History April 27-May 3 from News Journal: Explosion kills 2, lottery $186,000 over budget
"Pages of history" features excerpts from The News Journal archives including the Wilmington Morning News and the Evening Journal. See the archives at delawareonline.com.
April 27, 1925, The Evening Journal
With the death of William C. Taylor, 44 years, at the Homeopathic Hospital on Saturday night and the finding of the body of George W. Pitt, 60 years, in the Delaware River yesterday morning, two deaths resulted from the explosion of 3,000 pounds of black powder near the pier of the Philadelphia and Reading Railway at Pigeon Point, below the Wilmington Marine Terminal.
The explosion occurred on Saturday morning while Taylor, Pitt and Napoleon Gagnon were removing the powder from a magazine where it had been stored by a construction company since the World War.
Gagnon was outside the building when the explosion occurred. Pitt and Taylor were inside the magazine.
Pitt's body could not be found Saturday after the horrible mishap, but after an all-night search on Saturday by his son, Tilghman Pitt, and J.J. Clark, a son-in-law of the dead man, the body was recovered in the Delaware River, 300 feet from the magazine that blew up. ...
Gagnon was able to go to his home after receiving treatment on Saturday as he was only burned about the hands.
Valuable service was rendered after the explosion by Thomas J. August, a member of the local fire department, who was with a party of friends out on the Delaware River in a motor boat near Pigeon Point at the time. August ran the boat to the pier and brought Taylor and Gagnon to the Marine Terminal where they were met by the police ambulance.
April 29, 1950, Wilmington Morning News
Chief Deputy Atty. Gen. C. Edward Duffy told the St. Georges Hundred Republican Committee last night that in less than a year the 'new Democrat majority in the State Highway Commission has increased its payroll by 127 persons.'
Citing figures which he said he had just obtained, Mr. Duffy disclosed that the department payroll for March 1950 was $198,190.88, more than $13,000 over its March 1949 total of $185,036.36.
'Padding of the payroll by Democrats is scarcely new, but it is hard to conceive in a department that was a national model of efficiency under a Republican administration,' said Mr. Duffy.
'It becomes more and more apparent,' he continued, 'that the additional taxes insisted upon by the state Democratic administration as a prelude to any consideration of legislation by the 1949 General Assembly were to be used for the primary purpose of assembling a political machine."
May 2, 1975, Evening Journal
The state auditor charged today that lottery officials illegally spent $186,000 more than they had in their $400,000 budget.
The special audit, released today, was requested by Democrat Gov. Sherman W. Tribbitt.
Eugene G. Auen, lottery director, and the lottery itself have been under heavy political fire from Republicans almost since the lottery began.
State Auditor Richard T. Collins, a Republican, said flatly at a Dover press conference that exceeding the amount authorized by the legislature 'is a clear violation of state law.'
And, despite yesterday's layoff of half the full-time lottery staff, Collins said the debt will continue to mount even if the lottery operation is at a standstill.
Delaware's unsuccessful Loto-Superfecta was halted April 16 after five weeks of declining ticket sales and without having once had a first-place winner.
It first became known that the lottery has overspent its original $400,000 appropriation Tuesday when lottery officials had to borrow $3,000 from the governor's contingency fund to meet a payroll….
Reach reporter Ben Mace at rmace@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: History April 27-May 3: Explosion kills 2, lottery $186,000 over budget
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