Face masks to be required everywhere in Rehoboth
Beginning at 5 p.m., Wednesday, July 1, the wearing of face masks will be required everywhere in Rehoboth Beach. Face masks have already been required on the Boardwalk for weeks now.
During a special meeting Tuesday, June 30, commissioners voted unanimously in favor of requiring face mask wearing on all city streets, in commercial establishments and on the beach.
The decision comes on the heels of a recent spike in COVID-19 cases in the Rehoboth and Dewey beach areas, and a subsequent decision by Gov. John Carney to close all bar activity at the beach effective Friday, July 3.
Mayor Paul Kuhns said enforcing the requirement is going to be difficult, but it’s important to get the message out that Rehoboth is taking the issue seriously.
“When you're on the beach, a mask is required. When you're in the water, that’s not part of the order,” said Kuhns.
Commissioner Richard Byrne said the city is at a tipping point, and he said, “We don’t want to tip backward.”
City Manager Sharon Lynn made the recommendation to the commissioners. She said citywide mask-wearing is a simple message to get across that everyone can understand.
The infrastructure of Rehoboth Beach can’t support social distancing in June, July and August, said Lynn, adding city staff will begin putting up signage as soon as possible.
Chris Flood has been working for the Cape Gazette since early 2014 and has the local parking passes to prove it. He currently covers Rehoboth Beach and Henlopen Acres, but has also covered Dewey Beach and the state government. He covers environmental stories, business stories, random stories on subjects he finds interesting and has a column called ‘Choppin’ Wood’ that runs every other week. Additionally, Chris moonlights as the company’s circulation manager, which primarily means fixing boxes during daylight hours that are jammed with coins, but sometimes means delivering papers in the middle of the night. He’s a graduate of the University of Maine and the Landing School of Boat Building & Design. People are often surprised to learn that Chris was able to convince someone to marry him and, more surprisingly, convince that person to then have kids with him.
