As Memorial Day nears, Rehoboth Beach is prepped and ready

Memorial Day weekend kicks off the summer season, and Rehoboth Beach staff have been busy getting ready for the annual onslaught of visitors.

During a commissioner meeting May 16, Assistant City Manager Evan Miller said with Memorial Day fast approaching, he thought it was a good idea for the different departments to inform the commissioners on their preparations to get ready for the 2025 season. He introduced four department heads – Parking Department Supervisor June Embert, Rehoboth Beach Patrol Capt. Jeff Giles, Public Works Director Henry Matlosz and Police Chief Keith Banks.

Embert said the parking department hired 30 seasonal employees – 16 enforcement, eight office, two part-time data entry and four for permit sales.

She said sign installation and street painting started back in March, two of the office clerks started training in April and the rest of the seasonal staff started training in early May to prepare for pay-to-park season, which began May 15.

Embert said parking permits became available for purchase April 1. Sales in April were just over $89,000, while they brought in a little more than $255,000 from May 1 to May 15, she said.

Entering his fifth season, Giles said all his staff have been hired for about a month. There are up to 80 people, including shack assistants, EMTs, lifeguards and a few other staff members, he said.

Giles said this year there are 20 rookies and three beach ambassadors who help enforce beach rules while the lifeguards are watching the water.

As for senior staff, Giles said he’ll continue to have the same three chiefs, and nine of 10 lieutenants and sergeants that make up the patrol’s leadership team are returning. These are the go-to people who train the other guards and make sure things are safe on the beach, he said.

“We got very lucky to get all those people back,” said Giles. “Leadership team-wise, it’s just picking up where we started last year. We’re ready to go.”

Regarding the beach patrol building, Giles said the main resource is the first aid station, which he said will be ready to go for Memorial Day weekend.

Matlosz said the streets department has three full-time seasonal employees and nine part time. Working hours for the streets department during the summer are 5 a.m. to 10 p.m., and the night crew started working the weekend of May 16.

All the trash and recycling cans, lifeguard stands, benches and bike racks have been freshly painted, and the city has installed four cocomats at dune crossings this year, said Matlosz. The cocomats have been well received, but they’re too soft for wheelchairs, so regular mobimats have been installed on the dune crossings at Maryland Avenue and Laurel Street, he said.

Banks finished the staff’s preseason report. He said there are 16 summer officers, and they were graduating from the seasonal police academy that weekend.

With six additional officers this year, there should be a greater law enforcement presence than last year, said Banks.

The police department will continue patrolling the farmers market each Tuesday and the bandstand during the summer concert series, said Banks. That worked out well last year, he said.

Foreign students working here for the summer began arriving in March, and Banks said the police department and state transportation office have been holding weekly bike safety meetings since April.

There will be extra police patrols on duty this coming holiday weekend, said Banks.