As new year begins, old matters linger

As new year begins, old matters linger

As we start a new year, it’s worth thinking about stories still unresolved.

• Heroin use is epidemic across the nation, and Sussex County is no exception. Everyone knows someone whose family has been affected, and in its wake, heroin brings crime and violence. Yet where is our collective alarm? Where are the treatment options and detox centers to help people recover? Where are the jobs that would give people hope instead of heroin?

• This week, a deadline set in 2005 to get Rehoboth’s wastewater out of the Lewes-Rehoboth canal passed; an environmental impact statement outlining Rehoboth’s plan to send wastewater a mile out into the ocean sits on the desk of the secretary of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control – where it’s been for two years. There are lots of reasons to oppose dumping wastewater in the ocean, but there’s no excuse for indecision. If state and federal officials don’t like the plan Rehoboth officials proposed, then propose a better one. Inaction is not the answer.

• It’s been nearly a year since Cletis Nelson, 29, and William Hopkins, 27, were gunned down in a home on Harmons Hill Road. In all these months, police have released nothing on their investigation. Not one word. Are police even trying to solve this case? If they are, how could anyone tell?

• Children who attend H.O. Brittingham Elementary School have long lagged behind children at other schools on state tests. To their great credit and with the efforts of great teachers, in some years, these children achieve on par with peers. Last year was not one of those years. Meanwhile, voters last year approved a referendum for a new elementary. Yet, even after the new school is built, some children will continue to attend H.O. Brittingham.

These are not throwaway children who can wait around another year for a task force’s plans. These students deserve all the resources necessary for every one of them to get the education needed to succeed, and they need this investment now.