Thousands of tulips and building permits; declining crime

It’s snowing outside on this mid-November Tuesday afternoon as this is being written. Crazy weather this week whipsawing us from mid-60s to teeth-chattering 20s. Watch that northwest wind. When it swings back to the east – to capture some of the ocean warmth – or southwest, temperatures will moderate.

We just have to remind the seasons and ourselves that winter doesn’t officially arrive until Dec. 21, the winter solstice, when days will again start lengthening.

In the meantime, dozens of volunteers at Lewes In Bloom have been busy getting ready for next April’s Tulip Festival and spring jubilee of flowers. The last few weeks have seen them clearing the gardens of this year’s remains to prepare the beds for legions of tulips and other colorful annuals. They tackle the ground with rakes, hoes, drills tipped with big auger bits, and most of all, with the optimism that energizes their fingers in the dirt to plant the bulbs that will rest peacefully through the winter before bursting forth when the days begin to warm.

According to the organization’s website, Lewes In Bloom is planting 22,000 tulip bulbs this fall in addition to 1,500 daffodil bulbs, 900 hyacinths, 500 crocus, 500 iris and 500 allium. There are many different varieties of tulips represented in the 22,000 number, but the variety with the greatest number is the Tulip van Eyck Mix with multiple shades of red, pink and rose.

It should all make for great colorful splashes in the town's many parks to greet the return of longer and warmer days next spring.

Crime trending down

I spoke with Alan Davis last Saturday afternoon during a retirement and birthday luncheon for Judge Jim Horn of Delaware’s Justice of the Peace Court system. Davis heads that court as chief magistrate. I asked him about court activity, and he told me that crime in Delaware has been on the decline for the past 10 years in all categories except for drug-related cases. He sent along statistics prepared by the Statistical Analysis Center of the Delaware Criminal Justice Council.

Here are a few notable stats:

• Overall, reported serious crime has decreased notably since 2013. The number of serious criminal offenses known to police in 2013 was 88,399 compared with 77,734 in 2017, a decrease of 12 percent. Sussex experienced a 7 percent decrease in that period, from 20,463 in 2013 to 19,114 in 2017. Davis said numbers for 2018 and 2019 are continuing that trend.
• Statewide violent crime is lower overall with an 11 percent reduction from 2013 to 2017. In Sussex alone, the decline in violent crime was 6 percent.
• There were 53 statewide homicides in 2017, which was a decrease from a high of 66 in 2015. In 2017 there were 43 homicides in New Castle County, eight in Kent County and two in Sussex, which was a low for the five-year period.
• Burglaries in Sussex County have dropped by 45 percent since 2013, the largest percent decrease of the state’s three counties.
• The bad news comes in reported drug and narcotic offenses. In Sussex, overall drug offenses increased 31 percent between 2013 and 2017, while possession offenses increased by a whopping 59 percent in that same period. This radical increase in Sussex may have to do with the way marijuana possession is reported – as criminal offenses in some places but civil offenses in other areas. Delaware in 2015 decriminalized possession of marijuana under certain amounts.
• The total number of arrests statewide in 2017 decreased 20 percent compared to 2013, with a 12 percent decrease in the number of reported offenses over the same period.

Considering that Delaware’s population has been increasing over these same years, these are even better trends than may first appear. Hopefully they mean fewer cases to clog all of the state’s courts.

And building numbers?

Sussex County’s senior information systems analyst, John Norris, provided building permit information this week. The total number of construction permits issued over the last few years has been increasing slowly but steadily.

In 2015, the county issued 8,936 building permits; in 2016, 9,846 permits; in 2017, 10,479 permits; in 2018, 10,208 permits; and so far in 2019, 9,422 permits. At an average project cost of $50,000, that amounts to half a billion dollars’ worth of construction in each of those years. That’s a rough estimate just to provide a sense of magnitude.

Out of the total of 39,955 permits in all of these years, the largest category was in outside-of-town dwellings at 7,402. That category accounted for 2,061 permits in 2018, with 1,758 so far in 2019.

Out-of-town additions accounted for the second-highest category over those same years, with a total of 5,727 permits.

We know construction is a huge economic driver in Sussex. These numbers give a sense of just how much activity there is.