By Benjamin Rothstein

DOVER — Every quarter, Kent County Levy Court mails a newsletter to every county resident, and it costs $180,000 a year to do so.

And, in a year with a deficit of several million dollars in the county, officials are looking at every available option to cut costs, training their sights on the mailer during Levy Court’s Wednesday budget workshop.

According to community services director Jeremy Sheppard, the newsletter’s costs are broken down into several categories: printing, which occurs out of state; the bulk mailing contract; and postage, which easily becomes expensive when the publication is mailed to every resident.

That’s not to mention the time spent by employees who assemble it, which county administrator Ken Decker said is massive.

One money-saving idea introduced by Commissioner Paul Hertz is selling advertisements. He noted that county libraries are willing to purchase one page each in the newsletter.

However, Mr. Decker responded, while that’s a good idea in theory, it might not be as effective as Commissioner Hertz hopes.

“When you sell ads, you have to have people who could take the orders, do the invoicing. I mean, there’s an expense,” Mr. Decker said. He added that, because libraries are funded by tax dollars, having them pay for advertising would just be cycling the money around the county.

Another issue would be political ads, which commissioners agreed would not be allowed.

They also considered going digital. Instead of sending out the physical mailer, a cheaper postcard with a QR code would be delivered, allowing citizens to scan it and view a digital copy of the newsletter.

Commissioner Robert Scott called on his own experience with a similar service, which cost around $8,000. Those mailings were only for his constituents, though, a fraction of Kent County.

In addition, Mr. Sheppard said his staff does not solely rely on the newsletter to get information out, also supporting a digital focus.

“Does the brochure give us a bump when it goes out? Yeah, sure. I mean, it gets people on it. But we learned through COVID, when the schedule got all wonky because we didn’t know what we could or couldn’t do, ... we started pumping everything out via our email lists and Facebook, and it’s just how we do business now,” he said.

Commissioner Allan Angel, who helped start the pamphlet, brought up a time around 15 years ago when the county sent three newsletters a year, instead of four. He said it resulted in outrage from county residents, but Mr. Sheppard reassured him that times have changed and that the general public is more willing to read news online.

Discussions for the county’s operational budget wrap up next week, when commissioners will look over the plan and begin to make final cost-cutting decisions.