By Mike Finney

DOVER — Right now, it’s not definite whether the capital city will receive $6.9 million in funding from the American Rescue Plan Act or the nearly $19 million city officials believe they qualify for.

Still, like a dreamer who purchased a Powerball ticket, members of Dover City Council have some big ideas about how the funding should be spent.

One of the most interesting ideas discussed at last week’s Council Committee of the Whole virtual meeting came from City Councilman Ralph Taylor Jr., who suggested that the city look into creating a Riverwalk, starting across South State Street, near Bayhealth Hospital, Kent Campus, and winding along the St. Jones River to near Legislative Hall.

All one has to do, the councilman said, is drive about 18 miles to the south and visit Milford, which has a Riverwalk that flows right into its downtown area.

“I would like for us to look at the feasibility of a Riverwalk,” Councilman Taylor said. “Other municipalities have them. They have places to sit, places to have little picnics. There’s fishing, and there’s other areas there that you can go and enjoy right along the waterway and have a great time.”

Most of the council members, as well as City Manager Randy Robertson, said they think pursuing the idea of a Riverwalk in Dover is worthwhile.

“I think the idea (of a Riverwalk) is absolutely exciting,” Mr. Robertson said. “Now, how do you fund it? The devil is in the detail.”

A lot of property mitigation would have to take place, since some of the proposed Dover Riverwalk would go through the site of the old Dover Public Works 2 site — which has been declared a brownfield — and includes the Meeting House Branch sewage area that Dover used before it switched its sanitation lines to Kent County’s.

Councilman Taylor said cleaning up the area would be well worth the investment, pointing out that it could be a future site of the Capital City Farmers Market, family and recreational opportunities and other businesses.

“For us, (the ARPA funds are) a financial windfall,” said Councilman Taylor. “In talking with Councilman (David) Anderson and some of the other councilmen, we’re just trying to figure out the best way to open up a conversation about what to do with the money and what it would look like after those resources have been allocated and implemented somehow.”

There are also certain parameters that will surround how the ARPA funds will be allocated.

“As of (last week), the Treasury Department has not issued definitive numbers and not indicated how those streams of funds will be earmarked,” Mr. Robertson said. “We heard that affordable housing is an issue, and it certainly is. You may have heard police issues — body cameras and different kinds of cameras. We’ve heard fire department needs. There’s a whole host of things, including some infrastructure money unallocated in the city, but until we have some guidance on the funding mechanism and the stovepipes that these will be allocated in, we’ll just have to wait.

“There’s nothing but mere speculation, not only to the amount (of funding) for Dover but on how it will be allocated.”

Matt Harline, assistant city manager, is hoping the city can receive other funding that might help get a Dover Riverwalk project off the ground.
“I think the Riverwalk seems really creative,” he said. “It sounds like something that could put a lot of pride in the beauty of downtown Dover. I find it fascinating. Hopefully, we’ll get that $8.5 million for the Meeting House Brownfield Project, and that will help.”

Will funding be $6.9M or $19M?

Congress, in developing the allocations of the American Rescue Plan funding, used Community Building Development Grant designations and a modified CBDG formula to determine whether a municipality was placed in the Metro Cities category (communities of over 50,000 people) or in the nonmetro municipalities group.

Dover city leaders are disputing the city being placed in the CBDG-based Metro Cities allocation, saying it should be included in a more appropriate funding computation for municipalities of less than 50,000 people, where it would be considered for funding based on population, along with other local governments.

Under the CBDG formula, Dover would receive around $6.9 million in funding. If it eventually gets changed to funding based on population, then its funding would rise to around $19 million — a significant difference.

Other dreams for future funding

Of course, there were plenty of other ideas about where the ARPA funds could go that were shared at last week’s meeting.

Councilman Anderson said it will be a great responsibility for city representatives to decide how to divvy up the money.

“I think that these funds offer an opportunity that we’ve been waiting for (for) decades,” he said. “It’s a responsibility. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to bend this curve and achieve many of the things we’ve been talking about. Now is the time.”

There were also voices that said the city should be especially prudent with the ARPA funding, whether it eventually receives $6.9 million or up to $19 million.

Dover Mayor Robin Christiansen said, “I still have nightmares about our tornado that came through (last August) and inundated a lot of our neighborhoods, so my only request is that any consideration of the American Rescue Plan monies, I would ask that council would consider, as we do within our own budget, (to) put 5% of these monies away in a contingency for some type of disaster.

“All of you rode around our community that was really affected on the west side and saw the heartbreak and the destruction that occurred. I would feel really, really comfortable if members of the council and staff ... would consider that any of these monies that would come along, that we’d put them away for a rainy day, whether it be for a human disaster, a storm or whatever would come down the pike. We would always have a little bit of a buffer.”

Mr. Harline said the city will definitely have to consider funding some of the “boring stuff” after it receives its financial assistance.

“Putting together next year’s budget, right now, between the ‘asks’ and first look at estimated revenue and the increases in costs for raises — some of which are mandated through collective-bargaining agreements — if we’re around $5.2 million (within the framework of this year’s budget), we’re fine.

“So before we spend all of that money, we need to look at some of the boring stuff that we also need, like a firetruck, some police cars and stuff like that.”

Councilman Taylor said he has talked with several of his fellow council members about where the rescue funds should be allocated. He said most are hoping to address the opioid crisis and assist with Dover’s homeless population.

“One of the things that we were talking about was a basic framework of business and growth and jobs,” said Councilman Taylor. “We were also talking about how to create a successful model, so that we would use this money wisely for the opportunities that we already have existing but just how to enhance them — that’s with great health and good education, homeownership, entrepreneurship and equal justice under the law.

“It would definitely help us if we had a strategic plan that would bring Dover pride back again, and we’re talking about it openly.”

Councilman Taylor also suggested pay raises for police cadets and City Council members, pointing out that council hasn’t seen a pay increase in several years.

Councilman Matt Lindell, however, was one who was a bit more tempered in his approach to the ARPA funds.

“I think those (ARPA) details need to be shared a bit more before we start discussing these grandiose ideas — find out exactly what we can and cannot do,” he said. “I would highly doubt a raise for ourselves, which I don’t think we deserve, would be in the cards.

“My other concern is the fact that any of this money that’s spent needs to be within the parameters that they give us, and it needs to be put towards one-time expenses, so we’re not attaching ourselves to having to fund different programs in future budgets.”