The following was sent to Sen. Russ Huxtable with a copy provided to the Cape Gazette for publication.
Please follow this link (https://tinyurl.com/3jpzh9ea) to an article in The Atlantic Monthly highlighting the housing crisis in the country and one state that did something about it. Sussex County is a joke. I'm sure the old-line farmers are laughing all the way to the bank, but anybody who lives in Sussex County is considering all kinds of absurd solutions. But, of course, what can we as individuals do? Not much. That's your job, we believe.
I, for one, have no objection to the growth. I'm from New Jersey, and I'd never go back there. But does anybody want Delaware to become another South Jersey? Somehow, somewhere, building has to slow, if not stop, until transportation and roads catch up to the load we have. This isn't a plea, it is a monstrous necessity. Just this morning I took a drive from Georgetown to Rehoboth (all on back roads) that used to get me there in 20 minutes. At 9:30 a.m., it took me an hour, and on a Wednesday morning! Much of the problem is the sickening slowness with which Delaware makes improvements. Route 24 widening has been going on now for years, and the dual lanes are paved but not close to opening.
This morning's nightmare was further exacerbated by another thing I notice far too often: when there is an emergency requiring fire trucks and EMT personnel, there is little or no police presence for traffic control. An emergency near the intersection of Plantation and Cedar Grove had every street in the vicinity tied up because a few firemen were doing their best to handle traffic with zero expertise (obviously). Well-run communities load up police in circumstances like that and plan and then direct traffic around. This morning, while 100 cars waited for the light at Mulberry Knoll Road, three state troopers came up to turn in to their barracks there. Boy, that made folks really happy. I have never been anywhere where cops see such a nightmare and do nothing, except end their shifts.
My one-hour trip aside, road infrastructure is failing everywhere. Snail-like construction isn't the only problem. New Jersey widened a third of the New Jersey Turnpike in about a year while barely causing any traffic jams. We took two years to rebuild one intersection (Plantation and Route 24). We've got to do better. How about dumping the favorite-son construction companies and trying New Jersey’s J. Fletcher Creamer and the like? They get things done on time.
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