Finance Committee Agenda and Packet 2024 10 17

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City Council Finance Committee Meeting Minutes September 24, 2024 Page 3of8 the community we aren't going to pursue those because they would reduce capacity. He does have a plan to have a community meeting to add signage and markings to identify an evacuation lane. There are still some outstanding items around that topic. Councilmember Hamlington commented that she feels she continues to hear concerns about pedestrian safety as it relates to Via Appia and the crossings. She has concerns about completely removing this line item from the budget and she understands that staff need to do further evaluation and scoping. She commented that she is open to the suggestion to, at minimum, keeping the funding in the budget for the study, though she does have concerns about completely removing the funds in order to take action from that study. She would like to consider an amount that could remain in the budget to improve pedestrian safety. The Committee asked staff to come back with a suggestion on how to keep this item in the budget at a lower amount to include the design and engineering work as well as some funding to provide some implementation in 2025. The community needs to feel engagement on this topic and have their concerns taking into account, which can proceed with a community meeting. Then the design and engineering work in 2025 needed based on community input, with funding for some improvements in 2025. The Director of Public Works suggested that we could start with $500,000 for the 2025 budget. Councilmember Hoefner commented on the Future 42 project, noting that he would like a high-level understanding of what is included, contingent, grant funded, and has anything been pulled out that shouldn't have been. Kurt commented that it looks like Highway 42 is currently unfunded with the only project included related to Highway 42 is the South Street underpass. We will continue to apply for grant funding for different pieces of Highway 42 depending on what grants are available and what pieces of the corridor match with available grants and if we get awarded, we will have to have future conversations about what the matching requirements are for any received grants. Councilmember Kern commented that she has a concern that when we kick the can there isn't funding when we need it and her concern with having nothing in this project that this is something that has been worked on and she isn't sure what the ideal timeline is for the project but if we don't put something to this when we go to make the next change we will need so much money out of the budget it won't be attainable. She would like to see some funding moving towards this and asked staff if there is something we are trying to do in the next two years. She feels the underpass as a connecting piece needs to continue to be related to the Highway 42 corridor and she needs to understand how to explain how the Highway 42 corridor isn't important enough to be in the budget while the underpass is moving forward. The Director of Public Works responded that, as we look through the budget, we can go through the challenges for many of these projects and the fact is that not all these big ideas fit the budget we have available. We have a vision for South Street that makes it a good project and functional for the future when we start talking about building out S. Boulder Road and Pine Street intersections and widening Highway 42 it's when our plan starts to diminish. The Interim City Manager commented that this is also something we will be working on in the 2027 DRCOG and TIF cycle grant funding. The Director of Public Works suggested that, given the committee's comments about wanting to keep funding in the budget for Highway 42 improvements, maybe you would want to have $500,000 - $1M in each year so that when you receive a grant it's already in your budget for grant matching to give certainty on that project, but it does force staff to de -prioritize something else. It feels like a better strategy is to wait for when we get a grant then we can de -prioritize and we're not holding money in limbo in a tight budget. 12/87