Last year, Dewey Beach was sliding to the bottom of an $800,000 deficit. This year, the August profit-and-loss report shows the town basking in a $130,000 surplus.

“I’m not a betting man, but I feel confident that we’re going to hit our budget,” said Commissioner Marc Appelbaum, committee chairman.

The budget and finance committee also released a memo Monday, Sept. 30, predicting the town will beat its budget in several departments.

The committee anticipates the Dewey Beach Police will come in $40,000 under budget. Sgt. Cliff Dempsey said the police kept careful watch over their payroll and cut back whenever they could.

“We were basically managing our time properly,” he said. “If the seasonals worked over, we’d make them take time off or shorten the next shift.”

Transfer tax revenue is expected to exceed budget by $75,000. 2008’s deficit was due largely to a gross overestimation of transfer tax revenue – accordingly, committee members set a low bar for 2009.

“We decided to budget very, very conservatively,” said Appelbaum. He said the sale of several condos at Marina View will help fill out the anticipated surplus. The town receives transfer tax revenues whenever a property is sold.

Dewey will be $24,000 richer thanks to its contract with beach concessionaire David Lynam. The contract wouldn’t be negotiated until months after council passed the budget, and to play it safe, committee members lowballed the expected revenue at $38,000. Because Lynam agreed to pay a higher fee, the town will make $62,000 from the concession business.

At least one figure will be significantly in the red: budget and finance predicts regular legal fees will exceed budget by $40,000. The bill for regular legal fees – nonlitigation costs, including legislation drafting, commissioner consultations and meeting attendance – overran its target amount for the eighth month in a row.

“We’ve had some thorny issues to deal with,” Appelbaum said. This year, council sent four charter changes to the General Assembly, each of which required drafting and legal oversight. In contemplating other issues, the commissioners made nearly $10,000 worth of phone calls to town attorney Glenn Mandalas.

Dewey was also sued three times, in addition to an appeal filed against the board of adjustment in 2008. Despite one victory and one settlement, an additional appeal means Dewey still fights three suits.

As of September, $47,000 had been spent in the town’s legal defense, roughly half of the budgeted $100,000.

“I’m hoping that with a new council, we can work better together,” said Appelbaum.

Appelbaum said lingering beach crowds and a nasty September storm season kept lifeguards on the beach a month longer than last year, nudging them $8,000 over the amount budgeted for payroll.

The 2009 budget calls for a $41,000 surplus. A self-described fiscal conservative, Appelbaum won’t say the town’s in the clear – but he spoke of the budget with relaxed confidence. “I feel a lot better about the budget than I felt a year ago,” he said.