Bethany Beach Town Council members voted unanimously at their Feb. 15 meeting to pursue the possibility of expanding the town’s boardwalk from 12 feet in width to 20 feet in width.
The 6-0 vote (Council Member Steve Wode absent) directed Town Manager Cliff Graviet to submit to the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) a coastal zone construction application that, if approved, would permit the town to conduct construction seaward of the existing DNREC building line so that the sometimes crowded boardwalk could be widened.
“This is a once-in-a-generation, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Graviet told the council.
“We’ll never match the 35 feet Ocean City (Md.) has or the 35, 29 and, in some spots, 12 feet Rehoboth Beach has,” he said, “but this would have a significant impact and make the boardwalk a more enjoyable place to be.”
Graviet estimated that initial engineering costs on the project, to create schematics that would need to be submitted to DNREC for the permit application, would run about $5,400. The widened boardwalk, if constructed, would reach toward but not touch the new dunes.
The proposed project had found general support among the council at their most recent workshop, though some council members — and members of the public — have said they wished the project could include an elevation of the proposed new portion of the boardwalk, if not the entirety of the structure, with lingering concerns by some that the new dune is too high to allow the kind of ocean views the town once had from the boardwalk.
The town is still awaiting a response from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to a DNREC request to consider lowering the dune by 2 feet to accommodate better views, if storm protection would not be significantly impacted as a result.
With the beach reconstruction project nearly complete under the terms of the initial contract, Graviet said he felt now was the ideal time to ask permission from DNREC to expand the boardwalk — a move he said he hoped would lessen congestion on the seaside structure during the busy summer months.
Final work on dune crossings and street access to the newly expanded beach has been taking place in recent weeks. The council also approved unanimously on Feb. 15 a contract from Ecological Restoration and Management Inc. for $36,348 for the creation of new sand/clay crossovers at the Oakwood, Ashwood, Maplewood and Third Street street ends, as well as replacement of snow fencing on all oceanfront street ends.
Graviet further reported that DNREC officials were focusing on the completion of the existing contract related to the beach reconstruction before they would deal with access of private properties to the beach and across the dunes. He said once that contract is completed, DNREC officials said they would be in contact with the private property owners to whom they had previously made promises about access.
Along with the other improvements to the beach area, Graviet reported last Friday that six foot-wash platforms had been relocated from their previous spots on the boardwalk. He said the new locations were more accessible and would be more user- and environmentally-friendly.
The town is also in the process of removing scrub and weedy invasive plants — many of them non-native — from the street end areas at the beach, Graviet reported, with plans to replace many of the plants with native species.
Problems with light spillage from the boardwalk area onto private property are also being dealt with, Graviet said. He reported that some property owners had apparently taken the issue into their own hands by painting over light-covering globes with black paint to block the light.
The town manager reported that town employees had been installing new shields that were meant to reduce light spillage. The shields are currently in the trial phase, he emphasized.
Graviet also reported ongoing struggles by public works employees to deal with a marshy area in the 200 block of Parkwood and Hollywood streets. He said truckloads of dirt dumped there by the town “had not touched the problem.” Installation of a culvert to help with drainage there is planned, he said.
Finally, Graviet said state transportation officials had decided not to pursue the installation of crosswalk countdown clocks at Route 1, as the town had requested. He said they had also rejected the idea of continuing a new “rumble strip” project into town limits since, they said, many property owners found them too noisy.
Graviet said the town did plan to ask for a red-light enforcement camera to be installed at the Route 1/Route 26 intersection.
Finances, permit
requirements, ambulance discussed at meeting
Also on Feb. 15, council members voted unanimously to adopt an ordinance that formally requires the conspicuous display of building permits when work is being done in town limits.
An oversight in previous construction ordinances had left out the formal requirement, as well as fines for violation of the requirement. The fines for violations of the new ordinance were set at the maximum, raising the potential fine from $100 to $500.
Council Member Jerry Dorfman reported that the town had taken in 98.29 percent of budgeted revenue through the fiscal year, which started April 1, 2007, compared to 83.88 percent in 2007. Expenditures were roughly the same as at this point in 2007, at 77.9 percent of the budgeted amount, compared to 76 percent in 2007. The town’s revenue continues to exceed its expenditures, despite an ongoing regional slowdown in real estate-related revenue.
Dorfman noted that the town’s general fund has already exceeded 100 percent of its budgeted forecast for revenue, with two months still remaining in this fiscal year.
Council members will tackle additional elements of the town’s finances as they meet in the coming months to approve the budget for the 2009 fiscal year.
Dorfman said the overall draft budget was up slightly over last year, with a 14 percent increase planned for the beach patrol due to expanded duties on the new beach. A 4 percent increase in water revenues is planned, he said, to accommodate costs for current and future capital needs. Water usage feeds are expected to increase about $150 per year for a typical user under the proposed increase.
The next meeting on the budget is set for Feb. 29.
Council members at last Friday’s meeting also set a vote for their March meeting on whether they will assess property owners an annual fee of about $40 that would go toward financing the provision of ambulance service to the town by the Bethany Beach Volunteer Fire Company.
The Millville Volunteer Fire Company, which currently provides the service through the Bethany company, has notified the town and the Bethany firefighters that it will discontinue the service to the coastal area in January of 2009, due to increasing demand and expenses for its western territory.