With warm spring-like weather starting to make seemingly random appearances in the area this week, thoughts have begun to turn to preparations for the summer season in Bethany Beach. But there’s a key element that’s still up in the air: When will Bethany’s beach replenishment project start, and will it impact its vital summer season?
“I have no really good news, other than beach replenishment is going to occur,” Town Manager Cliff Graviet informed the town council at their Feb. 15 meeting. As far as pinning down a definitive date when the federally and state-funded project will commence, he said, “The State has not reached that point yet.”
That should change on Feb. 26, when a pre-construction meeting for the project will be held, and when Graviet said he expects the start date to be officially set. And that could confirm the bad news.
“Right now, we’re hearing it will be at least April, which really doesn’t bode well by the time the company mobilizes and begins their work,” he said. “I don’t know at this point how we miss having replenishment impact the summer season.”
Likening the timetable concerns to “looking a gift-horse in the mouth,” he added, “We’ll take whatever we can get whenever we can get it.”
When the beach does get its replenishment, there will be plenty of people looking to enjoy the surf, sand and a little shade. But with a 6-1 vote on Feb. 15, the council put into place their plan to follow in the footsteps of Rehoboth Beach commissioners in banning “oversized” shading devices on the beach.
Having led the Charter & Ordinance Review Committee that studied the matter last summer and conducted a subsequent townwide survey with 1,200 responses, mostly in favor of additional restrictions, Councilwoman Rosemary Hardiman introduced last Friday the second reading of a new Article 8 in Chapter 23 of the town code, specifically regulating “shading devices.”
The ordinance permits “standard size” umbrellas with a diameter of no greater than 8 feet, as well as “baby tents” no larger than 36 inches in any dimension. It prohibits all other shading devices, including cabanas, canopies, “sports-brellas,” tents and any device mounted on supports.
Penalties for violating the ordinance, she said, are “consistent with penalties for minor infractions,” such as throwing objects on the beach. The ordinance sets the fines at $50 to $100.
While there has been some public opposition to the move, the ordinance yielded no additional comments from those in attendance on Feb. 15. The council voted 6-1 for approval, with Vice-Mayor Lew Killmer again voicing his opposition.
Killmer had previously expressed concerns that the Town was trying to address something that wasn’t a big problem and might, in the process, cause difficulties with the large families who come to Bethany year after year. He had recommended they continue to allow canopies with open sides. He had also questioned how the Town would enforce the ordinance.
Graviet emphasized that, in earlier discussions, they had committed not to take “a draconian approach,” with this summer serving as an advisory period. He said that, this summer, the only penalties issued would be in extreme cases, wherein people simply refused to take down a device found to be in violation.
He said the Town would consider hiring a couple seasonal employees to work with its lifeguards “to remind people in a friendly manner what our beach regulations are and help educate the community as to the tent and canopy rules.”
“We intend to warn and ask people to remove them from the beach,” he said. “I won’t say we won’t enforce it,” he added, but if they say they won’t remove them, the ordinance would be enforced.
With public awareness a concern going in to the new rules, Graviet said the Town will notify all local real estate companies, so they can make rental tenants aware. He said they will also use the Town’s email list to spread the word and encourage community HOAs to inform their members.
He also told the council they could opt to spend $1,800 on a postcard mailing to direct residents and property owners to the Town website for more information.
Resident John Gaughan asked whether the Town would be doing any outreach to the town’s commercial community “about what’s coming” and the limitations. He noted local shops that sell beach goods, including canopies and larger umbrellas.
“If somebody comes into town and they’re still selling canopies, those people will go to the beach and find themselves suddenly being reminded that they shouldn’t have” purchased a new canopy, he said.
Graviet praised the idea and said the Town would be sure to do outreach to the local businesses that might be impacted.
Also on Feb. 15:
• Council Treasurer Jerry Morris announced that the Town’s proposed budget for the 2019 fiscal year, beginning April 1, had been completed. It calls for $9.55 million in revenue, with $8.13 million in operating costs and a capital/debt budget of $1.3 million.
It also includes a $30 flat-rate increase for the Town’s water customers living inside town limits, with a $45 flat-rate increase for customers outside town limits who the Town’s system also serves. That increase will raise about $112,000 in additional revenue, which Morris said would bring the water department’s revenue to a positive mark at its operating level. A hearing on the proposed budget is set for March 12.
Morris also reported that the Town had received 104 percent of its budgeted revenue through January, compared to 102.4 percent at the same point last year. It had spent 80 percent of its budgeted expenses, compared to 83.6 percent at the same point last year.
• Gaughan noted in his report from the Planning & Zoning Commission that the commission in January had denied a partitioning request from the Walcek family, over environmental and zoning code concerns. That denial has now been appealed, with the appeal to be heard before the town council on March 16.
• The council voted unanimously to approve on second reading an ordinance designed to clarify that liquor stores in the town are prohibited from permitting on-premises consumption of alcoholic liquors. Killmer said that had been deemed to be not harmonious with any permitted use in the town.
The ordinance also adds a definition of liquor store to the town code, specifying that such do not offer on-premises consumption and that no permit for a liquor store that permits on-premises consumption would be granted.
Hardiman noted that the ordinance “puts into the code something that’s already in the zoning code.”
• The council also voted unanimously to approve the reconstruction of Cedarwood Street with pervious pavement, in a project that will also add a multi-use pathway connecting S. Pennsylvania Avenue to the S. Atlantic Streetscape Project.
The add-on project to the Streetscape project is designed to use the pervious pavement to help alleviate ongoing flooding problems on Cedarwood Street, which Graviet noted is essentially flat and often sees puddling.
The 10-foot pathway, he noted, is entirely within the Town’s right-of-way, and will “take care of and tie in the pedestrian walkway to the many walkers and bikers the town receives daily from Sea Colony.” It would be completed before the summer season, Graviet said.
The original estimate for the add-on project’s cost was $350,000, but the contractor had since confirmed a $299,252 price tag. The project is to be funded with a supplement to the current fiscal-year’s budget, which would be voted upon at the March council meeting.
The S. Atlantic project, which is also designed to use pervious pavement to deal with drainage issues, as well as adding a multi-use path along the oceanfront, was due to begin construction “any day now,” he said last Friday.
• Cultural & Historical Affairs Committee Chair Carol Olmstead reported that the Seaside Craft Show planning group is now preparing for the 2018 edition of the event, set for June 2, with more than 100 crafters, as well as a booth for the committee to promote its museum project.
She said CHAC is also looking at offering trolley tours of the town’s Heritage Trail this spring, having previously offered such tours through the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. The trolley tours would be an alternative to the self-guided walking tours the town has offered for years.
The group has also been visiting area museums as they consult on design considerations for the Dinker-Irvin Cottage Museum, considering what furniture and displays will fit in the cottage.
• Graviet also reported that the Town plans to meet with neighbors and the manufacturer of the pump currently in use at the Sussex County wastewater pumping stating on Route 26, after complaints from neighbors about odors from the station.
He said the pumping station’s old treatment method filtered the air it released with a replaceable carbon filter, with higher labor and filter costs, while the newer one uses bacterial handling of water before the air is released into the neighborhood. The odor formerly had a methane “flavor,” Graviet said, as opposed to a sewage smell.
• Graviet announced that the Town will be following through in the new budget year with its promise to neighbors during the construction of the new water tower to re-landscape the property and reconstruct its fence with a more eye-appealing material. He said the new fence will be similar in material to that of the National Guard camp on Route 1.
• Finally, Mayor Jack Gordon nominated Fulton Loppatto to replace a departing Patrick McGuire on the Town’s Budget & Finance committee. The council unanimously approved the nomination.
Coastal Point • Tyler Valliant: Teamwork is essential to rack up points for, from left, John M. Clayton Elementary School’s Macy Kauffman and Chloe Allen of Team Run JMC 2, and Kai Kelley and Simon Schoenhaar of Lord Baltimore Elementary School Team A.Students stepped up to the ring for the regional Vex IQ Challenge on Feb. 17 in Georgetown.
