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Homeowners living along Lewes’ Pilottown Road had hopes that most boats they’d see this year and next would be floating leisurely past their vistas – bobbing along in the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal.
But just as in the past, many of those boats will be in tow behind big pickup trucks as their owners navigate Pilottown Road en route to the public boat launch.
About 25 Pilottown Road homeowners attended the Tuesday, May 13 Lewes Board of Public Works meeting, seeking the panel’s help with what many said is a public safety hazard.
“Pilottown Road is only 30 feet wide,” said Robert Maedler, whose home fronts the road.
Seasonally, hundreds of boats are towed along the narrow street, which is also heavily used by pedestrians and bicyclists.
Although some boaters use New Road, turning right onto Pilottown Road to the ramp, others use Savannah Road, taking a tight left turn onto Front Street. Either route to the existing ramp presents turns that are challenging to skilled truck and boat-trailer drivers.
And with a Board of Public Works utility pole hard at the corner of New Road and Pilottown Road, there’s a chance someone could take a turn for the worst.
“The reason that this is before us is because of safety concerns of the people using Pilottown Road,” said Board of Public Works Vice President C. Wendell Alfred.
About a week before the meeting an unsigned document headlined ‘Neighborhood Alert’ began circulating in the city. The alert said “citizens concerned about the deal” authored the document.
The alert alleged the deal was one struck between the City of Lewes and John Hughes, Secretary of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.
The alleged deal: The state’s new and much larger boat ramp under construction on Pilottown Road would not open until completion of a new designated access road.
The proposed access road would run from New Road along the edge of the University of Delaware’s College of Marine and Earth Studies campus to Pilottown Road.
The access road would eliminate the need to use Pilottown Road.
But Lewes Mayor Jim Ford said although the proposed access road is real, the deal isn’t.
“There was no deal. We worked it out as best we could with the state,” Ford said of talks that took place more than two years ago.
He said during those discussions Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) officials stated clearly they didn’t have money for the project.
Ford said since then, proposed plans for access routes to the new boat ramp have been discussed in at least two public meetings. Ford said state officials have assured him that money is set aside to resurface the section from New Road to the bridge on property formerly held by the University of Delaware and now leased by the city. But he said proposed designs for the connector road, from the culvert at the bridge running across university-owned land to Pilottown Road, are still being developed.
He said the last proposed connector road design discussed was “not to the liking of the university.” Ford said discussions with the university have been ongoing and construction of the project could begin in September with completion in March or April 2009. But some residents, while willing to trust Ford’s word that the access road will be built, were hesitant about extending that trust to the state.
“Do we have anything in writing? We’d like to see something in writing,” said resident Charles McGiffin.
Ford said he would work to obtain a written agreement pertaining to the access road.
“Is closing of the existing boat ramp a done deal?” resident Ed Troise Sr. asked.
“Yes,” Ford said. He said a delay in closing the ramp would prolong completion of the final phase of the Canalfront Park by as much as a year.
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