Bethany Beach, Delaware
Bethany Beach is an incorporated town in Sussex County, Delaware, United States. According to the 2010 Census Bureau figures, the population of the town is 1,060; however, during the summer months some 15,000 more populate the town as vacationers. It is part of the Salisbury, MD-DE Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Bethany Beach, South Bethany and Fenwick Island are popularly known as "The Quiet Resorts". Contributing to Bethany Beach's reputation as a "quiet" place is the presence of Delaware Seashore State Park immediately to the north of the town.
Despite its small size, Bethany Beach contains the usual attractions of a summer seaside resort, including the short Joseph Olson Boardwalk, a broad, sandy beach, motels, restaurants, and vacation homes. Because Bethany Beach does not sit on a barrier island, residential areas continue some distance to the west of the town's limits.
Geography
Bethany Beach is located at . The town is bordered to the north by the Delaware Seashore State Park and by Salt Pond, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by South Bethany, and to the west by Ocean View.According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of, of which is land and is water.
Beaches
The town is bordered to the east completely by free public beaches, all guarded seasonally by professional lifeguards known as the Bethany Beach Patrol. The beach patrol, which consists of 30 members, is on duty daily from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day and on weekends in September. Just south of the town limits, there is a half-mile area of private beachfront owned by Sea Colony.Climate
The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild to cool winters. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Bethany Beach has a humid subtropical climate, abbreviated "Cfa" on climate maps.Communities
- Cotton Patch Hills
Demographics
There were 473 households, out of which 10.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.1% were married couples living together, 4.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 40.4% were non-families. 35.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 17.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.91 and the average family size was 2.40.
The age distribution is 10.3% under the age of 18, 3.4% from 18 to 24, 15.6% from 25 to 44, 31.5% from 45 to 64, and 39.2% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 59 years. For every 100 females, there are 89.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 88.8 males.
The median income for a household in the town is $51,875, and the median income for a family is $67,500. Males have a median income of $41,705 versus $35,909 for females. The per capita income for the town is $41,306. About 2.9% of families and 4.7% of the population are below the poverty line, including 9.6% of those under age 18 and 1.6% of those age 65 or over.
The beach is extremely popular in the summer making it difficult to get a spot on sunny summer days. Bethany Beach is known as a "family beach" as there are not as many bars or other college student attractions.
Government
City council and mayor
Bethany Beach is governed by a city council made up of seven resident and non-resident property owners elected to two-year terms. One of them serves as Council President and is considered the mayor of the town. None of the council members are paid. The council tends to err on the side of tradition in governing the town and seeks to maintain Bethany Beach's "Quiet Resort" atmosphere and reputation.Mayors of Bethany Beach
Also referred to as Council President:- 1923–1926 George Townsend
- 1926–1927 John W. Ellis
- 1927–1930 Walter S. Ringler
- 1930–1937 Ebe T. Chandler
- 1937–1938 Carroll R. Jaggar
- 1938–1939 William P. Short Sr.
- 1939–1940 Walter G. Moyle
- 1940–1945 William P. Short Sr.
- 1945–1948 William F. Wilgus
- 1948–1949 James B. Rutter
- 1949–1953 Horace J. VanAuken
- 1953–1954 Edison Gray
- 1954–1956 Charles L. Martin Jr.
- 1956–1960 James Whaley
- 1960–1966 James C. Popham
- 1966–1970 Martin T. Wiegand
- 1970–1971 Ralph K. Graves
- 1971–1972 Tilton D. McNeal
- 1972–1973 William J. Collins
- 1973–1974 Louis Brilliant
- 1974–1977 Sidney A. Bennett
- 1977–1978 Robert C. Maxwell
- 1978–1981 Vernon H. Dibeler
- 1981–1982 William J. Collins
- 1982–1983 Millard P. Rummel
- 1983–1984 Jesse A. Rawley Jr.
- 1984–1991 Dr. Robert Parsons
- 1991–1997 Charles J. Bartlett
- 1997–2005 Joseph F. McHugh
- 2005–2006 Jack Walsh
- 2006–2008 Carol Olmstead
- 2008–2014 Tony McClenny
- 2014–present Jack Gordon
Alderman's Court
Police department
The Bethany Beach Police Department has a staff of nine full-time officers. During the summer, it also employs 15 to 17 seasonal officers, some of them college students in training. The department operates seven cars, five of them patrol cars, and once won a national award from Law and Order magazine for the design of its patrol cars. The police department maintains a low-key but highly visible presence.In 2024, Police Chief Michael Redmon and Captain Darin Cathell were dismissed after an audit determined that both had stolen a combined $150,000 for overtime shifts that did not exist.
Fire department
The Bethany Beach Fire Department is a combination fire department that operates two quints, two engines, a rescue pumper, an aerial unit, a brush truck, three ambulances, and multiple other utility pieces.The fire department serves the entire area south of Indian River Inlet, east of the Assawoman Canal, and north of the Maryland state line at the southern edge of Fenwick Island, Delaware. It has a fire station in Bethany Beach and a substation in Fenwick Island and offers an emergency medical center, operated for it by the Beebe Medical Center of Lewes, Delaware. It cooperates fully with the fire departments of Dagsboro, Frankford, Millville, Rehoboth Beach, Roxana, and Selbyville, Delaware, and Ocean City, Maryland.
The fire department was formed in June 1948 with ten members. It received its first equipment, a single used pumper, later that summer and answered its first call in September 1948. The town purchased property for its fire station in 1949, and the fire department held its first bingo game in March 1957. Its emergency medical center opened in the early 1980s, and its Fenwick Island substation began operations in July 1987.
Infrastructure
Transportation
The main north–south road in Bethany Beach is Delaware Route 1. This route runs north along the coast through Delaware Seashore State Park, crossing the Indian River Inlet on the Indian River Inlet Bridge, toward Rehoboth Beach, and south along the coast toward Ocean City, Maryland. The main east–west road in Bethany Beach is Delaware Route 26, which provides access from inland towns to the west such as Ocean View, Millville, and Dagsboro. There are a total of 1,000 public parking spaces in the beach and downtown areas of Bethany Beach, with parking meters in effect or parking permits required between May 15 and September 15. Outside of the public parking spaces, residential parking permits are required on east–west streets between May 15 and September 15; these permits are only available to people who own property in Bethany Beach. Business parking permits are also available for business owners and their employees.DART First State provides bus service to Bethany Beach in the summer months along Beach Bus Route 208, which heads north to the Rehoboth Beach Park and Ride and the Lewes Transit Center Park and Ride near Lewes to connect to other Beach Bus routes and the Route 305 bus from Wilmington and south to the 144th Street Transit Center in Ocean City, Maryland to connect to Ocean City Transportation's Coastal Highway Beach Bus.
The town operates the Bethany Beach Trolley along two routes between the beach area and the residential western section of the town between Memorial Day weekend and the middle of September. The North Trolley Route runs along Atlantic Avenue and west to the residential areas to the north of Garfield Parkway while the South Trolley Route runs along Atlantic Avenue and west to the residential areas to the south of Garfield Parkway.
Utilities
, a subsidiary of Exelon, provides electricity to Bethany Beach. Chesapeake Utilities provides natural gas to the town. The Town of Bethany Beach Water Department provides water to the town, operating a water filtration plant and standpipe, six wells, and a distribution system. Sussex County operates the Bethany Beach Sanitary Sewer District, which provides sewer service to the town. The Town of Bethany Beach Public Works Department provides trash and recycling collection to the town.History
Before 1900
There is a lack of evidence of Native American activity in the Bethany Beach area. Prior to the arrival of European settlers in North America, Native American settlements appear to have been limited to the area north of the Indian River, north of what is now Bethany Beach; even after Europeans pushed the Native Americans—mostly Nanticokes—out of their coastal settlements in the mid-17th century, the Native Americans moved west to settle around Oak Orchard, Delaware, and in the Millsboro, Delaware, area rather than south toward what would become Bethany Beach. However, Native Americans are known to have visited the bays and rivers of the Atlantic coast of Delaware during the summer to fish, and it is possible that this included visits to the Bethany Beach area.Europeans also did not settle the area prior to 1900, probably because Indian River Inlet cut the area off from their settlements to the north and because the town of Ocean View, founded in 1889 and now Bethany Beach's neighbor to the west, did not expand its boundaries eastward toward the coast.
The portion of Delaware in which Bethany Beach lies was subject to a lengthy legal dispute as to whether the land belonged to the Province of Maryland or the Province of Pennsylvania, Penn vs. Baltimore, that broke out in 1683. While it dragged on, William Penn granted the Delaware Colony its own legislature in 1701, establishing it as a separate colony. The dispute over the boundaries of the three colonies was not resolved until 1759, when the parties to the dispute agreed that the area where Bethany Beach now lies was part of Delaware.