DOVER — A potential family and recreational gold mine is sitting right near the heart of downtown Dover and most people don’t even realize it.

At least that’s the viewpoint of First District City Councilman Gerald Rocha Sr., who will be available on Saturday to discuss the possibility of building a Riverwalk along the St. Jones River.

Councilman Rocha will be hosting the Riverfront Development Community Meeting on Saturday morning at 11 at the Dover Public Library at 35 Loockerman Plaza.

Lunch will be provided for meeting attendees, but space will be limited.

Mr. Rocha said if the city can find funding to address environmental issues along the proposed location and provide remediation, a Riverwalk would be a perfect addition to Dover’s revitalization plan. He added that Third District Councilperson Tricia Arndt has been working alongside him in planning.

“If we could map this thing out and make a Riverfront sidewalk to walk along the river it would be a nice little venture for the (state) legislators to go for lunch, or for people to take a walk and exercise,” he said.

“It would be nice if we could run it all the way down and see how we could connect it to Mirror Lake off to Silver Lake. That would be a nice little journey there.”

Former City Councilman Ralph Taylor Jr. first brought the subject of a potential Riverwalk in Dover up during a meeting in 2021 when the city was discussing potential ways to invest American Rescue Plan funds during the pandemic.

He envisioned the Riverwalk starting across South State Street, near Bayhealth Hospital, Kent Campus, and winding along the St. Jones River to near Legislative Hall.

All one had to do, the former 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, in 2021. “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.”

Contamination concerns

The trouble facing a Dover Riverwalk is the environmental concerns regarding some of the properties that are planned to be involved.

The proposed Riverwalk would go through the old Dover Public Works 2 site and also the Meeting House Branch sewage area that Dover used before it switched its sanitation lines to Kent County’s.

“The property that we are aiming to place this park is a hot spot for contamination,” Mr. Rocha said. “By definition it is not a brownfield because it’s city-owned property and historically we caused the issue. At one point, years ago, it was a dump site and a sewer plant.

“Everything hinges on whether or not we can get the funding to remediate the soil and clean it up and turn it into a destination place for families and people who are visiting.”

He added that the city tried to find funding on a federal level, but since it’s not (considered) a brownfield, the property is not eligible for federal funding. He is hoping that state legislators can help the city with the remediation fees.

The federal government defines brownfields as “abandoned, idled or underused industrial and commercial properties where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination.”

The Dover Riverwalk meeting on Saturday is a chance for Mr. Rocha and Ms. Arndt to gauge community interest.

“We’re having this meeting to ask the community to get involved with what they would like to see at the park and allow the opportunity for the community to give their input, but my focal point in the whole matter is the environmental piece and contamination and restoring it back to its natural state as much as possible,” Mr. Rocha said.

Former Councilman Taylor’s idea continues to reverberate in Councilman Rocha’s mind.

“It was former Councilman Ralph Taylor’s idea, and I was sitting next to him at a meeting when he brought it up,” he said. “At the time when he mentioned the property there were snickers and laughs about the property because what I had heard coming out of that meeting was, ‘Well you’ll never be able to do anything with that property.’

“I don’t think we’ll have a problem in seeking funding to get the park established, but remediation is what’s the big hurdle for us.”

He believes the potential for a Dover Riverwalk is there. It just needs to get some community support and a bit of an environmental makeover.

“It may not happen this year,” Mr. Rocha acknowledged. “We may get some funding, maybe some of it now and some of it in the next fiscal year after, but I’m working with (Dover) City Manager (Dave Hugg) to see if there’s an opportunity or a way that we can clean up the area.”