Sussex County Councilman Sam Wilson was the first to stand up and ask a question, or make a statement, following the talk by Delaware Economic Development Office Secretary Alan Levin Wednesday, Oct. 28, during the 16th annual Today and Tomorrow Conference at Delaware Tech College.
Levin spent several minutes during his speech talking about the importance of tourism, especially to Sussex County. His office has expanded staff and efforts to promote tourism.
Wilson, who sometimes looks at issues from a different perspective, said that perhaps the county could not handle an increase in tourism because of the lack of infrastructure – mainly roads.
Levin agreed with Wilson’s take on the problems with roads. “Delaware needs better infrastructure, but the only way to do that is to build on the tax base,” Levin said. “We are exploring other ways to get people to the beaches.”
He’s talking about new and improved mass transit. One of those ways is by train, but there is a lot of work that needs to be done.
Levin said the rail lines south of Dover are antiquated and there are still some manual switches being used that date back more than 75 years.
Levin also had a word or two of caution for everyone looking ahead to the next state budget year. Even though there are a few signs of economic recovery, the state’s financial picture will not improve next year. “The easy cuts were last year; now we are faced with the painful cuts,” he said.
Tags: Councilman Sam Wilson, Delaware tourism, Sec. Alan Levin
November 10, 2009 at 9:00 pm
It is about time someone is stepping up for transportation options for the area. Rail is such a great idea, but is unfortunate that the only place to go would be Lewes (all other rails have been torn up from over the years aka Lewes-Rehoboth Rail Trail.) Busses could be used, but the area is really too spread out to effectively use busses. Maybe from P&R to the boardwalk, but nobody even uses that really anyway.