Milford City Council approved the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) which provides staff with an outline of projects over the next five years. The CIP is not a budget, but a roadmap that allows staff to seek funding for large projects or identify areas where city funding could cover the cost. All projects are ranked in a priority order with some listed has high priority and others low priority.
When the Milford City Council approves the CIP, they are authorizing staff to move forward in seeking funds that may cover the cost of the project, whether that be grant funding or funds within the current budget available to bring the project to fruition. According to Mark Whitfield, the plan is just that, a plan, but council is aware when they approve it that staff will move forward with projects included in the plan.
“It is not a budget. The CIP is a living, breathing document that is in constant change throughout the year, but updated annually for Council’s review and comment. The funding for projects in the plan come about with the annual budget,” Whitfield said. “The money identified in the plan is projected costs over the life of the project. We use the plan for applying for potential grants when opportunities arise. In other words, we would not apply for a grant for a project, if that project was not identified in the CIP.”
The total approved under the CIP for 2026-2030 was $145, 058,417 spread over the full five years. For 2026, the projects totaled $36,055,361; for 2027, the total was $20,548,309 and for 2028, $21, 567.331. The totals for 2029 were 10,589,538 and for 2030 $13,442.999. Councilwoman Katrina Wilson asked if the new restrooms for downtown were included in the CIP.
“They are fully grant funded and because they are underway and approved, they are not part of the presentation for 2026-2030,” Finance Director Lou Vitola said. “But those dollars are in the budget and already approved for the next fiscal year.”
Interim City Manager Mark Whitfield explained the costs were covered by a federal grant and the city was waiting for DelDOT to send the money to the town. The goal is to have the new restrooms in this summer. Councilwoman Madula Kalesis asked why the Fourth Street Pond project by Banneker Elementary was approved in a prior CIP for much less than the estimate in the current CIP. The estimate for the pond project is $1.75 million, $628,000 more than the previous year.
“One of the issues had to do with the scope,” Whitfield said. “It got larger because we ran into groundwater. So, that means either making the pond larger which entails moving basketball courts that we did not want to relocate or looking upstream as a way to impound water, all of which will cost more money. We have applied to grants. In fact, I did receive a letter from Lisa Blunt Rochester who has put this in for a Congressional earmark and she is pretty confident it will be 100 percent funded.”
Kalesis stated there were quite a few projects in the CIP she felt were not correct. Several projects in the CIP from the previous year were considerably more expensive in the current CIP while others had different amounts carried forward. She also did not feel the basketball courts should be moved for the project.
“We don’t want to take the basketball courts. That was the original proposal that came back from the engineers, because we couldn’t go deeper,” Whitfield said. “We had to go wider. I said that’s really not a good option. WE need to look at other options and the only other was that we have to look upstream and that is going to cost more money. The likelihood of this happening in 2026 is slim but we put it in so that we could apply for the grant.”
Kalesis also questioned a large increase for repaving the parking lot across from Park Place which was budgeted for around $845,000 last year but now had a cost of $2.37 million.
“This project included two other like projects, so it’s the sum of three projects of roughly the same size and they are combined into one to get the $2.4 million,” Vitola said. “It’s the Denney Row, Park Avenue streetscape project and the lot is being combined with that because of how it is going to be bid.”
Vitola explained that as much as it would be nice for the sections of the CIP to flow cleanly year to year, that was not as easy as it seemed. He reminded council that the CIP was a planning document where staff looks out over a five-year period or longer so that funding could be identified. Anything in the CIP past 2026 was not included in the budget. If funding is not identified the year the project is planned to begin, it can be moved to the following year, but costs may not be the same.
“I would like to see on our monthly report a breakdown of all the reserves coming in, that’s what I was basically looking for,” Kalesis said. “I know there is a total on the budget of the reserves, but I would like to see it monthly as a breakdown.”
Councilman Dan Marabello asked if there had been grant funding identified for the collapsed bridge behind Park Place and Vitola stated that they applied for bond bill funding for that. If that was not successful, the cost to repair would have to come out of general reserves.
“I think we talked about it when we first started the budget hearings, and Mark reminded us if there are any projects in here that we are not happy with or that we don’t like the dollar amount only, using this as an example, because this happened, the front of City Hall. We passed the CIP, and it had a dollar amount, and then a department head took time to get not one but two bids, and we shot them both down, rightfully so, because maybe the dollar amount was too high,” Connor said. “But in the effort of being respectful of all of our department heads time, this is the time say if there is dollar amount that you don’t like, or a project that you don’t like. Last year being new, I felt like we had discussions, but we never said, “No, this is a terrible idea,” and that was the result of it, you know. And it’s defeating, I can imagine for him and anyone else to go through all that work and then have us say, I know we said yes on this day, but now we’re telling you now it’s too much money, so I just wanted to remind us of that, so if there is something on here, say it now, so that they don’t have to do the work and we don’t have to say no later.”
Another project that Kalesis asked about were improvements to the Public Works office, stating that she cared about their equipment and buildings, but questioned the need for the expense.
“Since I’ve been here over a year, the complaint from council and residents are that the lobby is not very customer friendly,” Willis Shafer, Public Works Director, said. “So, we would like to expand the lobby that would allow residents to be able to walk up to kind of like a bank teller window, either to get service from code or public works. It’s just expanding the current wall that would allow better customer service.”
Kalesis agreed that the office needed upgrades, but pointed out that when you visited the building, you had to pick up the phones for someone to let you in and once you got into the lobby, there were teller type windows. She wondered if the phones could be eliminated, and people could just walk into the lobby.
“Staff feels very strongly that we want to have some type of security in that hallway,” Shafer said. “This would move the wall beyond those two existing windows. We would still have a secure building but would be able to get rid of the phones and visitors would have the ability to go to the right or left.”
Councilwoman Nadia Zychal asked about a traffic calming project on Walnut Street at a cost of $4.4 million. She felt it was an expensive and involved traffic calming, bike and pedestrian project.
“My neighbors on Walnut Street have a primary concern of hoping for stop signs and some crosswalks, particularly coming soon,” Zychal said. “There are not many safe crosswalks across that part of Walnut Street, so something simpler with safety in mind as opposed to this, which is lovely.”
Kalesis stated that she knew people in the area who did not want the bike path at all as the streets are narrow and they are concerned about a bike path cutting into their yard. Culotta pointed out that $3.8 million was funded by the state and the difference would be paid by Milford. The project was also about a year out, so council was kind of wasting time talking about it, but he knew there was considerable debate about stop signs and safety measures.
“Walnut is a state highway so one of the issues even putting in a crosswalk, DelDOT has to say we can do it. If you do all four intersections, you must bring them up to ADA standards, so while you can put paint down for $150, it’s going to cost around $10,000 to do an ADA intersection,” Whitfield said. “Stop signs are another issue. I can show you email after email after email in regard to putting in stop signs and again, it keeps coming back it does not meet warrants. We can do another study, and I am hoping the opening of the new middle school may change the dynamic so we can make a better case, but I can tell you right now, it is unlikely it will get approved.”
The CIP was approved with no changes by a vote of six to zero with Councilman Danny Perez absent.
