| Delaware people: One man's tenacity impacts hundreds |
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Delaware Online
Years of advocacy bring clean water to Ellendale He fought apathy, ignorance and bureaucratic snags. He fought naysayers, other priorities and fatigue. He used phone calls, fried chicken and a 25-ally network known as the Ellendale Community Civic Improvement Association. It took 15 years, but Truxon and his troops won their fight. Hundreds of homes in the greater Ellendale area now are connected to that underground pipeline, which was completed in 2003. "He's very stubborn," said Bishop Major Foster, an officer in the Ellendale association and pastor of the Philadelphia Pentecostal Holiness Church for about 25 years. "When he wants something, he doesn't give up and he doesn't care what it takes to get it." For his decades of strategic, selfless service, The News Journal includes Truxon on its list of "25 Who Matter," the third in its biweekly series introducing readers to unsung heroes who have strengthened the community in extraordinary ways. Truxon, 79, is a gregarious, energetic man -- "jolly" is how one friend describes him -- and those qualities help him connect with all kinds of people, whether those in high positions or those in tough places. He loves a challenge, too, and is not easily discouraged -- as Ellendale's sewer proves. "If it wasn't for Harold Truxon, there would not be a central sewer in Ellendale -- at least not as soon as it was, and it may have been smaller and more expensive," said Gerard Esposito, president of Tidewater Utilities. Esposito was director of Water Resources for the state Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control during part of Truxon's battle."After 23 years in government, I know you need a champion in the community or things get dropped, lost or shuffled aside. ... He was persistent, and he just didn't accept 'no' for an answer." All in the genes He had that kind of mother, too. Truxon, the oldest of nine children, grew up in Hillsboro, Md., where his father worked for a hardware store and his mother, Georgianna, was a strong figure in the community, working with the WPA -- President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration, which provided jobs and relief during the nation's recovery from the Great Depression. She worked hard for the people in her community. "My mother was a fighter," Truxon said. "Maybe a gene fell off of her and onto me." Fentress Truxon could believe that. For as long as he can remember, his father has been looking after people one way or another. For a while, it was out of the back of the family car. He'd offer sandwiches -- selling some, giving some away. Later, he rigged up a small tent, set it up and started selling fried chicken. That led to a small trailer -- a portable grill type of thing with skillets, burners, a french fryer and soda fountains. Truxon hauled it around to the state fair, to the speedway in Lincoln, to camp meetings throughout the area. And, of course, there was Truxon Delmarvelous Fried Chicken -- an institution on U.S. 113 for years, including that big ice storm when Gov. Russell Peterson sent state workers to help him open the restaurant and feed the state workers, emergency responders, and the crew of that ship stuck in ice off the Delaware coast. "But what touched me the most was that he always had a pot of soup on the stove," said Fentress, the first of his five children, now 52 and living in Tempe, Ariz. "If you didn't have any money and you couldn't buy a meal -- well, my dad would never let anybody go hungry." He worked hard as a trustee at his church, Mt. Zion AME in Ellendale, on the board of First State Community Action, with the Human Relations Commission. "He is very concerned about the future generation and the opportunities they will have," said his pastor, the Rev. Linda Powell. As he and his wife, Virginia, were raising their five children, Truxon read a newspaper story about high cancer rates in the area. It bothered him. When he learned that his church couldn't open a day care because something had seeped from a nearby junkyard into the church's wells, he was concerned. The church had to use bottled water until recently -- when a new, deeper well was installed. He learned that other private wells were polluted with nitrates and, in some cases, bacteria from failing septic fields. Truxon wanted some answers, so he started making phone calls. At first, few of his calls were returned. He complained about that to his state senator, the late Thurman Adams, and his phone started ringing. "I had no problem getting calls through after that," Truxon said. "Sen. Adams was my best friend." He called state officials and county officials. He got wells tested. He met with the feds. He spoke with reporters at The News Journal and WBOC-TV. And slowly -- sometimes agonizingly so -- he and his allies made their case. Ed Hallock, program administrator for the Division of Public Health's Office of Drinking Water, said residents couldn't afford a new sewer system and a new water system. They opted to start with sewer. A relentless mission It wasn't enough to prove that septic systems were failing. It wasn't enough to get a sewer system approved. The hook-ups had to be inexpensive, or the high-poverty areas would never benefit from it. "What Harold made sure we kept in mind was that it's got to be affordable," Esposito said. "You can't just charge them $4,000 a year when they were paying nothing, literally using outhouses or less. We had to keep it under a targeted amount -- less than $500 a year." Grants, loans, help from Sussex County Council and state officials, plus about $2.5 million in federal money made it happen, Truxon said. Though the town council wanted no part of the plan at first, saying the system was not necessary, it changed its mind as Truxon's group gained momentum. "He pushed and he pushed and he pushed," said Loretta J. Benson, a member of the Ellendale Association. "We all just prayed about the situation, stuck with him and kept on going." Truxon and his allies then held fundraisers, collecting more than $10,000 to help people pay the hook-up fees. "He's always been the type of person that has a lot of energy and wants to do the best he can for the people that are in his church and live in his area," said Rodney Wyatt, who was an engineer for Sussex County and now works for Artesian Water. "He doesn't stop. If he doesn't get the right answer, he keeps going until he does." Some have criticized Truxon's ways, but the Ellendale Association and town officials are working together now. Delores Price, a resident for more than 50 years and the town's council president for the past five years, said Truxon knows how to get things done. "People trust him," she said. "They come to him and ask him to help if they need a permit or something. ... You can't please everybody and you're not going to. But he has been helpful." The town has hopes for significant growth, Price said, but the pace of that growth will be set in large part by the pace of the economic recovery. Now 79, Truxon has more goals. He wants clean water for all in the Ellendale community and he wants a wellness center. He wants the area to be in a central water district, and Esposito and Wyatt both believe that future development eventually will bring the financial muscle needed to make that happen. "They are on the project priority list for the next round of funding," Hallock said. "But there is still a lot of work to do as far as designing the system." In October, higher-than-recommended nitrate levels were found in 26 percent of 19 Ellendale wells tested. Hallock said the levels were not extreme, but would be a concern for households with infants, pregnant women or nursing mothers. The state Cancer Registry shows Ellendale's cancer rate from 2001 to 2005 was about the same as the state's, according to Division of Public Health spokeswoman Heidi Truschel-Light. A 2004 state investigation concluded that cancer in the town could not be linked to possible water contamination. But Truxon points to the water standing in nearby fields, rising almost to the doors of some trailers. That water seeps into the area's shallow wells, carrying who-knows-what. "What are the people drinking?" he said. "It bothers me. What are they drinking right now?" Bishop Foster said that's a worry. "A lady called me yesterday and said they can't drink their water," he said. "People are getting sick. We're working on that now." Foster said he and Truxon weren't always allies. They came "from two different sides of the fence," he said. But as they met up in community meetings, they found their goals were similar. Foster believes God put them together for the work they do now. "These people are very poor, and they don't have much power," Foster said. "Truxon tries to be a voice for those people." And he has his own way with that, the bishop said. "We're going to get that water," Foster said. "I'm a preacher. Truxon's not a preacher. He can say some words I can't say." He doesn't say "quit," though. "I tend to believe that ordinary people can do extraordinary things if they don't give up," Powell, the Mt. Zion AME pastor, said. "That's Brother Truxon." Additional Facts HAROLD L. TRUXON Age: 79 Family: Wife, Virginia. Five grown children, six grandchildren, one great-grandchild Residence: Just outside the Ellendale town limits, Sussex County Experience: Longtime proprietor of Truxon Delmarvelous Fried Chicken (retired); assisted at Bennie Smith Funeral Homes, Milford; Ellendale Community Civic Improvement Association; Delaware Human Relations Commission; board member, First State Community Action; Board of trustees (emeritus) for Mt. Zion AME Church, Ellendale; former member of board of directors, National Council on Agricultural Life and Labor (NCALL); now works part-time as greeter at Walmart, Rehoboth Beach. |
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