Rehoboth set to approve $30 million budget for first time

Rehoboth Beach is set to approve a budget for next year that will see the city break the $30 million mark for the first time in its history. As proposed by city staff, the budget for next year will be approximately $30.2 million.

Commissioners conducted their fourth budget meeting Feb. 18 for Fiscal Year 2023, which begins April 1. The primary topic of conversation was the proposed $6.45 million capital improvement plan budget. It was a fairly short meeting, because city staff and commissioners had reviewed most of the CIP during previous meetings. There are new parking meters, vehicles and infrastructure upgrades, but the primary expense for the CIP in next year’s budget is a $2 million project to rehabilitate the State Road pump station.

Public Works Director Kevin Williams said fixing this pump station is critical because it handles all the wastewater from Rehoboth, Henlopen Acres and North Shores. It has to be fixed to avoid catastrophic failure, he said.

At the conclusion of the discussion, Commissioner Jay Lagree noted the city was about to approve a budget breaking $30 million. The current year’s budget is $27.7 million.

“I think that’s something. Maybe just to me,” said Lagree.

No one else commented on the amount, and the meeting ended.

Commissioners and staff began discussing next year’s budget in January. The proposed budget had been hovering close to the $30 million mark the whole time.

City Manager Sharon Lynn, who announced March 1 she’ll be leaving city employment in May, has been working for Rehoboth Beach since January 2014. That year, the approved budget came in at $17.3 million. If commissioners approve the proposed $30.2 million budget, that represents a 75 percent budget increase since she was first brought on board.

The increases in the overall budget have been largely a result of the expanded capital program and the debt service costs associated with the ocean outfall project, said Lynn in a Feb. 23 email. While the capital budgets and the debt service budgets have increased significantly, the operating budget has, with the exception of one year, grown by single-digit percentage amounts, she said.

Except for a brief hiatus, Mayor Stan Mills has been a city commissioner or mayor for all of Lynn’s tenure.

He also said most of the increases are due to capital costs, which Lynn has been able to identify and justify with assistance from the city’s director of public works.

“After not taking these into account for years before Sharon’s arrival, it’s expected that costs increase in order to repair, maintain and modernize facilities above the ground as well as those underground. We have been doing just that,” said Mills in an email Feb. 23.

There were two more special budget meetings planned for this month, but they were canceled following the Feb. 23 meeting because commissioners and staff were satisfied with where things stood.

The city’s budget runs from April 1 to March 31. Typically, commissioners approve the next year’s budget at the March voting meeting, which this year is Friday, March 18.