Beaver Dam 2019 Borrowing Plan Released, Totals $4-Million

(Beaver Dam) City officials in Beaver Dam will be voting to exceed their self-imposed borrowing cap again this year. The proposed 2019 Capital Improvements Plan, released Friday, totals just shy of $4-million dollars. The bulk of the borrowing – roughly 75-percent – would be for road maintenance which totals $2.98-million dollars. The mayor’s request for downtown revitalization funding totals $250-thousand dollars.

The borrowing plan also includes $250-thousand dollars in partial funding for a replacement ambulance; $40-thousand dollars in partial funding for a police department shooting range; $200-thousand dollars to build a parking lot for the new northside soccer fields; and $88-thousand for a boardwalk connecting Starkweather Drive to Edgewater Park.

The major road reconstruction projects identified for 2019 include: $950-thousand dollars for Roosevelt Drive from Warren Street to Park Avenue; $310-thousand dollars for Haskell Street from West to Madison streets; $340-thousand dollars for the alley north of Front Street between North Center and North Spring streets; and $1-million dollars for South Spring Street from East Davis to Park Avenue. The specific downtown revitalization plans for 2019 are unclear.

Prior to this year, the Beaver Dam Common Council operated under a self-imposed borrowing cap of $1.6-million dollars. Starting this year, the cap will be adjusted for inflation and borrowing will be limited to $1.65-million. That number could be exceeded with a three-fourths majority of the council, or eleven of 14 alderpersons.

A plan to exceed that revenue cap and instead borrow $3.7-million dollars in 2018 was debated but a late-hour compromise reduced the final amount to $2.8-million. At the time, there was little disagreement about funding city street projects and all of the money that was cut came from the downtown revitalization portion, which originally totaled for $1.4-million dollars; that was amended in the eleventh hour to $550-thousand dollars.

Discussion on the Capital Improvements Plan will begin Wednesday when city officials continue their budget talks in committee.

 

View the 2019 Capital Improvements Plan here:

6 yr CIP 2018 and 2019 – 2023