MEMORANDUM 06-162

 

TO:            Mayor Hornaday / Homer City Council

 

FROM:      Walt Wrede

 

DATE:       September 29, 2006

 

SUBJECT:  Capital Improvement Program (C.I.P.)

 

 

The City Council discussed the City of Homer Capital Improvement Plan 2007-2012 at both of its Committee of the Whole meetings in September. It also heard public testimony on that topic at its regular meeting on September 25. At the September 25 Committee of the Whole meeting, the Council spent a significant amount of time discussing the best way to present and package the City’s Capital Project Priorities. There seemed to be a general consensus that it would be best if the City combined its capital priorities into one CIP list of about 15 items that included a mixture of big and small projects. The Council also indicated that it would like to see a draft resolution containing CIP priorities submitted by the City Manager for Council consideration.

 

Following are my recommendations for the CIP Priorities List. A draft resolution is attached for discussion purposes. There are many worthy projects in the Capital Improvement Plan and I am sure that the Council will have a lively discussion about which projects should be included in the Plan and more importantly, which projects should be included on the Resolution listing the City’s top priorities.

 

From my perspective as the City Manager, the following priority list contains the most important public safety and community development projects. These are the projects that I believe the City should focus its time and resources on. When prioritizing them, I have also taken into consideration where these projects have been on past priority lists and how far they are along in the funding and development process. The small ticket items are numbers 12 through 15.

 

I have listed five additional projects at the end that I believe are very important and could easily be on the priority list as well. These projects were left out in part, because I was trying to fit in some smaller ticket items. The Council could consider substituting some of them or expanding the priority list.

 

  1. Water Treatment Plant Upgrade / Alternative Water Source
  2. Deep Water Dock Expansion, Phase I
  3. New City Hall / Town Square
  4. College Expansion / UAA/KPC, Kachemak Bay Campus
  5. Spit Trail Completion / Harbor Pathways
  6. Main Street Reconstruction
  7. Homer Intersection Improvements
  8. East Boat Harbor
  9. Jack Gist Park Improvements
  10. Public Restrooms, Homer Spit
  11. Firefighting Equipment / Aerial Truck
  12. Senior Access Trail
  13. Communications Systems Upgrade / HVFD
  14. Fire Engine 4 Refurbishment
  15. Parks and Recreation Equipment

 

Other Very Important Projects

 

  1. Heath St. Extension / Pioneer to Anderson
  2. Land Acquisition for New Roads
  3. New Port and Harbor Building
  4. Harbor Float Replacement / Phase I
  5. West Hill Water Transmission Main and Water Storage Tank
  6. Senior Housing

 

The Capital Improvement Plan 2007-2012 and the Capital Improvement Priorities List are two of the most important planning and community development documents the Council adopts. It is important that all projects in these documents have strong support from the community and from the Council as a whole. I would recommend that the Council go through the plan carefully and made sure that all of the projects in there are still relevant and have the support of the Council.

 

I would also urge you to closely review the list of new proposed projects. These projects should not be automatically included in the plan simply because they have been proposed by the Administration, a board or commission, an interest group, or a Council member. The Council should discuss each proposed new project and vote on whether to include it at this time.