What Is the City Spending Its Money on?

The city’s engineering department presented its amended Capital Improvement Program budget for fiscal year 2011-2012 at Monday’s city council meeting, which details numerous proposed projects.

The council will consider approving the final budget on June 27. The $15.79 million for these projects was generated from enterprise funds, grants and fees, and money generated from the Users’ Utilities Tax that residents pay. Enterprise funds are self-sustaining funds that are generated from taxes, on sewers for example, and expenditures must be spent specifically back on the sewer system. 

Additional Projects:

At the end of this week, the city will have installed at the Marshall Street parking garage and the Jefferson Avenue parking garage. This $60,000 funding came from the $8.2 million capital projects fund that is spent primarily on buildings, facilities and parks.

A $110,000 police shooting range upgrade would not only allow Redwood City police officers to conduct target practice with larger firearms, like rifles, but they can also contract the space out to other cities as another revenue source. Currently, Redwood City is only one of a few shooting ranges along the Peninsula and provides services to Belmont, Menlo Park and the California Highway Patrol. An upgrade would allow Redwood City to have larger contracts with other cities and compete with San Mateo’s and the Sheriff’s Office’s shootings ranges.

“We almost lost our CHP contract because they were looking at competitors’ shooting ranges,” explained Acting Police Chief Ed Hernandez.

Stulsaft Park may also get a $40,000 slide shade cover that to protect the slides from the sun’s scorching rays. City engineer Paul Willis said that many residents complained that the slides would heat up to unbearable temperatures and render them unusable.

To make further use of underutilized space, Willis proposed converting the downtown park into a dog park that would cost approximately $75,000.

Another option was the addition of a fire boat to the fire department’s fleet. 

Eighty percent of the city’s 182 mile pipe system is comprised of fragile clay pipe. The Sewer Improvement Fund would replace those pipes with engineering standard PVC pipe. The fund could also install a camera program that could dive deep into the pipe system and locate the problems.

The Gas Tax Construction Fund had $1.25 million and included potential pedestrian crosswalk warning lights. These would be placed near schools to alert drivers when pedestrians are crossing the street.

“This is why 76 percent of our streets are up to standards,” Councilmember Rosanne Foust said. “Because the users’ utilities tax is allocated specifically for capital improvements, which could instead go to the General Fund.”

Willis said that Redwood City has some of the best paved roads in the Peninsula.