Rehoboth Avenue sidewalk at City Hall to close July 17

Rehoboth Beach officials are proposing to close the sidewalk in front of City Hall on Rehoboth Avenue for up to three weeks to complete work on the front of the new building.

City Manager Sharon Lynn said the change was first suggested during a progress report with contractors on July 6 and was first presented to the city commissioners July 10. Work would start as soon as Monday, July 17.

The work will take place on a section of sidewalk starting near the driveway between Conch Island and the Rehoboth fire hall and ending at the west driveway to City Hall. Lynn said the work do be done at Rehoboth Avenue entrance to City Hall includes grading and stairs. She said the cost is part of the overall City Hall work and the project was anticipated. Lynn said there would be signs posted and the public would be notified of the work.

Lynn said closing the sidewalk was the only alternative feasible to complete the south entrance to the building. She said contractors can’t use the east parking lot because site work is still ongoing there; the west parking lot, which will be used by city employees, could be an option but Lynn said there is uncertainty whether the Delaware State Fire Marshal would approve such work.

The quick timetable rankled members of the commission and the public.

Commissioner Kathy McGuiness said she was not part of the process, and criticized closing a sidewalk on the busiest street in the busiest city in Delaware during the busiest time of the year. She also was critical at the speed of the project.

“I’m disappointed this didn’t come up sooner,” she said. “This information should have been out there. It should have been communicated to people.”

“You don’t do stuff like this,” said former Commissioner Walter Brittingham. “It’s not thought out well. This is a serious lack of planning.”

He said the city was rushing the work in order to have the building ready to move into by Friday, Sept. 15.

The rest of the commissioners did not seem to have any problem with what Lynn had proposed, but raised concerns about safety for pedestrians and how they would be routed.

Lynn said the plan was for pedestrians coming eastbound to use the crosswalks in front of City Hall to go across Rehoboth Avenue toward Summer House. Pedestrians westbound would be rerouted across Rehoboth Avenue at the Second Street traffic signal.

Commissioner Patrick Gossett said he would like to see additional alternatives for moving pedestrians around the work site. Lynn said there was no safe alternative that would allow pedestrians to walk through the site.

Commissioner Lorraine Zellers said the proposed plan should not have a negative impact on businesses, and addresses safety concerns.

Estimated project cost: $20.5 million

Mayor Sam Cooper said the overall cost of City Hall is estimated to be $20.5 million.

It’s the most firm cost figure on the project to date, although it is in line with previous estimates, which have been between $20.3 and $20.6 million.

Overall, Cooper said, there have been $1.6 million in change orders to the project, $695,000 on the building itself. Half of that has been for design fixes. All told, Cooper said about 7 percent of the total cost was due to change orders, which he did not think was that bad.

As for why the project ended up going over its original $18 million projection, Cooper said part of the problem was a lack of bidding competition. He said the city put out bids for the project in a tight market and only ended up with two bidders.

The new City Hall building is set to open in September for city staff to move in. Following the move, the trailers behind the fire hall will be removed and the parking lot repaved and landscaped. That work will be completed by January and at that time, the Rehoboth Beach Convention Center will reopen.