2004, 2005 News Articles about Joan Deaver
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Reformer was reluctant, but now takes lead
By CHIP
But these days, Deaver isn't getting her hands dirty planting cucumbers and corn. Instead, she's cultivating the soils of politics in eastern
And her hope is to come up with a harvest of change.
She is the founder of a grass-roots organization called Citizens for a Better Sussex, a small but growing band of newcomers and established residents who want to see changes in county government.
Deaver formed the group in January.
Specifically, Deaver and others are pushing for state lawmakers to alter how
Deaver's group favors at-large voting, in which council candidates would not come from election districts - as they do now - but be selected by all voters, not just those in the home district.
The idea is that council members would be accountable to all residents, not just a select group of voters. Deaver said the current election system is unfair to burgeoning eastern
Three of the five council members come from western
"We're just outgrowing our government here," Deaver said. "People are coming in here expecting to have rights. But we don't have them."
Deaver's fight to extend those rights to all citizens led her to form Citizens for a Better Sussex. Since then, the group's calls for change have prompted
It wasn't a fight that Deaver said she really wanted to take up.
"I had no intentions of ever again forming a group," said Deaver, a one-time marina owner from
"They needed help. And if I didn't lend my experiences and my talents to my county, then I would be wrong," she said.
"She embodies the very thing we'd like to see more of," he said. "A lot of the citizens down here are sitting on their hands.
"If we only had a dozen like her, things might be a lot different,"
But, he added, "If it gets to the point where she finds that the place that she came from is better, she can go back."
Deaver said she's not going anywhere. She said comments like Dukes' are evidence that the current government in
Deaver says her goal is not to divide the county, and pit newcomers against the established gentry.
"We're looking to work for everyone in the county," she said, "for the good of everyone. ... I personally want the county united and working together.
"Who could be against that?"
Contact Chip Guy at
The News Journal/SCOTT
PROFILE
AGE: 63
RESIDENCE: Near
OCCUPATION: Former marina owner; founder of local activist group, Citizens for a Better Sussex
EDUCATION: Undergraduate degree in international studies from
FAMILY: Husband,
R E C E N T C O L U M N S
Reformer was reluctant, but now takes lead
© 2005 delawareonline.com/The News Journal
DELAWARE STATE NEWS Reporter Questions Joan Deaver in 2004.
"The Delaware State News has introduced a feature called 'Meet Your Neighbor.' These three-times-a-week stories feature Downstate residents who serve the community through various activities, groups or clubs and/or who are concerned with community issues. A simple question-and-answer interview, which we’d like done via e-mail, would include the following inquiries:"
Q. Name:
A.
Q. Age:
A. Over 55
Q. Town/neighborhood:
A. Plantation Road, Midway Acres (Rehoboth Beach, DE)
Q. What I am excited about and why:
A. I like to organize groups. I organized [and ran] the Insurance Women of
We Insurance Women brought professional insurance courses to our area & we later joined the National Association of Insurance Women. That was in the 1960’s & they are still going strong.
In the 1970’s I did the same for the marine business people of
I get excited about education of any kind. I once served on the Board of Trustees of Anne Arundel Community College as a voting student trustee. I was the only student board member there to ever be elected to two terms.
As a returning student I finished my degree work at
I loved teaching Sunday school at Midway Presbyterian Church on Route 1.
Q. What I do:
A. I manage investments.
Q. What I like most about what I do:
A. My husband Bill and I own and manage three rental homes adjacent to our house and I like the people who rent from us. They are some of the best people I have ever known.
Q. If I had picked a different occupation, it might have been:
A. I would have been a teacher
Q. What I like most about living here:
A. I love our house here that was in our family ever since 1964. It holds many happy memories.
Q. Changes I’d like to see in this area:
A. My perspective comes from my political life in
I also worked as a Judiciary Committee reporter for the Maryland Republican House Minority Office in the Maryland General Assembly.
I see our County government here is a Model A Ford with a Lexus economy and it doesn’t serve either the people, the environment or the economy very well at all.
We have precious resources but our government is being blinded by the dollar bill without the courage to stand up to business lobbyists such as the PGA to recover what has been ruined or to protect what is threatened.
County Council is the most glaring example of this and
We needn’t worry about our Lexus economy because plenty of people will eventually come here to live but unless our government gets some starch in its collar we won’t be left with anything to enjoy. Let’s clean up our act!
Q. Favorite community cause and why:
A. My favorite community cause is to revamp
Q. My family:
A. Business people & sometimes very involved in government.
Q. When and why I moved here:
A. We didn’t plan to, but we were left such a warm and comfortable home that when we began using it on weekends it beckoned us to move in. So we did in 1994.
Q. Where I lived before and why I left:
A. I lived in
Q. My interests and hobbies:
A. Gardening, Genealogy, Civic Activism
Q. The best and/or worst time in my life:
A. Best the birth of my two wonderful children -- Worst: the deaths of my parents & other members of the family.
Q. The trait(s) I admire in others:
A. Honesty, loyalty, intelligence, open-mindedness, fun-loving, kindness, generosity, enthusiasm for life.
Q. People who inspired me (and how):
A. Teachers. They are the gold of our society. I admire their patience and wish we would pay them more than we do.
Q. My guiding philosophy:
A. Keep my Faith in God because that is who I think is in charge at all times.
Q. My advice to today’s youth:
A. If you are anything like my son & daughter , then you are the finest, healthiest, most promising group of young people to ever inhabit this earth. I know you’ll leave this place better than you found it.
Reporter:
Features editor
Fax:
matty@newszap.com"