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AUGUST 8, 2025
Police Chief Calloway departs Millsboro for dream teaching job
THE LOCAL VOICE OF YOUR COMMUNITY.
Volume 22, Issue 32
FREE
State purchases keeper’s house Croppers honored as announcement made
By Laura Walter Staff Reporter After 27 years working in Millsboro Police Department, the police chief has announced his resignation this week in a bittersweet moment. Chief Brian Calloway will end his contract early in order to follow his heart to a criminal justice teaching job at Sussex Technical High School. His last regular day will be Aug. 14. “I will still be involved in law enforcement, just in a different way. I’ll be teaching some of newer folks that will be coming through. And hopefully they’ll work here and stand at this podium,” Calloway told town council on Aug. 4. “It’s been an honor to work here, it truly has. We have a great council. We don’t always see eye-to-eye, and that’s okay,” because everyone ultimately works with the town’s best interests at heart. When Calloway graduated from Tech’s masonry program in the first class of 1994, vo-tech kids weren’t typically encouraged into 4-year college programs. See CALLOWAY page 5
Legal cannabis sales kick off ‘without a hitch’ By Susan Canfora Staff Reporter As Delaware’s Marijuana Commissioner Joshua Sanderlin predicted, recreational marijuana sales began in Delaware on Friday, Aug. 1, “and the sky didn’t fall.” “It went off without a hitch and there were no hiccups. It was what we hoped for,” an upbeat Sanderlin told Coastal Point early this week. “Anecdotally, the stores did markedly better than they normally do on a Friday. We have had no negative feedback thus far. We didn’t run out of product. Medical patients got theirs and recreational customers got what they wanted. See CANNABIS page 3
By Kerin Magill Staff Reporter A gathering to honor a family long associated with the Fenwick Island Lighthouse last week turned into a celebration of a major announcement: that the original keeper’s house, long privately owned, has been purchased by the state of Delaware. The sale was announced Friday, Aug. 1, during the dedication of a plaque in the second keeper’s house associated with the historic lighthouse to its former caretakers, Oliver and Rachel Cropper. Suzanne Savery, director of the state’s Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs, said the house, built in 1868, as well as some surrounding property, was sold to the state for $3.9 million. The house has long been owned by members of the Selby family, while the newer keeper’s residence, built in 1881, is owned by the state and is overseen by the New Friends of the Fenwick Island Lighthouse, as is the lighthouse itself. The lighthouse was first lit on Aug. 1, 1859, being built on what was then thought to be the highest point on the island. The original keeper’s home, just east of the 87-foot brick lighthouse, was quickly determined to be too small to house both the keeper’s family and the assistant keeper’s family so a new house was built slightly west of the lighthouse. Included in the sale was property surrounding the older keeper’s house which had been occupied by several rows of mobile homes, which have been removed from the property. Savery said the state will soon begin the process of deciding what the next steps will be toward incorporating the new property into the existing historic area, which includes the newer house, now a museum, and the lighthouse. Both are open to the public during the spring and summer months (for hours,
Coastal Point • Kerin Magill
Family and friends connected to the Fenwick Island lighthouse gathered on Friday, Aug. 1 at the former keeper's house for dedication of a plaque dedicated to Oliver and Rachel Cropper, the last keeper's family to live in the house, which is now a museum open to the public. It was announced at the gathering that the state of Delaware has purchased the other keeper's house associated with the lighthouse, as well as adjacent property. go to fenwickislandlighthouse.org). During last Friday’s event, which was attended by local and state officials as well as members of the New Friends and the Cropper and Selby families, the history of the property was celebrated as well as that of the families who lived there. Dick Carter, director of special projects for the Delaware State Senate
and chairman of the Delaware Heritage Commission, recalled that he met Oliver and Rachel Cropper in the 1970s. He had received a phone call from Dorothy Pepper, who told him that the light atop the lighthouse was to be turned off “and we had to do
See LIGHTHOUSE page 3