Faust: Proposal to aid Dover businesses questioned

Why was this not introduced before the elections of the incumbent council members?”

William G. Faust Jr. is a resident of Dover.

On Friday, I saw in print and on TV the proposal of Dover City Council President Dave Anderson to use monies from the Dover Strong Fund or the city’s utility reserves or its Economic Development Fund to help small businesses being affected by the Capital City 2030 development plan. The cap for this assistance is $75,000.

My questions are the following:

• This project has been planned for a long time, and now, they want to help the small businesses. (Why was this not introduced before the elections of the incumbent council members?)
• Why are the citizens not being asked if they want this to be done?
• Can they legally use money from the city public coffers to only help certain individuals, who decided to be in business for themselves?
• What study was done to determine who would be helped or excluded from this assistance?
• What happens if the project runs into issues and the development is delayed?
• Why is nothing being done to assist older and poor residents with their high city bills? Summer is coming, and they use fans and small air conditioners to keep cool.

I still have concerns with this downtown improvement push. If you do not address the prostitution issues, homelessness issues, criminal issues and mental health issues in this area, the project will fail. If these problems are not fixed or are pushed into another section of Dover, who would truly want to shop in downtown Dover?

I have read that ground will be broken soon for a two-story parking lot. How smart is this? Citizens of Dover can shop at Target, Sam’s Club and Walmart, and park in their individual parking lots for free! Here is another point to think about: Many individuals shop in the comfort of their homes, from Amazon and other online stores. Lastly, with everything going up, how many citizens want to pay the high cost of a parking lot versus the cheaper cost of a parking meter? I believe free parking is a selling point. If you truly want citizens to use a parking lot in downtown Dover, have free parking. If you did your research and think the small businesses should thrive downtown, the parking lot would pay for itself with the influx of new consumers shopping there.

Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.