The following letter was sent to the Rehoboth Beach mayor and commissioners, with a copy submitted to the Cape Gazette for publication.
I am writing as a longtime homeowner, taxpayer and voter to express very grave concern over what seems a poorly announced and precipitous rush on a hearing early in January to allow Sussex County to, if one understands correctly, take over the city’s ocean outfall and wastewater treatment operations, leaving us current taxpayers already obligated for the upfront capital debt.
I may be wrong in this, but the current mailing to us citizens from the city government is of little assistance in evaluating the many complications of what is at stake, who benefits, who pays the bills, and what happens to the environment downstream.
Many additional questions on methodology and political motives raised by recent citizen letters to the local newspaper also need to be addressed.
This sudden rush to public policy in the “off-season” raises familiar issues of cronyism with outsiders and monied interests a year after the LLC vote disaster raised similar issues of disenfranchisement of the voters you were elected to serve.
1. So, may I suggest calling a referendum on any final scheme for the summer of 2019? There was, if you remember, still participatory democracy in Rehoboth Beach in the summer of 2015 with a referendum on the original ocean outfall measure and financing. Then-Mayor Sam Cooper presented the facts and issues clearly, and what emerged after vigorous public debate was an affirmation of the project.
2. To further help eliminate other charges of political deal-making, the previously vocal environmental, marine science, and ocean user communities would need a comprehensive study of what would seem to be significantly increased discharges off Deauville Beach. Much less we voters, homeowners, and taxpayers who traditionally use and deeply value our beaches. And the significant value they represent to our property investment in the community.
3. Finally, as current financial markets gyrate drunkenly, we who voted to front the ocean outfall costs now need an overdue and clear explanation of our current and future exposure from a new mayor who touted experience in municipal finance, albeit at Merrill Lynch, which was subsumed in the 2008 financial crisis.
This issue is more than a matter of civic concern for us. We on Henlopen Avenue faced hellish and ridiculously delayed work on our street installing the outfall piping.
And, perhaps most dear to us, we and our children and grandchildren regularly swim in the water at Deauville Beach.
Stan Heuisler
Rehoboth Beach
-
A letter to the editor expresses a reader's opinion and, as such, is not reflective of the editorial opinions of this newspaper.
To submit a letter to the editor for publishing, send an email to newsroom@capegazette.com. Letters must be signed and include a telephone number and address for verification. Please keep letters to 500 words or fewer. We reserve the right to edit for content and length. Letters should be responsive to issues addressed in the Cape Gazette rather than content from other publications or media. Only one letter per author will be published every 30 days. Letters restating information and opinions already offered by the same author will not be used. Letters must focus on issues of general, local concern, not personalities or specific businesses.
