Positive steps are being taken to restore West Rehoboth

Mable Granke is still shaking her head months after Sussex County approved an application for the storage of more beach umbrella sheds along Hebron Road in West Rehoboth.

To Granke, an active member of the West Rehoboth Community Land Trust, the action was just one more nail in a tighter-closing coffin enveloping the small African-American community just outside the Nation’s Summer Capital.

Because the land in the community has so much potential value, pressure to develop it commercially or with beach homes – eventually eclipsing the hamlet – loom large.

“It’s not visible, and most people are amazed there is a community here struggling to survive,” Granke said.

Today, West Rehoboth is made up of a few modest homes and several single-wide manufactured homes. Then there is Hebron Road – the route that connects West Rehoboth with Route 1 and Rehoboth Beach. The road has become a storage area for beach rental sheds and lifeguard stands.

Granke said action is taken along the road without any regard for the community. “It’s discouraging and frustrating, and the county doesn’t seem to be willing to enforce anything along the road,” she said.

Community members constantly complain about crime taking place along the road. “But by the time police get there, there is never anything going on,” Granke said.

Eleanor Whaley, president of West Side New Beginnings, said safety is a concern. “Kids play on the lifeguard chairs and crawl around the sheds, and homeless people sleep under them,” she said.

Granke said the community offers so much potential as the last real acreage of affordable land in coastal Sussex County. She’s convinced there is hope for the community with innovative ideas such as moving houses from other locations to West Rehoboth to provide affordable housing.

A recommitment to hope was made loud and clear during a land trust retreat in November, Granke said.

Kevin McKinney, a contractor who is managing projects for the land trust, said the first housing units managed by the land trust could become available in 2011. Three lots have been cleared off along Hebron Road – across from the beach rental storage lots – that could see construction of a duplex. The land trust is also meeting with owners of other lots where a duplex could be built.

“It would be a real positive step for the land trust to own its first piece of property,” Whaley said.

In addition, McKinney said, a $68,000 block grant from Sussex County has helped several homeowners repair or replace roofs, with five more roofs scheduled for replacement in spring 2011.

Granke said the motto of the land trust when it was formed was: “We shall not be moved.”
“There are those who would like nothing better than to sweep it clean and turn the area into upscale housing.

There is a real potential there to rebuild the community,” Granke said.

The land trust is starting to attract attention from local banks and other concerned local citizens. “We have built a strong base and are even more determined to keep trying,” Granke said.

Whaley has lived in West Rehoboth for more than four decades, and for the first time in a long time, she sees members of the community getting behind a common cause. “We are not giving up on my community,” Whaley said

To Granke it’s a matter of social justice to support people who call West Rehoboth home and work by providing affordable housing to make the community more viable.