Fayetteville City Council Reviews Capital Plan

FAYETTEVILLE -- New fire trucks. Continued trail development. More library material. And $17.4 million worth of new or improved water and sewer lines.

Those and dozens of other projects make up the city's proposed $113.3 million capital improvement plan for the next five years.

By The Numbers

Five-Year Capital Improvement Plan

Fayetteville officials anticipate spending $113.3 million on capital projects during the next five years.

• Water, sewer: $39.1 million

• Transportation: $19.9 million

• Vehicles, equipment: $17.5 million

• Public safety: $9.9 million

• Trail: $7.9 million

• Other: $5.7 million

• Parks, recreation: $5.6 million

• Information technology: $2.6 million

• Recycling, trash: $2.6 million

• Bridge, drainage: $1.8 million

• Street: $750,000

• Total: $113.3 million

Source: City Of Fayetteville

The plan, up for City Council consideration next week, serves as a starting point each year when Fayetteville aldermen discuss the capital side of the annual budget.

"The five-year plan is what we as staff and the administration see as needs for the next five years," Paul Becker, finance director, told City Council members Tuesday. "We begin with that as our base in the budget process. It's not an appropriation. It's not an authorization to spend."

Aldermen last updated the plan in 2012.

The largest percentage of the plan is set aside for water and sewer expenditures (34 percent), followed by Transportation Division costs (18 percent), vehicle replacements and equipment upgrades (15 percent), Fire and Police Department purchases (8 percent) and trail construction (7 percent).

Don Marr, Mayor Lioneld Jordan's chief of staff, described many of the projects in the plan as "non-sexy stuff," such as paving roads, building sidewalks, replacing vehicles and upgrading technology.

But the plan also includes lots of special projects prioritized by department heads or members of the City Council.

City officials anticipate spending $1 million, for instance, on streets and drainage pipes for a low- to moderate-income housing development called the Houses at Willow Bend. The project is being planned in southeast Fayetteville by the nonprofit organization Partners for Better Housing.

Up to $250,000 would be put toward a railroad crossing on Dickson Street.

Following a resolution co-sponsored by Jordan and Alderwoman Sarah Marsh, $280,000 was set aside to restore the 19th Century Woolsey homestead off of Broyles Avenue near the West Side Wastewater Treatment Facility.

Fayetteville's Engineering Division requested $800,000 for extensive drainage improvements in the historic Washington-Willow neighborhood.

Transportation Division workers want $400,000 for a winter weather operations center, where salt stockpiles and snow plows could be stored.

New multi-use fields are planned at the former R&P Electroplating site on Pump Station Road. Several Wilson Park tennis courts could be replaced in 2018. The Police Department wants hybrid vehicles to patrol the city trails. And $190,000 would go toward a parking lot off of Crossover Road south of the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks.

"The Lake Fayetteville Trail completion has dramatically increased the usage of that trail and it has created parking issues for both the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks and the city," Marr said.

About one-third of the $113.3 million identified in the capital plan will come from sales taxes. Becker said he predicated the plan on roughly 2 percent annual sales tax growth.

The other two-thirds of the money will come from a variety of sources, including turnback money from the county and state; the city's half of the hotel, motel and restaurant tax; parking fees and fines; and rates the city charges for water, sewer and trash and recycling services.

The plan doesn't include projects paid for with bond proceeds, including a number of street improvements included in a $65.9 million bond issue voters approved in 2006.

Several projects were requested but not included in the five-year capital plan.

They include a new headquarters building for the Police Department, a full build-out of the planned regional park in southwest Fayetteville and a renovated and expanded fire station on Garland Avenue.

Once the five-year capital plan is set, aldermen and city administrators can begin the budgeting process for 2015. Next year's budget likely won't be decided until November or December.

NW News on 07/30/2014

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