Rehoboth Beach could partner with county to work on wasterwater rates

REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. – The ocean outfall project in Rehoboth Beach is now completed and the financial reality is just coming to light.

Mayor Paul Kuhns says that there was a recent rate study done by an independent organization called the Abraham’s Group to see how much they would need to pay for construction costs on the outfall, plus further improvements down the road.

Currently, they have to pay $45 million for the costs of the outfall, plus $18 million in future improvements for the next five years. An average rate payer for wastewater services pays around $580. But this study says it would increase it to $930 on an annual basis.

But in order to pay off future costs for the 18 million dollars, Mayor Kuhns tells us that he is working with the county for a possible alternative. Rehoboth Beach operates the plant and 60% of those operations are paid by city users, while 40% is paid by Sussex County users. Mayor Kuhns says Sussex County is their partner to an extent when it comes to this project. “If we were to transition the plant’s operation to the county, the county would pay for all of that debt and we would only be charged our usage rates,” Mayor Kuhns says.

We’re told the county has more resources available than the city and the possibility of a new partnership could be a way to help Rehoboth Beach residents. “They are providing much cheaper rates going forward for our constituents. They would spread that $18 million over their entire county of users.”

Mayor Kuhns tells us that they plan to meet with the county again to move forward. If things continue, they hope to have a public meeting to show how the transition would work and how it will affect rate payers.