07-11-16 Personnel and Finance - Laserfiche WebLink

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Councilmember Davis asked if there are other areas of the City that the Council can request those funds for. Eric Horvath, Director of Public Works, 13th Floor of the County City Building, stated these are projects that are in the City's long -range transportation improvement plan. They go through MACOG and these are the ones that are approved for federal funding, and so we're paying for the local match with the special LOIT. It has allowed us to move these up in terms of the year that we would be doing them so we can get some of the engineering done this year and have them ready to be constructed next year. The monies went into the special LOIT that were earmarked for road projects, so 75% had to be used for road projects, then you could use the remaining 25% for road projects or put it in your rainy day fund. As we bring forward appropriation requests, they will be specifically for road projects, and these are things that we would have in our transportation improvement plan. Councilmember Davis's concern is that the appropriations are coming so fast that they don't have time to discuss or submit certain ideas. There are other immediate things that we should be talking about, and it would help us if it could be spread out throughout the districts. There are other streets that if we could add them to that, it probably would not cost that much. Mr. Horvath stated that if Councilmember Davis has suggestions of streets that need redone to get them to him this week, and he can put an amount in the 2017 budget for new streets. The City does an asset management program where they try to repair the worst streets, and they focus on different districts throughout the City so they make sure to distribute the new streets fairly throughout the City. Councilmember Davis stated that he wants to be included in the process and not just at the tail end. Mr. Murphy stated that they put the remaining 25% in the rainy day fund, which now totals $10 million. Councilmember Davis stated that if the City of South Bend doesn't put the whole 25% into the rainy day fund, the fund would still keep up our bond rating. Councilmember Scott asked Mr. Horvath if part of that stipulation is that there is state or federal matching because of certain roads, so it couldn't just be any residential street. Mr. Horvath stated that they could use it on different roads. Councilmember Scott agreed with Councilmember Davis that there are a lot of roads getting beat up especially around the Sample Street area and the 6th District and if we could use some of these funds on those roads that would be a good idea. 11