new one known as "Chief Little Owl" created by Dennis Beach. The town's library, the South Coastal Library, opened on January 17, 1994. The town inaugurated a "Concerts at the Beach" program in 1995. On September 11, 1996, Bethany Beach broke ground for its new town hall and community center on what had been the site of its water tower. The building was dedicated on May 24, 1997. Severe nor'easters struck a week apart in 1998. The first, on January 28, was damaging, but the second, on February 4, was worse, and prompted the evacuation of low-lying areas due to the danger of flooding, those areas not having recovered from the first storm a week earlier. Severe beach erosion resulted from the 1998 storms. Since 2000 In 2001, Bethany Beach celebrated its centennial and completed a new tabernacle. Also in that year, Dennis Beach's Chief Little Owl statue, badly damaged by termites, was replaced by a new Native American sculpture created by Peter Toth. Over the winter of 2008–2009, the town's beaches underwent a vast beach replenishment program that cost the U.S. federal government approximately $20 million. The dunes put in place with the program are controversial because they reach over the height of the boardwalk, blocking most views of the ocean. Much of the criticism of them came from editorials in newspapers such as the local Delaware Wave and Coastal Point, along with Washington, D.C. media outlets. Remnants of Tropical Storm Ida hit the town in November 2009, destroying most of the dunes, leaving cliffs, making the beach significantly narrower, and revealing old jetties. Losses were estimated to cost the state of Delaware $40 million {USD} and repairs were not made until after the 2010 summer beach season. By 2011, Bethany Beach had joined a growing number of communities in instituting a smoking ban, covering most of the beach and boardwalk areas. A nor'easter hit Bethany Beach from October 2 to 4, 2015, and severely eroded the beach and dune and flooded parts of the town, especially in its northern section. A winter storm that struck the town from January 22 to 24, 2016, washed away major sections of what was left of the town's dune and breached it in some places, again causing flooding. In February 2016, officials announced that there was no funding available for replenishment of Bethany Beach's dune and beach during 2016, and that replenishment