City Manager Scott Sellers offered the City Council a sneak peak at his proposed budget for fiscal year 2015-16 today, which revealed his highest priority, particularly when it comes to money spent from the Utility Fund, will be on wastewater projects.
Sellers also wants to add two police patrol officers, two additional staff members to handle 9-1-1 calls, two additional technical positions for on-going road maintenance and, if all goes according to plan, he would like to see the city have its own cable television station by the end of the year.
None of this is set in stone. In fact, today’s workshop was designed to show the council what his priorities are and to ask council members to provide him with their criteria on what the city should be spending its tax dollars on during that period from Oct. 1 through the following Sept. 30. Based on that council feedback and additional meetings with department heads, Sellers plans on submitting his proposed line item budget to the council for its review July 27. Following that, he would like to hold a second council budget retreat on Aug. 1 followed by a session Aug. 19 during which Kyle citizens could offer their input.
The largest wastewater project expenditure would be roughly $2.53 million for two phases of the Bunton Creek Interceptor (an interceptor is basically a large sewer that receives flow from a number of trunk sewers and transports that flow to a wastewater treatment plant). The first phase, projected at $525,000, would take the interceptor from the wastewater treatment plant to the Bunton Creek Subdivision Lift Station (a lift station is a wastewater pumping station that is used to lift wastewater from a low point to a higher pipe so that it can be transported by gravity). The second and larger phase of the project, projected to cost $2,032,250, would connect the Bunton Creek Subdivision Lift Station to the Southlake Lift Station.
Together, roughly 70.7 percent of Sellers’ projected utility fund expenditures would go to wastewater improvement projects.
Sellers proposed a budget item of $120,000 to purchase the equipment needed to get city television channel operational. This money would not come from taxes, however; it would be paid for by the franchise fee the local cable franchisee pays to the city. The channel would, among other things, provide live television coverage of City Council meetings as well as other city-sponsored events.
The staff and the council also talked about what to do with the iconic downtown water tower that has become to Kyle what the space needle is to Seattle or the gateway arch is to St. Louis although no firm decision was reached on whether to simply spruce it up, completely refurbish it so that it can once again provide water to Old Town or replace it with an identical looking tower.
Mayor Todd Webster said he was tired of seeing what he called "a concrete hole" in City Square Park and recommended a fountain dedicated to Kyle’s war dead be constructed at that spot. He indicated might by the only city in the world without a war memorial of some kind. The cost of building such a fountain there ranges, according to city officials, anywhere from $185,000 to $235,000. Sellers did not recommend any funds be expended for the project in the upcoming budget, but he did list it as a possible expenditure for FY 2018/19.
One other thing of note, In what Sellers said was an effort to "increase the transparency of city government," something called "Smart Sheets" have been added to the city’s web site, where you can see, in real time, information on road projects, park improvement projects, recently issued certificates of occupancy and much more. Check it out here.
The city manager also told me after the meeting was over that he is exploring the idea of a 3-1-1 non-emergency call center for Kyle. Such an operation could be used for citizens to call to report such things as traffic light malfunctions, street light outages, broken water mains, etc.
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