Milton committee debates charging for street closures

With the increase in festivals in Milton, a town committee is debating whether or not to charge a fee for road closures for events.

Chairman Jack Bushey of the Streets, Sidewalks and Parks Committee said at an Oct. 19 meeting, “There’s been a substantial amount of requests over the years for the town to close streets off for block parties and street parties.”

Bushey said closing streets off requires the time and work of town employees, both to notify residents that a street will be closed and to physically go down and put up barricades to block a street. He said those requesting the street closure currently do not pay for this. 

The committee is debating whether to recommend an ordinance to Milton Town Council for a street-closure fee, whether there should be an exception for nonprofits or churches and what the number of the fee should be. What that fee would be is still unknown, but the committee suggested that it be set by council every year as part of the annual fee schedule. 

Public Works Director Greg Wingo said, “Many years ago we discussed this and we started working on fees and they ended up getting pushed to the side. I think its an overall cost: what’s it going to charge for public works to drop off barricades and set them up? What’s it going to cost to have public works staff to come in here and work an event? It’s gotten to the point where we need to look at something like that because it is costing the town.”

The committee weighed the effect of imposing a fee when festivals are a big part of bringing tourist revenue to Milton.

Wingo said, “I get that, and I don’t think it's going to be some outrageous fee. It’s something that we can collect back so the residents are responsible for our payroll and sending equipment we have.”

Councilman John Collier, a member of the committee, said the town also needs to consider that most of Milton’s streets are owned by the Delaware Department of Transportation.

“They’re not charging a thing, and they might get after us about charging people when they told them it was OK. There’s some fine points that need to be worked out. I agree that there should be some recovery,” he said. 

As an example, Wingo cited the recent Zombie Fest. He said public works had five employees to work the event, with 20 barricades, 20 cones and four large barricades with five trucks. And while the Zombie Walk did not go off due to inclement weather, Wingo said the town had to pay overtime for the employees to work the event. 

“The biggest issue is, we’re doing a lot of this extra stuff and it's the town taxpayers who are paying for this,” Wingo said.

Collier said the whole idea of charging for street closures needs to be worked on further before the committee submits anything to the town council. Bushey said the matter would be left on the committee’s agenda for further discussion.