City invites residents, stakeholders to Reach Out via new engagement platform

The City of Rehoboth Beach launched today a new digital platform designed to provide better information, gather input, and ultimately result in better decision-making. Residents, property owners, business owners, visitors, and other stakeholders are invited to visit Reach Out Rehoboth to learn about

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current city projects and to provide suggestions, ideas, comments, and questions through a variety of engagement tools.

Information on the newly launched site relates to current projects and includes:

• the traffic and parking study
• construction of a new beach patrol and comfort station facility
• possible establishment of a stormwater utility
• Wilmington/Baltimore streetscape improvements
• a variety of additional upcoming maintenance projects, such as the repaving of Rehoboth Avenue, installation of new water meters, and replacement of the water main on Laurel Avenue
• a "Hot Topics" survey; the initial survey focuses on whether Rehoboth Beach should allow leashed dogs on the beach during certain hours in the summer season.

"We're excited to offer this new engagement tool and see where it takes our community," says City Manager Laurence Christian. "Ultimately, we believe that it will lead to more collaborative, better decision-making. Increased communication/engagement is one of the top priorities identified in our comprehensive development plan, and it's a goal that is extremely important to elected officials and city staff. We're eager to take community engagement to the next level in Rehoboth Beach."

The Reach Out Rehoboth site features a suite of tools and widgets provided through Granicus's Engagement HQ platform. Tools allow registered visitors to the site to respond to surveys and polls, share ideas and comments as well as stories, and to ask questions. The widgets function as ways to provide information such as links to documents and photos, timelines and key dates, and information about staff who are "listening" on the project.

The City of Rehoboth Beach has opted to require registration for most engagement activities on the site to ensure a higher quality of input and to better understand the relationship that people who are providing feedback have with the city.

Specific engagement opportunities currently available on Reach Out Rehoboth include:

• placing pins with parking or traffic concerns or ideas on a map
• providing comments or questions about the upcoming Rehoboth Beach Patrol headquarters/comfort station rebuild
• sharing stories about the Rehoboth Beach Patrol
• sharing concerns about stormwater management
• prioritizing streetscape objectives
• responding to a survey about dogs on the beach.