While working on projects around the little white beach cottages with my granddad he would say things like “K.I.S.S.” That stood for Keep It Simple, Stupid! He always made me laugh as I learned and worked with him. Another classic quote was “Do you want a kick in the pants, Charlie?” That was his way of telling me to straighten up. Dewey Beach and I learned a lot from my granddad, but he has been gone for over 30 years. Still, I remember what I learned from him and my father as well. As back to school time approaches, it is a good time to review!
At a July Dewey Beach meeting, Citizens to Preserve Dewey founder and steering committee member, Marcia Schieck stood and told us that she was a business owner. She went on to explain that as a landlord, she paid for a business license and her partner and CPD cofounder Richard Hanewinckel also acknowledged for the record that they were business owners. Well, they do invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in an effort to make money so I guess they are correct. Anyone who buys a business license in the town of Dewey Beach is a business owner. So, keeping it simple… All landlords are business owners. The revenue they produce for the town is part of the business revenue.
It is time to stop separating the landlords from the business community. Remember, the goal has always been for our guests to pay for the things we need and want and not the residents. So, for landlords to try and call themselves property owners as if they were not business owners is wrong. Residents are residents and landlords are business owners.
Still some (not all) in the CPD leadership want landlords to call themselves “property owners,” but why? You see the CPD has worked long and hard to divide the good people of Dewey Beach, and we have reached the time for that to stop. Maybe Marcia and Richard misspoke at the town meeting… maybe not, but residents should not be happy to be lumped into a group of business owners that rent their property. Dewey Beach doesn’t need new taxes. The truth is most property owners in the town of Dewey Beach are “business owners.”
Residents, landlords, shop owners, restaurant and bar owners - we are all in this together. We need to stop fighting each other. You see, under all of us is the land. Upon its wise utilization we can assure the survival and growth of our “tax free town.” The way this town was set up was for the residents to pay no taxes, and that’s the way it should stay! If we do this right, more landlords will buy a town license, more guests will pay our accommodations tax. If we do this right more building permits will be purchased. If we do this right new people will buy real estate and pay transfer tax.
By ending the era of never ending litigation, by checking the vocabulary we use, and by not letting some divide us into groups we will begin to work together and return to “a way of life” that works for us all.
“Do you need a kick in the pants Charlie?” - JE Redefer 1898-1984
TJ Redefer
Dewey Beach
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