DOVER — The city of Dover is exploring options for a new pot of money dedicated to economic and community development funds stemming from recent sales of city-owned property.
Currently, the funds from those sales, some acquired through the munitions process following delinquent taxes, go into the city’s general fund which needs a council vote to utilize and is not a part of the city’s regular operating budget, according to City Manager David Hugg during the City Council’s meeting on Nov. 25. Establishing economic and community development funds could help earmark that money for those specific purposes with guidance and regulations set by the council, he added.
“You have to remember that these are one-time, unanticipated expenditures when we sell a property whether it’s a residential property or a commercial property at Garrison Oak, we have no assurance that the next sale will take place, we have no assurance that there will be additional proceeds,” he added. “These [would be] special revenue funds that will be accounted for in the budget, but not part of the line item offered in the general fund. It would be part of our funds balance.”
Ultimately, Hugg enforced, “council is the only body that can determine how money gets spent and where it gets spent,” regardless of whether the money from those sales goes straight into the general fund or to the special funds as suggested.
Council President David Anderson told fellow council members that he hoped establishing a special fund directing the newly acquired money could positively impact the city as a whole.
“The idea is to. . . if we keep saying we don’t have enough money to [foster] the neighborhood watch, to clean up the streets, well, maybe we do. Maybe we can at least do one time pilot projects and see if something works before we ever put a line item in the budget or something, but let’s see what happens. Let’s see if things are effective. I’d rather see if things work out in a pilot program to make sure the money is well spent than commit to something that we are not sure if it will work and that’s the idea behind it,” he said during the meeting.
In the meeting minutes for Dover’s Council Committee of the Whole meeting on Oct. 29, Hugg explained that the proceeds from sales like those at the Garrison Oak Business Park would do just that and would provide a significant amount of upgrades to Dover. During that meeting, he also explained that an economic development fund was previously established without committee action in March of 2023 which he stated was not required at that time.
While the majority of that fund remains, coming in at about $700,000, gas lines were installed by Chesapeake Utilities to the tune of $260,000 from that fund.
He “. . . explained that in discussions with the mayor and the council president, it seemed that they should officially create this fund and not just have it be there because they thought it was a good idea a couple of years ago,” the meeting minutes state.
Council members present unanimously agreed to recommend adoption of the proposed resolution to formally establish an economic and community development fund as recommended by the staff.
A similar result was yielded during the council meeting on Nov. 25 in favor of adopting the resolution six votes to one. The resolution to establish the funds will still need to proceed through a public hearing process.
“Money that comes out of the community should benefit, well it could benefit the whole city, but some of it at least, at least some portion of it, should benefit the community in which it came from,” Anderson said. “If some property sold in downtown, there’s real needs in my community in downtown, some of the money should stay there. . . We’re just trying to make sure that people can see the benefit to things that are happening without having to come up with new programs, without having to raise taxes, without having to always be dependent upon some grant agency and waiting for a year to get something done. That’s the idea behind it.”
