REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. - Rehoboth Avenue will be repaved after nearly 20 years come mid-September, however, the roadwork is sparking concerns from local businesses.
The DelDOT contractor, A-Del, will be paving Rehoboth Avenue from the traffic circle to the bandstand. The work will take place 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. daily Sunday evening through Friday morning. The city says the project will include milling, paving, restriping and curb work.
Local businesses including Christmas Spirit and Gidgets Gadgets are concerned that the road work will negatively impact their businesses as this entails taking up parking spaces along the avenue.
No work will occur after 6 a.m. Thursday, October 23, in preparation for Sea Witch weekend said the city.
The owner of Gidgets Gadgets, Steve Fallon, told Coast TV he feels the City shows a lack of care for the survival of businesses in Rehoboth Beach.
"The next few months are our strongest quarter next to the summer season," Fallon wrote in an email. He says he would prefer the work to be done during March or April, which is the store's slowest months.
Rudolph Gonzales is a long time employee at RB Convenience on Rehoboth Avenue. He says he understand the paving is necessary, but the timing is the problem.
"It's going to hurt out business for the reason that they're staring it after the 15th, which is the free parking," Gonzales explained. "With the repaving going on, it's going to affect parking, which is pretty much going to keep customers out. It's going to bring business down. So economically, it's going to hurt us."
Henry Matlosz is the Director of Public Works for the City. According to him, the City took weather conditions into consideration when planning for the weeks long project.
"We want to make sure the work gets done in one season. A lot of the work is weather dependent and we wouldn't want to take a chance of starting the work too late" Matlosz told CoastTV.
Matlosz says the work is expected to start around October 1 and the goal is to be done before winter.