2018/11/26 - Mayor's Column: Capital Improvements Plan
“An Open Door to O’Fallon”
A Weekly Note from Mayor Herb Roach
My column last week included two famous quotes about taxes. While this weekly update is quite different than last’s, it also get its inspiration from one of my favorite quotes: “Those who fail to plan, plan to fail.”
Last week, the City Council took an enormous step forward in planning for a successful and sustainable community with the adoption of the City of O’Fallon’s Capital Improvements Plan (CIP). The recently adopted CIP covers the period May 1, 2019 – April 30, 2024.
The CIP is a planning instrument that drives the evaluation and identification of capital infrastructure projects and equipment. It lays out a roadmap for next five years. It is an important tool that we can use in being fiscally responsible with your tax dollars.
Capital improvements are infrastructure and construction projects which cost $50,000 or more, and equipment and vehicle purchases which cost $15,000 or more, and with an assigned depreciation life.
Each of the City’s departments was given the opportunity to provide input in planning and implementation of the Capital Improvements Plan. While it is valuable to schedule the projects into a timeline, a project listed in the CIP is not funded until it is approved by the City Council in the annual budget for that year.
The total cost for all projects listed in the CIP is $66,721,423, split over five years. This large sum of money is an investment in the community. The CIP total can be divided into:
- Public Infrastructure: 88% ($58,569,000)
- Vehicles: 6.5% ($4,366,500)
- Equipment: 5.5% ($3,785,923)
As you can see, most of the City of O’Fallon’s capital projects are focused on infrastructure, which is important. Nobody wants to live or have a business in a community with poor infrastructure. In addition, in the most recent Citizen’s survey, the community stated that infrastructure was one of most important priorities for the future. Judging by the CIP, we agree! Proposed infrastructure capital projects that involve streets, stormwater, and utilities (water & sewer) have a large amount of funding over the next five years. Infrastructure projects by category:
- Signage: $180,000
- Parking Lots & Facilities: $4,905,000
- Parks & Greenspace: $3,459,000
- Streets & Sidewalks: $12,425,000
- Stormwater Remediation: $8,375,000
- Utilities: $29,225,000
Some of these numbers are daunting, but fear not. We have staff that all keep one overall goal in mind: provide the residents, businesses, and visitors of O’Fallon with quality services in a fiscally responsible manner. Our staff plans long-range capital improvements focused on realistic revenue sources. If we do not have the appropriate revenue, projects could be moved back a year or two or even eliminated. We don’t plan to fund our capital improvements with a magic “money tree” or to hit the lottery!
The CIP will give you an idea of the large projects we could be performing over the next five years. I highly encourage you to look through it. There may be multiple projects that will impact you. More about the CIP can be found at https://www.ofallon.org/administration/pages/capital-improvements-plan.
As residents of O’Fallon, you should always be able to reach out to your elected officials and ask questions about what is happening in O’Fallon. Having open communications is important to me and something I care very deeply about. Thank you for reading, and please remember, my door is always open!