9/25/13
Trails were on the Shorewood Council's agenda on the 23rd.
It was reported that sod was down on the Cty 19 segment and the final item is to decide if any trees will be planted on the Xcel site (probably not). The Smithtown Rd. trail grading is started and putting down the actual trail surface is not far off. Most work and a usable trail is supposed to be done by the end of October. Council did approve about $25,000 of extra spending on this segment due to unexpected difficulties. The Excelsior Blvd. segment is likely not to be completed until 2014. This is the short segment being done along with the Met Council sewer improvement.
Per discussion, staff is supposed to come back to Council with updated costs for the above three segments. Seems Council has no idea how much money has been committed and spent from the approximately $1.6 million that was in the trail fund.
Mill Street and Galpin Lake Rd. segments were discussed. The direction was to hold a public open house to discuss the project details. However, with something like $1.5 million in costs for these two segments, the Council clearly does not know where to get enough money to proceed.
Watch the council meeting at: http://lmcc.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?publish_id=a045d4fb-76f9-1031-bf4f-32d5966f69c1 and look at agenda items 8B and 12.A.3.
Blog readers have suggested establishing a trail fund like the road fund. This is possible. The road fund receives about $800,000 of property tax money each year. According to staff reports from the Council's March "retreat", the road fund can support the 20-year road plan with only small annual increases in the tax contribution (it's far from "empty" as one reader suggested).
A trail fund to pay for Mill Street and Galpin Lake Rd trails would need on the order of $1.2 million (assuming $300,000 is available from what's unspent today). $1.2 million could be raised in two years simply by raising property taxes about 12% for two years, 4% for six years and so on. Is this what taxpayers want?
Happy Reading!
The Insider
Insider, you present the Mill Street & Galpin projects as all or nothing. The council should have established criteria for where to put trails, i.e, connectivity, traffic count and speed, etc. Make a choice, which trail addresses the greatest safety concern and go with it. The other one can be put in the CIP for the future.
ReplyDeleteRegarding tax increases, I notice your post regarding tax increases from several weeks ago garnered not one single comment. Perhaps city tax increases in the small percents are not as terrifying to people as you want to believe. Especially if we see some direct benefit.
Dovetailing in trails with the natural rotation of road improvements and sewer/water line placement is the responsible way to go. No one will argue with that, and the extra cost and inconvenience should be minimal. But that means people will have to be patient. Does the visionary trail crowd have patience?
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