Friday, June 20, 2008

Crunching the numbers

Sun Valley begins to look at budget, improvements


By JON DUVAL
Express Staff Writer

Wayne Willich

One fact of life Sun Valley Mayor Wayne Willich knows to be absolute truth, is that he can't make everyone happy.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the case of spending his electorate's tax money, and this is why his plans to work carefully through next fiscal year's budgeting process has already begun in earnest.

At a special City Council workshop on Tuesday, June 17, city officials listened to a presentation from municipal management analyst Anne Wescott, of Boise-based Galena Consulting.

Wescott was invited to Sun Valley to speak about the city's capital improvement plan, a document required by state law prior to the assessment of impact fees.

"From a strategic standpoint, we need to ask the question of what do we want our city to be?" Willich said in an interview on Wednesday. "This means laying out and ranking the levels of our different services and determining our desired infrastructure."

According to Wescott, the development of the fundamental basis of a city is integral to its economic vitality and overall community quality.

"Infrastructure is critical to attracting new residents and businesses," Wescott said to the council.

To this end, the city is looking at approximately $1.4 million in road improvements next year, following this summer's work to repave a major portion of the Elkhorn bike path, along with a couple residential streets, a project totaling nearly $1 million. The work is scheduled for completion by the July Fourth weekend.

"If you let these things go for 15 years then you end up here and have to pay the piper," Willich said of the road repairs necessary in the near future.

In order to preempt those residents who might be put out by the city's decision on the order of street repairs, Willich and the council will rank the streets and prioritize according to need.

"We need to build a proposal for a schedule and rationale for the road improvements and publish it so that the electorate is fully informed," Willich said at the meeting. "Then we take the money we have available and start applying it."

Despite the prolonged discussion on roads, Willich said that police and fire protection would remain, as always, the city's top concern.

"These are extremely important in a city that has its share of $5-million homes," Willich said.

As capital improvement projects, defined as those costing more than $20,000 and having a useful life of more than 5 years, can also include buildings, small parks and beautification enhancements, Willich said the city should start looking at a possible new fire station and City Hall, among others.

With the 2007-2008 fiscal year ending September 30, Willich said the plan is to have the different council members work on different aspects of the budget, such as community housing, and come back with a "wish list" for further discussion.

Willich said that the city would likely hold a public meeting in August to go over these findings.




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