Home Care In Laurel, DE

A manufactured home park outside Laurel has been without potable tap water for a week, and for the community's many Spanish-speaking residents, information about the crisis has been difficult to access.

The roughly 250 residents of the Briarwood Manor manufactured home park southeast of Laurel received notice from management in late March that the park’s water main would be turned off during working hours for a week for system maintenance. But last Wednesday, after electrical problems caused the primary well to fail, residents were left without running water.

When running water returned on Sunday, it was thick with sand, prompting a switch to a backup well.

According to a letter delivered to residents on Tuesday, that backup may be contaminated with nitrates, making it unsafe for drinking or cooking. "The water is to be used only for flushing and taking showers," park management emphasized.

But several Spanish-speaking residents attest that management have only offered updates in English, leaving a significant portion of the community without clear guidance on how to safely use their tap water or when they can expect potable water to return.

Filiberto, who has lived in the park for roughly three years and asked to be identified by his first name, says some families are relying on their children to translate letters from park management.

"Sure, there are lots of kids around who [can read English]," he said, "but clearly not every resident can understand the letters."

Filiberto added that English-speaking children may struggle to help their parents ask clarifying questions of management.

Another resident, who asked to be called Oscar, says that he and his family opted to shower at a relative's house in Delmar out of an abundance of caution. "I want to know if it's safe to use the water for personal hygiene — like brushing teeth — but I don't know who to ask," he said.

Both Filiberto and Oscar noted that water quality has been a routine challenge in the park since their arrival. Delaware Manufactured Home Owners’ Association President Bill Kinnick says the park has also seen a spate of sewer failures in recent months.

“[Park management] were in court last year for sewer systems that hadn’t been replaced," he said. "They finally got the new sewer system in, but they started failing because they weren’t put in properly.”

Delaware Attorney General's Office previously sued Briarwood Manor's management in 2002, in part because of concerns over the quality of the park's drinking water.

The park is currently owned by the KDM Development Corporation, a New York-based company that owns a half-dozen other manufactured home communities in Delaware.

Those include the Donovan Smith Manufactured Home Community in Lewes, which drew media attention in 2021 after a series of septic system failures prompted intervention by Delaware's Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Preservation and Department of Health and Social Services. The Donovan Smith Community is in the process of connecting to Lewes' municipal sewer system.

Delaware Public Media has contacted KDM Development for comment on the absence of translated information for Spanish-speaking Briarwood Manor residents.

In the interim, park management have begun delivering cases of bottled water to park residents, supplemented by deliveries of water from the Delaware Manufactured Home Owners' Assocation and employees from the Delaware Department of Justice, among others.

In the letter delivered to residents on Tuesday, management wrote that they "anticipate resolving the problem within 14 days."

A notice on a whiteboard — written in English — outside the park's pump station on Wednesday provided a more detailed update, announcing plans to drill an entirely new well and offering a tentative start date in the first week of May.

Meanwhile, the Delaware DOJ says it is currently "currently evaluating the situation and our role" at Briarwood Manor.

LAUREL, Del. - Many gathered today in Laurel to celebrate the Sussex County Land Trust preserving 41 acres of Delaware historic land, known as Nanticoke Crossing Park.

The Sussex County Land Trust bought this Laurel property for $1.2 million dollars with the help of many local and national partners like the U.S. Navy and DNREC to name a few.

One local Marlene Collins who has lived in and owns farmland in Laurel said she is so glad this land will turn into something useful for the public.

"This is wonderful, the land trust, I'm just thrilled," Collins said. "I know that a lot of people will enjoy it for years to come."

Russ McCabe a board member on the Sussex County Land Trust said they are grateful to even have had the chance to purchase such historic land.

"There's less and less publicly accessible space like this and of course this is a wonderful place for people to come to visit, to enjoy themselves," McCabe said. "It could easily have been a housing development."

Today's event included an introduction of the master plans for the land. Along with an opportunity for people to give ideas as to what they would like to see done with it while enjoying food and a live band.

Casey Kenton is from Sussex County and he said if there is anyway to preserve the rural characteristics of the county, he thinks it's a good idea.

"Its great to know we will be able to use this property and being able to have the public use of this property forever, I can't think of a better use of funds," Kenton said.

The land that is now Nanticoke Crossing Park sits alongside the Nanticoke River and has been there for hundreds of years. Now with the development happening in Sussex County over the last years, many think this is one way to stop the overload of development.

"It's important that we strive to protect these properties because they're not making any more land and we all know that," Kenton said.

The next steps for the land trust is for the master plans to be finalized and then to apply for funding to start the project sometime in the next two years.

Two months after residents of a Laurel-area manufactured home park were told not to use their tap water for cooking, bathing or drinking, Delaware’s Office of Drinking Water issued notices declaring that the new well at the park is safe.

But some long-time residents remain wary, arguing that longstanding contamination problems remain unaddressed.

Residents of the Briarwood Manor manufactured home community received notices from management in late March the park’s primary well had failed, leaving them briefly without running water. By April, the park switched to a backup well, but management soon warned residents that the new water source contained elevated levels of nitrates, rendering it unsafe for consumption.

For nearly two months, residents of the park relied on daily deliveries of bottled water for their cooking and drinking needs. Meanwhile, the park's management hired contractors to dig an entirely new well, completed earlier this month.

Office of Drinking Water Public Water Systems Supervision Program Manager Kevin Cottman says that his unit conducted limited tests on the new well, focusing on contaminants that pose the most serious health risks.

“We target bacteriological and nitrate contamination – those are the two major ones that are immediate health risks," he said. "That’s why we target those two first, so we can get them water back, since they’ve been without water for way longer than they anticipated.”

Initial testing detected coliform bacteria in the new well — an indicator of the presence of more serious pathogens — but after the well was treated with chlorine, a subsequent test found the bacteria were no longer present. According to Cottman, tests also did not detect an unhealthy concentration of nitrates in the well.

The Office of Drinking Water notified park residents of their findings on Tuesday in a letter deeming the community's water supply safe for consumption.

The letter was met with skepticism from some residents, who contend that the testing process was rushed and does not provide an accurate picture of the park's water supply.

"There is no way I would drink this water," says three-year park resident Pam Saunders, pouring a glass of water from her bathroom faucet. "It's yellow, it smells, and it looks like it has little worms in it," she says, pointing to small specks in the glass that, upon closer inspection, appear to wriggle.

Cottman says that the water's yellow tint may be the result of elevated concentrations of iron.

"There are no health risks related to iron," he said, "so that would mostly be an aesthetic issue." He adds that his team did not observe any "worms" when taking water samples; the Office of Water Quality has not tested the well for parasites.

Leonard Sears, who has lived in his single-wide at Briarwood Manor for more than 40 years, says the park has long been plagued by water quality issues — problems that can't be resolved with the digging of a new well into the same water table.

"There is no good water here," he said. "There are superfund sites in every direction. We've been dealing with this for twenty years, and we've never gotten an honest answer." In 2002, the Delaware Department of Justice sued the park's owners, in large part because of high nitrate concentrations in the community's well.

Sears argues that the two months spent under a do-not-drink advisory was costly for residents.

“All those contaminants are in our pipes, in our faucets, it’s polluted your hot water heater," he said. "The bill is going to be quite expensive for the individuals here!”

Other residents say they spent the past two months making trips to relatives' homes as far away as Georgetown to take showers, driving up their monthly transportation expenses.

Both Sears and Saunders argue residents are owed compensation — or, at very least, reprieve from lot rent increases.

But in the long term, Sears contends that the only way to ensure a resolution to Briarwood Manor's water crisis is to connect the park to Laurel's municipal water supply — an expensive undertaking, and one that would likely require substantial capacity and filtration upgrades.

Connecting manufactured home parks to municipal water and sewer infrastructure is not a novel concept in Delaware: last year, the Donovan Smith manufactured home community began the process of incorporating into Lewes after a series of septic system failures.

KDM Development, the New York-based real estate company that owns both Donovan Smith and Briarwood Manor — along with several other Sussex County manufactured home communities with chronic water and septic system problems — did not respond to a request for comment.

The end of the do-not-drink order may, however, enable KDM to end its daily deliveries of bottled water to park residents.

Meanwhile, neither the park's management nor the Office of Drinking Water have issued any notices in Spanish, though a substantial portion of the community's nearly 300 residents are primarily Spanish-speaking. Typically, the translation of notices is the responsibility of residence management, according to Cottman.

LAUREL, Del. - Leonard Eley, a former pastor of Storm Shelter Ministries in Laurel, pleaded guilty to Sexual Solicitation of a Minor on April 5th.

As previously reported, Eley used money stolen from the church to pay a minor to send nude photos.

Eley had already served 31 days in prison and was sentenced to 6 months home confinement, according to the Delaware Department of Justice. That confinement is set to be followed by 18 months of probation as well as lifetime registration as a Tier II sex offender.

Additional terms of his probation reportedly include mandatory treatment, a no contact order, and agreement to not seek employment working with children or as a pastor.

Eley was originally indicted on November 28, 2022 on one count of Sexual Solicitation of a Minor, two counts of Possession of Child Pornography, and one count of Theft by False Pretenses

SALISBURY, MD — While Thanksgiving has come and gone, Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year, is here. People across the country flocked to stores in search of the best deals, and Delmarva was no exception.

At The Centre at Salisbury, customers filled the mall, eager to take advantage of the deals and get a head start on their holiday shopping. With discounts of 30%, 50% off, buy one-get-one free, plenty of shoppers came to snag items at lower prices.

Some shoppers, like Shelby Dechert, appreciated the crowded atmosphere, reminiscent of busier times at the mall.

"I feel like it’s giving an older vibe. I feel like the mall used to be a lot busier, but with online shopping and stuff you don’t see people in here as much. It’s kind of nostalgic, like older times," she said.

Even though the era of midnight madness may be in the rearview mirror, employees working on Black Friday reported that the crowds were still flowing in.

"Much bigger crowd, it started off there wasn’t many people in here, but now later in the day everyone's starting to get in here," noted an employee Mauriah Stanley

The sentiment among workers was clear: more customers mean a successful day.

"Come on out! Support! Spend money! It’s the holidays!" said employee Keisha Gattis

Black Friday kept the annual Thanksgiving weekend tradition alive in Salisbury.