Rehoboth’s Lake Gerar to get new tot lot

By the slimmest of margins, Rehoboth Beach commissioners have approved the installation of a new tot lot playground at Lake Gerar.

During a special budget meeting March 8, commissioners voted 3-2-1 in favor of the new tot lot. Mayor Stan Mills and Commissioners Patrick Gossett and Richard Byrne voted yes; Commissioners Susan Gay and Jay Lagree voted no; Commissioner Edward Chrzanowski abstained; and Commissioner Pat Coluzzi was absent.

Rehoboth Beach’s budget runs from April 1 through March 31. This is the second year in a row the future of the playground has been one of the hot topics during budget talks. Last year, commissioners approved a $100,000 placeholder for the project.

The favorable vote came after City Arborist Liz Lingo and Charlie Walker, owner of Clayton-based Liberty Parks & Playgrounds, presented commissioners with two options to replace the decaying playground structure. Lingo had originally budgeted $350,000 toward a new playground in the city’s capital improvement plan.

The first option fit within the footprint of the current playground and cost $275,000. It includes play elements for kids in wheelchairs and would require removing a couple of trees.

The second option expanded the footprint of the playground and cost $326,000. It included the same play elements as the first option, but also had a swing set and more open space. It also would require removing more trees.

Ultimately, commissioners chose the first option. That price also includes new fencing, a new walkway to the playground, and landscaping. Walker estimated it would take up to 12 weeks to get the playground installed.

Lagree said he voted against the measure because of environmental concerns associated with Lake Gerar.

Mills said if the city wanted to pursue zero environmental impact, that would also affect the city’s other playgrounds when they need to be replaced because they’re all near bodies of water. If the city does nothing, what’s the point of the other projects, he said.

Other decisions made for next year’s budget

Approval of the tot lot took most of the meeting time, but commissioners did make other decisions related to next year’s budget, beginning with removing $55,000 for dredging the western prong of Lake Gerar.

That area of the lake is the settling point for natural debris that comes off private and city-owned property, and through the stormwater drains. Dredging that section of the lake has been a capital project for years.

Commissioners Jay Lagree and Edward Chrzanowski suggested holding off on the project until a stormwater feasibility study has been completed by the city’s public works department.

Public Works Director Kevin Williams said the study is being conducted because there are a lot of expensive stormwater projects in the future for the city. Once the study is complete, the city can come up with a funding mechanism to pay for the much-needed repairs, he said.

Lagree said Lake Gerar has a problem, but it’s not an emergency and it would be better to do any dredging once.

Commissioners asked City Manager Sharon Lynn what she would recommend the $120,000 in savings from the tot lot and dredging be spent on. Lynn was hesitant to recommend a specific project; instead, she said she would like to see the money stay in the capital improvement fund balance and be used later in the year if revenues don’t meet expectations. Commissioners agreed that was a good idea.

Commissioners approved the city moving forward with spending $218,000 now on new commercial-district parking meters. This is the third year in a row commissioners have approved spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on new parking meters prior to approving the next year’s budget.

As in previous years, Lynn explained the money needed to be spent now so the meters will be ordered and installed by the beginning of the parking meter season in May.

Included in the budget for next year is $135,000 for programs and expenses at the Bandstand. Lynn said the city plans on having Bandstand events this summer to try and bring back some normality. As of now, she said, there are no events planned for the convention center because it’s indoors.

For all intents and purposes, the March 8 budget discussion, the fifth since 2021 began, was the last for next year’s budget. Commissioners have to formally vote to approve the proposed $27.7 million budget, which is expected to take place during the regular commissioner meeting Friday, March 19. There had been a sixth budget meeting scheduled to take place before that meeting, but it was canceled.