Sea Colony moves 5,000 tons of sand

Recent storms hammered the beach at Sea Colony, jeopardizing a half-mile of dune and property, as well as dunes and neighboring private property in Bethany Beach, South Bethany and the private Middlesex Beach community.

With support from the Sea Colony homeowners association, ResortQuest Property Management coordinated a week-long effort to move 5,000 tons of sand on the dune running from the community’s northern-most building, Annapolis House, to the southern building, Island House. The sand was brought in overland, via large trucks, rather than dredged from offshore sources and pumped onto the shore as in traditional beach replenishment efforts.

“The community’s property was very much at risk from the most recent storm. We needed to work quickly to prevent the dune from breaching from a future storm. This effort does not replace the larger replenishment project, but rather repairs the damage done by the storm and protects the dune, pools and common areas in the beach community,” said Sea Colony Recreational Association Board President Ron Wickwire.

The risk to Sea Colony was noted at neighboring South Bethany’s town council meeting on Friday, Dec. 8, with Mayor Gary Jayne pointing out that three of Sea Colony’s pools are close to the shoreline, atop its existing dunes. “They lost a lot of dune,” Jayne said of the Thanksgiving storm that devastated the already dwindling beaches in the area.

Jayne said some $70,000 worth of sand had been trucked in by Sea Colony to attempt to protect the dune and the pools it supports, with some beachfront property owners on the south end of Bethany Beach offered the opportunity to join in at their own expense while the town, and South Bethany, await word on federal funding that is now not expected to come until at least mid-February.

The emergency action restored protection to the dune, crossovers, pools, buildings and property on the east side of Sea Colony, representatives of the community said.

“This is a small pre-emptive measure,” said Sea Colony’s Wickwire. “We encourage members of our community and surrounding areas to contact their legislators to secure funds to continue beach nourishment.”

Both Sea Colony and Middlesex Beach have planned their own private renourishment projects to coincide with the planned federal/state-funded project in Bethany Beach and South Bethany, expecting to save the estimated $1 million to $2 million cost of initially bringing in dredging equipment by “piggybacking” their private projects on the public ones.

Middlesex Beach property owners, while generally enjoying at least as much dune in front of its properties as in Sea Colony — considerably more than in South Bethany — lost every single one of their beach stairs over those dunes during the Thanksgiving storm. Shortly after the storm, the dunes existed in more of a knife-edge shape just in front of some of the lower-lying oceanfront decks in the community, blocking much access but offering little in the way of protection from the sea.

Meanwhile, oceanfront-property owners in South Bethany have been left to make their own decisions about emergency repair measures such as those Sea Colony has undertaken — at least for the moment.

Town Manager Mel Cusick and Code Enforcement Constable Joe Vogel were out early on Thanksgiving morning, working on the holiday to determine just how much damage had been done and what portions might need fixes over the short term while the town awaits word on the planned 50-year beach reconstruction project.

Maintenance Supervisor Don Chrobot also worked on Thanksgiving, Jayne noted, using heavy equipment to clear sand from oceanfront Ocean Drive.

Based on the holiday-morning assessment, South Bethany officials have sent out letters to a number of property owners in recent weeks, notifying them that the post-storm condition of their properties amounted to violations of the town’s property maintenance ordinances — generally relating to the undermining of beachfront homes, their stairs and utility connections when the bulk of the sand on the dune was washed away.

South Bethany police also had to respond on Nov. 23, assisting fire department members who were helping a couple re-enter their home and get their belongings out after the storm created a 10-foot gap between solid ground and the oceanfront house, with ocean water splashing between the two. Police reported that the couple had evacuated the previous night, during the storm, only to find themselves unable to get back inside once the bulk of the damage was done.

Jayne said utility companies had come in to cap a number of the broken water and sewer lines in the wake of the storm, and both town and state officials have noted that a number of property owners had already moved in the days following the storm to bring in sand on their own, getting quick permission from the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) for such construction.

“A lot of people have reacted already,” Jayne said Dec. 8, referring to the restoration of missing driveways and dune fronts by those private property owners.

But South Bethany officials are not yet requiring such restoration on a wide basis, despite the letters of violation, and they’ve got solid authority behind that decision. DNREC Shoreline & Waterway Management Section Program Administrator Tony Pratt, who visited the town shortly after the storm, recommended the town not force property owners to put the sand back right away, Jayne said.

“It could wash right back out,” he related from Pratt’s advice.

“If they’ve had bad erosion, we’re suggesting they replace it,” Cusick said, emphasizing that it was merely a suggestion. “If there are further storms, we may require it,” he warned, though.

And while those hoping to show their oceanfront investment properties to would-be summer renters over this winter have little choice but to quickly restore the look and serviceability of their roadside approaches, access stairs and driveways, Jayne was again quick to reassure the town’s property owners that Ocean Drive — and the town’s dunes overall — are not in real jeopardy yet.

“The rip-rap gives a lot of protection — more than you would think,” Jayne told those at the Dec. 8 council meeting of the underlying structure of the dune. “What you can see, it’s the tip of the iceberg. You can’t really see all that’s under there.”

Jayne also noted that most of the town’s oceanfront properties are unoccupied at this time of the year, limiting the necessity to take immediate action because in many cases the missing stairs and driveways won’t be needed again at those properties until at least spring.

Still, Jayne acknowledged the urgency felt by many of the area’s property owners in the wake of the Thanksgiving storm and as the heavy damage that can be caused by nor’easters looms over the storm-prone winter season.

“Some people feel their properties are at significant jeopardy,” Jayne allowed, referring to urgent concerns expressed by residents of Bethany Beach at a Dec. 4 meeting with the town’s beach-replenishment lobbyist, Paul Ordal of Marlowe & Co.

Jayne said he hadn’t personally learned much new at the Dec. 4 meeting in Bethany Beach, “But others learned more about the legislative process and how Marlowe works for us.”

Of the efforts to obtain federal funding for construction of the new beach, Jayne said, “We’re in a holding pattern.”

Though a flurry of last-minute bills was passed by Congress in a lame-duck session last week, none of them were the appropriations bills that would have cemented additional federal funding for the construction phase of the Bethany Beach-South Bethany beach reconstruction project.

Only $3.3 million in such funding has been banked, through appropriations bills under the 2006 fiscal year, which began in October of 2005. Some $14.4 million in federal funds are estimated to be needed now to get the project completed — and just to get it started, thanks to restrictions on contracts for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that were also instituted last year.

With control of Congress due to change hands with the new session beginning in January, such appropriations bills are now expected to be redrafted with Democratic spending priorities in mind, possibly to be voted upon in mid-February. Other possibilities include a delay until September or October of 2007, when budgets relating to the 2008 fiscal year would likely be passed and instituted.

Ordal emphasized to officials in both Delaware coastal towns on Dec. 4 that everyone involved in their renourishment project is waiting until a figure for 2007-fiscal-year funding is known before even talking about a construction timetable, which was once hoped to begin this past fall and now appears to possibly be in jeopardy for a fall of 2008 start.

Meanwhile, efforts to get that funding lined up in February continue and those concerned about the impact of this winter’s weather are still pushing for a firm commitment from someone for emergency action that could protect the dwindling dunes, as well as the properties behind and atop them.

“Are we not eligible for any kind of funding now?” asked Al Ray of the South Bethany Property Owners Association at Dec. 8’s South Bethany council meeting. “Aren’t we into the disaster category now?”

Jayne replied that a state declaration of disaster was required for the Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA) to even consider the town eligible for emergency aid — a possibility that Ordal had recommended against on Dec. 4, saying that a FEMA replenishment was generally not considered the best in quality or staying power. Ordal said that any replenishment efforts now might even serve to damage the longer-term project’s chance of obtaining federal funding.

Ray looked ahead, with concern, to a possible construction start nearly a year from now. He said more storms could hit the area in the meantime and potentially cause devastation unless protective measures were taken before then.

“(DNREC Secretary) John Hughes has said many times that the state is not going to let Bethany and South Bethany wash away,” Jayne replied. “We’re not in extremis at this point.”

“They have done this many times before,” he added of a potential emergency replenishment by the state. “I have every confidence DNREC is going to support us. They will not let us get in extremis. There’s too much at stake for them,” Jayne said pointedly, referring to the tourism revenue the area’s beaches bring into state coffers — a revenue source that has become increasingly important over the years.

Councilman Jay Headman noted that published cost-benefit analyses of the beach reconstruction project estimate a 4:1 payoff for the amount invested in beach projects related to the enhanced revenues such projects produce. Other such analyses estimate the ratio at many times that number, further suggesting the importance of the project in both regional and state economies.

Residents of and property owners in the coastal area of Delaware are counting on figures such as that, and on the ongoing input via e-mail of supporters of the project, to weigh in heavily when funding is considered in the coming months.

Barbara Jayne, the wife of South Bethany’s mayor, even found a way to look on the bright side of the funding delay, saying that it would allow supporters to send additional e-mails to their legislators via the Web sites operated by both towns — something they hope will help sway lawmakers toward approval of at least the $3 million on the table for 2007, and perhaps toward the full $14.4 million needed.

Member towns of the Sussex County Association of Towns (SCAT) also agreed at a recent meeting to send a letter of support for the project to the state’s Congressional delegation on behalf of the group, while also encouraging individual towns to send similar letters of support to the legislators.

Also a point of consideration for the legislators — the potential devastating impact of future storms on the area and the protection a beach reconstruction project could provide to life and property — particularly after the example of Hurricane Katrina. “It’s not just that you want a nicer beach,” Councilman Richard Ronan said Dec. 8. “People are starting to get the idea that it’s a real safety issue.”

Within days of Ronan’s reminder, Delaware property owners were also notified that Allstate Insurance will no longer be issuing new policies in the state, along with several other northeastern states.

In making the announcement, the company cited a prevalence of low-lying areas that would be prone to storm damage, as well as a predicted increase in strong hurricanes on the Atlantic. It was just one more such announcement as an industry-wide trend of pulling out of coastal markets has begun to pick up pace, leaving coastal property owners increasingly reliant upon programs such as the Delaware FAIR Plan, which offers insurance to homeowners who cannot get it elsewhere.