The Jefferson City Council was approached Monday night by two residents with suggestions for how to use funds from the next capital improvement sales tax installment.
At the council meeting Monday, two local residents, former Public Works Director Roger Schwartze and local attorney Erin Wiseman, spoke about projects they believed would benefit from sales tax G funds.
The city is currently collecting sales tax F, which will sunset March 31, 2017. City officials are now preparing for the seventh, five-year installment of the tax since 1987, which would need to be on the ballot next year.
Schwartze, who resigned in April 2013, said the capital improvement sales tax is critically important as it's the only tax the city really has to fund capital projects. And while every department will have lists of worthy projects in need of funding, Schwartze said he would urge the council to consider putting more funds into the city's street division and specifically the annual overlay program, which currently receives $1.2 million each year.
"We're falling behind in our street department," Schwartze said.
The city's street division has shrunk in terms of the number of employees since 1950, even as the city has added nearly 30 square miles of land to maintain in the same time period.
Wiseman asked the council to consider funding a sidewalk project in the 3rd Ward where she said additional safety measures are needed due to high traffic. Wiseman said sidewalks are needed in the area of Boonville Road, where Hayselton Drive splits off, all the way to Belair Drive.
Janice McMillan, director of Planning and Protective Services, said that specific project was identified on a list of potential projects about three years ago as a high priority need. But, she said, while the department identifies needed projects, it comes down to the council to decide if and when to fund them.
In other business, Public Works Director Matt Morasch announced the Missouri Department of Transportation would host an open house May 12 to provide information on a proposed project to update sidewalks along Missouri Boulevard, between the Whitton Expressway and Stoneridge Parkway, to be in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The project is expected to start in May 2016.
The public meeting will be held from 4-6 p.m. May 12 in the Muri Conference Room of the MoDOT Central District Office at 1511 Missouri Blvd.