SPONSOR:	Sen. DeLuca
	On behalf of all Senators

DELAWARE STATE SENATE

142nd GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 15

URGING THE GOVERNOR OF DELAWARE TO DIRECT THE SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION TO APPROPRIATELY IDENTIFY DELAWARE'S COASTAL POINTS AS "DELAWARE BEACHES' ON STATE SIGNAGE, AND NOT AS 'SHORE POINTS".

WHEREAS, members of the Senate believe that it is extremely important that our cabinet secretaries understand Delaware’s cultural traditions, including those relating to geographical nomenclature, and the vernacular which has evolved over the centuries with which our citizens refer to various locales; and

WHEREAS, Delawareans have since time immemorial referred to the coastal strand of this state, including the seacoast and the Delaware Bay coast, as “beaches,” and have long designated our coastal communities as such, i.e., Pickering Beach, Bowers Beach, Slaughter Beach, Fowler’s Beach, Broadkill Beach, Rehoboth Beach, Dewey Beach and Bethany Beach; and

WHEREAS, the Senate would prefer that signage along our major highway arteries that carry traffic to those communities be worded so as to properly identify them collectively as the “Delaware Beaches,” and not as “Shore Points,” as the term “shore” is used traditionally to refer not to Delaware’s beaches but to coastal areas of New Jersey and possibly elsewhere; and

WHEREAS, the members of the Senate are proud of the linguistic style and usage handed down to us by our forefathers and foremothers, said to have descended more or less intact from the glories of the Elizabethan Age;

NOW, THEREFORE:

BE IT RESOLVED that the Senate of the 142nd General Assembly of the State of Delaware does hereby respectfully call upon the Governor to direct our Secretary of Transportation to change signs bearing the words “Shore Points,” wherever they exist, to “Delaware Beaches,” as soon as it may be possible in the normal pattern of replacement, given present fiscal constraints.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the members fervently desire that henceforth and forevermore, state signage will direct travelers to “Delaware Beaches,” a term uniquely our own, and not to “Shore Points,” a term, which while perfectly good English, happens to be alien to the cultural traditions of the First State.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that suitable copies of this resolution be presented to the Governor and the Secretary of Transportation together with the compliments of the Senate.