Commissioners approve Steve Elkins Way in Rehoboth

Rehoboth commissioners voted resoundingly in favor of naming the sidewalk connecting Second Street and the Convention Center in honor of CAMP Rehoboth found Steve Elkins during their meeting Nov. 16.

Commissioner Richard Byrne read the city tribute codifying the new walkway – Steve Elkins Way – into the record prior to the vote. Elkins, 67, died in March after a long battle with lymphoma.

“Steve, with a mind for politics and business and the humor to cut through the coldest heart, took on city hall and zoning laws that would discriminate. He took on closed minds in the city who warned this CAMP would bring the wrong element to Delaware. He began to preach his gospel of ‘room for all,’” said Byrne. “That was 29 years ago, before CAMP Rehoboth became one of the most respected and successful nonprofits of its kind. Steve is a legacy both in and out of the city because he shattered stereotypes and opened hearts with his example, his humor, his attention to detail and his sheer will.”

Naming the walkway in Elkins’ honor was spurred by a Sept. 5 letter from Rehoboth’s Fay Jacobs to Byrne.

Jacobs wrote, “As I walked between Baltimore Avenue and the Convention Center this past Labor Day weekend, helping to set up for Sundance 2018, I could only think of the late Steve Elkins.”

Her letter described the roundabout path Elkins would take from CAMP Rehoboth on Baltimore Avenue to the Convention Center, a path that led him through the parking lot of the Breakers Hotel.

“Now, at last, a sidewalk path has been installed between Baltimore Avenue at Second Street and the Convention Center. Steve would have loved it,” Jacobs said.

In an interview two days before the vote, Nov. 14, Murray Archibald, Elkins’ partner of 40 years, said he thought naming the walkway was a wonderful way to honor the memory of Elkins.

“It seems like a natural thing to do,” he said. “It’s been a way we’ve traveled thousands of times.”

Archibald said over the years CAMP has hosted many big events at the Convention Center. “It’s a place that’s part of our lives,” he said.

“I would be on site, getting things set up, while Steve would be running back and forth between the two,” said Archibald, describing the day-to-day operations that lead up to Sundance. “Doing Sundance without Steve this year was not easy, but everybody stepped up.”

Archibald also said Elkins would love having the walkway named in his honor.

“He’d have been very flattered, but he’d also have this twinkle in his eye,” Archibald said, laughing, then adding, “The legend of Steve is growing by leaps and bounds. He would have been amused.”

Byrne said the signage would be paid for through private funds. He said he anticipated a ribbon cutting in the spring of 2019.