Jamestown City Council
Jamestown City Council has received a new prioritized list from City Departments on how they wish to spend American Rescue Plan funds.
Mayor Eddie Sundquist said when it comes to the new list ranking departments’ top priorities, the Police department listed hiring four new officers at a cost of $206,000 as their top request followed by replacing five police vehicles, “We did fund portable radios, asking for funding for portable radios through the lost revenue line, that’s $144,000. That’s the third priority for the Police Department. The fourth priority is the shooting range at $190,000. And the fifth priority is the virtual reality training at $62,500.”
The latter two items were not funded under lost revenue. For the Parks Department, Sundquist said the number one priority was the replacement of the parks maintenance building roof for a cost of $250,000 which wasn’t funded by lost revenue, “The second ranked Parks project is water lines at Bergman, Roseland, and Jackson-Taylor. That’s $1.5 million, not recommended yet to be funded under the lost revenue category. Press Box at Diethrick Park, $33,000. That was recommended to be funded under lost revenue. Third category, walkway paths at Diethrick Park, that’s $10,300. That was recommended to be funded.”
Other Parks priorities listed included painting the Goranson Bandshell and making concrete repairs to it for a cost of $80,000 and work on the Diethrick Stadium Grandstand for $300,000.
The Department of Public Works’ top priority for funding is roof repairs for city-owned buildings for $400,000. This project was not included under lost revenue. The second priority was a salt brining de-icing system for $100,000 that Sundquist said could create a cost savings down the road, “Third down is traffic control signal equipment at $35,000. We always like to have an additional one on spare just in case something happens although that was not recommended under lost revenue category. Fourth one is Third Street improvements at $380,000. We believe there is some additional opportunities there for grant funds as well to put under a different category, so it may not be funded under lost revenue but there are other opportunities there.”
Sundquist said the Fire Department’s top priority is eight new firefighters at a cost for one year at $609,000, which was not funded under lost revenue. The second priority is the roof replacement for Station #4 for a cost of $92,000 which was recommended to be funded by lost revenue.
Finance Chair and Council member at large Kim Ecklund said other council members and her have concerns over whether they could get in trouble with Federal requirements if after they voted on ARP Master Plan funding categories, and then later decided to move monies between categories, “If we.. if there is a suggestion to move some monies, not necessarily to fund the broadband, can we leave it in healthy communities, or water and sewer, or should we move it to housing? And what is going to be the legalities of us being able to do that? Is the Federal government going to say ‘No, you earmarked it for that. It’s gotta stay in there.’ So I ask Corporation Counsel to do a little research for us so we knew that.”
Sundquist said there is the leeway to move monies between categories in the Master Plan in addition to changing the funding levels of the categories. He also urged Council act to accept the master plan before the end of 2021 so that capital projects can move forward in 2022.
Leave a Reply