By Glenn Rolfe

MILLSBORO — With the mayor and council’s blessing, the town is pursuing congressional funding earmarked for expansion and upgrades to the Millsboro Town Center.

The town will prepare and submit a Congressionally Directed Spending Application for fiscal year 2025.

According to assistant town manager Ashleigh Sander, funding is being sought to support renovations and rehabilitation to town hall, expansion of council chambers, creation of offices in the current Faye Lingo Reception Hall, security and audio-visual system upgrades to include the ability to livestream council meetings.

Councilman Matthew Davis requested that the application include support for a streaming option that would allow people to livestream sessions from home or from a device.

“That is the goal, to be able to stream,” said Jamie Burk, town manager.

Friday, Ms. Sander finalized the town’s request amount, $750,000, which will be submitted before the March 22 deadline, possibly by March 15.

“This funding comes up annually from the (U.S.) Senate. It is all based on the appropriations bill being passed by Congress,” Ms. Sander said. “You request the amount. Then they may not necessarily give you the full amount. They could, or they could say we can’t do that much.”

Only nonprofits and government entities are eligible.

Sen. Thomas Carper’s office previously secured $550,000 for the community room at the new police station through this funding source.

Town meetings over time have experienced growing pains with increased interest and attendance. At some meetings, it has been an overflow crowd.

“For sure I know that I have said that we’ve outgrown the space,” said Councilwoman Kimberley Kaan.

One plan would be to expand the mayor and council chambers by bumping out an exterior wall. The project underwent architectural review.

“We did have someone come out to give us a preliminary quote so we would have an idea of how much that we would need to request,” Ms. Sander said. “If we obtain the funding, then we would then put out an RFP (request for proposal) for the contractors to be able to bid on the project.”

“We have it phased so if we don’t get all the money we need, we can prioritize different options,” Mr. Burk said.

Congressionally directed spending allows members of Congress to request that federal funds be set aside for specific projects in their states. This provides state, local and tribal governments and nonprofit organizations an opportunity to apply for funding for projects that would benefit from a one-time funding allocation.

Staff writer Glenn Rolfe can be reached at grolfe@iniusa.org. Follow @glennrolfeBTBN on X.