Lauretti
The city’s Aldermen are scheduled to discuss sending the proposals to voters during their regular meeting Thursday night (July 12). If approved by voters in November, the city would pay for the projects through bonding.
The breakdown is as follows, with each separate expenditure to be approved or rejected by voters:
- $5 million for reconstruction and resurfacing of roads.
- $1 million for the reconstruction of Canal Street.
- $1.4 million for the construction of an animal shelter.
- $3.5 million for the acquisition of fire apparatus.
Mayor Mark Lauretti said Wednesday he’s hoping residents approve all of the questions in November.
“A lot of these things have been in the works for a very long time,” the mayor said. They weren’t brought forward earlier “so in any one year they don’t become a financial burden to the system.”
“These items are not going to have a substantial impact on our debt service,” Lauretti said. “It’s something we can do and we should do.”
Jack Finn, the lone Democrat on the Board of Aldermen, said Wednesday that voters may need more information on some of the projects before giving their approval.
“We’re going to leave it up to the voters whether or not the questions will pass or not pass,” Finn said, noting that while he approves of the new animal shelter and fire equipment, “I think they have to be more specific with the information coming out to the voters as far as what streets are they going to bond for $5 million? Do they have a list in mind?”
The packet of information at City Hall on Thursday’s meeting includes extensive documentation on two of the proposals — the new animal shelter and the fire department spending.
An inch-thick, bound booklet is filled with details of the animal shelter proposal. The current facility on Riverdale Avenue was found to be overcrowded and in poor shape during a state inspection in February.
Click here to see a picture of what the facility would look like from Shelton Patch.
The documentation also includes several pages of material from the Fire Department detailing its planned equipment purchases.
The $3.5 million would go toward funding the department’s six-year capital improvement plan, which would include the purchase of four new fire trucks — two engine/quints and two rescue trucks.
Those new vehicles would replace six aging pieces of fire apparatus, including one truck that dates to 1977. The “quints” are multi-purpose trucks.
According to the documentation, in 2012 – 2013, the Fire Department also wants to:
- Replace a sixth of its structural fire gear
- Install better air filling stations at Echo Hose Hook and Ladder Co. 1
- Replace three of its command vehicles
- Upgrade computers
- Purchase a security key system for all four fire companies,
- Begin to study the feasibility of remodeling Huntington Fire Co. 3 and rebuilding or relocating Echo Hose Hook and Ladder Co. 1.
As for the other proposals, Finn said he’s looking forward to more details — and thinks voters will be, too.
“I believe they have to provide more information to the voters to sell it,” he said.
“It’s a lot for the voters to digest in a small period of time,” Finn went on. “It’ll be them deciding whether or not they want to increase our bonding debt by another $11 million.”
“It’s going to be a hard sell on everything due to the economy,” he added.
Aldermanic President John Anglace said Thursday morning that the city’s debt service will be dropping off in the coming years.
“That makes available more bonding without impacting the mill rate,” he said. “We’re not going to put on to the bond schedule more than we’re taking off.”
He said the Fire Department did an “excellent job” with their proposals, and that he will schedule a special Aldermen’s meeting for the company designing the animal shelter to present their plans.
As for the roads, Anglace said he wants Aldermen to give Director of Public Works Paul DiMauro discretion as to the scheduling of road improvements. If they released a list of roads that will be paved first, Anglace predicted, those whose roads aren’t on the list would vote against the referendum question.
“They’ve all got to be done,” he said. “With 200 miles of roads and the astronimical cost of paving these days … it’s going in the right direction.”
