rehoboth beach

By reading the news these days one would think the state of the U.S. housing market is about as depressing as The Cure’s “Disintegration” album.

However, those in the Rehoboth Beach rental market aren’t feeling quite as gloomy. With the cost of flights and gas getting higher by the minute, more people are renting short-term properties that enable them to have a good time without raiding their children’s trust funds.

Anyone spending the day this summer in Rehoboth Beach will not have to fish eight quarters from their pockets to pay for an hour of parking in the city's most sought after spaces.

After vocal opposition from property and business owners about a proposal to double the rate for some parking meters - taking them from $1 an hour to $2 - city officials have opted for compromise.

The new meter rate structure, which takes effect the Friday before Memorial Day, creates three parking tiers among prime spaces -- those on Rehoboth Avenue and the ocean blocks -- costing $1.50 an hour.

Rehoboth Beach commissioners have voted to spend $1.4 million for a boardwalk renovation project.

Work to replace cracked wooden boards and other improvements is expected to begin in November.

Rehoboth officials and engineers were expected to discuss Wednesday how much weight the boardwalk can hold. They hope garbage trucks and other heavy vehicles will be able to drive on it.

Plans call for renovations to a three-block section of the boardwalk from Rehoboth Avenue to Laurel Street. It would be the first phase of a project that could eventually encompass several aging sections.

For the second consecutive year, city officials are looking to take more quarters out of tourists' pockets as a way of adding to Rehoboth Beach's revenue stream and managing downtown parking.

As part of preparing this year's budget, the mayor and city officials are considering doubling the current parking rate from $1 to $2 per hour. Also being considered are rate increases for parking permits and extending the paid-parking season an additional two weeks into the fall.

Visitors to Rehoboth Beach who want to park near the beach will have a new option this summer: credit cards.

The second draft of the 2008-09 city budget also calls for a 19 percent increase in refuse rates and a 50 percent increase for seasonal parking permits.

The city is planning to use a credit card system on all the Reino parking meters on the first two blocks of Rehoboth Avenue. The city also proposes to raise parking meter rates from $1 an hour to $2 an hour. The increase would bring the city around $415,000 in projected revenue, which the commissioners agreed to put into a capital improvement pool that would help fund various projects such as Boardwalk refurbishment, the city municipal complex and wastewater disposal.

Many people are convinced John G. Griffith would be alive today if something as simple as rumble strips were in place along the Route 1 corridor in coastal Sussex.

Griffith, 44, of Timonium, Md., was killed early last July 28, as he worked on his bicycle off the shoulder near the Indian River Inlet bridge. Police said the driver apparently fell asleep, drifted onto the shoulder and hit Griffith, director of Johns Hopkins Fibroid Center for the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics. He died at the scene.

Church groups that served a total of 8,000 meals to hungry international students last summer are getting organized to assist the wave of students expected this summer.

The Lewes-Rehoboth Association of Churches (LRAC) has anchored the International Student Outreach Program since its inception in 2005, providing breakfasts and dinners and helping students find temporary housing. “Churches become the social service agency of choice for young people,” said program director Hugh Leahy, who also serves as senior vice president of Delaware Community Foundation.

Opportunities for a new life and a better future were set into motion for Sussex County in 2007.

Conjoined twins celebrated their first birthday apart and wind farms promised a plan to provide clean energy to Delaware residents.

Beach dunes will be replenished from nature's wear and beach-goers may have an opportunity to breathe in fresh air with a possible smoking ban. Not without some controversy, of course.

Dewey Beach

Dewey Beach Club -- As he's done in previous years, veteran local disc jockey Dave Lemmon will spin oldies. Admission is free, but call for reservations; seatings are at 7 and 9 p.m., with "open" seating at 5 p.m.

Lighthouse Raw Bar -- New Year's Eve Bash (free admission)

Baycenter (at Ruddertowne) -- The umpteenth annual New Year's Eve performance by Love Seed Mama Jump (with guests Burnt Sienna and Kristen & the Noize) at Ruddertowne will go on as usual -- with a few slight changes. The Rusty Rudder has closed for the winter for the first time, but the show will go on next door at the Baycenter (and its downstairs sister business, Crabber's Cove). Tickets are $115; they started at $75 or so back in the summer months, but have gone up about $10 per month since then. As the Beachcomber went to press, Ruddertowne entertainment director Vikki Walls said 621 tickets have been sold. The entire left side of Dickinson Street bayside classified as Ruddertowne was recently purchased by new owners, but they're keeping the "no cover" tradition at the Lighthouse Raw Bar for those who would like a cheaper night out in Dewey.

Kevin Fleming’s portfolio of photographic images spans the world. Whether it’s the simple beauty of birds in nature, a crop duster flying into your face, or the assassination of an Egyptian president, Fleming’s eye and shutter have captured a broad sweep of life on planet Earth.

Now Fleming, who spent a decade roaming the globe and focusing his lens on subjects for National Geographic Magazine, has created two images that blend his photographic and artistic senses with a knowing nod to popular commercial culture.