Ansonia Aldermen will meet Tuesday (Aug. 30) to decide whether to ask voters to approve $18 million in borrowing in this November’s election to finance a plethora of improvements.
The city was poised to hold a referendum on roughly $6 million in projects in the summer, but Aldermen opted to delay the vote with a view to pursuing a higher bond rating and tweaking the plan, which was met with heavy criticism when first unveiled.
The capital plan now includes $12 million to fund the building of a new police station on Olson Drive.
A public hearing on the plan is scheduled for 7 p.m., to be followed by a special meeting of the city’s Aldermen and Board of Apportionment and Taxation.
The meetings will take place at Ansonia High School, 20 Pulaski Highway.
Background
Municipalities use capital improvement plans to plan out the funding of things like building construction and equipment or land purchases over many years.
Often, cities use bonding to fund capital improvement items so the costs associated with them can be spread out over several years.
City officials have been working on a five-year capital improvement plan since last summer.
They originally envisioned a June 7 referendum at which several questions would ask residents to approve a total of $5.9 million in bonding for 2016 – 2017.
New Plan
Now, the plan totals $18,295,000, broken down as:
- $1,565,000 for the Board of Education
- $510,000 for culture-recreation
- $215,000 for infrastructure
- $1,035,000 for public safety
- $12,080,000 for the new police station
- $720,000 for public works
- $1,015,000 for roads
- $1,155,000 for vehicles
Article continues after document with a little more detail.
Ansonia Revised Capital Plan Resolution
Financial advisers hired by the city have said that with debt payments for a number of prior bonding projects coming off the books, the city can afford to borrow more money to fund the capital improvements.
In addition, Ansonia recently received a bond rating upgrade, which allows the city to borrow money at lower interest rates.
The city’s website provides some more information on how the money will be spent.
For instance, the $510,000 for “culture-recreation” is for the “relocation and renovation” of the city’s senior center, currently housed at the city-owned Palmer Building at 153 Main St.
Further details about the relocation and renovation plans weren’t listed.
Elsewhere, the plan calls for $1 million in spending for “milling, drainage, paving, striping” of city roads, but doesn’t list which roads will be worked on.
The spending plan does offer more detail about some of the projects — such as in the list of planned improvements for the Ansonia Rescue Medical Services, and a number of vehicles to be purchased through the plan, for example.
New Police Station
The revised plan also includes $12 million earmarked for the new police station, which Mayor David Cassetti has envisioned as part of the redevelopment of the former Riverside Apartments property on Olson Drive since shortly after he was first elected mayor in 2013.
City officials say the $12 million won’t be bonded by the city, like the rest of the spending, but will instead be in the form of a low-interest loan from the federal government.
Though Ansonia resident Tarek Raslan suggested putting the new police department on Liberty Street, in the headquarters of the old Ansonia Copper & Brass building, that option wasn’t discussed by Aldermen, who instead endorsed a “needs assessment” written by an architect that envisioned building on Olson Drive.
Minutes from that meeting are posted below.
David Knapp, chairman of the Ansonia Democratic Town Committee, said Monday the city should have done more to publicize Tuesday’s meeting.
“Thirty minutes doesn’t allow for much discussion,” he said.
