LEWES, DE -
Cape Henlopen State Park's current bathhouse has served the park for roughly fifty years. Director of Delaware State Parks Ray Bivens said the building is beginning to show its age.
"This building was never built to handle the volume of people coming through it on a busy summer," Bivens said. "This park and different areas of it went to closure at thirty times this summer."
Bivens listed examples of some of the issues with the current bathhouse. Some examples Bivens gave included:
- The lifeguard area has no proper medical station.
- The lifeguard area only has one changing area for staff.
- The bathrooms do not have enough stalls to accommodate the volume of people using them.
- The bathrooms were built before modern ADA regulations. Some proposed changes for the new bathhouse include larger ADA-compliant stalls and adult changing tables for adults with disabilities.
With these needed changes, among others, Bivens said renovation, rather than replacement, may not cut it. Bivens also said that, if they were to close the building for renovation, they would be blocking the park's only accessible beach ramp.
"And sometimes the construction costs actually go up when you're trying to redo a building that's undersized to start with," Bivens said.
According to Bivens, the project is still in the early planning stages. However, it is likely a new bathhouse will be needed.
Sally Boswell, a member of the Preserve Our Park Coalition, said she and other members of their group are strongly opposed to building the new bathhouse on an undisturbed dune, as proposed.
"I love this place," Boswell said. "And I would be really heartbroken."
Boswell said she and other members of her coalition hope that park officials find a way to reuse the current bathhouse without building a new one.
"We feel very strongly that the bathhouse can be accommodated within this footprint," Boswell said. "There's a lot of empty space here and with a good design we feel that they can accommodate all of the needs that they've described."
Boswell said building a new bathhouse on an untouched dune could disrupt the park's natural beauty and environment. Boswell also cited the protection that the dunes offer.
"The dune system protects the inland areas," Boswell said. "And every time you compromise it, you're compromising that protection."
Bivens told WBOC that studies determining the environmental impact of their proposed building project are part of their process, and will be completed before finalizing a spot for the proposed bathhouse.
Bivens said the project's team is looking to gather more community input as the project continues.
"My guess is this will be in a spot that, come next summer, we'll have some potential designs," Bivens said. "I could see us even having some QR codes up 'cause we really wanna hear from people that use this place."
Those interested in reading the full initial proposal, along with other proposed projects for Cape Henlopen State Park, can visit DNREC's website for more information.