Local News

Bethany Beach’s town code now weighs in at a hefty 7.5 pounds, nearly filling the oversized binder in which it resides. And those who most often lug that robust tome from place to place — members of the town’s Charter and Ordinance Review Committee (CORC) — thought that maybe it was time to give their backs a break, by breaking up the book itself.

It’s been a long fight for members of the Bethany Beach Historical Association. And it’s a fight they lost on May 26, when the town council voted 5-1 to transfer all authority for operation of the town museum to the Cultural and Historical Affairs Committee (CHAC) led by Vice-Mayor Carol Olmstead.

Absentee ballots made the difference in South Bethany’s May 27 town council election, with incumbent John Fields narrowly retaining his council seat by beating out challenger Chris White, with an 11-vote margin.

Fenwick Island Budget Committee members were looking to cut the fat from the draft 2007 fiscal-year budget when they met on Wednesday, May 24. Some $80,000 worth of tentative budget line items were placed on the table, but the committee members held their cutting hands, largely opting to just keep a scalpel handy during the coming year rather than make definitive cuts.

After finishing second last year, the Indian River School District’s elementary school Odyssey of the Mind (OM) team won a world championship in Iowa over the weekend.

When he was 14 years old, Tim Hailey worked his first job as a dishwasher in a local crab house. Hailey worked in the restaurant for eight years, helping run the kitchen, and eventually he assisted the owner with inventory and ordering supplies. During his time at that job, in the early- to mid-1980’s, he knew that he would one day own a crab house.

More than 50 businesses from Delaware and Maryland attended the informational meeting on Tuesday about the Bethany-Fenwick Area Chamber of Commerce-led electric cooperative, and one business has already joined.

Amid continued concern from citizens about the potential impact of floor-area ratio on their properties and the division the issue has caused in the town, members of the Fenwick Island Town Council on May 19 voted unanimously (Theo Brans absent) to take the proposed FAR ordinance to a town-wide survey, while also adjusting the ordinance’s cap upward to 7,500 square feet from the original 5,500 s

There is no question: in 2006 a new councilman will join the South Bethany Town Council. Councilman Bob Cestone opted not to run for re-election this year, leaving his seat open for challengers to vie over this Saturday, May 27.

Bethany Beach was recently given the all-clear by representatives of the Bethany-Fenwick Area Chamber of Commerce to take up a map project for the town. The Chamber didn’t intend to continue its own project, they were told, and wouldn’t see any conflict with Bethany Beach doing such a project. So the town was in the clear to organize its own advertising-supported map.

After months of research and interviews with experts on municipal management, the Fenwick Island Town Manager Search Committee is nearly ready to make its recommendations to the town council. And the key element of those recommendations has been decided: the committee will indeed recommend the town hire a town manager.

Like many of its neighboring coastal towns, Fenwick Island has had problems with stormwater and drainage. With an eye toward lessening those problems, the town has long had on the books an ordinance banning impermeable surfaces inside residential setbacks, except for a single walkway, up to 3 feet wide. Preferred surface materials for other areas included stone and shells.

Increasing sewage fees, a group of retiring department heads and skyrocketing energy prices were the primary focus of the Bob Stickels-led Sussex County budget presentation on Tuesday.

Retiring County Administrator Stickels and other county officials on Tuesday morning presented the county’s proposed $140 million budgetary plan for the 2007 fiscal year to council.

Indian River Marina head Gary King knew that Biodiesel wouldn’t be his most popular product right away. When he received a grant enabling him to start selling the soy-based fuel at the marina last May, he knew boaters would be hesitant to put the new product into their engines, on which they have probably spend thousands of dollars. And he was right about that.

For a decade, Jessica Barbour and Sherry Christensen have worked together in Bethany Beach, selling women’s clothing. But, at the Rose Garden, they were just employees. Since early this month, they started selling clothes together once more. This time, it’s for themselves.

Cpl. Steve Walls wasn’t naïve. When he enlisted in the Marine Corps late in 2002, he knew what he was getting himself into.

“I knew what I was going to do,” said the 1998 Indian River High School graduate, who, like others, was prompted to join service after the Sept. 11 attacks. “You don’t join the Marine Corps to be a cook. You want to get some.”

Russell Banks is a farmer. He is a worker in the industry that once dominated Sussex County but since has begun to succumb to development — especially in the county’s coastal region, where farm acres as far inland as Dagsboro go for more than $30,000.

Delaware was “the First State,” incorporated into the new Union on Dec. 7, 1787. But to this day, some Americans probably couldn’t tell where that first state is located.

Earlier this month, 48 teams from across the country competed in small business management competition at the Business Professionals of America’s (BPA) national championships in Orlando, Fla.

Just last week, Bethany Beach officials were still hopeful that the summer’s bandstand concert schedule might come off as planned, or nearly so, despite delays with the town’s bandstand renovation project. The new bandstand was nearing completion, but the seating area remained a giant question mark.

Local artists will convene for a summer exhibit again on Friday, May 26, when the Bethany Beach Watercolor Society holds its 11th annual summer exhibit at the South Coastal Library.

Members of Ocean View’s Board of Adjustment told a town couple on May 18 that they can not extend their assisted-living business in its current location at 49 West Avenue.

For the 23rd year, the Beebe Emergency Medical Center in Millville will open to serve the local and transplant population during the busy summer season. After opening at 7 a.m. tomorrow, the Center will remain open seven days a week, 24 hours a day, until 7 a.m. on Sept. 5.

Fenwick Island’s controversial proposal to control home size with a floor-area ratio (FAR) netted calls for a referendum at this month’s second public hearing.

Born after Jan. 1, 1978, and planning to drive a boat or personal watercraft this summer? Seriously consider getting your certificate of boat safety education first.

For one thing, it’s mandatory. Per Delaware law, anyone 28 years old or younger who is caught operating a vessel without that certificate in hand could face some hefty fines — even jail time, after repeat offenses.

As Bethany Beach nears the midway point in its 180-day commercial building moratorium and a mandated public report on progress toward new commercial architecture guidelines, the draft plan is reaching the fine-tuning stages.

Capt. John Smith and friends sailed their 30-foot “shallop” (single-mast skiff) into Sussex County waters just shy of 400 years ago, all the way up the Nanticoke River to what is now Phillip’s Landing in Seaford.

It’s been more than a year since South Bethany officials first heard a controversial proposal from Winergy Power LLC to place power-generating wind turbines off the coast of Southern Delaware.

After months of revisions, South Bethany’s new parking ordinance was voted into place May 12, on a 6-0 vote of the council (Councilwoman Marge Gassinger absent).