Delaware
Proposal would add interstate exit in Delaware County to deal with population growth
Now, according to ODOT, the 36/37 exit near the Tanger Outlets carries more than 36,000 vehicles per day.
DELAWARE COUNTY, Ohio — A solution to the commuter traffic problem at the U.S. Rt 36/SR 37 exit is currently in the works, but still has a way to go before anything could happen.
The Delaware County Regional Planning Commission said Delaware County was the fastest growing county in the state between 2010 and 2021. Now, according to the Ohio Department of Transportation, the 36/37 exit near the Tanger Outlets carries more than 36,000 vehicles per day.
A proposal by ODOT would add an additional exit south of the existing one to create the “Sunbury Parkway.” It would extend from Wilson Road to the east and U.S. Rt. 36 to the west and connect to I-71.
The current exit has already been expanded twice in recent years, 2013 and again in 2016, but those improvements were short lived. A photo provided by ODOT shows traffic backed up down the exit ramp and on to the interstate during peak commute times.
“It really gets backed up here prime times of the year. Back-to-school time, Black Friday is horrible up here. Until they finished the bridge project, it was pretty hectic up here,” said Rhonda McCown. “Delaware is kind of a booming area. It’s really grown in the last 15 years. I remember going north of here when there was nothing but a Wendy’s and McDonalds over there, so it’s grown substantially.”
McCown commutes daily from Circleville to her job at Farrow Harley-Davidson, so she’s familiar with the traffic problems that can come up at the current exit from back-ups to traffic crashes. According to ODOT, left-turn crashes at the exit are 17% percent higher than similar roadways in Ohio.
She said she’s been caught up in traffic between Polaris and Sunbury up to an hour before. In the business of selling motorcycles, she said sometimes she and other sales team members will recommend other routes for clients just to avoid the traffic at the exit.
“We have people come in from all different directions so a lot of people just think the highway right there so you try and do your best to give them alternate routes to make life easier for them,” she said.
The proposed plan by ODOT would go through six acres of wetlands, according to the Ohio EPA, including nine Category 1 (low quality) wetlands, seven Category 2 (moderate water quality) wetlands, and 3,773 feet of streams. ODOT has submitted proposed mitigation plans to the Ohio EPA to address the impacts on the affected area.
The Ohio EPA hosted a public meeting on the proposed plans Tuesday evening at the Northgate Church in Sunbury. The agency will continue receiving written comments on the application through January 21. Letters can be sent to Ohio EPA-DSW, Attention: Permits Processing Unit, P.O. Box 1049, Columbus, Ohio 43216-1049.
This isn’t the first time the project has been considered. According to ODOT, in 2015, the City of Sunbury annexed land and working with developers to fund the Sunbury Parkway project. However, local funding of the project stalled when several private entities pulled their funding commitments.
The cost of the expansion project is estimated to be $31.9 million.
Humpback whale beaches and dies at Delaware Seashore State Park
The Marine Education, Research and Rehabilitation Institute will perform a necropsy.
A dead humpback whale washed up near Bethany Beach on Jan. 8, according to the nonprofit Marine Education Research and Rehabilitation Institute.
The juvenile male was first seen Jan. 6, floating at sea about 2 miles off the Indian River Inlet, a MERR Facebook post said. The bloated 30-foot whale ultimately beached near a private community in the early afternoon of Jan. 8, the post said.
MERR is attempting to coordinate with the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control to get equipment to move the whale out of the water and onto the beach to perform a necropsy, the post said. Right now, there isn’t enough information to determine a cause of death.
Delaware saw at least three dead whales last year, in the Indian River Bay, at Delaware Seashore State Park and at Pigeon Point. The first two were humpbacks, while the Pigeon Point whale was a fin whale.
A necropsy on the Delaware Seashore whale found blunt force trauma across its back, indicating it may have been struck by a ship, MERR Director Suzanne Thurman said.
Recently, on Jan. 4, a dead fin whale was found on the bow of a ship at the Gloucester Marine Terminal in New Jersey, which is located in the Port of Philadelphia on the Delaware River.
Shannon Marvel McNaught reports on southern Delaware and beyond. Reach her at smcnaught@gannett.com or on Facebook.
A Pennsylvania man is accused of stealing more than 100 skeletons from a cemetery in Delaware County.
Jonathan Gerlach, 34, of Ephrata, Pennsylvania, is charged with abuse of corpse, criminal mischief, burglary and other related offenses, Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse revealed on Thursday, Jan. 8.
Léelo en español aquí
Between November 2025 and Jan. 6, 2026, 26 mausoleums and underground burial sites had been burglarized or desecrated at Mount Moriah Cemetery, which stretches from Yeadon Borough, Pennsylvania, to Philadelphia, investigators said.
As police investigated the thefts, they caught Gerlach desecrating a monument at the cemetery on Tuesday, Jan. 6, according to officials. Gerlach was taken into custody and investigators executed a search warrant at his home in Ephrata.
During the search, investigators recovered 100 human skeletons from Gerlach’s home as well as eight more human remains inside a storage locker, according to Rouse.
“Detectives walked into a horror movie come to life the other night guys,” Rouse said. “This is an unbelievable scene that no one involved – from myself to the detectives to the medical examiners that are now trying to piece together what they are looking at, quite literally – none of them have ever seen anything like this before.”
Rouse said some of the stolen skeletons are hundreds of years old.
“We are trying to figure out exactly what we are looking at,” Rouse said. “We quite simply at this juncture are not able to date and identify all of them.”
Rouse also said some of the skeletons are of infants and children.
“It is truly, in the most literal sense of the word, horrific,” Rouse said. “I grieve for those who are upset by this who are going through it who are trying to figure out if it is in fact their loved one or their child because we found remains that we believe to be months old infants among those that he had collected. Our hearts go out to every family that is impacted by this.”
Sources also told NBC10 the thefts are related to a similar case in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. Investigators said they are looking at Gerlach’s online community — including his social media groups and Facebook page — to determine if people were buying, selling, or trading the remains.
Gerlach is currently in custody at the Delaware County Prison after failing to post $1 million bail. Online court records don’t list an attorney who could speak on his behalf.
VENTNOR, N.J. (WPVI) — A Delaware woman is behind bars in connection with a hit-and-run crash in November at the Jersey shore.
(The video in the player above is from previous coverage.)
The incident happened around 6:16 p.m. on Nov. 20 in Ventnor, New Jersey.
READ MORE | Video shows Jersey shore hit-and-run crash that left 92-year-old injured
Police said the 92-year-old victim was struck at Ventnor and Newport avenues. He sustained serious injuries and was transported to an area hospital.
Investigators said the driver, Leslie Myers, 51, of Weldin Park, Delaware, fled the scene after the crash.
She was arrested Wednesday on charges of assault by auto, leaving the scene of an accident and other related offenses.
Myers is being held in the Allegheny County Jail in Pennsylvania, awaiting extradition to New Jersey.
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