BPW work impacts Pilottown Village residents
A project to replace underground electrical service in Pilottown Village in Lewes has some residents asking why they were not notified.
Contractors were doing a directional dig in the utility easement on Ocean View Boulevard during the week of March 3. The work meant tearing up some lawns.
Lewes Board of Public Works General Manager Robin Davis said crews are installing conduit from West Fourth Street to Canary Drive. He called it preventative maintenance.
Davis said the conduit project is costing $181,250.
He said the it is expected to take another three to four weeks. A second directional dig will be done to put in new electrical mains.
The contractor will then restore the lawns that have been impacted.
The Pilottown Village Homeowners Association contacted residents to inform them about the conduit work. The board said BPW never reached out to let them know the project would be starting.
BPW President Tom Panetta said he’s right.
“We dropped the ball,” Panetta said.
He said residents were supposed to be notified early this year, but that never happened. Panetta said it fell through the cracks in the transition period to a new general manager.
Davis said the work needs to be finished before the upcoming Phase 26 Ocean View Boulevard repaving project. That work is being managed by the city, not BPW.
Mayor and city council approved a bid of $723,888 for the repaving and associated work back in February.
The Pilottown Village HOA has told residents a pre-construction meeting is scheduled ahead of the project, which is slated to start in the spring.
While that street work is being done, internet provider Shentel will be installing new fiber optic cables for high-speed internet service.
Bill Shull has been covering Lewes for the Cape Gazette since 2023. He comes to the world of print journalism after 40 years in TV news. Bill has worked in his hometown of Philadelphia, as well as Atlanta and Washington, D.C. He came to Lewes in 2014 to help launch WRDE-TV. Bill served as WRDE’s news director for more than eight years, working in Lewes and Milton. He is a 1986 graduate of Penn State University. Bill is an avid aviation and wildlife photographer, and a big Penn State football, Phillies and PGA Tour golf fan. Bill, his wife Jill and their rescue cat, Lucky, live in Rehoboth Beach.
