Rehoboth Beach Patrol demo is officially underway
With a few swings of a sledgehammer to exterior walls and windows, the ceremonial demolition of the old Rehoboth Beach Patrol headquarters took place Jan. 29.
The actual demolition of the nearly 40-year-old building began Feb. 5. In the week since a small group of current and former lifeguards said their goodbyes, Delmarva Veteran Builders has been doing site work in preparation of demolition.
Unlike the humans, whose sledgehammer swings bounced off the building with little more than a cloud of dust to show for it, the excavator made short work of the one-story cinder block structure.
A couple of days before the demo, Lynne Coan, city spokesperson, said demolition is expected to take about five days. Once the initial demo is complete, about 25% of the building will remain standing while workers transition utilities, she said.
Construction of the new $5 million, two-story facility with public restrooms on the Boardwalk level and beach patrol headquarters on the second is expected to take about 18 months.
Chris Flood has been working for the Cape Gazette since early 2014. 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.
