In our current, general, political environment, I just had to write this!
A few weeks ago, I sent an email to retired state Sen. Ernie Lopez asking him for help. St. Andrew the Apostle Orthodox Church, located just off Plantation Road, was being bullied by DelDOT over the longstanding placement of our church sign.
While I knew that he was no longer in office, Ernie had always been a supporter of our church and often attended our fundraising events. I had heard that he was still getting up to three or four calls a day from locals asking for help.
Within 24 hours of sending my email and sharing ours troubles with DelDOT, he responded. Over the course of the following week, both he and Rep. Pete Schwartzkopf had confronted DelDOT demanding that the strong-arm tactics be stopped. A few days later, we received an email from DelDOT sharing a new path forward that was more fair and reasonable in addressing the situation. It was almost as if DelDOT was speaking a new language!
We went from a demand to remove the sign “today” or they would do so to to “if you remove it and store it, we will work with you on a new location and bear the cost of reinstalling the sign and the electrical meter required to light it” at no cost to the church!
Bravo! Our thanks go out to Pete and Ernie for working their magic! In contrast to all of the negativity we hear in politics these days, it’s important to remember how good we in the Cape Region have had it for so long with two public servants – from different parties – who are always looking out for their constituents.
What is even more amazing to me is that both Pete and Ernie are still at it, helping people in a way that should remind us all that politics are local, and bipartisanship still works!
-
A letter to the editor expresses a reader's opinion and, as such, is not reflective of the editorial opinions of this newspaper.
To submit a letter to the editor for publishing, send an email to newsroom@capegazette.com. Letters must be signed and include a telephone number and address for verification. Please keep letters to 500 words or fewer. We reserve the right to edit for content and length. Letters should be responsive to issues addressed in the Cape Gazette rather than content from other publications or media. Only one letter per author will be published every 30 days. Letters restating information and opinions already offered by the same author will not be used. Letters must focus on issues of general, local concern, not personalities or specific businesses.
