Council reviews $50M streets program, Jack warns later years are speculative
Summary
Engineering staff presented a $50 million, 10-year streets program at the July 8 workshop and said the majority of cost is in local street maintenance and reconstruction, while the later years of the 10-year horizon are more speculative.
Public works and engineering staff presented a 10-year street program at the July 8 workshop that includes roughly $50 million in projects categorized as local street improvements, collector (MSA) projects and county cost-share work.
"Your local street program ... about 26,000,000, so about a little over half of the 50,000,000 is in that program," Jack said, describing the focus on failed streets and the transition from reconstruction to less-extensive maintenance as the backlog is addressed.
Jack emphasized that when the city adopted a 10-year CIP the back four years are more speculative: "when you get beyond the five years it becomes more speculative." He noted developer participation can materially reduce city costs for collector and frontage-road work (Hudson Boulevard, Trunk Highway 36 interchange, Fifth Street segments), but if developers do not build the city may need to fund those segments.
Staff displayed a funding mix of debt issuance, infrastructure levy, special assessments and Minnesota state aid. Handler highlighted a modeled $5 million transfer from the general fund to the streets program in the near term and asked council to weigh the tax-rate impacts of long-term debt and infrastructure levies.
Council asked for additional analysis of assessment strategies, lease-purchase versus cash usage for vehicles, and an updated projection of MSA revenue under varying state-level gas-tax scenarios; staff agreed to return with refined cash-flow scenarios and sensitivity analysis.
