Fenwick Island News

Photos from the May 12-13 storm are shown in slideshow format below, with newer photos toward the end. All photos are copyright © Coastal Point, LLC, and may not be used without express permission of the Coastal Point.

The Delaware State Police and Department of Transportation reopened Route 1 between Dewey Beach and Fred Hudson Road/Road 360 north of Bethany Beach and the Indian River Inlet Bridge late Tuesday afternoon, following a detailed inspection of the inlet and surrounding roadways. Remaining closed Tuesday, due to high water, were: Fred Hudson Road in the area of Route 1 and Old Mill Road in Millville, as well as several other roads in the Lewes, Slaughter Beach and Oak Orchard areas.

ResortQuest Delaware has announced its acquisition of Seacoast Realty, making it the state’s largest beach real estate brokerage. The two companies have had a substantial impact in the area’s real estate market in the past, stretching from North Bethany to Fenwick Island, and westward, and now, into Ocean City, Md.

Deserie Lawrence hit the ground running, starting her new job as sales, marketing and events manager at the Bethany Fenwick Chamber of Commerce just the week before the annual Ocean to Bay Bike Tour.

This year’s Spring Fishing Tournament is set Saturday, May 10, from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., and it will be hosted for the first time by Old Inlet Bait and Tackle.

Property owners in Fenwick Island can now pick up parking tags at Town Hall. The town had previously announced that no parking permits would be mailed this year and reminded citizens of that change at their April 25 regular town council meeting.

Farmers’ markets are sprouting up throughout coastal Delaware, and an already-impressive crop of new markets from 2007 will be joined this year by a Friday-morning market at the Bethany-Fenwick Area Chamber of Commerce’s headquarters right outside Fenwick Island, starting June 27.

The Bethany Beach Town Council voted 6-1 on Friday, April 18, to adopt the smoking ban the town has spent the last seven months debating and turning into legislation. With the vote, the town became the first in the state of Delaware to ban smoking on a public beach.

The Bethany Beach Town Council voted 6-1 on Friday, April 18, to adopt the smoking ban the town has spent the last seven months debating and turning into legislation. With the vote, the town became the first in the state of Delaware to ban smoking on a public beach. Such bans already exist in many California beach towns, as well as on the Great Lakes and in New England.

The Fenwick Island Environmental Committee met on Wednesday, April 9, to discuss curbside recycling in detail and had a speaker from DSWA guide them through the process.

On Friday, March 28, the Fenwick Island Town Council voted to approve the concept of ambulance service from the Bethany Beach Volunteer Fire Company for their district starting in January of 2009, at which time the Millville Volunteer Fire Company plans to cease covering the Bethany district with its ambulance service.

The Fenwick Island Environmental Committee recently got itself organized — complete with proposed goals and objectives and a mission statement, but they got their start years ago according to Buzz Henifin, co-chairman of the group.

“Town council always had one member as an ‘environmental’ person,” explained Henifin.

For people who can’t make Fenwick Island’s monthly town council meeting this Friday, March 28, at 3:30 p.m., life just got a whole lot easier.

Your new friends need help.

The Fenwick Island Environmental Committee met on Wednesday, March 12, at town hall to discuss a number of environmental issues, including their “tree triage” program, ways to save on energy, how to get to the town’s population of renters to participate in the new townwide curbside recycling program, and whether the town should look at increasing limits on smoking on the beach and town prope

March 29 is dedicated to trees in Fenwick Island. At 10 a.m., the Environmental Committee will host a talk on the importance of trees featuring Dorothy Abbott of the Extension for Renewable Resources at the University of Delaware Extension Service.

As they head south on Route 1 through Fenwick Island, the white words “Country Store,” set off by the red barn-like storefront beckon people to come in and check out what all the fuss is about. It takes an equally big sign to stop them from heading for the store’s doors in the winter, when it is traditionally closed.

The Center for the Inland Bays (CIB) has announced its 2009 Request for Proposals. During the past decade, the Center for the Inland Bays has awarded more than $1,080,000 for local scientific research, restoration, and education projects through competitive funding.

Work on two early phases of the construction of the new Indian River Inlet Bridge is revving up, with removal of excess soils from the existing faulty embankments set to begin the first week of April and work begun last week on geotechnical investigations into how the faulty embankments came into being and whether the state has grounds for a claim against their builders.

On the table for discussion at Fenwick Island’s monthly town council meeting Feb. 29 were three main topics: ambulance service, building height restrictions and residential garbage pick-up.

For anyone in Fenwick Island who wants to know about construction, building permits, contractor licenses, zoning, code enforcement or flood hazard or flood protection, she’s the lady you call. Pat Schuchman has worked for the Town of Fenwick Island for the past 10 years — and the last eight in building and code enforcement.

As spring finally warms and greens the Delmarva Peninsula, bicyclists from all over the mid-Atlantic region will shift into gear and head to Fenwick Island. The Bethany-Fenwick Area Chamber of Commerce’s annual Ocean-To-Bay Bike Tour is a favored season-opening ride, organizers noted.

Welcome to CoastalPoint.com 2.0! If you’ve visited our Web site in the last few weeks, you’ll already have noticed the appearance of the first phase of months of behind-the-scenes work by our staff on The Point’s Web presence.

The Fenwick Island Board of Adjustments spent a substantial amount of time on Tuesday deliberating the proposed development of the lot located at the corner of Dagsboro Street and Coastal Highway, the site of the former Libby’s family restaurant.

After a five-hour public hearing on Tuesday, Feb. 19, the Fenwick Island Board of Adjustments denied five proposed variances requested by Lenape Tribe LLC that would have allowed mixed commercial and residential development, including a projected Starbuck’s with drive-through capabilities, at the corner of Dagsboro Street and Coastal Highway – the site of the former Libby’s family restaurant.