Rehoboth Beach and Boardwalk Committee looks to improve safety

Rehoboth is a city known for it's breathtaking beach and boardwalk, and city officials are eager to maintain this image.

That's part of the reason why they created the Boardwalk & Beach Committee.

Stan Mills, the Chair of the Boardwalk & Beach Committee and the Rehoboth City Commissioner said, "It's really trying to be proactive as we get busier and busier, you know? We are the nation's summer capitol, and every year we seem to grow the population here and grow in popularity, we want to try and remain as safe as we can."

The committee is working to come up with a list of recommendations that could help keep the beach town safe and running smoothly.

Mills said, "We're trying to be very methodical in how we analyze things and things take time."

The committee formed after some locals expressed concern about their safety on the boards at night, but officials say there's really no need to worry.

"One of the other safety issues that we looked at is the perception that the boardwalk is not safe at night and yet the police say the crime statistics don't prove that so we're working on trying to alleviate that concern," Mills said.

This summer, Rehoboth Beach will be adding police canopy along the boardwalk and the goal is to help any locals or tourists in need.

Mills said, "So they can have educational programs and stop bicyclists and give them directions and see if they need or have any bicycle likes on there, for things like that."

Some of the other recommendations that committee members are looking at are creating an emergency travel lane on the beach, getting the large trash trucks off of the boardwalks, and installing bike lanes on the boardwalk.

Mills said, "All these topics I've mentioned are things brought to us by either the public or the police department or the beach patrol at this point."

We're told that the Rehoboth Beach and Boardwalk Committee still has a lot of discussion to do so a lot of these changes won't be taking place until next summer or the summers after that.