Small Town News

Memorial Day, civic virtue, Bradley effect and home buying

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BAREFOOTIN'

Before Memorial Day was Memorial Day, and the associated weekend kicked off the traditional summer season at the beach, the holiday was known as Decoration Day. Women mourning the war dead during the Civil War in the United States - often called the War Between the States by people in the South -placed flowers on graves.

The first official Memorial Day designation came on May 5, 1868, as an official order from Gen. John A. Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic. In that year, he designated May 30 as Memorial Day, and flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. Many people don't realize that Arlington National Cemetery, according to information online at Wikipedia,"is a military cemetery in the United States of America, established during the American Civil War on the grounds of Arlington House, formerly the estate of the family of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's wife Mary Anna (Custis) Lee, a great-granddaughter of Martha Washington." On a bicycle and hiking trip to

the westernmost part of Virginia

last weekend, we stopped at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va. There we spent some time in the chapel where Lee and many members of his family are buried, as well

as the bones of the general's beloved horse Traveler. Lee served as president of Washington College in Lexington, which became Washington and Lee just days after the general's death. A museum beneath the chapel is dedicated to Lee and his vision for the college, which included the nation's first school of journalism. Lee established a revered honor code for the university and in one of his letters about his vision stated that he wanted to see students graduate "imbued with civic virtue."

That phrase became the topic of a number of conversations while biking, hiking and recovering in the Mt. Rogers National Recreation Area, out where Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina converge in the stretch of the Appalachians where the taUest mountains east of the Mississippi ripple off in every direction. It's that same sense of civic virtue that Memorial Day

celebrates - the willingness to

sacrifice oneself for a calling considered higher than the personal self.

Throughout Delaware's Cape Region and the rest of the nation, graveyards and cemeteries

large and small will be decorated this weekend with flowers and flags to honor those no longer with us who have served our nation in the military and other forces.

The Bradley effect on Beebe

No one knows how the Earl Bradley case, scheduled to go to criminal trial next week, will ultimately affect the operations of Beebe Medical Center. However, one impact of the case showed clearly last week in the Financial and Community Benefit published by the hospital and

distributed in the Cape Gazette and other newspapers.

A comparative consolidated statement of operations in the report shows that for the 12 months ending in June 2009, Beebe Medical Center and all of its affiliations, including Beebe Medical Foundation, ended its fiscal year with a pos'tive net operating income of $7, 215, 804. One year later, in June 2010, that number fell to a negative $4, 614, 903, meaning operating expenses exceeded operating revenues by that $4 million figure. Beebe President Jeff Fried

and the hospital's chief financial officer Jim Bartle said the primary reason for the loss was a $5.66 million reserve fund set aside in anticipation of some sort of settlement to help victims of the alleged Bradley crimes. Bartle added that legal fees associated with the Bradley case in the fiscal year that ended in June 2010 amounted to $680, 000.

"It's all uncertain," said Bartle. "We have no idea where this will

all lead,"

The report also shows that despite minimal salary increases in 2010, total salaries for the thousands of employees of Beebe increased from $85.3 million in 2009 to $92.68 million in 2010. Bartle said an expanded hospital-employed physician program contributed to that increase. The report shows that while births at Beebe dropped in the same period from 1, 003 in 2009 to 899 in 2010, and inpatient days of care dipped slightly from 36, 991 to 36, 882, Beebe Physician Network visits almost doubled from 18, 940 in 2009 to 38, 695 in

2010. Beebe Physician Network Inpatient Visits show an equally dramatic increase from 19, 908 in 2009 to 29, 619 in 2010.

Two more amazing figures from the report that speak to the fact that Beebe is a community-owned facility turning away no one seeking care: in the 2010 fiscal year, it's estimated that Beebe provided $6, 881, 103 worth of charity care and ate $4, 321, 932 in unpaid bills.

Good time to buy a home

In the world of journalism we're taught that listening to several different stories and seeing where they converge will often reveal the truth. It's a little dicier when it comes to predicting the future, but based on the pronouncements of three reputable sources, now appears to be an exceptionally good time to buy a home.

Chris Schell, of Schell Brothers, recently circulated a lengthy, well-researched report showing boom and bust cycles, putting them together with the local

housing market. The best time to buy is when a market has reached its bottom and is just starting to rise. Schell's graphs indicate we've likely reached the bottom. He states, in conclusion,"I would'strongly encourage any 'fence-sitters' you all are dealing with to get off the fence before it is too late. The data strongly suggests that the National market will bottom soon and that the Sussex market has already bottomed... now is a great time

to take advantage of the

boom/bust cycle we have just experienced in housing by buying a home at the bottom of the bust."

A week after Schell circulated his research to Realtors, the Kiplinger report out of Washington D.C., in its Personal Finance Advisor report, made the following, typically qualified, statements about affordability of homes. It says, of the bust: "The trauma is undeniable... but look at the flip side: a stunning improvement in the affordability of homeownership for first-time buyers." It talks of the potential

hurdles of high down payment requirements and concern that Congress may reduce mortgage interest deductions, before concluding: "But for many young adults, Kiplinger believes, this will turn out to have been a good time to buy a house or a condo."

Finally, parting words from Harold Slatcher, former president and CEO of County Bank, who just ended a 48-year banking career. Always a prudent man, he said the economy appears to be improving, albeit

slowly and federal regulators are beginning to loosen the lending reins on banks itching to begin lending again.

With mortgage rates still low and prices also way down from where they were, and the nation's recalibration well under way, it's hard to deny that there is a fragrance of opportunity in the air.

Most importantly, with Lee's admonition about civic virtue resonating, the chaUenge for us in Sussex is how to harness the improving economy for the greater good of aU in the county.





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