Message from the Town Manager

Town Manager's Message - February 2025

Hello and welcome to our website!  We’re happy you’re visiting and getting better informed about our Town!  As we complete and submit the FY2026 proposed budget to the Mayor and Council, it seemed like a good time to update my message and share some information. We have been very busy taking care of business on behalf of our community.   Town Council, our employees, boards and commission members have kept up momentum with a focus on the future.  

The FY26 budget is the seventh that Finance Director Dawn Parks and I, along with our departments and various councils have worked on together.   In recent years we have suggested that as the Town reaches full build out (meaning there is little opportunity for annexation of additional land for development), it will experience a reduction in transfer tax revenue from the sale of real property and in turn a reduction in the funds we send monthly to our Trusts for streets, capital projects, and emergencies.  Thankfully, Ocean View doesn’t rely on this funding source for operations, but reduced funds to the trusts will eventually need to be replenished in other ways, if we’re to remain prepared to address infrastructure maintenance.  

In recent years we have had a robust capital program where infrastructure projects have been completed including sidewalk installations for walkability improvements, stormwater repairs that eliminated flooding, and nearly $1.9 million was spent in the last 5 years maintaining our streets!  

Competition for recruiting and maintaining police officers has also become a prime consideration in recent years.  Ocean View has enjoyed a good reputation for safety as a result of the professional community policing program in place by our dedicated department and is annually ranked among the safest places to live in the state of Delaware.  Maintaining this outcome and retaining the officers we’ve trained is of great importance.    

Our efforts to maintain infrastructure, have clean streets, a sense of safety, and well maintained properties, all assist in Ocean View remaining an attractive place to purchase a home or do business.   Also supporting that goal is our focus on improving our sense of community through park events and partnership building. 

Yes, things are changing and now, before we fall behind, by failing to change with them, is when we needed to consider how we’ll navigate our new normal.    To that end, the proposed FY26 Budget presentation and workshop held on February 25, 2025, included the outcome of our long range financial forecast effort.  This endeavor took us from Diagnosis (where we stand) to Recommendations (what we can do different) to remain fiscally responsible, competitive and continue to offer desired services. I recommend you take a look at the presentations on this site, found under Budgets (FY26 – Feb 25, 2025, Workshop).    We’re pleased that this effort has resulted in recommendations that appear fairly easy to implement and that should provide the necessary tweaks to address operational needs and revenue   constraints.   

The proposed budget also includes the completion of two studies related to the Ocean View Police Department.  The first, a compensation study to determine overall compensation comparisons between us and our competitors. This has become a moving target fraught with anecdotal information.  The second is a Risk Analysis to determine potential risk associated with being dispatched to calls outside of Ocean View.  This International Chiefs of Police study is expected to provide the facts so that as a community we can fully understand and make educated decisions about our public safety operations.  Sharing this information once complete  with our neighboring Town Millville, Delaware, that does not have a police department, as well as our County government (pockets of unincorporated developments surrounded by Ocean View) may be important next steps towards confirming the value they’re gaining from our close proximity, that some might say is being taken advantage of.  Surely Ocean View can’t be expected to bear the full burden of cost and or risk associated with doing the right thing simply for being the closest available unit.  

A few years in the making, but nearing completion is the Towns sale of its fully outsourced water distribution system to Tidewater Utilities.   This sale eliminates all the Town’s debt (currently on that of the utility) and our risk associated with owning a utility with little to no oversight.  The sale also plays prominently into our financial forecasts’ recommendations.

Touching on being community minded, the Towns purchase of open space and planned development of the Berzin's Natural Area (corner of Muddy Neck and Double Bridges Roads) should break ground in 2025!  Excitement is building for our new park complete with raised boardwalk among a coastal forest habitat, walking trail through the upland pines, outdoor classroom/meeting space, pavilion, and more!  

Thank you for your attention, it is my pleasure to serve as Ocean View’s Town Manager.   Rest assured, we’re thinking out of the box, and working to keep Ocean View attractive, safe, clean and interesting!

All my best!