Some metro-area cities, strapped with tight budgets that haven’t included money for routine maintenance, have planned upgrades that officials say have been on the back burner too long.
Wheat Ridge’s top 10 priorities will cost more than $75 million, and include roads, storm sewers and park upgrades.
A task force called D.I.R.T. – for Drainage, Infrastructure, Roads and Trails, and composed of citizens and officials – began meeting in February to evaluate more than $143 million in needed public works and parks projects.
“The projects are large, and they are expensive,” said Wheat Ridge Mayor Jerry DiTullio. “We’ve done our share of public works projects, but you can never keep up. … Bonding is the most efficient way to go.”
City officials will ask the 32,000 residents to vote in November 2008 on a $25 million to $50 million bond issue and a temporary half-cent sales tax increase to pay for specified projects.
Arvada and Denver also are planning public-works upgrades.
Denver voters will decide in November whether the city can issue $550 million in general obligation bonds to pay for dozens of projects, such as building new facilities, repairing winter-damaged streets and restoration.
An additional 2.5-mill property tax increase would provide Denver with a $27.5 million pot of money each year for regular maintenance.
“These projects represent the right investment for our future as we work to build a better, more sustainable city,” said Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper.
Arvada has just begun the process of identifying more than $150 million in projects and organizing a citizens capital-project-planning committee.
“Existing revenues are barely keeping up with the cost of providing services,” Arvada spokeswoman Maria VanderKolk said.
Arvada has tried to deal with projects individually, such as spending $4.1 million this year on street resurfacing, VanderKolk said. But finding dollars for long-delayed big projects is difficult.
“Our town is starting to age,” VanderKolk said. The city needs to upgrade water and sewer lines that are made of clay and existed before Arvada was a city.
The citizens committee is expected to take nine months to prioritize projects before suggesting ways to pay for them.
Such approaches “aren’t happening in a vacuum,” said Michael Braaten, legislative advocate for the Colorado Municipal League. Cash-strapped cities are looking at a huge number of needs, Braaten said.
The problem, Braaten said, “is that costs are increasing beyond what most people ever guessed they would – asphalt, steel and cement.”
So cities are turning to bonds to pay for projects “at today’s costs,” Braaten said, rather than waiting for revenues to trickle in as price tags skyrocket.
Cities have been successful in taking such proposals to the voters. According to the Colorado Municipal League, there have been 325 of the elections between 1993 and 2007, and 221 have passed – an approval rate of two-thirds, Braaten said.
Staff writer Ann Schrader can be reached at 303-278-3217 or aschrader@denverpost.com.
This article has been corrected in this online archive. Originally, due to a reporting error, it published an incorrect date for the city of Wheat Ridge regarding voter approval of a bond issue and a temporary half-cent sales tax. The questions will be on the November 2008 ballot.
