Boardwalk-widening bids to be opened Oct. 29

The issue of possibly widening Bethany Beach’s boardwalk by 8 feet has yet to generate a consensus in the town, and town council members agreed on Oct. 20 to hold off on deciding when and how to proceed with the idea until at least next month. The delay will allow council members to consider the project in the light of the real costs that will be unveiled when the town opens bids on the project on Oct. 29.

At their Oct. 20 council workshop, council members considered whether to go ahead and schedule a public workshop on the proposal, as well as whether to send out a mailing to all citizens requesting their input.

Initial support for the project this summer has been tempered by a number of things, including some opposition from the public, concern about the devastating impact of storms on the town’s new dune this summer (and what that might herald for an expanded boardwalk in the future) and the worldwide financial crisis.

“I know I’ve been an advocate of widening the boardwalk in my position as town manager,” said Cliff Graviet on Monday, “but we’ve had two major things happen since then: the May 12 storm and the financial situation.”

Graviet noted plans from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and state natural resources officials to implement an additional replenishment of the town’s beach this winter, with roughly 200,000 cubic yards of sand (and perhaps 100,000 cubic yards more) to be placed on the beach in the coming months – aimed at re-widening it and increasing the area between the dune and the pounding surf.

“They’re also going to restore the crossovers,” he noted. “And it’s possible the restored beach will be larger than it was at the completion of the project last May, but they’re not quite sure.”

Graviet offered reason for caution in making such a significant capital decision.

“What we haven’t really endured here is one whole complete year of the project being in place and seeing how it does hold up over the course of a year, and seeing how the dune stands up even with the improved beach,” he said.

“Also, what’s happening in the financial world will probably have a long-term impact on the beach area,” he added.

Graviet did note that bids the town received on planned re-decking of segments of the boardwalk requiring maintenance and repair had come in 20 to 30 percent below the engineers’ estimates on the project, suggesting the costs of the proposed project might not be as high as predicted. Still, he appeared to have moved away from recommending a course of “full steam ahead” and instead urging a wait-and-see approach.

“I recommend you wait until your November meeting,” he said, “wait until the bid costs come in. Take into consideration that we haven’t lived with the dune and beach for one whole year. And then the council can make its decision on what it would like to do, how it would like to proceed.”

Graviet noted that the Corps currently has no announced plans to present an updated plan for the 50-year beach reconstruction project until the planned replenishment now scheduled for 2011. That plan would be expected to be made public in 2010. That means those waiting on tenterhooks for word on whether the 16-foot-high dune will be lowered could have a while longer to wait.

But, he said, the Corps had picked up funding earlier this summer to study a model of the dune to see if it as at the correct level to protect the town as the Corps would like it protected. If that study is completed in the near future, Graviet suggested, DNREC might prevail upon the Corps to let them and the town in on the results of the study and thus provide the town with even more information for the decision-making process on the boardwalk.

“We might have a better idea from the Corps on what their thoughts are, as well as a better idea of the impact of the financial situation,” he said, if the council decides to wait – even until next spring. “There’s a strong opinion that the design they have isn’t the design they want.”

In the meantime, Graviet said, the council should also decide how soon it might wish to send out a mailing to citizens on the issue and hold a single required public hearing. He said they should do both before deciding how, or if, to proceed with the project.

While Graviet had previously urged the council to act quickly to ensure the town could complete the project in the one-year timeline of a DNREC permit, he backed away from that urgency this week. In response to Councilman Joseph Healy’s inquiry about a possible extension of that permit, he said, “Nothing’s carved in stone. We can apply.”

Graviet said DNREC was likely to require the town to apply for extensions in small increments, such as six months, but that the anticipated change in leadership at DNREC at the end of the Minner administration was an unknown.

“We could apply for a 6- or 12-month extension at the end of that period. We may well be turned down. Or we might be approved,” he said.

Vice-Mayor Carol Olmstead took the potential delay into account for the project. “You’re not thinking in terms of it being done this year at all,” she queried Graviet.

“If you decide quickly in November, you could do it,” he replied.

Council members debated the appropriate time for a public hearing on the issue, differing in their opinions about which time of year would yield the most and most useful response at a public hearing. Olmstead championed the winter, when other activities don’t prevent attendance at meetings, while Councilman Lew Killmer said he favored a time closer to the summer, when more people are in the area.

Olmstead said she wasn’t fully convinced that now was the time to be sending out a letter to citizens asking for public input, either. “I have some hesitation about it. It’s an enormous expense. When we have a public hearing we often get e-mails and calls from people who can’t attend. This is new information. They may not be quite aware of the whole scope of what we’re talking about.”

“If we do this heading into winter, it’s a strike against public awareness,” Killmer argued. “It’s very expensive to send a letter out, but this is also a very expensive project. We should give everybody a chance to have their say in this very expensive capital project.”

“If you think it’s expensive to put a letter out, imagine how expensive it would be to not put a letter out,” added Councilman J. Robert “Bob” Parsons.

Graviet said that, with an extension, the town could even consider a public hearing in the middle of the summer of 2009.

Councilwoman Margaret Bogan Young said she was concerned with some of the misinformation being floated about the project.

“We need to make sure they understand we’re paying for this. Several people I’ve talked to were under the impression that DNREC is paying for it,” she said.

“A lot of the opponents are opposed based on partial information, at best, and I think that’s a shame,” put in Parsons, who also noted the potential for federal dollars some legislators have said might be targeted at infrastructure projects nationwide as part of a new financial rescue plan.

Council members found a compromise in a plan to put information and a request for input into the upcoming fall town newsletter – or possibly the spring one, if an extension for the permit is obtained. Graviet also recommended the town use their Web site as one way of receiving input.

Decisions on when to hold a public hearing and when exactly to send out that information and request for input now look to be delayed until at least November, as the town awaits arrival of the bids on the boardwalk widening on Oct. 29. Whether the town will wait out the upcoming replenishment or the larger financial crisis may be known at that time.

Council sets priorities for coming year

Council members on Oct. 20 also listed a number of topics for their future agendas this council term – many of which are holdovers from prior councils.

Among them:

• Funding of the Bethany Beach Volunteer Fire Company’s ambulance service, with the council generally supporting efforts to organize a referendum that might spread the cost of the service among not just the Big 4 communities but to all areas of the district to be served.

• The possible construction of a newspaper distribution area or areas, to replace existing individual newspaper racks and boxes around town. The council is still awaiting a review by the town solicitor regarding the possible impact of freedom-of-speech issues on such a plan.

• Traffic, pedestrian and bicycle safety, including capital projects and possible enhanced enforcement of traffic laws related to cyclists.

• Resolution of the problem of traffic back-ups onto Route 1 from Route 26 westbound during the summer, which some attributed to the West Avenue traffic light. Plans are for council representatives to meet with Ocean View officials on the issue.

• Inefficient traffic light settings at Evans and Kent avenues.

• Completion of one or more pending capital projects.

• Long-term planning regarding the town’s business districts and development as the area shifts to a retirement destination.

• Pennsylvania Avenue’s flooding and drainage problems.

They also added to their November council meeting agenda a recommendation from the Planning Commission that the town adopt a self-checklist for rental property owners to certify that their properties meet minimal safety standards as required under town code. Certifying compliance would be required of owners if they wish to obtain a town rental license.