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Council mulls parks v. streets
by Rick DeClue · News · August 14, 2014


Mayor Mark Worrell told the West Branch City Council last Monday, “I’ve been asked three times in the last week, ‘How can we spend all this money for parks, if we can’t fix our streets?’”


The comment was made during a discussion about whether the council wanted the city’s Public Works department to complete all of the street seal coat needs identified this year, or push work on Greenview Court and the drive in the cemetery back to next year.

Public Works Director Matt Goodale said the full list of projects would cost approximately $72,000.

The department’s budget has about half that, or $36,000, as well as some money for planned equipment purchases.

The city plans to ask voters in November to approve a Local Option Sales Tax for another 10 years, spending the money on park improvements.

The city also intends to use Tax Increment Financing for infrastructure improvements on the Pedersen Valley site. Using the TIF funds does not require voter approval.

The mayor and city administrator Matt Muckler both said the city needs to inform voters about questions such as the parks versus streets or other infrastructure funding.

Muckler said the LOST extension technically represents a tax increase, since the current LOST used for fire station improvements expires June 30, 2015. Without an extension, the sales tax would fall from 7 percent to 6 percent.

“We would be the only city in Cedar County at that level,” Muckler said.

He also said the city’s request for a 10-year extension makes West Branch unusual, since few communities in the county have a “sunset” on their LOST.

Council member Jordan Ellyson objected to delaying equipment purchases by Public Works because the city has done that in the past, leading to the current backlog of equipment needs.

Seal coat work has to be done before the weather turns cold and if the project cost more than $49,000, the city must take bids, delaying the work by at least two weeks.

Worrell said he does not favor pushing part of the seal coat work into next year, because that would have to be added to next year’s needs.

“This year has been a tough winter for roads,” said Worrell. “What if we have another bad winter? … For 20 years, I’ve watched us be forced to do seal coat work ‘next year.’”

The remaining $36,000 needed represents slightly less than 1 percent of the city’s budgeted expenditures for fiscal year 2015.

In addition to the first phase of the park work, the Capital Improvements Plan currently being developed by the city contains nearly $2 million in estimated costs for infrastructure improvements identified as “A” priority projects, meaning those expected to be completed in the first two years of the five-year plan.

Worrell asked Muckler and Goodale to take a look at their budgets before the next council meeting to see how all of this year’s seal coat needs could be covered.

Earlier this year, financial advisor Maggie Burger of Speer Financial gave the city a positive review of both its bonding and TIF use versus capacity. Burger is scheduled to address the council in the next Capital Improvements Plan work session after the council’s Aug. 18 meeting.