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WEEKEND #03, 2013
Rehoboth Beach, Delaware
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MAN WALKING DOGS STRUCK, KILLED ON COASTAL HIGHWAY
A man walking his two golden retriever dogs along Coastal Highway near the Sea Esta IV motel was struck and killed Saturday night by a passing Jeep Wrangler.
The accident happened around 8:50 p.m. in the southbound lanes north of Dewey Beach. That is when 55-year-old Garabed D. Zakarian of Smyrna, Delaware had been crossing from the east side to the west side of Coastal Highway with his dogs. As Zakarian stepped into the right lane of southbound Coastal Highway, he was struck by the Jeep Wrangler and thrown onto the southbound shoulder.
Police say the driver of the 2001 Jeep Wrangler, 68-year-old R. Brandon Jones of Felton, Delaware, immediately pulled into the Sea Esta IV parking lot and remained there with police. The Wrangler had sustained damage to its right fender and windshield. Jones, who was properly restrained, was not injured in the crash.
Zakarian was placed in an ambulance where he was pronounced dead. He had suffered an open-skull fracture among other critical injuries. The southbound lanes of Coastal Highway were closed for about three hours.
The two golden retriever dogs ran off after the incident and both have since been located uninjured.
This section of Coastal Highway, known as the "forgotten mile," has been the scene of several serious accidents this season. An intoxicated pedestrian was struck by a state trooper on May 26 followed by a crash involving 20 year olds on May 29.
COASTAL HIGHWAY MANHUNT FOR WANTED MAN
State troopers assisted by Dewey and Rehoboth police combed the area along Coastal Highway outside Rehoboth early Wednesday afternoon.
Master Corporal Gary E. Fournier, state police spokesman, says a male suspect had stolen an iPad from a car that was parked at the Big Fish Grill the previous night (Tuesday). The owner of the iPad was able to track the device to the area of Coastal Highway and Shuttle Road around 1 p.m.
A Dewey Beach police officer spotted the vehicle at the Exxon carwash and when he attempted to conduct a traffic stop, Cpl. Fournier says the suspect fled on foot toward the Rehoboth Beach water well.
Despite an extensive search by air, using Trooper 2, and on the ground, using a police dog, the suspect made good his escape.
But, Cpl. Fournier says the iPad was recovered along with a stolen Honda Accord from New York City that the suspect was driving.
The suspect is described as a light-skinned black man with blue shorts and a braided pony tail wearing a Dallas Cowboys hat.
Photo courtesy Filbert Smyth
DEWEY BEACH STREET SIGNS DISAPPEARING
The bandits are bending, breaking, snapping and maybe even unscrewing them. This past week police noted several street signs, those that display the street names, missing from Dewey's back streets. Including the signs for the cross-streets, about 10 are missing along the stretch of Bayard Avenue in Dewey Beach.
Swedes Street at Bayard Avenue was bent in what appears to be an obvious attempt to pry the signs from the pole.
DEAD RAY WASHES TO SHORE ON REHOBOTH BEACH
This ray, with a wingspan of about two-feet, washed to shore around 10:45 a.m. Sunday.
It was placed on a mound of sand in front of Funland until city workers removed it later in the day.
MOTORCYCLIST FLOWN FROM O.C. AFTER HIGH-SPEED CRASH
A motorcyclist reported to have been traveling at 80 m.p.h. wrecked his bike Saturday night in Ocean City. Around 8:20 p.m., the man crashed in the northbound lanes of Philadelphia Avenue at 32nd Street when he possibly struck a stationary vehicle.
The 21-year-old was initially reported as unresponsive but later was alert and conscious as he was loaded on a state police helicopter at Jolly Roger Amusement Park.
Photo courtesy Christopher Casale
STAR OF THE SEA CONDO GETS TAGGED; SUSPECT CAPTURED ON VIDEO
A male suspect "tagged" the Star of the Sea condo. He appears to be in his late teens or early 20's about 125 pounds wearing a white hat, green shirt and carrying a backpack with some kind of design.
He struck around 9:50 p.m. last Friday (May 31).
This is what he sprayed on the condo, #ZOUD?
Please call Rehoboth Beach police if you have information.
Photos courtesy Star of the Sea
RAIN, AND LOTS OF IT!
Friday and Saturday were heavy rain days. The Rehoboth Beach boardwalk DEOS weather station recorded more than 1.5 inch of rain. About 4 inches have been recorded so far this month.
Gerald Sipes of the Lighthouse Inn
said "We were able to collect about 200 gallons of water from this past
week's storm" in the rain barrels. "All three of our water barrels
were over flowing," Jerry said.
Photo courtesy Gerald Sipes
SWIMMING ADVISORY ISSUED FOR REHOBOTH AND CAPE HENLOPEN BEACHES
According to the DNREC Recreational Waters Program website, water samples from Rehoboth Avenue, Virginia Avenue and the Gordon's Pond area of the Cape Henlopen State Park showed "elevated levels of indicator bacteria on Monday, June 3, 2013." This was the sign on display at the entrance to the Gordon's Pond area of the state park early Wednesday.
These "sampling site(s) will be placed under advisory until further samples meet the Environmental Protection Agency's coastal marine water quality criteria," stated a DNREC advisory on Tuesday.
The advisory noted that this was "due to heavy rainfall of 1.5 inches and high winds..."
Water quality re-samples were taken and, on Wednesday, DNREC says the results were within acceptable levels.
A previous positive test was reported on August 8, 2012 which prompted Rehoboth Beach to erect a warning sign for about a day on the Rehoboth Avenue lifeguard stand.
To join the recreational water advisory notification list, visit the Delaware Recreational Waters Program website.
NEWS FROM SAVE OUR LAKES WORKSHOP
The Save Our Lakes Alliance3 (SOLA3) sponsored its third workshop this past Saturday. There were roughly 25 to 35 attendees.
There will be no dredging until the second round of bids. DNREC will hold a workshop in August (TBA) to get feedback from property owners around Silver Lake on the State's takeover of lake ownership.
Photo courtesy Hoyte Decker
MERCEDES ALMOST TOWED FROM FINS DRIVEWAY
It is interesting how often people appear just as their car is about to get towed. This man came running from lupo di mare "catfish" Italian Kitchen just as M.A.G. Towing was about to hook his Mercedes SL550 which was parked in front of Fin's driveway on Rehoboth Avenue.
He accepted the city-issued ticket, reluctantly paid the show-up fee for the tow truck driver and moved the Mercedes to a legitimate metered parking spot... then returned to lupo di mare inside Hotel Rehoboth.
THE ARTIST BEHIND FUNLAND'S HAUNTED MANSION MURAL
There is new commissioned artwork on display in Rehoboth Beach, and it is not where one might expect -- Funland's Haunted Mansion!
"Last summer Brian Allen came in and sold us some pop-up books which we sold to the public at our Funland Store," says Christopher Darr, Funland personnel manager. "When Brian was in last summer," Darr says, "I talked with him and I was impressed with his artwork and asked what else he does. He sent me a link to his website and newsletter where I saw a broader range of his work. I noticed that not only did he do the 'light and sunny' artwork but had some 'dark and stormy' work." See his Facebook page for details.
"This seemed like a great fit because for a few years we have had the idea to add a stairway scene to the beginning of the Haunted Mansion ride where the cars go upstairs," Darr stated. "It is [a] tight area so we could not add anything that sticks out so a mural was the best choice. After looking at Brian's work we thought he might be the perfect person to tackle this project."
Allen says the mural is painted on both sides of a steep ramp that the rider's car ascends just as they enter the mansion (which brings you right above the Teacup ride). The entire room is lit only by black lights, "giving it a really cool, creepy effect."
"We wanted to paint something that blended in with the rest of the mansion," Allen said, "so we chose to paint the up-slope of the ramp like a spooky staircase inside the mansion. On one side of the staircase, there are portraits of creepy faces on the walls. On the other side, there are windows looking out into a graveyard. I tried to pack in as much detail and as many characters as I could."
While on a family vacation last July, Darr had showed him the space. "It was obvious that he was excited for the project and we said that after the season was over we would coordinate a time for him. After some back and forth we finalized a plan and he came back this April to do the project. The only thing we asked of him was to make a stairway and he could use his creativity to do the rest. We also told him that we do not do blood and guts so it has to be appropriate with that theme... It really is a great addition to a space that was once empty."
So many people have a connection to Funland, Darr notes, and Allen is no exception. "When we proposed the job the first thing that he said was that he has been riding the ride his entire life and it would be an honor to add something."
"Rehoboth and Funland are special places to me," Allen said, "since I've been going there several times a year, every year since I was two years old. I also worked two summers in Rehoboth drawing Henna tattoos. It was a great honor and privilege to be able to add something to such a prominent Rehoboth Beach icon as the Haunted Mansion," says Allen, who is an illustrator and graphic designer who comes from Bellefonte, Pennsylvania.
Allen says he drew most of the individual elements first (such as the candelabras, rats, portraits hanging on the wall, creatures inside the windows, etc.), and printed them out to size on large sheets of paper. Then he transferred the images directly to the wall using a rubbing technique. "For images that I couldn't use this method," Allen noted, "I drew directly on the wall in chalk. During the whole process, I referred to a colored sketch I had prepared of the entire hallway, so that I wouldn't lose sight of the big picture."
"I started by blocking in colors with bright acrylic paint," Allen noted, "and then painted in the highlights using special acrylic fluorescent paint."
"I did have to paint in the dark, which was a new challenge for me," he added. "The reason is that when painting with black-light paints, the image can look very different with the lights on than with the lights off. For example, with the lights on, the color white looks bright. But as soon as you turn off the lights, it's indistinguishable from any other color. To create highlights, I had to instead use fluorescent black-light reactive paint. With the lights off, a fluorescent blue can look like a bright white, but it will look quite different with the lights on."
"I wore a headlamp most of the time that I could turn on and off when walking around," he added, "but mostly the only light was from the black lights. It got a little spooky working there late at night!"
"It took about eight days, eight hours a day, with a couple 10 hour days thrown in there," Allen noted. "I spent a lot of time in the first few days just measuring and penciling in the elements. Drawing the staircase railing was especially time-consuming."
Darr says the only other artists who have been commissioned to do work at Funland are: Jim Melonic and Brian Boyer. Melonic did most of the original scene work in the Haunted Mansion. He also did the entire facade of the ride creating the Haunted Mansion. He has been back a few times to freshen up things. Boyer is from Palmyra, Pennsylvania and does all of Funland's signage. More importantly, Darr notes, he hand-painted all of the Merry-Go-Round horses.
Darr also noted this article in the Cape Gazette from May 14 about another muralist, Maggii Sarfaty, who came to Funland and asked if she could help give the mermaid a facelift. She wanted nothing for her work but just wanted to give back since she had so many wonderful memories at Funland as a child, Darr added.
Photo courtesy Michael Defiore
CAPE HENLOPEN RABBIT
OTHER NEWS:
VEHICLE OVERTURNS IN DEWEY AFTER SECOND ACCIDENT--- Cpl. Greg Lynch, Dewey Beach police, said an intoxicated man early Saturday backed into another vehicle in the Wings To Go parking lot. The driver fled the scene at high speed northbound on Coastal Highway around 1:40 a.m. That is when, Cpl. Lynch says, the man rear-ended a Lincoln Navigator near Houston Street causing the SUV to spin out of control more than 100 feet and overturn. The accident took out street signs, crossing poles and a garden in the median of Coastal Highway. He said he thinks the other vehicle rolled as well but ended right-side-up. Ambulances took 19-year-old and 28-year-old men to Beebe Hospital. Amazingly there were only minor injuries. The one driver faces charges of DUI, wreck-less driving, and leaving the scene.
KIDS JUMP FROM HARPOON HANNAS BRIDGE--- This has happened more than once recently. Young people are jumping from the bridge at Harpoon Hanna's in Fenwick causing concern by passing motorists. A half dozen reportedly jumped around 6:30 p.m. Saturday. Bethany Beach firefighters and EMS responded along with police. They concluded it was the "kids" again jumping from the bridge and swimming to shore.
NEWS RELEASES / NEWS REPORTS:
What you should know if you find an abandoned fawn or other young wild animal
Report sick or dead wild birds to DNREC Mosquito Control Section for 2013 West Nile virus monitoring
How to survive Senior Week: A guide for recent graduates
Senior Week: A survival guide for parents
Rehoboth city manager nears end of dream job
Top east coast beach vacations (mentions Rehoboth Beach)
Storm water outfalls work continues (Rehoboth Beach)
Dig in at new exhibition (Rehoboth Beach restaurant exhibition)
Decision delayed on surveillance cameras (Dewey Beach)
Lighthouse Cove hotel takes shape in Dewey Beach
Lifeguards enforcing Dewey Beach smoking ban
Coast Guard medevacs 1 from sailboat near Cape May, NJ
Victims track cell phone right to thief (Ocean City)
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