I attended the Rehoboth Beach Homeowner’s Candidate Forum last week. There are two points that cause great concern to me, and I want to be sure the voters of Rehoboth who were not present are aware of some statements made by our current mayor.

I asked the candidates to describe how they will handle the potential lawsuits, negative public reaction and the potential public relations nightmare if we continue on the path to dump our treated sewage into the ocean. The mayor stated that he did not think we would have a public relations issue even though the majority of the other candidates agreed that we would have to react to the negative public relations and potentially hire a public relations firm to combat it.

Let’s see - beach town, ocean paradise, clean water and beach awards, and treated sewage into the water. Really? No negative public reaction?

The second issue that concerns me is the $17 million new city hall. The mayor continues to state that we must have one for the sake of the working conditions of the city workers and in particular, the deplorable conditions of the police station. Nobody is arguing that point. However, these are the same deplorable conditions and same working conditions that were present seven years ago when the city paid over $500,000 to study and design a new police station and renovate city hall and potentially add parking.

The mayor shelved that plan. What has changed and why wasn’t something done seven years ago before we spent money to renovate the old bank building on Rehoboth Avenue for Building and Licensing? Instead, we are studying it again at a cost of another $500,000. Wasted taxpayer money.

Please give Tom McGlone your vote and give him a chance to work as a team with the commissioners and department heads.

Linda Kauffman

Rehoboth Beach