Despite rumors of a substantially slower-than-usual summer season, Bethany Beach has been a relatively busy town this summer, according to Town Manager Cliff Graviet. Graviet gave Bethany Beach Town Council members an update on the season thus far at their Aug. 15 council meeting, providing reports on everything from beach repairs to parking revenue and public safety activity.
Somewhat supporting the rumors of a comparatively slow 2008 summer season, Graviet did acknowledge that the town’s coin revenue from parking meters is down from 2007, by about 2.5 percent.
Meter revenue is a traditional measure of how busy the town’s summer has been, but Graviet emphasized that the drop is not as substantial as some had feared. In fact, Graviet said he put some of the drop in meter revenue down to an increase in sale of daily parking permits, which are tallied separately, as well as to an increase in ridership on the town trolley.
Parking revenue in the town has generally climbed each year of late, but the final tally for 2008 is not yet in.
Bethany Beach’s police department and beach patrol have not had a quiet season, despite any drop in meter revenue.
Graviet said Aug. 15 that the Bethany Beach Patrol has had a “busy summer,” making 105 rescues and responding to 55 emergencies in recent weeks, as well as reuniting 66 lost children with their families.
Likewise, Bethany police have been unusually busy this summer, dealing not only with a theft ring working in the area but a boom in youth-related altercations and crime along the town’s boardwalk area.
Graviet said Bethany officers had made 30 arrests for under-age drinking, 17 arrests for marijuana possession and 14 shoplifting arrests in the boardwalk area alone this summer. But he said he felt the police presence on the boardwalk had helped “establish a level of behavior” that helps the town remain known as a “quiet resort.”
It has also been a very busy summer for the town’s Public Works Department, with town staff heavily involved in recovery from the May 12 nor’easter that substantially damaged the new dune and widened beach, flooded the downtown area for several days and damaged trees and power lines, as well as dropping a damaged research vessel on its shoreline.
As of Aug. 15, Graviet said, the beach has been restored to its pre-May 12 state, with town staff most recently pitching in with their evenings spent using town equipment to push sand from the crest of the beach back to fill in the tidal pools that had plagued beach access since the nor’easter had created them.
With that repair done, as well as repair of the severely damaged dune and the dune crossings by contractors, town staff also recently moved to create the dune-front designated smoking areas that were a requirement of the town’s first-in-the-state beach smoking ban.
Smoking is officially banned in the town’s parks, playgrounds and bandstand area, as well as the boardwalk and on the beach itself, except for those smoking areas, and that ban is now being fully enforced. Graviet said Aug. 15 that, after one full week of enforcement, police had yet to issue a ticket for violation of the smoking ban. He said that, thus far, the warnings issued to violators had proven sufficient to gain compliance.
The Public Works staff has also been busy constructing and placing new beach benches along the crest of the new dune – a project that had strong and vocal support among many in the town. With permission from state officials, the town began placing the benches in recent weeks, after the work to repair dune crossings was completed.
Graviet said benches will continue to be placed as they are built by town staff, until each of the dune crossings has one. He noted that, at the recommendation of resident Dan Costello, the decision had been made to place the benches at the north sides of crossings, in order to avoid obstructing the view.
Outgoing Town Council Member Tracy Mulligan, who decided not to run for a second term in the upcoming Sept. 6 council elections, took the opportunity on Aug. 15 to praise town staff, noting that the management and operation of the town has been “extremely competent.” The remark elicited a round of applause from the rest of the council and citizens in attendance at last Friday’s meeting.