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 The aldermen reviewed every line of the new budget that was
authored by City Administrator Clay Johnson. During the review,
Johnson shared that the city will end the 2016-17 fiscal year with a
positive balance of approximately $45,000.
Aldermen applauded Johnson for doing a good job of creating a
balanced document and making the review process much easier than it
has been in the past. Johnson, in turn, gave a great deal of the
credit to the city department heads. He said that Lincoln is
fortunate in that it has department heads that are committed to
running the city as efficiently as possible and were willing to do
the hard work involved in creating a balanced budget.
Among the items that were discussed during the budgeting process was
an allocation for $450,000 to complete one block of the downtown
streetscape plan. The block proposed for the 2016-17 fiscal year
will be Kickapoo Street between Broadway and Pulaski on the west
side of the Logan County Courthouse square.
When this item came up for discussion, it soon became clear that
Lincoln aldermen are not pleased with how the work turned out that
was done two years ago on Pulaski Street. Their biggest concern is
with the “bump-outs” at the intersections and in the center of the
block in front of the Arcade area.
Aldermen feel that the bump-outs are too large and obtrusive, and
are hindering traffic flow in the downtown area. They also reported
that Lincoln constituents feel the same way and would like for the
city to re-think the downtown plan.
When Johnson introduced the topic, the first alderman to comment was
Rick Hoefle. He wanted to know if there were sewer issues that
needed to be addressed in this block that would make it necessary
for the city to move forward with the streetscape this year. He said
that as a representative of Ward Four, his constituents are telling
him they would rather see money invested in the residential streets
and alleys instead of the downtown area. He wondered if the city
could shift its focus for the time being.
Hoefle qualified his statement saying he was not opposed to doing
the beautification work in the downtown area, but he wondered if the
city had its priorities in the right place. Additionally, Hoefle
said he had some concerns about the safety of the new design, and
noted he had heard that there have been falls with injuries because
of the new curbing.
Johnson said that the plan had been put into place after much work
and consideration. The public had been invited to view the plans and
offer input before the first street work ever started. He said then
the community had been pleased with the plan. However, he noted that
it is at the discretion of the council to move forward, or to
re-direct the money to other projects.
Jonie Tibbs commented that she doesn’t feel the work on Pulaski is
complete. She said there was a traffic control issue and felt the
city needed to re-design what is on Pulaski Street now, to address
traffic control and flow. Tibbs said she felt that all the aldermen
have probably heard complaints about the intersections. She also
noted that she had a personal incident where she and another party
were trying to turn, and the other party became angry and used an
obscene gesture to express their feelings.
Tracy Welch said he agreed. He said the downtown revitalization plan
had gotten mixed reviews from his perspective. He said he thinks
Pulaski Street looks nice, but there are issues with the bump-outs.
Welch said he thought the city needed to compromise on the current
issue by trying to cut back the bump-outs, so they didn’t stick out
into the street so much.
Todd Mourning asked if there had been dollars put into the 2015-16
budget for Kickapoo Street. Johnson said yes there had been, but the
city had not chosen to move forward with that project in this
current year.
Michelle Bauer said, "I'm in complete agreement with the idea of
looking at the scope of the project from an aesthetic and the
bump-outs and all the pieces we’re talking about. But we can’t have
one side of the square done, the aesthetic, the intention of the
project, the plan in and of itself, it just doesn’t make any sense
to have one side of the square. What I would say is that we’re
working with a different firm than the original that put together
the project. Given the relationship we have with Farnsworth and the
work they do for us, it would be feasible to give our feedback to
them.” Bauer indicated that Farnsworth could look at the existing
plan, knowing there are concerns with the bump-outs and ask for
their opinion on how this can be addressed.
Steve Parrott also chimed in saying that the functionality of the
bump-outs is not good. He noted issues with trucks and motorists
hitting or driving over the curbs. He said it was not functioning
well at all, and that he will not vote to move forward with another
block until the issues are addressed.
Jeff Hoinacki reminded the aldermen that the plan was presented to
the public. He recalled the public meetings held at the inception of
the plan brought a lot of attendance. He noted that then, many in
attendance were constituents in the city. Many had stood and voiced
their support for the plan, saying they had like it, and that had
influenced the city to move forward.
Hoefle shifted the conversation slightly, asking Street
Superintendent Walt Landers about another item on the budget for
resurfacing projects throughout the city. He asked Landers how much
resurfacing could be done for $400,000. Landers replied that in the
last budget, $320,000 had done approximately two-and-a-half miles of
resurfacing work of varying degrees.
 Hoefle suggested the city change the plan for the new fiscal year.
He said he thought repairing the problems on Pulaski Street would
cost less than the prescribed $450,000 for Kickapoo. He suggested
that the city first repair the problems on Pulaski Street, then take
the leftover amount from the $450,000 and add it to the budget for
the city resurfacing projects.
Welch commented, “I don’t disagree with Alderman Hoefle, but we’ve
already embarked on this journey, this project, and it just looks
bad to be incomplete.” Welch said in addition to the bump-outs on
Pulaski, he also had concerns about the one on South Kickapoo at the
Lincoln Grand 8 Theater. He concluded, “I think before we proceed
any further, we have to get it right, or we’ll be spending more
money to correct more problems." There was a constituent in the
galley who spoke about this also. He said that he was a retired
landscape architect that had been involved for 40 years with
projects including state programs. He said that a plan can look
great on paper, but “where the rubber meets the road is how it works
with traffic. If the city does not address the problems you are
going to end up getting lawsuits and whatever because if nothing
else, it is going to aggravate people in this town. I think a very
high priority ought to be attached to seeing what doesn’t work now
and learning from it as you proceed."
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Welch recalled an earlier conversation where that Johnson had confirmed that
there was $450,000 in the current budget for this same Kickapoo Street project.
That money had not been spent this year. Welch asked what would happen to the
cash that had been allocated but not used. Johnson explained that it would stay
in the city’s general fund.
NOTE: In the budgeting
process, the city builds the new budget based on the expected revenues for the
budget year. When the year ends, if there is cash left over because revenues
might have been higher than anticipated or certain expenditures did not occur,
that extra cash is not added to the new budget. It stays in the general fund to
help build a cash reserve for the city. There was a point in time when the city
had more than $7 million in its cash reserve. It was that cash reserve that
helped keep the city running after the economic crisis of 2008. However, the
reserve was greatly depleted, and now when the financial standing of the city is
improving, is a time when cash reserves can be built back up for the next “rainy
day.”
At the budget meetings last week, Welch asked if that money not expended in the
2015-16 budget year could be moved into the new fiscal year and added to the
project at a later date. He said it wasn’t a detail that had to be worked out on
this particular night.
Mourning wanted to clarify the $450,000 in the new budget was not the same
$450,000 in the current year budget.
Johnson confirmed that was correct. Johnson added that it was uncommon for the
city to take this type of action where they would move money out of the general
fund into a capital expense fund in a new budget. But, he said that he and City
Treasurer Chuck Conzo could discuss this and look at how to do it properly.
Johnson noted that when the street plan was designed, there were specific
reasons for the bump-outs. He said the idea had been to slow down traffic in the
area, and to provide safer crosswalks for pedestrians by allowing them to see
beyond parked cars without actually standing in the street. He then finished by
saying that the city certainly had the right and ability to ask Farnsworth to
review the plan taking into consideration the current concerns.
Wanda Lee Rohlfs was in the galley and said she was confused about what the city
was talking about doing. She said there were two actions or thoughts, one to fix
Pulaski and the second was to put the money into residential streets.
Welch said he didn’t believe that moving the money away from the streetscape
plan and into residential streets had been entertained by the council.
Rohlfs recalled that it had been suggested by Hoefle.
Welch said he felt the city should have Farnsworth Group look at the current
issues and address those. He said once the problems on Pulaski were corrected,
if there was money left over, he thought the council could consider moving the
funds into other street resurfacing programs.
Mourning asked Landers about the new pothole repair and patch machine the city
purchased this year. When the city was asked to approve the purchase, it was
noted that the new machine could create a more durable repair and could also be
used for smaller resurfacing projects. Mourning wanted to verify that the
machine does make for longer lasting repairs.
Landers said that yes, the new equipment made more durable repairs. In addition,
he said it could be used for pre-treatment of areas that are going to be
resurfaced with oil and chip. He said this was less costly than using a
pulverization method before resurfacing.
Hoefle asked Landers to estimate, by time and manpower rather than dollars, how
many miles of road the city is capable of resurfacing in a given year.
Landers said in 2014 the city had a total of 15-1/2 miles of resurfacing done
that included of treatments including oil and chip, pulverization, re-shaping
and oil and chip, micro-surfacing, and some heat scarification. He said all
complete, the city had spent about $800,000.
Hoefle then asked how many miles of streets were left to be done in Lincoln.
Landers responded, “You are never done.”
Hoefle said what he was hearing was that with the $450,000 from 2015-16 and the
$450,000 from 2016-17, the city could fix the problems on Pulaski Street, work
on the new streetscape on Kickapoo Street, and still have dollars remaining that
could be allocated to other city street resurfacing projects.
Johnson said that the unknown at this time would be what type of treatment was
going to be needed and the cost associated. Having said that, he added that
there was a probability that if the city takes the $450,000 out of the general
fund and puts it in the new budget year for streets, that additional work could
be done.
Hoinacki said that the amount of work to be done was not something that could be
determined easily. He noted that the materials used in the street projects were
priced as commodities, which fluctuate on a regular basis. Landers commented
this was true, but in the last two years, he had not seen big fluctuations in
the costs of materials. Mourning added that he had been told that when the stone
quarry west of Lincoln closed, the cost of bringing rock into the community had
tripled.
Mourning made one final comment, saying that he would like for Johnson and Conzo
to get together and discuss the moving of money from the general fund to the
street projects for this coming year, and see what can be done. It is expected
that the two will have that discussion, and will report back to the council on
what they can do to add more dollars to street projects in the new fiscal year.
[Nila Smith]
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