WSFS wins Girls Inc. award
WSFS Bank was presented the 2013 Community Partner Award at the Girls Inc. of Delaware’s 59th Annual Meeting.
Girls Inc. inspires all girls to be strong, smart, and bold through life-changing programs and experiences that help girls navigate gender, economic and social barriers. Accepting the award on behalf of the bank was Vernita L. Dorsey, WSFS vice president of compliance and first vice president of Girls, Inc. of Delaware. Pictured with Dorsey is Girls Inc. Board President Suzette M. Schultz.
North East company gets $100,000 prize
I-Lighting gets $100,000 grant
A company in the Maryland community last week won a $100,000 grant in a contest in that state.
I-lighting was one of three winners in the first InvestMaryland Challenge of the Maryland Department of Business & Economic Development. According to the state, 250 companies applied for the grant.
“Tonight we’re fulfilling the need we saw to connect our entrepreneurs with the resources and the experts that turn great ideas into reality,” Maryland Department of Business & Economic Development Secretary Dominick Murray said.
CEO Scott Holland of i-lighting, which manufactures easy-to-install LED lighting, said his company’s $100,000 win in the general industry category will allow for greater expansion.
“Now that we have more capital, I’m looking forward to moving the company farther faster. We have the right people, we just needed the funding, and now that we have that, we can move on and up,” Holland said.
At the awards event, Gov. Martin O’Malley, praised Maryland’s innovative companies and said he believed they would play a role in solving worldwide problems.
The contest began as the brainchild of former-DBED Secretary Christian Johansson and O’Malley. Company submissions from across the United States began flowing in in September 2012. Participants were narrowed down from over 250 to 60, then 33 and finally nine, to include three finalists in each of the general industry, life sciences and information technology categories
Conservation awards
The annual Governor’s Agricultural and Urban Conservation Awards were recently presented.
Delaware Department of Agriculture Secretary Ed Kee congratulated the honorees. “The recipients this year are all excellent stewards of our state. Their daily work proves their commitment to protecting our land and water for future generations,” said Kee. “They are fine examples of how our farmers, equine owners and landowners protect our heritage and keep our agricultural tradition strong.”
This year’s Conservation Award winners are:
NEW CASTLE – Agricultural Award
· Ramsey Farms, Wilmington, Stewart Ramsey Jr., owner
Ramsey worked with USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and Farm Service Agency to implement best practices on his northern Delaware farm, which features some of the steepest slopes in New Castle County. Ramsey plants pumpkins on contour strips across these slopes. After the pumpkin harvest, he plants cover crops to use surplus nutrients and protect the slopes from erosion.
NEW CASTLE – Urban Award
· Merit Construction Engineers, Inc., Wilmington
Merit responded to an urgent Friday afternoon request from New Castle Conservation District and DNREC to protect Red Lion Dike from the high tides and surging waves expected from Superstorm Sandy.
The next morning, after analyzing the pre-Sandy condition of Red Lion Dike, Merit’s Vince Dills began assembling heavy equipment, manpower, 100,000 pounds of sand and one-ton capacity super-sack sandbags needed to shore up the northern and southern sections of Red Lion Dike.
On Saturday, Merit mobilized, sending a truck west of Baltimore to pick a load of super-sack sandbags, hauling dump-truck loads of sand from a gravel pit and assigning a crew to begin filling sand bags with a ton of sand at a time.
Early Sunday morning, Merit’s crews continued filling sandbags while a convoy of equipment consisting of a track excavator, rubber-tired loader, and tractor trailer pulling lowboy trailers rolled downed Route 9 from New Castle through the gates of the Occidental Chemical facility near the Delaware City refinery down to Red Lion Dike on the banks of the Delaware River.
Merit’s crew started work at 5:30 a.m., loading sandbags and equipment, and worked in the wind and rain placing sandbags on the dike from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m.
Merit’s efforts prevented Sandy’s storm surge and wind-driven tides from overtopping and breaking through Red Lion Dike, which would have released contaminated sediments into the Delaware River and Bay. Their efforts protected the dike and tide gate structure as well as a wide area of the Delaware River and Bay.
KENT – Agricultural Award
· Vernon Creek Farm, Franklin and Ronnie Hanson, Harrington
Vernon Creek Farm produces corn, wheat and soybeans on approximately 1,400 tilled acres west of Harrington. Conservation features on the farm include irrigation systems with a water management plan, no-tillage practices, and integrated pest and nutrient management plans.
KENT – Urban Award
· City of Dover, Scott Koenig, City Manager. In 2012, the City of Dover installed a green roof area on the new Dover Public Library at 35 Loockerman Plaza.
Although green roof technology has been proven in other parts of the county, the library’s system is one of the first to be installed in Kent County. A green roof employs a multi-layer system of vegetation planted in a growth medium on top of a drainage collection layer. Partners in the project included architectural design by Holzman Moss Bottino Architecture, engineering by Becker Morgan Group, Inc., and landscaping design by Landscape Architectural Services, LLC.
SUSSEX – Agricultural Award
· Dean Roles, Centaur Training, LLC, Bridgeville
Centaur is a training facility for riding horses near Bridgeville in the Nanticoke River Watershed. Roles has a solid working relationship with the Sussex Conservation District, DNREC’s Drainage Section and USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service staff. Since 2007, Sussex Conservation District planners have written Centaur’s nutrient management plan, which includes effluent wastewater application on hay ground.
SUSSEX – Urban Award
· City of Seaford
Located at the head of the Nanticoke River in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, the City of Seaford is being recognized for its proven track record of professionalism in working with the Sussex Conservation District on watershed studies, drainage/flooding issues, and sediment and stormwater compliance, and for adhering to its mission to do what is best for Seaford residents.
The City’s engineering firm, George, Miles and Buhr, LLC (GMB), designed the Washington Street Flood Control and Stormwater Retrofit Project, implemented in 2012, with systems to provide quantity control for the 100-year storm event.
