Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1924-02-01
MILFORD MUST PAY
Her SCHOOL BONDS
$4,000 Worth Of Bonds Mature In
April-Must Raise Special Tax
To Pay Bonds And Interest.
FAULT OF LAST LEGISLATURE
First NatiOnOI Bank Offers To Take
Up The Bonds And Interest
For Board Of Education.

Thirty years ago the Board of Edn-
cation of Milford issued bonds to
build part of the present school
buildings used by the Milford Public
schools. The Board of Education was
then composed of about thirteen mem
bers, with possibly three or four of
them directing and carrying on the
school affairs. Each year a specific
sum was voted by the board for the
maintenance of the schools, and an
other sum was voted to be raised at
the same time, for the payment of the
bonds and interest; but, with only a
Few exceptions, the total money col
lected from the tax payers, went to
pay for operating the schools--leav-
ing about twenty-one thousand dollars
OF bonded Indebtedness outstanding,
when the new school laws came into
effect.
Under the new laws, the State Of
Delaware took over all the deb. Of the
rural school districts and the Special
Districts, which that law created. I'm
der that law the State paid four one
thousand dollar bonds, and interest on
all school bonds of the Town of Mil
tord-thus reducing the bonded in
.debtedness to $4,000.
The last session of the Delaware
Legislature amended the school laws
and made appropriations, in the clos
ing days of it's session, in such man
ner that 40 payments could be made
by the State of Delaware on the out
standing bonds it had assumed to pay
off, or the interest accrued thereon.
The legislature adjourned before any
legislation to relieve the situation Of
holders of bonded Indebtedness, Of
either the county district schools, or
the Special District Schools could be
passed, with the result that schools
like Frederick, Greenwood, and other
of the smaller towns, are placed in a
position that they can neither assist
the holders of the bonds who bought
them in good faith, to get interest OF
principal of their bonds. This is a
notifying and painful situation for
the people of Delaware to face, while
the cause for the situation is directly
the result of incompetent manage
ment by members of the Senate and
House of Representatives who took
part in framing the amendments to
the school laws of Delaware at the
last session. Each branch of the legis-
lature was overwhelmingly Democrat
lc-and it is to the Democratic party
all responsibility for the present debt
service of public schools in Delaware,
must be laid.
These men were warned that amen
ding school laws, or creating new
school laws, required study by the
pest legal minds, or wrecks would be
sure to follow-and now as a result
If their inability the State of Della
ware faces a condition which has not
existed for the past hundred years.
Bonds are due and until the Iegis-
allure meets, no legal steps for re-
unding or payment of the bonds and
interest can be taken by the Special
Oistricts-while the rural districts
ind small town schools, must stand
~ and see default made on their in
Milford must meet the situation and
With the aid of the First National
Bank, the Board of Education of the
special School District of Milford, UNI
Ter advice of legal authority, decided
Continued on page fve)