March 28, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Community Improvements Top Saturday Budget Discussion
DECATUR - The City of Decatur detailed plans for millions of dollars worth of street and sewer repair, property maintenance and innovative new technology aimed at making the city more efficient to be completed without a request for a tax increase during the Decatur City Council’s budget session Saturday morning.
A report from the City’s department of Engineering and Infrastructure led Saturday’s discussion. As most know by now, the City is facing an estimated $3 million budget shortfall this fiscal year but has proposed a balanced budget which would allow the city to close the budget gap without any sort of tax increase.
This budget calls for about $1.2 million in direct cuts to city operations alone to help fill the budget gap. However, the city has about 740 lane miles of streets — almost the equivalent of a road trip from Decatur to Washington, D.C. — that must be repaired and maintained regardless of the budget situation being faced by the city. Although population may be down from past years, a trend that appears to be slowing based on recent census data, the area within the City of Decatur that must be maintained has not gotten smaller.
With fewer resources, of course, the city will need to reorganize or reprioritize the work that has to get done while making sure that core services continue.
The department has compiled a list of 111 services that are currently provided by the department ranging from snow plowing, sidewalk replacement and storm sewer repair to pothole maintenance, horticulture activities and mowing. The goal now will be to determine how to best provide those services in the most cost effective way possible and within the guidelines of current bargaining agreements.
It should be noted that the listing and studying of the current work being provided does not mean that the city will cease to provide those services.
“When you’re looking at your budget, you look at things that you have to do, what you need to do and what you want to do and make adjustments based on what you have to do and need to do,” said city manager Ryan McCrady.
The city anticipates that new technology combined with realignment of the way that the city does business will help make sure that necessary work gets done. Rick Marley, the City’s Director of Engineering and infrastructure said that hiring people who have experience in a number of areas and leaving some positions vacant will allow the department to do more with less.
Some of the projects detailed on Saturday include:
- Microsurfacing roadways — For the first time the city will implement this asphalting and paving system for roadways that are now in satisfactory shape which will protect the roadways, adding an estimated 5 years to their useful life. This will reduce the need for future repair and the roadways will look and feel like they’ve been completely repaved once the work is done.
- Electronic Document Storage — This process would digitize city documents, tying them to the City’s GIS system and making them available to both city workers and the public.
- Eldorado Streetscape project — The proposed streetscape improvements on Eldorado street from Church Street east to the Canadian National/Illinois Central Railroad include new concrete sidewalks, street lighting and other items. The corridor is one of the city’s busiest and the project is being funded in large part by an Illinois Transportation Enhancement Grant.
- Energy Performance Contracting — The City would work with a firm to analyze energy system to determine where we can find savings might be found, both in terms of reducing costs and the amount of energy consumed.
The Council also heard from the executive, management service, human resources and transit departments/divisions during Saturday’s meeting and the meeting was televised on ACCESSDecatur, cable TV channel 18. The next budget session will be held following Monday’s regularly scheduled City Council meeting at 5:30 p.m. Monday, March 30.
For more information contact Billy Tyus at 424-2753.