Milton public works facility on hold for another year

Plans to fund a new $6.4 million public works facility in Milton are on hold until fiscal year 2025 as the town seeks grant funding from the federal government.

Town Manager Kristy Rogers told town council March 4 that site work on a potential new facility on Sam Lucas Road has been completed, but funding would likely not come from Congress because a federal budget has not been passed. She said it is her intention to apply again for funding in 2025.

The town has been trying to construct a new public works building on a 10-acre parcel on Sam Lucas Road for years. The current proposal is for a facility with two buildings, one that would serve as office and meeting space, and another for equipment and materials storage. Town officials have said the reason for moving the public works headquarters is because the department has outgrown its current facility on Front Street and has increased storage needs.

In Congress, Sen. Chris Coons and Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester have requested $2.5 million to help the town with the project. On Coons’ side, that money would be distributed through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development Program, with money accessible in as few as six months. On Blunt Rochester’s end, money for the project, $500,000, was requested as part of community project funding included in the federal agriculture bill for fiscal year 2024. However, that bill became a casualty of larger fights in Congress. House Democrats balked at a version of the agriculture bill that included severe cuts to social programs such as the supplemental nutrition program for women, infants and children; renewable energy programs; and inserting riders related to abortion access. In November, President Joe Biden signed an extension of the 2018 agriculture bill, which lasts until September. 

The land for a new public works facility was acquired in 2018 when Loblolly LLC gave the town 10 acres of an 80-acre tract of farmland it owns. The original deal was that 5 of those 10 acres would be used for a new wastewater treatment plant and the other 5 acres would be given to the town for a then-unspecified use. 

Since then, Artesian Wastewater has purchased Tidewater Utilities, the town’s wastewater provider since 2007, and is planning to build a new plant at its Sussex Regional Recharge Facility on Route 30. Artesian has expressed its intent to pump Milton’s wastewater to that plant. As part of a negotiated settlement with Artesian related to that Tidewater purchase, the land originally slated for Tidewater’s plant will revert back to the town, and Artesian will provide sewer service to the new public works building free of charge. 

While the town has the Sam Lucas Road land, town officials do not plan to put any other administrative functions on that site, such as a new town hall or a new police station. During discussions on what to do with money raised by the Granary at Draper Farm special development district, Mayor John Collier said he did not think the police station, in particular, should be located that far outside downtown.