Rehoboth Weekend Update #14 of 15

WEEKEND #14, 2024

August 26, 2024

Rehoboth Beach, Delaware

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NO ELECTION IN DEWEY FOR FOURTH YEAR IN A ROW!

The deadline to file to run for the two soon-to-be-open Dewey Beach commissioner seats was last Thursday at 5 p.m.

Only the two incumbents filed, Commissioner Gary Persinger and Mayor William "Bill" Stevens.

"The fact that we haven't had an election in four years is a testament to our commissioners and town employees working together to make Dewey Beach a better place every day," says Bill Zolper, Dewey Beach town manager.

This past Saturday, Comm. Persinger and Mayor Stevens attended the annual Dewey Beach Civic League's candidate forum at the lifesaving station moderated by former Mayor Diane Hanson, the league's president. They were joined by Comms. Elisabeth Gibbings and Paul Bauer along with Zolper and Police Chief Constance Speake.

Topics covered during the 90-minute forum included sea-level rise with associated flooding, the new town hall, avoiding debt and associated cost overruns, pedestrian safety including safety fencing and crosswalks, bar noise, parking, canopy and tents, LLC voting, unsightly trash cans, bonfires and fireworks dangers, Coastal Highway island landscaping and electrical vehicle charging stations.

Chief Speake mentioned the numerous improvements to the police department including addressing most all previous audit report findings, hiring a 13th police officer, a full-time detective, two K9 officers, year-round bike patrols, and an upgraded computer-aided dispatch computer system to eliminate paper logs.

The town manager's report included re-paving residential streets and future beach replenishment that is scheduled for 2025-2026.

City officials encourage people to report public safety concerns to the police department when they occur, and not simply contact town hall the following day or email the council members. This includes complaints like bonfires, fireworks and noise. Chief Speake says the DBPD has a dispatcher working 24/7 year-round to handle these complaints which town officials want documented promptly. Complaints should be made to the DBPD's non-emergency number, 302-227-1110.

At the forum, Jenny Taylor, one of the Civic League's board members, presented Eleanor Tyler, wife of James "Jim" Tyler, who passed away on July 2, with a plaque for his dedication and service to Dewey Beach. "Both gave many years as members of the Civic League and were always available to help with projects and events. Jim also served as chair of the Infrastructure Committee from 2012 until he stepped down in 2023. His background in civil engineering made him a valuable asset to the committee," the certificate of appreciation reads.

The entire forum has been posted on the Dewey Beach YouTube channel.

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BIDENS RETURN FOR MORE BEACH TIME!

Marine One landed around 7:43 p.m. at Gordon's Pond carrying President Joe Biden, First Lady Jill Biden and Hunter Biden. Also landing at Gordon's was the traditional decoy.

About four minutes later, the First Family boarded this motorcade headed for the Biden beach house on Far View Road.

Biden fans joined the motorcade route. Here is Paulette Rappa, Sussex County Democrat Party vice chair, Abby de Uriarte and Sharon Miken.

They wanted to thank Pres. Biden for the student loan reform program and tell him they are proud to be Delawareans and "come to the jamboree!"

Right now it appears the Bidens could remain at the beach through at least Friday and perhaps even through Labor Day. So keep that camera handy!

TODDLER KILLED IN O.C. TRAM MISHAP

People lined the boardwalk at Dorchester Street after a toddler was struck and killed by a boardwalk tram last Tuesday. An Ocean City police statement says the 2-year-old boy was crossing the boardwalk tram pad when he was struck by a southbound tram just before 8:15 p.m.

Photo courtesy Ocean City Fire Dept.

EMS crews pronounced the boy dead at the scene. Tram service has been suspended indefinitely. As Ocean City today reported, the previous fatal accident involving a boardwalk tram occurred in 1993.

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BOY RESCUED FROM COLLAPSED TRENCH ON BEACH, TAKEN TO HOSPITAL

A 10-year-old boy had been playing in a ditch on the beach when it collapsed on him just before 2 p.m. this past Saturday near Hickman Street in Rehoboth Beach. According to EMS reports, he was completely buried in the sand for about 30 seconds.

He never lost consciousness. He and his mother took an ambulance to the hospital for what appeared to be a precautionary evaluation. He even walked into the ambulance on his own.

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FLOATING PLANKS AND BUOY CONFUSION

Over the past couple of weeks, lifeguards in Rehoboth Beach have been recovering large wooden planks from the surf in the area of Baltimore and Rehoboth Avenues.

They look as if they are coming from one of the jetties as the sand from the previous replenishment continues to erode.

Also, an interesting phenomenon these past several weeks is confusion by beachgoers who are mistaking buoys for people in the ocean in distress. This is one of the regulars, the "Biden" mooring buoy off Gordon's Pond which is used by the Coast Guard when the President is in town.

Rehoboth Beach VFC has responded to this buoy and another one off Delaware Seashore State Park several times this past month.

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LIFESAVING AEDs NOW ON REHOBOTH BOARDWALK!

Rehoboth's local Rotary Club is leading efforts to make lifesaving automated external defibrillators (AEDs) available along the boardwalk in Rehoboth Beach. This coming Wednesday at 9 a.m., Rotary Club members and other officials will unveil the initiative at the Rehoboth Beach Bandstand.

So far, four AEDs, which are used to resuscitate people suffering a sudden cardiac arrest, were installed this month along the boardwalk at the pavilions on Maryland and Laurel Avenues, the Delaware Avenue information booth and at the restrooms near the bandstand. A fifth AED will be placed at the new beach patrol headquarters when it is completed.

"A while back I was contacted by Steven Grossman with our local Rotary Club to see if we had any interest in partnering with them to place AEDs on the boardwalk," Rehoboth Beach Police Chief Keith Banks said. "As you can imagine," he adds, "the city was all in on this project. Rotary would purchase five units and have them installed with the city picking up the maintenance fees for the future years."

The project is funded with a grant proposed by Grossman's wife, Lisa, who is the Rehoboth Beach Sunrise Rotary Club president. Another AED will be provided to the Bethany Beach Patrol on behalf of the Southern Sussex Rotary Club, which will be a mobile unit for their use. The Long Neck Sunrise Rotary Club also helped fund the project.

"Bayhealth Heart & Vascular Institute joined in the effort to help fund these units which was an invaluable expenditure in making this lifesaving project happen," Grossman said.

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THE MERR REPORT: MANATEE SPOTTED IN CANAL NEAR FISHERMAN'S WHARF

Suzanne Thurman, MERR Institute executive director, says they had a manatee reported in the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal near Fisherman's Wharf. "It hung around for the morning and seemed to head back out because we couldn't see it anymore. It's not unusual for a manatee to be sighted here at this time of year," she added.

While MERR does not investigate sharks, Colleen Evans shares this photo of a dead shark off the beach at the Peninsula Golf & Country Club on the Indian River Bay. She saw it Saturday morning and was told by a witness that there were about half a dozen sharks off the dock feeding earlier that morning.

Photo courtesy Colleen Evans

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CAPT. ARBIN IN HIS 52nd SEASON STILL GOING STRONG!

Delmarva's best-known and longest-serving beach patrol captain is Ocean City's Capt. Butch Arbin who joined the patrol in 1973 and became its captain in 1997.

He is the only city employee on a contract with the mayor and city council and they could dismiss him at any time. "I hope they don't do that. I feel I still have a lot to do here to continue moving the patrol ahead," he says adding that he has no plans that would cause him to leave.

"I've been teaching 47 years. I'm going back to teach 48 years, which most people don't do that," he points out. "The day I don't want to get up and go to work is the day I retire," he says.

Every season, Capt. Arbin is asked what motivates him. "It's not about making the rescues, because I've done that. I've got 200 people who can do that. Now, I don't even know how many times I've done CPR. I don't know how many times I've responded to emergencies." But watching people the patrol has hired grow as individuals and helping them in their careers is what he finds so rewarding.

He takes pride in the job he has done creating consistency within the organization. "Early on," he notes, "policies, procedures, the way we evaluated, the way we rated the guards and the overall discipline just wasn't there. It was a great patrol, but it was more like a club and today, you can't do that."

When he took charge, he implemented procedures, policies and protocols that had not been always in place. "We had great employees the whole time on beach patrol even before my time, but... we didn't have training. We right now move people from the day they're hired through a whole process to get them where they are," he says.

"When I started," he explains, "I was on a stand tomorrow. That was it... We didn't even get trained in CPR/first aid when I started, just put on a stand!"

Now the patrol has an eight-day training academy and numerous certifications and Capt. Arbin has made employment more consistent. The lifeguards know when it comes to promotions how they're done. "They know I have nothing to do with it," he explains as he is not even involved in the process other than providing the data to the group that handles those promotions.

He views his job much like being the conductor of a symphony orchestra. "I don't play any of the instruments necessarily. I played them before. I've done the different jobs. But my job is to make sure that when it's time for the oboe to play, the oboe plays. When it's time for the trumpet to play, the trumpet plays. And that's what the conductor does. And that's what it is here. I have 215 people who do different pieces of the job. I just have to make sure that it's coordinated in a way that everybody does their part when it's due," he says.

There's a saying he has, "Do what you're supposed to do when you're supposed to do it, the way it's supposed to be done. No excuses... That's a standard that any of us would want for a doctor... We go to the doctor, we want them to do what they're supposed to do when they're supposed to do it the way it's supposed to be done and no excuses! We expect that, and it's the same thing here!"

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GEL Z HOSTS SILVEIRA FOR HIS 40th-YEAR CELEBRATION

Local artist and composer Guillermo Silveira celebrated his 40 years of living in the United States with an art reception this past Sunday at Gel Z Art and Surf gallery in downtown Rehoboth Beach. What an impressive chocolate cake made by culinary artist Emily Greer!

"Thank you so much to everybody for making my life writing music in the United States possible, recognized, awarded and shared with all the love of my life," Silveira said.

Here he is with his mother, Coca Silveira, and Angelica "Gel" Clemmer, the host and gallery owner. The gallery features original artwork by the three of them as well as many other local artists.

Silveira has several projects coming this fall which you can track on his Facebook!

What should people know most about his music? "Some people play it. Some people listen to it. Some people ask for videos with it. Some people like to use it to create more art... Children like it. So I share my music with everybody," he explains.

Silveira plans to "Just keep writing music about this beautiful place in the world, peace and happiness. Enjoy."

RAL OPENS 11th REGIONAL JURIED BIENNIAL EXHIBITION
Also on exhibit is "Pigment and Strand," works by Charlese Phillips

This past Friday, the Rehoboth Art League opened its 11th Regional Juried Biennial Exhibition which, appropriately, comes around every two years and is open to members and non-members of the Rehoboth Art League. It encompasses submissions from artists in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, D.C.

"So the pool of art that comes in is from a lot of talent," says Nick Serratore, RAL's exhibitions director, "which also makes it very difficult, because the judge came in, reviewed all the applicants. There were 192 submissions, and 63 were selected. So they had a tough job, but the show came together beautifully, and it's nice to see such an array of talent and all different mediums are on display here."

"You've got oil painting, you've got construction, you've got watercolor, you've got printmaking, you've got abstract, traditional, very good quality," he points out.

Also opening this past Friday is a solo exhibition, Pigment and Strand, by Charlese Phillips. "She certainly has gotten a name for herself down here in Sussex County," Serratore explains. She's from Smyrna and was a recipient of an emerging individual fellowship award from the Delaware Division of the Arts.

Her work is very interesting, Serratore points out, as she "incorporates painting and also fiber art, so the person that she portrays in the painting is surrounded by this bold fiber of multi-yarns and colored fabric, all positioned in such a way that works harmoniously with the portrait of the person that she's portraying."

He approached her last year to offer her a solo exhibition. She also entered the Biennial with this mixed-media piece entitled "EmpowerMint" which won "best in show."

"I paint my portraits, paint my subjects and then I surround them with woven fibers," Phillips explains. "I first started working with macrame, and then it just kind of transpired into weaving. And then I got an idea one day" when she wanted to "see how I can combine a painted portrait with a weaving because I started getting into working on pieces on my loom and things like that, so I wanted to see how I could put those two things together... It took a bit of trial and error until I figured out my process, and then it just kind of expanded!"

Phillips graduated from Salisbury University with a bachelor's in fine arts. She made ceramics and studied photography. But "when we were all home during 2020," she says, "I needed something to do and then that's where the macrame part came from, just to keep myself busy!"

Both shows run through September 22.

PHOTOS OF THE WEEK

Untitled by Richard Tananis ...

Maryland Avenue Bunny by Colette Winston ...

Bethany Beach Friday Morning by Susan Schwartzbart ...

Photography contests: Delaware Beach Life, Rehoboth Reflections, Ocean Photo, Delaware Farm Bureau, O.C. Photo

OTHER NEWS:

MAN KILLED IN PRIME HOOK BEACH PILE-DRIVING MISHAP--- State troopers are investigating after a worker was killed driving piles at Prime Hook Beach. It was reported around 1:45 p.m. on Saturday in the 29000 block of Pine Street off Shore Drive. Lt. India Sturgis, state police spokesperson, says the "preliminary findings indicate that a 30-year-old man from McHenry, Illinois, tragically lost his life while performing pile-driving work for a residential construction project. Out of respect for the family's privacy, we will not be sharing further details about the nature of his injuries." He was pronounced dead at the scene. The operator of the pile-driving machine left the scene but Lt. Sturgis says he was understandably distraught after the tragic incident and was later located and taken to the hospital. The Delaware State Police Troop 4 Criminal Investigations Unit is leading the investigation.

WOMAN INJURED IN FALL FROM E-BIKE--- A 61-year-old woman was injured after a fall from an e-bike on Jenna Lane in Eagle's Landing near Rehoboth just before 7 p.m. this past Friday. EMS personnel had planned to fly her to a trauma center but the state police helicopter, Trooper 2, was unable to respond because of mechanical problems so she was taken by ground. Her injuries did not sound life-threatening.

TEEN BICYCLIST SERIOUSLY INJURED ON COASTAL HIGHWAY--- A 14-year-old boy riding a bike was injured in a collision with an auto just before 4:45 p.m. this past Friday on Coastal Highway at the Ocean Village Development north of Bethany. Lt. India Sturgis, state police spokesperson, says a man was driving south in a Ford Explorer in the left lane of Coastal Highway just north of Fred Hudson Road when the boy crossed west to the center median but failed to yield to southbound traffic. He was thrown into the windshield and was flown to a trauma center with serious injuries. The roadway was shut down for about an hour.