Sports
Community
Gibson to lead volleyball team
Local student brings library to park
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SEPTEMBER 1, 2023
THE LOCAL VOICE OF YOUR COMMUNITY.
Volume 20, Issue 35
FREE
Bethany Beach lighting up the sky Sunday night By Susan Canfora Staff Reporter Bethany Beach’s Fourth of July fireworks, canceled this year due to beach replenishment, will celebrate Labor Day when they illuminate the sky at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 3.
Summer business a bit of a mixed bag
The Beach Boys tribute band Still Surfin’ will perform at the bandstand before fireworks. Canceling the patriotic display two months ago was the only option, Mayor Rosemary Hardiman said at the time, despite complaints from some business owners.
Beach replenishment, performed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on eight streets, between Campbell Parkway and north to Third Street, and from Campbell Parkway south to Wellington Parkway, began June 9 and was expected to be completed between June 29 and July 9.
Some business owners objected to the cancelation, but others liked the idea, knowing fireworks would boost business at the sometimes-lagging end of the busy summer tourist season, the mayor said, adding that Town officials See FIREWORKS page A4
Your majesty
By Kerin Magill Staff Reporter As summer 2023 wraps up, businesses in the resort area are beginning to take stock of a season that was punctuated by some of the usual challenges while reflecting on the ebb and flow of a seasonal economy. As late spring swung into summer, weather challenges this year included a new one: smoke from Canadian wildfires settled along the beach areas in late May, keeping some residents and visitors indoors when they normally would have been outside enjoying warmer weather. As for how the summer went as a whole, Bethany-Fenwick Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Lauren Weaver said, “it definitely depends on the industry.” She said, for example, that while hotel occupancy rates have been “pretty standard,” room rates are down to levels seen in the years before the COVID-19 pandemic. Weaver said she sees that as “kind of a pendulum swing” that reflects national trends. “We live in an interesting area where we don’t have a ton of hotels,” she said. Spiro Buas, owner of the Fenwick See BUSINESS page A3
Special to the Coastal Point • Marian Dowling
This crab appears to be the lord of the manor at this castle found near Tower Beach Road last weekend. Seems legit to us!
Ørsted to begin seafloor exploration for Skipjack By Mike Smith Staff Reporter A large 73-foot scientific exploration vessel will be moored off Delaware
Seashore State Park starting Saturday, Sept. 9, for seafloor geophysical exploration and to “grab” samples of the ocean bed on behalf of Ørsted U.S. Offshore Wind, a renewable-energy com-
pany. The goal is to survey the ocean floor and consider options for future landfall of cabling and energy transmission lines from offshore wind turbines based in Maryland waters.
The cable landfall must reach the PJM interconnection facility near Bethany Beach by tunneling under the See PROJECT page A5