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Lewes BPW customers elect Barbara Curtis, Pres Lee

Each will serve three-year terms; May 24 first board meeting
Lewes Board of Public Works held its 2023 election May 13. D. Preston Lee and Barbara Curtis each won three-year terms. Curtis and Lee are shown congratulating each other while BPW President Tom Panetta and their opponent C. Wendell Alfred wait to do the same. AARON MUSHRUSH PHOTOS
Aaron R. Mushrush
May 13, 2023

Lewes Board of Public Works customers have elected newcomer Barbara Curtis and incumbent D. Preston Lee. 

A total of 460 customers voted in the May 13 election. Curtis received 350 votes, Lee got 251 votes and Wendell Alfred collected 205 votes. Voters could select up to two people on each ballot.

Lee will retain the seat he has held for the past 12 years, while Curtis will begin a three-year term.

“It was a good election. I think we had two other good candidates and we really couldn’t have failed in this election,” Lee said after the results were announced. “I feel good about myself, but Barbara is special and she’s really good.”

Curtis joins the BPW after promising voters that she will bring an environmental science perspective to decision-making. A member of the BPW Mitigation Team, Curtis has been sharing her ideas with the BPW for more than a year, including being an active participant in board meetings and workshops concerning the future of wastewater treatment in Lewes. She ran a visible campaign, utilizing not only signs, but having a presence at key events in the weeks leading up to the election. 

The Lewes BPW will hold a workshop on the future of Lewes’ wastewater treatment Wednesday, May 17, and the regular board meeting is set a week later Wednesday, May 24. Both meetings will be at city hall. Lee and Curtis will be sworn in at the May 24 meeting

See the full coverage in the Tuesday, May 16 edition of the Cape Gazette.

William Landon reads off the results of the BPW’s 2023 election as BPW General Manager Austin Calaman listens in.
C. Wendell Alfred congratulates Barbara Curtis after it was announced she and D. Preston Lee have each won seats.
D. Preston Lee introduces himself during the Greater Lewes Civic Coalition BPW election forum May 10.
Barbara Curtis introduces herself during the Greater Lewes Civic Coalition BPW election forum May 10.

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Aaron Mushrush joined the sports team in Summer 2023 to help cover the emerging youth athletics scene in the Cape Region. After lettering in soccer and lacrosse at Sussex Tech, he played lacrosse at Division III Eastern University in St. David's, PA. Aaron coached lacrosse at Sussex Tech in 2009 and 2011. Post-collegiately, Mush played in the Eastern Shore Summer Lacrosse League for Blue Bird Tavern and Saltwater Lacrosse. He competed in several tournaments for the Shamrocks Lacrosse Club, which blossomed into the Maryland Lacrosse League (MDLL). Aaron interned at the Coastal Point before becoming assistant director at WMDT-TV 47 ABC in 2017 and eventually assignment editor in 2018. 

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