DEWEY BEACH, Del. -Â Dewey Beach commissioners voted on Friday to increase the lodging tax and the cost of parking permits.Â
Nearly all ordinances in Dewey Beach's weekly commissioner's meeting were approved unanimously.
Commissioners voted to increase the lodging tax to 2 percent effective April 1st and increase the weekly 8-day parking permit from 75 to 80 dollars.
Dewey Beach residents and visitors can expect a number of changes. One of which is increasing the rate of the lodging tax by half a percent and its effective date.
"When we passed this infrastructure it was agreed or self-committed that half of the lodging tax would go to general funds and half of it would go towards infrastructure," said Dewey Beach Mayor Bill Stevens.
Commissioners agreed that matching surrounding beach towns parking rates like Rehoboth Beach was reasonable, including the cost of parking permits.
"Everything is just going up in cost. We're getting hit with higher expenses on things and everybody else is as well. To me, somebody that comes down and rents a house for a week and spends thousands of dollars I don't think 15 dollars is a show stopper for somebody on it," said Commissioner Paul Bauer.
Parking fines and penalties were also discussed. The commissioners have actually given some people a break on penalties.
"I feel that a $5 administration fee instead of a fine of thirty dollars is sufficient to have the person recognize that yes they made a mistake putting the tag number in, the administration fee covers our cost of postage when we send the notices out. It also covers our town employees looking up the information when they come back in with it but they must come back and show that they were parked legally and that they paid for the parking," said Town Manager Bill Zolper.
Thirty-thousand dollars was also approved to hire an architect to work on future town hall and police department building plans.
Commissioners tabled the decision to update the Dewey Police Department website to be able to further discuss whether the police department's website should be separate from the town's website or have them all in one similar to surrounding towns.
"This is for a potential recruit, especially for the Summer," said Dewey Beach Police Chief Sam Mackert.
Chief Mackert says they hope to upgrade the website as soon as possible to attract and recruit criminal justice students and future officers.
The next town council meeting is set for Thursday, October 21st. To find out what else was discussed during today's town commissioners meeting you can click here to watch the full meeting: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN0iYOg1yehkf4zecFfaltQ/live
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