---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND THE CHARTER OF THE TOWN OF BLADES RELATING TO ANNEXATION."
description: "This bill amends the Charter of the Town of Blades to allow annexation without a referendum only if the property to be annexed requests the annexation. Also, if a petition of over 10% of eligible voters requesting a referendum is submitted with 30 days of Council approval, then a referendum must be held. The cost of a referendum when a contiguous property owner desires to come into Blades to obtain their utilities and services seems unnecessary."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "149"
identifier: "HB 414"
citation: "Delaware HB 414 (149)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Bryant L. Richardson", "Daniel B. Short"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 10
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2018-05-10"
last_action: "2018-07-01"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/be4e782c-414b-4b40-ac91-cc23ebbe496b"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=26680"
source_hash: "60725d70f71b3304dd6dbfee078e1cf144db01c70832bae5cc6444168bc2f1d7"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-de"]
---

# Delaware HB 414 (149) — AN ACT TO AMEND THE CHARTER OF THE TOWN OF BLADES RELATING TO ANNEXATION.

This bill amends the Charter of the Town of Blades to allow annexation without a referendum only if the property to be annexed requests the annexation. Also, if a petition of over 10% of eligible voters requesting a referendum is submitted with 30 days of Council approval, then a referendum must be held. The cost of a referendum when a contiguous property owner desires to come into Blades to obtain their utilities and services seems unnecessary.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Bill Text** (committee substitute) — [source](https://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GenerateHtmlDocument?legislationId=26680&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=HB414)

## Votes

- 2/3 — **40–0** (pass) · lower
- 2/3 — **20–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Bryant L. Richardson — primary (person)
- Daniel B. Short — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2018-05-10** Introduced and Assigned to Administration Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2018-06-05** Amendment HA 1 to HB 414 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2018-06-06** Reported Out of Committee (Administration) in House with 5 On Its Merits `committee-passage`
- **2018-06-07** Amendment HA 1 to HB 414 - Passed In House by Voice Vote `amendment-passage`
- **2018-06-07** Amendment HA 2 to HB 414 - Passed In House by Voice Vote `amendment-passage`
- **2018-06-07** Passed By House. Votes: 40 YES 1 ABSENT `passage`
- **2018-06-09** Assigned to Judicial & Community Affairs Committee in Senate `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2018-06-13** Reported Out of Committee (Judicial & Community Affairs) in Senate with 4 On Its Merits `committee-passage`
- **2018-06-19** Passed By Senate. Votes: 20 YES 1 ABSENT `passage`
- **2018-07-01** Signed by Governor `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/be4e782c-414b-4b40-ac91-cc23ebbe496b`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).