New City Hall complicates Rehoboth budget talks
After three meetings on the 2017-18 budget, for the Rehoboth Beach commissioners, the elephant in the room remains completing the City Hall building.
The commissioners will hold their fourth meeting on the $28 million budget at 9 a.m., Friday, Feb. 17, at Rehoboth fire hall.
Mayor Sam Cooper said, “The building getting done overshadows everything.”
The budget calls for using $1 million from the city’s reserve fund to complete the project, which all told including money already spent for planning, will cost nearly $20 million. Officials have also announced the planned July opening will be delayed until the fall.
Cooper said while clearly he has disappointment about not finishing the project on time, there is not a whole lot he can do at this point.
Commissioner Stan Mills said some oversights could have been prevented, such as $80,000 that had to be spent for foundation drains to control storm runoff. Mills said the drains should have been installed much earlier in construction.
The city also closed early on the $18 million loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture in order to ensure a lower interest rate. While the lower rate is expected to save the city $3 million over the 25-year life of the loan, it has forced the city to begin paying principal and interest back on the loan sooner than expected.
City officials had been planning to make a smaller, interest-only payment this year, as this budget cycle also includes the completion of payments on a $6 million loan the city used to complete the Rehoboth Avenue Streetscape project and the Lake Gerar Bridge. Now however, the first interest and principal payment is due in March 2018, just before the end of the fiscal year.
The commissioners decided to use the $1 million from the reserve fund to complete the project. Those funds are generally used for use during the off-season.
Besides City Hall, the budget also includes $20,000 for further testing on the city’s stormwater outfalls, part of a mandate from Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control when the department approved the city’s ocean outfall project. In addition, the budget calls for hiring a public works director, who would oversee the wastewater, water and streets departments.
Mills said he is not sold on the public works director job, and wants to see more funds for capital improvements such as road and Boardwalk maintenance, and improving city lakes. Mills said he expects one more session after the Feb. 17 meeting to resolve the budget.
City spokeswoman Krys Johnson said the commissioners have put off a proposed 3 percent increase to the residential rental tax, a tax on commercial rentals and a gross receipts tax on hotels. Johnson said the first two items will be discussed at a later date.
