While newly widened beaches may spell relief for beachgoers chafing at trying to find a clear spot on the crowded sands of Bethany Beach, the ever-increasing number of people visiting the town and its boardwalk are forcing the town to also consider whether bicyclists should be banned to gain a little more elbow room on the boardwalk for pedestrians.
Mayor Carol Olmstead raised the issue at the town council’s Oct. 19 meeting, recommending that the town consider a year-round, all-hours ban on bicycles on the boardwalk and sidewalks — a step up from current limits that keep cyclists off the boardwalk during the summer season (May 15 through Sept. 30) except between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m., and off the town’s sidewalks entirely.
“During the busy summer weeks, many people are walking or jogging on the boardwalk during the early morning,” Olmstead said. “Particularly during these times, bicycles pose a threat to the safety of pedestrians.”
Olmstead said that the town had already moved to add a system of bicycle lanes on many of its streets where cyclists could ride.
“Bicycle riding and walking are not a safe mix,” she said, adding that many people visiting the boardwalk had seen accidents between cyclists and pedestrians that had narrowly been avoided, leading to the notion that cycling should be banned entirely on the town’s sidewalks, boardwalk and boardwalk approaches. She said she had observed the unsafe conditions herself and had many people complain about them to her.
Though Olmstead appeared prepared to move forward with a simple statement of such a ban as a first reading on Oct. 19, Town Solicitor Terence Jaywork recommended the council allow him to draft a new, formal ordinance that would receive a first reading at the council’s November meeting.
The idea was not without its opponents, however.
“There ought to be some way to allow bikers to get up there,” Council Member Steve Wode argued.
Council Member Jerry Dorfman questioned who was at fault for some of those near-misses Olmstead had cited in her safety concerns.
“Are the runners and walkers walking four-abreast?” he asked. “Are they following the rules of the road?”
“The cyclists have as much right to be up there at those hours as walkers and runners,” Dorfman added, suggesting that bicycles on boardwalks was typical “in any resort on the East Coast.”
But Olmstead said she felt the town should work toward better public safety. “We don’t want people to be injured,” she said, adding, “After all, it is a board-‘walk.’”
Council members voted 4-2 to take the issue to a first reading in November, with Wode and Dorfman opposed, and Council Member Bob Parsons absent.
Planning commission changes to second reading
Council members moved to take another ordinance to a second reading in November. That one is related to recommended changes to the town’s planning commission, which the council discussed at its most recent council workshop.
The changes would remove the town council’s liaison to the commission from an official voting role on the commission, adding a fifth citizen member and instead making that council member an ex-officio, non-voting member of the commission, or a liaison, as Council Member Tracy Mulligan said he preferred the new role to be known.
Mulligan said he felt the “liaison” title would follow through with state statutes that talk about the independence of planning commissions from their town councils, as a form of checks and balances.
Olmstead, however, said she felt formal membership as part of the commission, even if in a non-voting role, better suited the council’s liaison.
Mulligan said he felt the issue was one of finding the right balance between participation and independence.
The proposed changes also include a formalization of the duties and responsibilities of the planning commission, as well as a recommendation to change terms from two years to three years.
Jaywork noted that he had two minor changes to make to the proposed ordinance before its second reading. Council members did not formally express their opinions on the proposed ordinance at the first reading last week. While most appear to support the change in commission membership, there has been debate on the subject of the new terms.
Committee members appointed, ramp considered
The council did vote unanimously on Oct. 19 to approve new committee membership roles, as recommended by the various committee chairmen the council appointed last month.
The council also waived an existing limitation of service by one citizen on no more than three committees, specifically allowing outgoing council member Lew Killmer to sit on four committees this year: the town’s audit committee, the Charter and Ordinance Review Committee, the review committee for commercial architecture (where he replaces Don Doyle) and the planning commission. Killmer had been serving or had previously served on all of those bodies.
Town Manager Cliff Graviet on Oct. 19 reported that the town was in initial phases of designing a formal boat ramp for Evans and Second streets, where an existing dirt ramp has been used by residents and visitors for years. Graviet said the ramp had been contributing to flooding and erosion problems there. The town is currently exploring the permitting process for the new ramp, he said.
Graviet also reported Oct. 19 that the town had received a final draft of an engineer’s report on future town water storage needs, with a Nov. 12 council workshop set for a presentation of that draft to council members, with recommendations for the type of storage needed.
Property owners and residents were asked Oct. 19 to help the town deal with a period of rapid leaf fall as autumn arrived, and Graviet reminded them to avoid using the town’s drainage swales for the removal of leaves from their property, to avoid undoing the work of town staff to improve drainage throughout the town.
Graviet noted that the town’s special trash collection would continue through the month of October.
Olmstead reported that a last-minute cancelation had resulted in the cancelation of a planned October cultural event. Events are still planned monthly between January and April.
The town’s Cultural and Historical Affairs Committee, she said, is also in the process of contacting five additional property owners about the possible placement of historical markers on their properties.
Finally, Dorfman made his monthly financial report to the council, for the fiscal year running from April 1 through Sept. 30, with 68.53 percent of revenue collected, compared to 87.83 percent in 2006; and 50.73 percent of expenditures made, compared to 47.45 percent in 2006. He said the town’s year-to-date revenue continues to exceed its expenditures.