Roadwork, merger of fire departments eyed
By Jennifer Eisenbart
Staff Writer
When it comes to putting together the operating budget for 2013 for the City of Burlington, Mayor Bob Miller expects things to go according to plan.
The strategic planning session, that is.
Miller confirmed Tuesday that the city – which began its budget process last week with its first of three Committee of the Whole budget meetings – will use the strategic planning session in pulling together its 2013 budget.
“The priorities are the same ones we came out of the strategic planning session with,” Miller explained. “Those are the ones that staff has been gearing the budget toward.”
Right now, Miller said, the plan is not to cut services.
“The budget as it is set up right now is kind of geared along those lines,” he said.
That’s not to say that there won’t be long-term effects of that planning session, ones that go beyond just the 2013 budget.
For example, one of the items that Miller expects to see an increase in funding for is street repair and maintenance.
“We have a need to continue to maintain and improve the city streets, to try and make them last as long as possible,” said Miller. One of the options is setting up increased funding – to the tune of $63,000 each year over the next seven years – for seal coating and crack filling.
Miller estimates there are 280 blocks of street that need cracks filled, and another 146 city blocks that need seal coating.
That’s just for streets with ratings of six or seven on the 10-point scale. For streets worse that that, he said, he hopes to have those repairs addressed with the second half of the borrowing the city did this year to fund street reconstruction – work that is taking place in part this year and in part next.
The city is also moving forward with studying the possibility of merging its fire protection services with the Town of Burlington Fire Department. According to Miller, the city has issued an RFP – request for proposal – to do the study of services of the City of Burlington Fire Department and the Burlington Area Rescue Squad.
Among the possibilities is a merger and sharing of services with the town.
Other options that were raised in that strategic planning session include:
• Working to maintain the current level of staffing and services, but also cutting non-essential services;
• Conducting a feasibility study for the renovation of the current public library or construction of a new one.
With those goals being discussed, City Administrator Kevin Lahner said at the City Council meeting last week that the planning session helped define an “ongoing process.”
“It’s a great process for administrative staff to go through because it helps us focus on policy issues,” he said.
The next two special budget meetings will be on Oct. 24 and Oct. 31 – both Wednesdays, at 6 p.m. at the Department of Public Works facility, 2200 S. Pine St.
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