Ocean View

With summertime trips to the beach, it can be stressful enough organizing and hosting visits with friends and family. The last thing a lot of people want to worry with is preparing meals and dinner parties.

Joyce D. Sonntag, 76, of Ocean View, formerly of Washington, D.C., passed away Thursday, June 21, 2007, surrounded by her family, at home. She retired as the executive administrative assistant to the chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the federal circuit in Washington, D.C. She loved spending time with her family and pets.

State legislation up for approval this week would allow state transportation officials to begin work on the much-anticipated Indian River Inlet Bridge project that was delayed again in late April.

Plans to build a 57-unit townhome development on Beaver Dam Road, adjacent to existing Millville town limits, came up for review by the town’s annexation committee and other neighboring property owners at a June 21 meeting.

It seems like, no matter where you stand in Ocean View these days — if it’s raining, you’re wading. Drainage has become a noticeable issue in almost all corners of the town and nearly everywhere in between. Members of town council took some time on Tuesday evening to look a little deeper into the issue, with a conceptual review presented by Town Engineer Alan Kercher.

This past weekend, proud parents Brandon and Kerry Case had much more to be thankful for than their son Max’s first birthday, on June 17. A birthday party/fund raiser, all rolled into one, last Saturday recognized Max but also touched lives of hundreds of people around the world.

In an effort to clear up confusion regarding Ocean View’s registered voting districts this past election in April, the town’s Board of Supervisors of Elections has been hard at work to clarify the designated boundaries of each district.

At Tuesday’s Ocean View Town Council meeting, the council was able to address numerous items. Some of the highlights include the town’s water system progress, the update of building impact fees, and the potential declaration of the town as a historical district.

Water system progress

A local resident is offering a reward for information leading to an arrest in relation to an incident at her family’s Bethany Bay home this week, when suspects entered her garage in late-night hours and stole two dirt bikes.

Each year, as summer fades into the sunset, things change along the Delaware beaches. Restaurants come and go. Storefronts change hands. But all the while, there are some things that stay the same, waiting for the draw of beachgoers back to the shore.

At least 75 Verizon phone customers have been left without telephone service — sometimes for several days or more — in the latest accidental cable cuts this month in the Ocean View area, a spokeswoman for Verizon has confirmed.

Atop a lengthy agenda of public hearings, Ocean View Town Council cast a 3-2 vote at Tuesday night’s council meeting that will enact a 9 percent tax increase in the town, effective in the coming 2008 fiscal year.

The increase came as a response to recent drop in real estate transfer taxes, and was proposed by the Long Range Financial Planning Committee (LRFPC).

A few minor setbacks in the construction of Ocean View’s public water system don’t seem to be standing in the way too much, as progress is right where it needs to be, reported town engineer Chuck Hauser at the committee’s meeting last Thursday.

As time ticked down this week to Saturday’s election, candidates Roxana “Roxie” Davis, Gordon Wood and Richard Nippes prepared for their chance to take a seat as a member of the Ocean View Council, filling the District 1 seat vacated by six-year councilman Eric Magill.

They will vie for the spot the Saturday, April 14, in the town’s annual election.

As time ticked down this week to Saturday’s election, candidates Roxana “Roxie” Davis, Gordon Wood and Richard Nippes prepared for their chance to take a seat as a member of the Ocean View Council, filling the District 1 seat vacated by six-year councilman Eric Magill.

They will vie for the spot the Saturday, April 14, in the town’s annual election.

Construction continued this week in Ocean View as the town moved closer to getting a central water system. With crews rounding up construction in Country Estates and Country Village, sights are set on Route 26 — though the primary concern inhibiting construction along the major roadway is the same one that prevented the project from getting started in the past: easements.

The first annual Lord Baltimore Fun Festival is set to kick off May 19, with hopes to mimic the excitement and exhilaration that the old Coastal Music & Arts Festival had brought to the area years ago.

With vendors, arts and crafts, games, food booths, music, pony rides, a moon bounce and train ride, the Fun Festival is a promising event for children and families.

Warm summer days at the beach and icy confections go together like peanut butter and jelly, or bikinis and sunscreen. But the days of Bethany Beach residents and vacationers running off the beach or out of their homes at the sound of a ringing bell to get a snowball have become a distant memory. That’s something Melvin McMahon would like to change.

Cold weather moving in may discourage some of the construction on the new Ocean View Police Department, but work thus far has been spot on. In fact, the completion date of the new building, originally set for the second week of June, now sits at May 18, according to Willow Construction’s project manager, Rebecca Howe.

Bethany Beach Town Council members have been eager to champion the creation of a farmers’ market in the town, as proposed last month by Delaware Department of Agriculture officials. But at their council workshop on Monday, Feb. 12, the council members made it clear that the ball is in the court of those who will organize the market and are seeking a location on private property.

Alice Hajjar has been commuting to the Eastern Shore beaches for many years now. Formerly a human resources consultant, her passion for dancing is becoming more of a true calling with each passing day. Though a Frederick, Md., resident, she has now found time to introduce her love of ballroom dancing to the Delmarva area, most recently in Ocean View.

The fate of a long-anticipated project to widen Route 26 from the Assawoman Canal to unincorporated Clarksville now parallels that of a package of fee and tax increases introduced by Gov. Ruth Ann Minner in her 2008-fiscal-year budget proposal last month, state officials have said recently.

Some residents in Ocean View’s Country Village may have received an unwelcome wake-up call on recent mornings as construction began this past week on the new central, public water system to replace the individual wells that currently service the town.

Weeks of dedicated hours and an impressive accumulation of lights and decorations are displayed at the Golis family’s Ocean View residence every holiday season. But this year, for the first time in their 20-year tradition, the twinkling exhibition became the target of some decidedly discourteous mischief.

The completion of Ocean View’s new police building at 201 Central Avenue may still be seven months away, but locals won’t have to wait much longer before noticing a change in the building’s appearance.

The Town of Ocean View is hoping to spread the holiday spirit this weekend by holding the 23rd annual Carols in the Park Christmas Celebration on Friday, Dec. 8, in John West Memorial Park.

A regular customer of Ocean View’s Beach Cottage visited the furniture store/art gallery recently — not to purchase anything, but to show her new puppy to the store’s owner, Karen Pomije.

The Ocean View Board of Adjustments met on Thursday, Nov. 16, for several public hearings. In board action that night:

• Jackie Katz of Beached Blonde Designs was granted variance from §222-94-B(3) of the Town Code to place a wall sign in excess of the signage height restrictions at the south end of her shop at 13 Atlantic Avenue.

This Thanksgiving weekend will mark the 12th annual Southeastern Delaware Artists Studio Tour (SEDAST), when 15 of the top artists and crafters in the state open their studios to the public.

Village of Bear Trap Dunes’ home owners are looking beyond this holiday week toward the coming holiday season, and are again decorating their houses with lights, Christmas trees and décor, as part of plans to host the fourth Bear Trap-sponsored Holiday Home Tour.

After a one-year layoff following a successful event in 2004, seven homes are participating in this year’s Dec. 2 tour.