David Amado (Courtesy of Delaware Symphony Orchestra)

Amado gets new title at Delaware Symphony Orchestra

Ken MammarellaCulture, Headlines

David Amado is getting a new title in July from the with the Delaware Symphony Orchestra: music director laureate. He will continue to appear with the DSO, conducting selected concerts in the 2023-2024 season and beyond. The DSO will also welcome guest conductors next season, with a formal music director search beginning in 2024. “I am proud of our work …

Pennsylvania Avenue in Wilmington. (Famartin photo from Wikimedia)

Wilmington gets $200,000 in Safe Streets and Roads funding

Ken MammarellaGovernment, Headlines

Wilmington has received a $200,000 grant from the new federal Safe Streets and Roads for All program. It’s the only Delaware grant among $800 million awarded for 510 projects nationwide. The city is partnering with the Wilmington Area Planning Council on the grant. The Delaware Department of Transportation and Delaware Transit Corp. (the DelDOT unit that runs DART buses) have …

The Gordons Pond Trail at Cape Henlopen State Park. (Courtesy of DNREC)

Del. State Parks set attendance record: 8 million-plus

Ken MammarellaCulture, Headlines

Delaware State Parks set another attendance record in 2022, with more than 8 million visitors. Attendance at the 17 Delaware state parks has increased each year since 2015. In the past five years, visitation is up 37%. The most visited state park in 2022 was Cape Henlopen, with 1.9 million visitors. Alapocas Run, Auburn Valley, Brandywine Zoo, Fort Delaware and Killens …

This miniature snowman, made of painted stones, is generating smiles. (Ken Mammarella photo)(

Tiny art in park brings joy to North Wilmington

Ken MammarellaCulture, Headlines

Whimsical art that has mysteriously appeared in a Brandywine Hundred park is generating smiles for people out for walks – and hundreds of fans online. On Monday, Sandy Meredith posted a snapshot on nextdoor, saying “To whomever is leaving these fantastic rock creations along the path between Tarleton and Cardiff
THANK YOU! “You have made me become more observant of my …

St. Georges Bridge (EaglesFanInTampa photo from Wikimedia)

St. Georges Bridge to close for 18 months for repairs

Ken MammarellaGovernment, Headlines

The St. Georges Bridge, which carries U.S. 13 over the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal, will close for approximately 18 months for major repairs. The bridge will close to all traffic starting on April 4. The contractor will begin to close bicycle lanes in February, but at least one bicycle lane will remain open until April 4. A $45.8 million contract, …

Delaware Memorial Bridge deck replacement (Delaware River and Bay Authority photo)

2 lanes of Delaware Memorial Bridge to close for 4 months

Ken MammarellaGovernment, Headlines

Two lanes of the Delaware Memorial Bridge into New Jersey will be closed from early February through near the end of May for rehabilitating the 72-year-old bridge. The Delaware River and Bay Authority, which owns and operates the bridge, warns drivers to expect delays, particularly during rush hour and peak weekend travel times. Delays could be bad. A repainting project …

Secret Delaware

‘Secret Delaware’ uncovers First State’s fun facts, figures

Ken MammarellaCulture, Headlines

A border marker buried under a manhole, a fiberglass presidential candidate and lots and lots of lima beans are some of the “weird, wonderful and obscure” elements that define Delaware in a new book. “Secret Delaware” is the second book written together by Rachel Kipp and Dan Shortridge, a married couple who have lived or worked in all three counties. …

What Fourth Street in Wilmington might look like, in the Wilmington Initiatives plan.

Wilmington Initiatives aim at transportation, quality of life

Ken MammarellaGovernment, Headlines

  Delaware’s largest city has a master plan to improve transportation and the quality of life, and it’s called the Wilmington Initiatives. Ten projects are listed on a landing page maintained by the Wilmington Area Planning Council. Creating a park over Interstate 95 is the most prominent and most expensive. The initiatives go back to 1996, when Wilmington started to …

The upcoming home of Tri-State Liquors will still be on the Tri-State Mall site. (courtesy of Andrew Byer)

One store’s still standing at Tri-State Mall

Ken MammarellaBusiness, Headlines

The news coverage of what’s happening at the old Tri-State Mall (which closed in 2015, leaving a small strip shopping center still running) has largely ignored a store that’s thrived there since 1984. Tri-State Liquors is still in business, as several signs on chain link fencing along Naamans Road proclaim, and it’s planning to move soon across the parking lot to …

KJ Johnson's Young Simba in "The Lion King" on Broadway. (Courtesy of Kenneth E Johnson)

Cab student plays Young Simba in ‘Lion King’ on Broadway

Ken MammarellaCulture, Headlines

The first Broadway show that KJ Johnson saw was “The Lion King.” And now the Cab Calloway School of the Arts student is in the hit Disney musical, as one of two actors playing Young Simba. When KJ and his father, Kenneth E. Johnson, got the news that he was cast, “There was a lot of jumping and screaming and …