FENWICK ISLAND, Del. - The Fenwick Island Town Council recently approved contracts from the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that support the town's efforts to begin a dredging project in parts of Little Assawoman Bay.
According to the project plan, nearly 19,000 cubic feet of dredged material will be moved from the bay's boating channels and reused on Seal Island, which sits about 300 yards in the bay off north Fenwick.
Longtime neighbors and boaters like John Kleinstuber say the project is much needed and long overdue.
"The sand bars are very shallow and the channels themselves are not very deep," says Kleinstuber.
Kleinstuber's neighbor Glenn Hessler has also boated and fished in the Little Assawoman Bay for almost all his life and has noticed the unsafe impact of sediment buildup in the bay.
"I've seen people just run into sandbars and people can easily get hurt," says Hessler. "It's a safety issue."
Both Kleinstuber and Hessler are looking forward to the project, but they are skeptical that it will actually happen.
"We're not Rehoboth," says Hessler. "That's it. I mean I'm trying to be nice, but they kind of ignore this back bay."
Chair of the Fenwick Island Dredging Committee Bill Rymer says he believes the project will happen, but it will take a long approval process and nearly $2 million from the state of Delaware and national government grants. He says the goal is to begin dredging in November of 2023.