for us,” Jason Hale, director of operations for the Cape Henlopen school district, thanked the Sussex County Council for unanimously approving an ordinance to approve a new surcharge on building permit applications that will pay for capital improvements in schools, including the technical school. One year ago, the Delaware General Assembly updated state code, officially giving Sussex County permission to collect such fees. Now, the county council is implementing it. “I just thank all of you for this,” Hale told the council during the public hearing on June 16 before the council voted. A Lewes resident also thanked council, saying it’s important to support school districts because today’s students “are our future” and will, in years to come, be working in local agencies, farming in Sussex County and working as doctors and other professionals. Despite the surcharge, he said, develCoastal Point File Photo • Kerin Magill
See FEE page A6
Wind decision sparks reactions from all sides
Rev. Andy Ehlers stands at the pulpit of High Tide Church. The father of four has found joy in his family and faith after the devastating loss of his wife, Tanya, in 2023.
Following loss of his wife, Ehlers embraces faith, family
By Kerin Magill Staff Reporter
By Susan Canfora Staff Reporter
Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings this week celebrated the dismissal of the Trump administration’s appeal of what she called a victory in a lawsuit challenging the federal government’s order to freeze all federal permitting for wind-energy projects. Fenwick Island Mayor Natalie Magdeburger — long an opponent of proposed windfarm projects off Delaware and Maryland’s coasts — meanwhile insisted, “It’s not a victory for Delaware or for our coasts.” “This result is a victory on multiple fronts,” Jennings said Tuesday, June 16.
The Ehlers family is looking forward to Father’s Day, to going to church together Sunday morning, then having dinner and spending time by the pool, where the four children created indelible memories with their mother. As they do every day, they’ll be thinking about her, more than three years after Tanya Ehlers died, following a valiant 38-month battle with Stage 4 colon cancer. At times, losing her in January of 2023, at age 50, was unbearable. “I was in shock. I was in shock because she was diagnosed at Stage 4. Our daughter Raychel said, ‘Dad, you have to know God is in control.’ She was a junior in high school, but she had such a mature attitude. She was really close to her mom,” said the Rev. Andy Ehlers, pastor of High Tide Church in Dagsboro. “Tanya was a very good parent. She was driven and always on top of everything. The kids weren’t getting away
See WIND page A4
with anything. I was more laidback. This has taught me to have to be more strict with them. They try to push me around a little bit, even though they are not bad kids at all. I learned a lot from her. She always was big on doing devotions with the kids. They do their own now. She always had them involved with the church. “To be both the mother and father is definitely overwhelming,” he said. “You feel inadequate. I’m just not able to nurture the way Tanya could nurture, no matter how hard I try. I try to be gentle,” he added, recalling one recent evening when his son, riding his scooter after dark with no helmet, crashed and came home with his head bleeding and arms sore from road rash. The teenager went to his sister for comfort, probably thinking she’d have a softer touch, he said. “You try to do both — mother and father. As hard as you try, there is still a feeling of inadequacy in some areas. Still, it’s the greatest gift being a dad. There is nothing greater I could think of. Being married was great. I miss that. But being a dad brings me such great joy,” he said. A father’s most important role, he said, is modeling a relationship with God and “pouring into them how to live.”
See EHLERS page A5