Rehoboth fireworks: 15 minutes to sparkle, a year to plan

• Rehoboth Beach is preparing for an annual fireworks display planned Sunday.
• The launch location shifted because of heavy winter storms.
• Planning for the event started about a year ago.

Early last week, a state Fire Marshal's office deputy measured the beach at Rehoboth, one of the final steps in the year-long effort to plan and prepare for the annual fireworks display.

The location shifted a little this year because of damage following a massive winter storm in January. So on Sunday, look for the fireworks to launch from the beach at Laurel Street, said Cynthia Ferguson, the pyrotechnician with Zambelli Fireworks, headquartered in New Castle, Pennsylvania, that stages pyrotechnic displays across the country.

The shift in the fireworks display is one more adaptation for visitors after a stormy fall and winter. There also won't be quite as much space on the beach to sit or stand while rockets burst in air.

A nor'easter in early October 2015 depleted some of the wide, enhanced beach at Rehoboth. Last summer it was close to 150 to 200 feet wide from the dune to the water's edge. A second, major storm in January destroyed dunes at the north end of Rehoboth Beach, damaged the boardwalk in front of the Henlopen Hotel and caused more significant beach loss. At the start of this summer season, the beach was from 75 to 100 feet wide at Rehoboth Avenue.

Rehoboth and Dewey Beaches are scheduled to get an infusion of sand later this year.

Sand was pumped in 2013 to replace the losses from Hurricane Sandy in October 2012. And Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee caused beach erosion in the summer of 2011. Some scientists suggest that coastal storms and hurricanes could become stronger as the ocean warms in response to climate change.

The damage from the January storm was worse from Rehoboth Avenue north to the end of the boardwalk at the Henlopen Hotel. The beach and dune suffered less erosion to the south, the reason the fireworks launch area was moved farther south than in previous years.

The Rehoboth fireworks annual event draws more than 100,000 people to the 1-square mile city over the course of a few hours, so planning is a big part of preparing for the event, said Kyrs Johnson, executive director of the group Rehoboth Beach Main Street, the event's sponsor.

"Safety is the No. 1 thing," she said. "This is a landmark event and things are getting very big here."

Until 20 years ago, Rehoboth was a non-fireworks city.

Kathy McGuiness said she can when remember a couple of local guys used to go up to the beach and light off a few rockets on the night of July Fourth. And for decades, city leaders suggested Rehoboth was just too busy on the holiday weekend to have a fireworks display. Then there was the expense.

That changed when McGuiness took over as head of the Main Street program in 1996. There were some empty storefronts and increasing competition from new businesses on Route 1, she said. There also was concern about the future of Rehoboth's downtown business district.

"I walked door to door," McGuiness recalled of her first months on the job. "I said, 'What do you need? What do you want?'"

Dozens of business owners told McGuiness, who was running a pharmacy on Rehoboth Avenue at the time, that they really wanted fireworks. So she went to city officials and pitched the idea.

They didn't say no, she recalled. Instead, they asked: "How are you going to deal with traffic?"

They gave her a list of things she had to do and every time she completed one list, they gave her another.

"I almost gave up," she said. And she hadn't raised a dime of money to pay for a display when she finally got all the approvals and permits to make the fireworks possible.

The money came in and the fireworks were a go.

The beach was narrow then, even more narrow than it is after storms because pumping sand from off shore bars to bolster and widen the beach and protect it from storms hadn't started in Rehoboth Beach yet. The fireworks were to be shot from a barge just off the beach.

Just before dusk, as the barge was heading down the coast to the launch site, it suddenly turned around and headed north again. McGuiness and the rest of the fireworks committee learned one of the crewmen onboard was over his work hours. The fireworks seemed doomed.

Then Pete Schwartzkopf, now speaker of the Delaware House of Representatives but at the time the State Police Troop 7 commander and a member of the fireworks committee, got on the phone and received special permission from the Coast Guard to allow the barge to return to station off Rehoboth Beach. The show started late, but it was a go.

"I'm just delighted it's still going on," said McGuiness, now a Rehoboth real estate agent, a city commissioner and a Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor.

This year's display will cost $60,000, all raised from private donations, Johnson said.

Rehoboth Beach police Lt. Jaime B. Riddle said authorities try to improve traffic circulation and bike and pedestrian safety each year. Johnson said the planning team encourages people to arrive early, shop and have dinner to avoid traffic delays. There will be live music at the Rehoboth Beach Bandstand before and after the fireworks.

Premier parking will be offered at the Epworth United Methodist Church at 19285 Holland Glade Road. The cost is $20 per vehicle and must be paid in cash. The fee includes transportation to and from the city. The lot opens at 6 p.m

The state's DART park and ride lot will provide shuttle service to and from the city. There also is in-city parking both at meters and at the North Rehoboth Deauville Lot.

Fireworks displays in Bethany and Dewey beaches are July Fourth and are also handled by Zambelli. In Dewey, Ferguson said, there is more time to set up the pyrotechnic display because the fireworks are launched from a barge.

But in Rehoboth Beach, she and her team — a total of eight people — bring in racks the morning of the launch.

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The beach in the display area is closed and they load the racks with 2 1/2 inch shells to make the sky sparkle. There will be 60 special effects with Roman candle-type displays among the 11,000 rockets fired. And this year's show includes a "set piece" to honor Harry K. Jewelry, a Rehoboth Beach business that contributed $20,000 toward the fireworks. The set-piece is a surprise, Ferguson said.

In late January, a powerful nor'easter caused significant beach erosion from Cape Henlopen to Fenwick Island.

Because of the size of the beach now, the fireworks shells this year won't go quite as high.

"It's not going to be noticeable," Ferguson said.

Once it's time for the show, Ferguson will be stationed at a pin board and will launch each shell and element of the show.

"Everything is all wired," said Ferguson, of Wilmington.

To launch a shell, she'll touch a probe to a pin that corresponds to a shell on the board, hit a deadman's switch and watch the explosive move skyward.

"You're the one that's controlling the timing," she said.

Reach Molly Murray at (302) 463-3334 or mmurray@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @MollyMurraytnj.

If You Go

The Rehoboth Beach fireworks typically launch around 9:15 p.m. but the bandstand area of Rehoboth Avenue will close to vehicle traffic from 6 p.m. to midnight on July 3 and vehicles won't be permitted to cross Rehoboth Avenue at the traffic circle starting at 7 p.m.

Starting at 8:30 p.m., Rehoboth Avenue eastbound will close. To enter Rehoboth, vehicles should take State Road or Bayard Avenue.

Visitors at the north end of the city, should plan to use Columbia Avenue to Rehoboth Avenue as they leave the city.

Visitors at the south end should leave using Bayard Avenue or Hickman and Munson Streets west bound to State Road.

Only bus and resident traffic will be allowed on Henlopen Avenue starting at 6 p.m. and only bus traffic will be allowed on Surf Avenue.

Visit downtownrb.com or call (302) 227-2772 for more information.