Residents, commissioners review plan to transition wastewater operations to county

REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. – Dozens of Rehoboth residents listened to the detailed proposal that would transition operations of the City’s wastewater treatment facility and its debt to the county Saturday morning. Because of limited funding available and millions of dollars in updates still to come, Sussex County is willing to step in.

What they can propose is a flat rate for all customers, just over $700 for all users, no matter if it’s a part-time tenant, or a downtown hotel.

Many in attendance said this proposal would cause them to see a sharp spike in their bills.

One woman said she gathered numbers from users across the area, and she determined this proposal would cause an increase on the majority of residents who use less water, which means they would essentially be subsidizing those large users under this proposal.

“The bottom 75 percent are only using 38 percent of the volume, but with a fixed rate system we’re going to be paying 75 percent of the cost,” said the resident. “The top ten percent of users, these are residential users, use 102 times as much as the bottom 10 percent.”

It wasn’t just residents who had reservations and questions about the proposal. Commissioners, too, said they need to take the time to come up with the right solution.

“We wouldn’t have input on future fees for Rehoboth if we were to turn this over to the county. So that’s something I’d like to think about as well,” said Lisa Schlosser, Rehoboth commissioner.

There is no set timetable for the Rehoboth Beach commissioners to come to a decision on the proposal.