CFC WORK SESSION SAT, 5/11/24; 8:30AM

CLICK HERE FOR INFORMATION AND SIGNUP SHEET

FENCING, GATES & LOCKS

THE NEW YEAR IS HERE! CLICK FOR THE NEW LOCK COMBINATIONS

Annual Assessment

Following the community’s May 4 approval (102-8) of the board recommended annual assessment, invoices will be mailed and emailed to property owners in the next few days. The due date for payment of this assessment will be June 3, 2024. Checks payable to Middlesex Beach Association (MBA) may be mailed at any time to: Middlesex Beach Association, PO Box 584, Bethany Beach, DE 19930. Please put your Middlesex address or lot number on your payment.

Bulk Trash Pickup

The Annual Bulk Household Waste pickup will be held on Saturday, May 11. The official conditions:

Almost any household waste will be picked up: broken furniture, mattresses, appliances, etc. Remove freon
from appliances and remove doors from freezers & refrigerators. Remove gas & oil from lawnmowers.
SOLIDIFY latex paint with kitty litter, sand or sawdust (can also dispose in regular trash). Place items curbside
the night before (but no sooner) to ensure collection.

This pick up WILL NOT pick up construction debris, automobile batteries, flammable/hazardous materials, oil/petroleum products, oil based paint, rocks, bricks, concrete blocks, concrete, dirt, stumps, tires, yard waste, propane tanks; nor a/c units, freezers, or refrigerators containing CFC freon gas.

Brush Pickup

The Bulk Yard Waste pickup will be held starting on Monday, May 13; it takes several days to do the whole community, but one they’ve picked up brush on your street they will NOT come back. You may put out piles of brush or branches of any length, but no more than 6” in diameter. These do not need to be bundled. My only suggestion is to put all the branches facing the same way in the pile.

BBQ Meet and Greet – May 25

Mark your calendars and save the date for our summer kick-off celebration, where you will have the chance to meet our fabulous Beach (Lifeguards) and Community Patrol members. The event will take place on East Addy Road from 5:30 – 8:00 p.m.. Pork and beef BBQ will be served. Guests are asked to bring a salad, side dish or dessert to share, as well as their own beverages and chairs. (Raindate: May 26.)

2024 Happy Hours

The ever-popular Middlesex Happy Hours are continuing this season. Click HERE for pictures from the May 4, 2024 Happy Hour held at the 4 Errett Road home of David Burgess and Kate Mounteer. The next Happy Hour will be Saturday, June 15 from 5:00 – 7:00 at 26 Short Road, home of the Thiedes. Last names A-L are asked to bring appetizers; M-Z are asked to bring drinks. Questions? Please contact Social Chair Kate Mounteer via “social@middlesexbeach.org”.

65 Summers of Middlesex

Also being planned is a celebration of the upcoming 65 Summers of Middlesex. Modeled in some fashion after the wildly successful 2009 celebration of 50 Summers of Middlesex and the 2014 celebration of 55 Summers of Middlesex held on our beach, the summer will wrap up with a celebration over Labor Day weekend. Stay tuned for further information on this and potential 65 summers swag.

2024-25 TRASH SCHEDULE

Click HERE for a copy of the 2024-25 Trash and Recycling pickup schedule. This schedule includes Yard Waste pickup every other Wednesday through October. Yard Waste for this pickup must be properly prepared: either put such waste in paper bags or tied with cotton string into bundles no more than 4’ long.

Sussex County Assessment Notices

Sussex County hired contractors in the past few years to update their records of improvements placed on various properties. A community member alerts us that they just received their new assessment notice, but it had significant errors (number of rooms wrong, square footage about 50% higher than actual, incorrect heating system). Property owners should check their notices when they arrive.

SPRING 2024 LANDSCAPING SURVEY

On March 31, 2024, MBA emailed a Landscaping Survey to the Primary Property Owner for each property. Click HERE for further information.

Updates on Drainage

Internal Drainage update:

MBA contracted with Harry Caswell to blow debris out of all our driveway culverts and other underground piping. They worked from Monday, March 11 thru Friday, March 22, before significant standing water at the west ends of most ditches prevent the last stretches from being done. Those portions were addressed in late April.

External Drainage update:

DNREC has completed the second survey of the ditching and drainage areas along Kent Ave. They are awaiting the data from that survey to determine the best way to drain the most water out into the Assawoman Bay. Paul and Margie joined a round-table group of representatives from South Bethany, Bayside Tennis Club, Sea Colony, and MBA for an informal conversation about drainage, water, and how our communities are impacted.

South Bethany is working on plans to mitigate the flooding that occurs in Cat Hill. (MBA’s ditches along Evergreen, Addy and Bridge, in addition to the ditches adjacent the Tennis Club including one parallel to MBA’s Pine Path, also drain through Cat Hill.) This water is supposed to drain into the Assawoman Canal through the marsh which is owned by Sea Colony. Sea Colony says there was a ditch that provided this drainage and remnants of it can still be seen, but over the years this ditch has filled in with debris and no longer works the way it is supposed to. Sea Colony has tried several times to get permits to clear it out without success.

Bayside Tennis is very aware there is no outlet for their ditch water and the ditch is filled with debris. About 7 years ago, DNREC used prisoners to clear it out, but don’t think they’ll get support for doing that now. They can see where the outlet is supposed to be, but it isn’t there.

Paul and Margie told them about the work MBA has been doing with Tyler Brown at DNREC the past three or four years; and about the ditch project in MBA begun two years ago which continues this year with cleaning the ditches and clearing culverts of debris.

Currently there is a dredging project actively cleaning the Assawoman Canal adjacent Bahamas Beach Cottages and Sea Colony. There is a new kayak launching park being planned by the State Parks in the same area across the canal from Sea Colony’s kayak launching area. Everyone at the table was hopeful that this project would speed along the work to fix the drainage from Kent Ave.

Everyone also agreed that we should continue to meet and share information. There was discussion of including Bahamas Beach Cottages, but it was agreed that their needs are a little different and it is premature to bring them in now. (MBA’s Errett, Bayberry and Short Roads drain into the ditches along the west/north side of Kent Ave towards Bahamas Beach Cottages.)

Dune Grass Planting

Dune Grass PlantingEmployees of Mike Jandzen’s Aquatic Marine filling in bare spots on our dunes with Cape American Dune Grass in early February, 2024.Dune Grass Planting

2023-24 BOARD MEETING SCHEDULE

MBA Board meetings are usually held in the meeting room of the Bethany West Community Center, 602 Poplar Court, Bethany Beach, at 9:30 AM on the third Saturday of each month.

In general, the Board will meet in person or via a hybrid meeting. The community may participate via ZOOM. Click HERE for further information.

For further information regarding MBA meetings or events, please contact the Board of Directors.

MBA Organizational Chart | MBA Terms and Conditions of Website Use

Some outside links of interest