[Note: I am appreciative that The Arden Page has to sometimes limit or change the text of a submission to be able to use the least number of pages and yet, get everything printed, to you!]

But First, Are you interested what the Civic Committee does? Please consider running for a 2 year seat on the committee. If interested, send inquiries to civic@arden.delaware.gov

Budget Appeal Results – 2024

As of Sunday, December 15th, there was only one submission — and that was mine!

The GOAL of this appeal was to find out what maintenance work is important to you, the Arden Resident.

Here’s mine:

Grass cutting: $16,000. Everything else $44,000.

Cutting the Village lawns and picking up sticks, is important, I think. Many people use the greens and theatre. Realistically, how am I to know how many trees will have to come down (expensive) or deer carcasses (less expensive) that need to be removed? We pretty much repair things, as needed.

Budget Appeal

Arden Residents – I need your help to show a sample budget to the Civic Committee!

The $60,000 budget Civic requested was passed by vote at September 2025 Town Meeting. As you know, Warren Rosenkranz ran a mailbox campaign against the budget. As you might know the Civic Committee’s proposed budget did not pass at the referendum. A majority of returned ballots voted for Civic, but with the current Super-majority requirement, those 138 ballots that were not returned, automatically count as voting against it. We were about 16 votes short of the Super-majority.

The money for the 2025-26 budget Civic budget is already in the bank! Let me ask you, Arden Residents, it’s certainly your money and it’s certainly your village. Can the village go a year without repair work? What do you want to see repaired in the village? What do you think the budget should be?

How to help:
A total amount is needed. Here’s some ideas to guide you. In this last referendum, the Budget committee wants Civic to have $53,000. Civic wanted $60,000. The $7,000 difference between $53k and $60k, can be two days of tree work or a large tree and a crane to take it down. For years, the old yearly amount was $58,000.

It’s very important to know that, the grass cutting is a multi-year contract signed by the village, but paid out of Civic’s budget. Rounded down, that’s $16,000 that Civic has no spending control of.

Your total amount – $16,000 = will be spent on the following…

There’s two ways to do this.
A: Item 1: $1000. Item 2: $4,000. Item 3: $…. and so on.
Or
B: Item 1: 10%. Item 2: 25%. Item 3: …..% and so on.

Extra: the state gives us money that can be used only for road related work, from paving to street snow removal. It’s not a fixed amount. For this, let’s say, $18,000.

Important: please send your suggestions to this email: Civic@arden.delaware.gov

I will continue cataloging your ideas until end of Sunday December 15th. The plan is to post the results online on Wednesday, December 18th and take the results to the next Civic Committee meeting. I’m looking forward to hearing from you. Thank you.

Examples of past Civic Committee work

Not everything Civic works on costs money.

Even if you don’t want to work on a Civic Budget, please feel free to email repair ideas to:
civic@arden.delaware.gov

Many repairs are under $1,000. For example, the village has runs of post and rail fences that occasionally need replacing. We recently replaced 2 posts that a car took out at the corner of Harvey Rd and The Sweep. Cost: $35 for posts with free labor from the Civic Committee.

Examples from past jobs:
One full day of tree work and removal: $3,500
One big tree and a crane: $7,000. (every big job is unique)
5 yards of hardwood mulch: $200.
Stick and limb removal$150
Deer carcass removed from Memorial Garden: $350.
114 street signs, brown with white letters: $1,700.
Repairing damage to Arden Greens during Arden Fair: $445
Aeration of village greens: $1,850
Repaint speed bumps: $4,415.
5 hours snow plowing roads and hills: $500.
1 day, salting hills and intersections – 15 bags of salt : $600
Paving Pond Ln: $14,000
Paving Green Road btw Cherry & Walnut 4350 sqft, Wind Lane 1050 sqft, Hillside across Harvey 3900 sqft, Mill & Miller 1350 Sqft: $20,000
Paving Lower Lane; Little Lane; Orleans Rd; & Inn Lane: $24,000