FENWICK ISLAND – Officials say a listening session will allow the town to gather ideas regarding its resiliency study.
Last week, Fenwick Island Infrastructure Committee member Tim Leahy presented officials with proposed discussion points for a listening session to be held at town hall Aug. 31. He noted committee members will use the forum to share information and recommendations from the town’s resiliency study.
“Our primary goal is to get more awareness and have property owners be involved,” he said. “We want to stress that the community will define its needs and eventually it will involve upgrades – possibly costly – and we need to get more understanding.”
In December 2021, the town selected AECOM to complete GIS mapping of Fenwick Island and develop short- and long-term solutions to sea level rise and flooding. And in March, the infrastructure committee received its first presentation of the resiliency study, which not only identified recent and ongoing resiliency initiatives, but proposed actions to alleviate flooding.
Leahy told committee members last week the upcoming listening session would be similar to ones held during the development of the town’s comprehensive plan. While efforts to address flooding would likely take years, he said the town would use community input to prioritize resiliency projects.
“This is a years-long project …,
he said. “We don’t want to drill down on costs until we know what the community’s interests are. We don’t want to get sidetracked.”
Councilman Richard Benn, committee chair, agreed.
“That sounds like exactly what we are looking for,” he said. “We want to get community feedback before we start to develop a plan. If the community wants to go forward with some of the recommendations from AECOM, we’re going to need engineering studies about what to do with the stormwater. Right now, our stormwater system goes from the streets and into the bay. So we’re going to create issues there if we raise all the bulkheads to four feet above sea level.”
Leahy said the meeting will also allow committee members to share what other coastal communities are doing to address flooding and sea level rise.
“What we are trying to do here is share more general information,” he said, adding that it was too early to identify solutions and costs.
Mayor Natalie Magdeburger said the listening session was a first step.
“People are worried about this, and they should be worried about this,” she said. “But I think we should think through and plan through, and this is the first step … Let’s figure out what we need and then how we are going to pay for it.”
The listening session is tentatively set for Aug. 31 from 2:30-4:30 p.m.
