I am writing in astonishment and deep frustration. I would genuinely like to hear someone defend the voting record of Milton Councilman Larry Savage.
He voted, along with a unanimous council, in favor of a motion to convert the intersection of Chestnut/Wharton/Atlantic to an all-way stop and immediately issue a task order to an engineer July 11, 2022. He then voted to accept the proposed design for the all-way stop for submission for a DelDOT construction permit Oct. 3, 2022. He again supported the project by voting in favor of Resolution 2023-05 to request DelDOT convert the intersection to an all-way stop March 6, thereby releasing the town’s construction permit and allowing the town to advertise for bids. But then at the April 3 meeting, Councilman Savage refused to ratify the votes that he himself had previously cast.
At the same meeting, Councilman Savage voted to accept the minutes of the March 6 meeting. Those minutes confirm that he voted in favor of Resolution 2023-05.
How is it possible for the citizenry of Milton to have any confidence in the competence and good faith of anyone who would repeatedly vote in favor of significant infrastructure improvement, allow more than $50,000 of our tax money to be spent on the engineering and design of said infrastructure improvement, and then turn around and refuse to ratify their own vote? The town will now likely lose nearly $400,000 granted to the town from Sussex County’s real estate transfer tax funds for infrastructure improvements.
While Councilman Savage’s record is truly egregious, the records of council members Lee Revis-Plank and Fred Harvey are also deeply irresponsible. All three of these council members voted to convert the intersection to an all-way stop, and to commission the engineering and design of the conversion. Only after spending more than $50,000 of tax funds on the engineering and design did they inexplicably change their minds and refuse to follow through and complete the project. This malicious waste of public funds is truly disgraceful.
Good people can honestly disagree as to whether the intersection should be converted to an all-way stop, but it is impossible to see this series of votes as anything other than a shockingly abusive and irresponsible waste of public funds.
I beseech you, Mayor Collier, have the courage to bring this matter up for vote with all council members present. It is horrifying that a fully funded, fully designed and engineered, and widely supported infrastructure improvement project would be allowed fail on a 3-3 vote with all three no votes refusing to explain on the public record why they would vote in favor of the project multiple times over the course of a year and allow significant public funds to be spent on engineering and design only to refuse to ratify their own votes at the 11th hour.
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