Pump station repair at $2M tops Rehoboth CIP for next year

Not all of Rehoboth Beach’s $6.2 million capital improvement plan for next year’s proposed budget falls under the category of public works, but a significant portion of it does.

Topping the list of projects that need to be completed, said Public Works Director Kevin Williams during a Jan. 21 budget meeting, is a $2 million repair to the city’s State Road wastewater pump station.

“This has to be done,” said Williams, explaining all of the city’s flow as well as the flow from Henlopen Acres and North Shores goes through this pump station. “This is the No. 1 project for me.”

City Manager Sharon Lynn announced the need for repairs to the pump station in August. She said the concrete for the building was original to the 80-year-old structure and had been damaged by exposure to sulfuric acid as part of operations.

The city has proposed paying for the unexpected expense from two different pots of money – $1.6 million left over from a state revolving fund associated with outfall construction and $400,000 from American Rescue Plan Act funds.

The city’s budget runs April 1 to March 31 and is usually approved during the commissioners’ March meeting. The Jan. 21 meeting was the second of a series scheduled in advance of approval. 

While the pump station does account for roughly one-third of the proposed capital improvement budget, it’s not the only significant expense. There’s also $180,000 for design of the Baltimore Avenue restroom/beach patrol headquarters; $193,000 for a new hoist container truck; $325,000 for a new wheel loader; $200,000 for streetscape design of Baltimore and Wilmington avenues; and $550,000 for 77 new parking meters.

The capital improvement budget also continues to fund a number of city-wide programs – $450,000 for paving; $200,000 for stormwater assessment and repairs; $500,000 for sewer pipe rehabilitation; $500,000 for water meter replacements; and $250,000 for pipe assessment of the the water system.

Two of the least-expensive improvements may be the most visible – $58,000 for access mats over dune crossings and $30,000 for maintenance to the beach rake machine that cleans the beach every morning.

As projected, the capital improvement budget for next year jumps to $16.2 million. The primary driver for the increase is $7 million toward construction of the Baltimore/Wilmington avenue streetscape. 

Not included in that jump is the estimated $9 million cost to bury utilities on those two streets as part of the streetscape project.

As of the Jan. 21 meeting, the proposed budget sits at approximately $29.9 million, with a number of unknowns still hanging out there – a new contract with the police union, implementation of a Boardwalk recycling program, medical insurance, and the recycling contract with Blue Hen. All these items are represented in the budget, but the final amounts have not yet been determined.

Commissioners are scheduled to resume budget discussions after their workshop Monday, Feb. 7.