Public Works to pause hiring of 33 positions, propose $75.7M capital program and 5% sewer rate increase

Cleon Collie, general manager for New Castle County Public Works, presented his department’s FY2027 proposal at the April 16 budget hearing and described a plan that reduces operating costs while preserving essential services.

“We are operating in a constrained fiscal environment with rising costs and increasing service demand,” Collie said. He told council members Public Works would not fill 16 general‑fund positions and 17 sewer‑fund positions in FY27—33 positions total—while reducing overtime and discretionary spending; he estimated savings of more than $1.8 million on the general‑fund side and over $1.14 million from not filling sewer positions when benefits are included.

Collie described capital priorities that skew heavily toward sewer and stormwater—about 53% of the capital budget—and highlighted the Christina River Force Main project. He said the CRFM Phase 1 Hill Street redundancy project is an estimated $60 million effort to construct roughly 2,000 linear feet of 84‑inch wastewater force main, a component he described as the largest single construction project in county history.

On sewer finances, Collie said the administration proposes a 5% consumption rate adjustment (the first since 2019). He said the average annual sewer bill under the proposed assumptions would be about $386, up from $348 currently.

Council members pressed Collie on the service impacts of vacancies, the use of contract tree crews versus in‑house crews, and the decision to shelve the Showmobile program because fees do not cover operating costs. Collie acknowledged the tradeoffs, said some contract work is unavoidable for scale and specialty needs, and committed to follow‑up on overtime estimates and operational contingency planning.

Collie also outlined projects to stabilize the government‑center parking lot (a projected FY27 cost of about $2 million to repair and bring ADA access into compliance) and said several capital projects would be deferred or paused to meet the budget targets.

What happens next: Public Works will present department‑level line items and project details at the department hearings; council members requested additional detail on overtime modeling, contract versus in‑house tradeoffs, and environmental data for contested projects such as Le Air Farms remediation.