City Council Meeting Date: August 22, 2017
To: Mayor and City Council
City Administrator
From: David E. Bennett, Public Works Director/City Engineer
Title
Review proposed 2018 Public Works Department Operating Funds and 2018-2022 Capital Improvement Plan and Capital Equipment Plan.
Body
Action Requested:
The Northfield City Council is requested to review the 2018 Public Works Department Operating Funds and Capital Improvement/Equipment Plan.
Summary Report:
The Public Works department consists of four divisions that include Engineering, Streets and Parks, Facilities, and Utilities. The primary source of funding is through the General Fund with the exception of the Utility Enterprise Funds (Sanitary, Storm, Water, and Garbage).
In 2018, the Utilities department is requesting to add one full time utility operator to increase its ability to keep up with water, sanitary, and storm annual operation and maintenance. The personal justification report is attached with maps illustrating how the department is falling behind with this work.
The key items included in the public works budget that tie to the City’s Strategic Plan include:
Climate Change Impacts
Flooding Resilience - $50,000 has been include in the Storm Water Utility Budget for a Feasibility Study for Improvements Downtown for the east/west riverwalk/walls.
Infrastructure
$25,000 has been included in the Engineering Operations Budget for updating the safe routes to school plan to include the high school, complete street policy update, and update to the parks trail systems map.
$30,000 Rate Study funding has been included to review the Water, Wastewater, and Storm Water rates. The Wastewater Treatment Plant has numerous large projects planned over the next 8-10 years as identified in the facility study. In addition, the pond assessment will be wrapping up in 2017 with identification of ponds that need improvements.
Ice Arena
The City and stakeholders are working through options for the Ice Arena and are hopeful a path forward will be identified in 2018.
2018-2022 CIP/CEP
The 2018-2022 CIP/CEP and street improvement map is attached. There are a few key takeaways from these plans. Rice County will be overlaying County 79 east of Spring Creek Road in 2019. The City has been in discussion with the Rice County Engineer to extend improvements west to where the road is improved. This would necessitate a cost share on these improvements.
The Spring Creek Road Improvements north of Huron Court along with the bridge replacement are planned for 2022. If bridge bonding money becomes available (roughly half of the bridge replacement cost) the bridge project will be moved up to utilize those funds.
The only planned capital park improvement is for the replacement of Riverside Park playground equipment in 2022. However, the park fund balance is low, making it difficult to plan for capital projects. Staff is hearing requests from the public, such as improving the pickle ball courts, Babcock Park master plan, additional softball fields, new play features at the pool, and bathrooms at Spring Creek Soccer Complex.
The capital facilities fund balance is also low. The City is planning on the Street Maintenance Facility Roof in 2019; however, the fund balance may require this project to be moved back or another funding source identified.
A summary PowerPoint presentation is attached highlighting key items for 2018 along with 2018 CIP/CEP items.