Middlesex Beach Association – Where Fun Never Ends

LATE FEBRUARY STORM (press F5 to refresh)

2/24/26; 1:30 PM: the Traveling Linemen from the Midwest are currently restringing the line on E. Bayberry and should have power restored to the entire Oceanside in the next half hour or so. Additionally, there are Asplundh crews working to remove the trees from the power lines on Addy and Bayberry Rds, and power line crews ready to start replacing damaged equipment.
2/24/26: 11:15 AM: Asplundh crews are on Addy Rd clearing trees (asphalt to asphalt, leaving a big mess on the shoulders) so Delmarva Power can start the work of replacing the broken equipment. There are currently 3 trees down on Addy, and one along Pine Path that need to be removed before the electrical work can start. This circuit also serves South Bethany Town Hall and Police, and the DP supervisor I spoke with hopes to have it online by the end of today (this is similar to what SB mayor just told me). (DP website indicates Addy Rd should be restored by 3PM today.)

Asplundh crews will next head to Bayberry Rd, then Short Rd. Note that the official restoration time for these streets is listed as “11 PM Thursday”. You are invited to check this link yourself to determine whether you have power or not.

Given that half of our pineside streets are largely blocked by trees, there is no point in requesting Republic resume their regularly scheduled pickups. Trash will be picked up probably no later than next Monday (March 2).

Once the streets are cleared of debris, we will evaluate the snow pack to see whether further plowing will be warranted. Given that daytime temperatures the next few days are predicted to be in the 40’s (with rain on Wednesday and Thursday) it seems likely the existing snow will melt and/or otherwise wash away and the streets should be completely passable by Friday afternoon.

The EXTENSIVE brush debris all over the community will most certainly require a special pickup before the regularly scheduled May 11 Spring Brush Pickup. Word will be circulated once we’re past the emergency stage of this storm.

The beach fared well during the storm. The biggest issue is the 3′ snow drifts on most beach walkways (as of Monday morning). But erosion was minimal; it appears the winds from the north and northwest during high tide late Sunday night/early Monday morning kept the waves down.

2/24/26; 7:30 AM: Delmarva Power has updated their power restoration maps with reasonable restoration estimates. Addy is still listed as “under evaluation”; Bayberry/Short are listed as “11pm Thursday 2/26”.

2/23/26; 9:00 PM: Delmarva Power supervisors were spotted in Middlesex late Monday afternoon. They are working in South Bethany tonight and will start work in the community Tuesday morning. How long it will take their contractors to remove the 7 trees currently resting on power lines, and how long it will take after that to repair the damaged poles, cross arms and wires, are currently unknown.

Multiple pineside streets (Addy, Bayberry and Short) are blocked by multiple downed trees that fell on power lines-as early as 8:30 Sunday evening. Delmarva Power is aware, but they report 33,000 customers without power (20,000 in the Ocean View/Bethany area). It is estimated power will not be fully back until Tuesday at the earliest. Generally, they cut what they need to in order to restore power, then leave the rest for us to cleanup. Small pockets of the community do still have power, but I believe both Mediacom and Comcast are out. Clark Tree, like all area tree companies, will NOT touch anything on a power line until DP has cleared the scene. We have reached out to Clark Tree and they will be available to assist us in the coming days. But we’ll be cleaning this one up for awhile.

Our streets were plowed late last night, and those that are accessible have been plowed to the pavement this morning. Temperatures are currently above freezing.

There is significant tree debris down all over the community. Announcements about brush pickup will be made in the next few days. Although the wind has died down, there is still significant snow weight on all tree branches and additional broken limbs are likely. Please be careful when out and about in the community.

2026 BOARD MEETING SCHEDULE

For anyone who tried to attend the Special 2/12/26 meeting to discuss changes to the Building Regulations, we apologize for the incorrect link being posted.

The next several Board Meetings will be held at the Bethany West Clubhouse (602 Poplar Court; Bethany-plenty of room for community members), in addition to online via ZOOM. The upcoming February 28 meeting will include a presentation of the proposed budget for the coming 4/1/26-3/30/27 fiscal year and of proposed revisions to the Building Regulations. Drafts of both of these documents should be available by February 21 and will be posted on the Agenda page.

The scheduled February 28, March 21 and April 18 meetings will be held at 9:30 at the Bethany West Community Center. This year’s May 2 and September 5 Community Meetings will be held at the Ocean View Presbyterian Church, 67 Central Ave, Ocean View. Click HERE for Agendas, Zoom links and other information.

BEACH SIDE PARKING

Bicycles, full sized vehicles, and everything in between (golf carts and LSV’s)
There are more and more golf carts and LSV’s (Low Speed Vehicles) being operated to get members, their families and their guests to and from the beach. On the other hand, parallel parking spaces along Dune Rd are all marked for use by, and sized for, SUV-sized vehicles. CLICK HERE for more information on this topic.

ROADS

Middlesex Beach Association owns and is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the asphalt roads in the community. In very few cases are these roads in the exact middle of MBA property. The locations of the various utility poles are usually good guides for the border of MBA property; the poles are generally 18″ back on Member property.

In most cases, the existing asphalt dates to the mid-late 1990’s. We are starting a multi-year project to repave the pineside roads. The existing speed bumps and humps on these roads were placed rather haphazardly over the years. As we start this work, we have been evaluating the existing size, shape, locations and spacing of the various speed control devices. CLICK HERE for more information on this topic.

2025-26 OFFSEASON COMMUNITY FACILITIES PROJECTS

Click HERE for a discussion of likely and possible offseason projects, ranging from roadwork to drainage work to fencing and landscaping projects.

2026-27 TRASH SCHEDULE

Click HERE for a copy of the 2026-27 Trash and Recycling pickup schedule. The pickup schedules remains the same as last year. This schedule includes Yard Waste pickup every other Wednesday through October. Yard Waste for this pickup must be properly prepared: either put such waste in paper bags or tied with cotton string into bundles no more than 4’ long.

Updates on Drainage

Internal Drainage (updated 1/14/26): In the spring of 2024, MBA contracted with Harry Caswell Plumbing to blow/vacuum debris out of every single driveway culvert and other underground piping in the community. In December 2025, the CFC checked all the driveway culverts, and noted a few along Errett and Short that are located below the level of the swale and thus collect debris. In early 2026, we plan to have the long pipe stretches cleaned again, and will clean these driveway culverts at that time.

While the Caswell original work cleared debris from many portions of the drainage system, it also revealed some rusting steel culverts. While some are scattered throughout the community, most of these are along Evergreen Road. The issues with various retaining walls on the sides of various driveways make this project more complex than any other street. (Click HERE for further information, which admittedly is rather bare-bones at this time. As plans develop further, we will share the details with the affected properties.) For that reason this street will be the subject of drainage work in the Spring of 2026.

There are two culverts along Errett Rd that are collapsing/hopelessly clogged that will be replaced before the end of June 2026.

External Drainage (updated 1/14/26): Based on a phone call today with DNREC, we are heartened to hear that they are working on a plan to replace the rusting and collapsing pipe at the west end of Bridge Rd. We had seen previous ambitious plans involving a stretch of Kent Ave from the Assawoman Canal up almost to the Sea Colony traffic light, but were advised in late 2025 that much of it was not economically justifiable given the numerous utility obstructions and elevation issues. However, we did suggest that they try to address the above-mentioned pipe. This is good news for several reasons:1) the pipe runs under both MBA and Tennis Club property (joint construction projects are always fun), 2) the pipe runs over and under an incredible number of Verizon and other communication lines (no way is MBA going to undertake something that complex), 3) this is the one most critical piece of our drainage infrastructure, and it is failing at this time. While the plan (we haven’t seen it yet, but it was described to us) involves the swale in front of the Tennis Club, our contact wasn’t sure how far that might extend. However bonus reason 4) is “easements for the project would be required for FAR FEWER entities”. We hope to see this plan by the end of the month.

TIDE, MOON AND SUN CHART

WEBCAMS

Links of interest

For further information regarding MBA meetings or events, please contact the Board of Directors.