Lots of unknowns remain about burying utilities in Rehoboth

Rehoboth Beach commissioners are set to begin discussing next year’s budget and the five-year capital improvement plan during a special meeting Monday, Jan. 10.

According to City Manager Sharon Lynn, in response to projected costs associated with streetscape and utility improvements on Baltimore and Wilmington avenues, the CIP will include $7 million toward those improvements for all five years. The question, she said, is where the funding will come from.

“Obviously, we’re looking at a multimillion-dollar project that would cost the city’s taxpayers, and we have to realize how we’re going to fund that,” said Lynn during a special commissioner meeting Jan. 4.

Commissioners are exploring the possibility of burying the utilities on Baltimore and Wilmington avenues as part of a streetscape and safety overhaul on the two streets. A task force of city stakeholders was formed, and a consultant was hired to come up with a new streetscape and safety scheme. After months of work, the city’s consultant Rossi Group revealed a plan in December that is estimated to cost at least $24 million.

The top priority for the task force was to bury the utilities, but figuring out those costs and issues to consider was not part of the contract for Rossi Group, so the city hired a second consultant, JMT Engineering, to do it.

According to JMT engineer Jay Smith, the cost to bury the utilities would quickly get to $10 million, and that’s with transformers located on the ground, not in underground vaults. Smith did not provide an estimate on how much it would cost to put transformers in underground vaults because there are too many unknowns, and the utility companies are not in favor of it.

Mayor Stan Mills said the city looked at putting all the components of the utility system underground for the recently completed improvements to the streetscape of Lake Avenue, but the utility companies wouldn’t commit to a price. It could be two or three times the estimate, he said.

Upon hearing the total improvement costs, resident Suzanne Goode suggested the city hold off on the streetscape improvements for the time being because the city’s overall capital improvement costs keep rising. Improvements to the Baltimore Avenue restrooms, the wastewater treatment plant and the stormwater system are already on the books, she said.