MILTON, Del. - Construction and orange cones surround the major parking lot off of Magnolia Street for Downtown Milton, still. The project that was expected to be finished already, is now expected to go until March at the latest.
Some business owners in Downtown are concerned.
"We have a lot of visitors from all around. Winter is a little bit quieter but we still have people from the area, either Sussex County or down from Virginia, etc, etc.. so we do need that extra space when we can get it." said Lisa Falzarano, Owner of The Mercantile.
During construction the town ran into obstacles like utilities underground being encased in concrete and issues with the removed soil.
Mayor of Milton, John Collier said, "Probably the biggest delay was that there were some contaminated soils uncovered when they did some excavation and of course they had to be excavated, examined, some place determined where they could be taken for remediation."
"You know the town has expanded to such an extent where it will only get worse, the parking issue. I hope it doesn't deter people from coming but so far I don't think it has, they just have to hunt more." said local Ginny Loveland.
The town says efforts are underway to hopefully have more parking options available but there is no official date.
"The town just completed a parking study by a committee of people appointed in the town to do just that and we're working our way through the details of what they've uncovered and recommendations that they've made to try to augment the parking." said Collier.
A process that is slowly but surely progressing.
Mayor Collier told me that while the parking lot looks finished, there's still a lot of small details to be taken care of before letting the public in, but is hopeful it will be open before March.