The News Journal from Wilmington, Delaware • Page 61

ROSSROADS A SUPPLEMENT TO THE NEWS JOURNAL SERVING THE DELMARVA REGION APRIL 12, 1989 NickHarkins erected this tepee on his farm in Odessa and then added the comforts of home, including electricity. Odessa man builds pond, then adds an Indian village for just one rTO If yC; 1 0' ii-Atj v. wiuiy Allure SlaD photo by Lm S. Matklrn By Susan Biro Special to Delmarva Crossroads A AHOE" IS an American In dian word meaning village next to a lake," according to I. J.

"Nick" Harkins. And it's a word that comes Getting a tepee, however, took a bit more doing. "Tom Underwood, who owns the Sequoyah Museum where we went, arranged to get the tepee for us," Roseanne Harkins said. "It took about a month to find and actually get here." And once it arrived, putting it up was another matter. Although the 11-page set of instructions assured Nick Harkins that "an Indian woman by herself could normally erect a tepee in about 15 minutes," it took Harkins and two other men nearly three hours to get the job done, "Well, I don't know about that 15-min-ute part of it," he said, "but we got it up and it looks good." laugh.

Roseanne Harkins explained that their fascination with Indian artifacts got a more serious start than just idle thought. As the owners of Chestnut Hill Builders, the Harkinses specialize in building custom houses and developments. A more recent housing development on which they wanted to use an Indian motif sparked an active interest in Indian artifacts and resulted in a trip to Cherokee, N.C., on the recommendation of their bookkeeper, Nancy Dorsey, After visiting an Indian reservation and museum they brought back to Delaware handmade arrowheads, spears, bows, shields, an Indian war-chief bonnet, tomahawk, peace pipe and deerskin quiver. Most of these items are on loan for display in the Odessa Library. show.

But he admits the huge white tepee has been drawing a lot of attention since it went up three weeks ago. With only the top visible from U.S. 13 just north of Odessa, the tepee sits at the far edge of empty fields near the woods. Harkins insists that to know him is to understand his motivation behind buying and erecting a tepee. It caught his fascination months ago and, as he'll tell you, he just "does crazy things." The door flaps open to an unobstructed view of the month-old pond that Harkins has stocked with bass.

Newly planted grass pushes a bare half-inch through the ground, but Harkins eagerly envisions the result. "Oh, she's a pretty pond and wait until that grass comes in," he said. "It's ready as is, don't need a thing on the floor. Just a sleeping bag, cot, fire in the middle and I'm ready to enjoy it." Harkins is quite serious about enjoying and using the tepee, brought in from Blue Star, Mont. His wife, Roseanne, knows he's serious too she expects to find him out here if nowhere else on their 106-acre farm.

When she says the tepee has all the comforts of home, she's not too far from the truth. An electric line that Harkins put in crosses the field at an angle and ends beside the tepee, as does a water line from a well he put in when he didn't strike water 32 feet below. That's also the reason for the pond. "I needed the pond for irrigation and thought, why not put a tepee there; it'd look nice and I've always wanted to camp out," Harkins explained with a to his mind when he explains why he erected a 28-foot-high Indian tepee overlooking a man-made pond on his Odessa farm. Not that Harkins actually wants an entire village of Indian tepees next to his pond.

Just the one for himself will do. Harkins didn't erect the tepee constructed of heavy white canvas, 15 stripped and treated cedar poles, small lacing pins to hold front door flaps, and about 60-plus feet of rope just for See TEPEE, Page 3 Firm finds splendor in Bethel grass SIGNPOST by Eileen Gilligan Sorrow is difficult for press, too Farm harvesting first turf l- lVi 11 limm i' production at both sites makes him one of the largest turf producers on the East Coast. With 20 years in the green, Alloway takes his sod seriously and says Jade Run turf carpets the Washington-to-Boston corridor with sales to large and small landscapers, home builders and the private sector. Sheer economics prompted Jade Run's expansion outside New Jersey. "I looked in Maryland first because it's closer but I couldn't buy large enough acreage I need large fields, good water and level land." Alloway had visited Sussex County once years ago.

"I'm a great fan of public television and they're always talking about Sussex County so I decided to look here." After talking to the county extension agent and a real estate broker, See TURF, Page 3 By Nancy E. Lynch Special to Delmarva Crossroads BETHEL The grass is always greener at Jade Run, Delaware's newest and largest turf farm. It's also thicker, healthier and more competitively priced, according to owner Samuel P. Alloway who harvests his first 335 acres of blended bluegrass in Bethel this month. "We think there's a lot more local market than we realized," says Alloway, whose Delaware turf business took root last August on 720 acres near Bethel.

He later purchased an additional 36 contiguous acres. Conversion of the fully irrigated vegetable and grain farm, formerly owned by Coleman P. Wheatley, to a commercial sod farm began immediately. Alloway also operates the original family-owned Jade Run in Vincentown, N.J., and says combined Mire Clery photo Manager Danny LeCates inspects irrigation system at Jade Run. elaware testing new theories in education Special to Delmarva Crossroads As the family and mourners of the Daisey family walked from their cars to the grave site April 1, they saw two news photographers standing behind the grave, waiting for the caskets to be unloaded from the hearses.

They were standing there to photograph what seemed to be the most interesting angle: the grave markers in the foreground with the background showing pallbearers carrying the caskets from the hearses. The photos turned out very well. I don't know how to say how the funeral turned out. Two days earlier, the news editor had called to give me a Saturday assignment. Usually it's something fun with kids or lighthearted adults, such as the Governor's Easter Egg Hunt or a festival at the Delaware Agricultural Museum.

This event would not be fun or lighthearted. She was sending me to the funeral of Sharon Daisey and her two children who were killed by their father earlier in the week. I tried to talk her out of it by suggesting I instead cover a "mule jump" in Harrington. Although the editor usually likes Harrington stories, I can't describe a mule jump because I never got there. Instead, I joined two other reporters who were carrying notebooks, two photographers and two TV cameramen outside Melson Funeral Services, east of Millsboro.

We spread out through the parking lot as the mourners waited in their cars to begin the procession to the grave site by the Lewes Rehoboth Canal. I couldn't tell you if they glared at us, but some complaints later were voiced, reigniting the debate over whether the media should cover funerals. Three things should be considered: The media represent part of the community 'and as such we at- See SIGNPOST, Page 4 FitzPatrick expects to add five more schools to the project by September. Already, eight schools in the state have attended preliminary meetings and asked for the slots. FitzPatrick, of Brandywine Hundred, said the expected changes in school structure are far-reaching but "may come about Teachers' work will be not be the same as before.

SSL iljS nm.iim.nirjnrn-11-n rmtr irm imirnimiTT students. Students will need to work hard. Work is not optional," FitzPatrick said. "Teacher-as-coach requires a different kind of planning, different kind of teacher classroom behavior and a different approach to evaluation by the administration. The teacher's work will look different from the teacher's work of the past," he said, "and the teacher will have a more significant role in defining what that work is." As coordinator, FitzPatrick must tie together all the parts and there are many.

Co-sponsors with CES and ECS are the governor's office, Department of Public Instruction, the University of Delaware, participating school districts and schools, and a panel of private citizens yet to be named. FitzPatrick says he was selected for the job when the co-sponsors determined that the coordinator should come from the Delaware school districts. Me was See EDUCATION, Page 2 By Myea Cline Special to Delmarva Crossroads Joseph L. FitzPatrick is leading a revolution of sorts. As head of the "Delaware Re: Learning Project," his efforts are aimed at redesigning the state's educational system "from the schoolhouse to the statehouse." Delaware is one of five states participating in a five-year pilot project based on the theories of Brown University professor Theodore R.

Sizer. The efforts in each state Arkansas, Delaware, Illinois, New Mexico and Rhode Island are sponsored by the Education Commission of the States, the Coalition of Essential Schools and individual state government agencies. The schools selected for this planning year of the project are Middletown High School in the Appoquinimink School District; Wilmington High School, Red Clay Laurel Central Middle School, Laurel; and West Park Place Elementary, Christina. Butch Comegyt photo Joseph FitzPatrick wants to redesign the state's educational system. more like an evolution than a revolution." "Re: Learning states are looking at the schools and the bureaucracies in which they function whether they be local or sta-fc," FitzPatrick said.

"Just as students may be impeded by teacher-dominated instruction, "We're not talking about a return to a 1960s kiissez-faire open- ness but a deeper, significant kind of accountability on the part of the program of a high school may be impeded by the conventional structure, for example, the 50-min-ute period.".