Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
When the Sweet Home City Council approved its 2006-07 budget at its June 27 meeting, it also agreed to what amounted to a policy change regarding its street maintenance improvements fund.
The 2005-06 and the 2006-07 budgets allotted $50,000 and $100,000 respectively to help establish a storm drainage utility in Sweet Home.
During the council’s public hearing on the budget, former Mayor Dave Holley objected to using those funds for storm drainage, suggesting the money be conserved and used for road maintenance and improvements.
In 1992, Linn County turned over 8.78 miles of county roads inside the city limits to the city of Sweet Home. Along with the roads, the county gave $1.7 million to the city to help maintain the road system.
The city’s Budget Committee and staff set a goal of maintaining a $1.5 million balance in the fund and using interest earned on the money to fund projects.
The fund began at the start of the 2006-07 fiscal year, July 1, with $1.7 million. Budget projects include a $150,000 overlay project on 18th Avenue at the railroad crossing, about $10,700 for street projects and striping and $20,000 in crack sealing.
The city will transfer $20,000 to its path program and $100,000 to the storm drainage utility, leaving a total of $1.4 million at the end of the fiscal year, June 30, 2007.
Holley brought the issue up during Budget Committee meetings in the spring. On Tuesday he said he wanted to re-emphasize that those funds should be used for street projects, and it should be maintained at $1.5 million.
“This is not a discretionary fund,” Holley said. “It was set up for street maintenance.”
The transfer to the storm drainage fund will take it below its minimum levels as well, he said. “We need to stay with our program. We need to use that money for what it was intended…. It’s not going into any maintenance per se. It’s going into setup up a possible funding source.”
The transferred money is enough to do another street project, Holley noted.
The first $50,000, from the 2005-06 budget, is earmarked for the storm utility, to see what it will take to create an actual utility, Public Works Director Mike Adams said. What’s left of the money after formation of the utility can be used for specific projects, which could include replacement, repair or new infrastructure.
“I question how the council can approve anything when it’s open-ended like that,” Holley said.
Holley said he wasn’t telling the council not to do things, but he cautioned the council to be careful where it gets the money. Using street maintenance improvements money for storm drainage is a shift in the city’s policy for that money, he said.
Councilor Jim Gourley agreed that it is a change of policy, in this case through the budget process.
Through the budget, the city is expanding the appropriate uses for that money to storm drainage, an issue connected to roads, City Manager Craig Martin said.
The city is growing, and it does not have a systems development charge in place to require the new development to pay for what it adds to the system capacity, he said. The city tried to develop an SDC when it increased sewer and water SDCs last year, but without a utility in place, the city cannot charge an SDC.
Once the utility is established, along with an SDC, “the balance of that money, yes, you can use for projects,” Martin said.
The idea to develop a storm water utility really began a couple of years ago when the council dealt with a drainage issue on 43rd Avenue, Gourley said. Flooding there was causing the roadway to deteriorate, and the city had to do something.
That was the beginning of the city’s change in policy toward these funds, Gourley said.
On another issue, the city’s work to save Weddle Bridge, contrary to letters to the editor, Holley told the council he thought the city’s role was just right.
“I think as long as we don’t get too carried away, that’s a project we need to spend money on,” Holley said. Many members of this community invested time and money into bringing the bridge here.
“We’re not going to run ourselves broke,” Holley said. “$50,000’s one thing, but what we’ve been doing so far” is appropriate.”
The city dedicated $1,000 to the bridge last year and then added approximately $6,000 from the sale of timber to help repair the deteriorating covered bridge, located at Sankey Park.