Council hears update on impact of street levy

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SIDNEY — Sidney City Council heard a brief presentation on the impact of the current 0.25 percent income tax street repairs levy during Monday’s meeting.

Gary Clough, assistant city manager/public works director, said 2016 was the first year that street projects were awarded based on a full year of revenue collections. In 2016, Sidney spent $2,805,893 resurfacing 12.79 miles or road.

The levy, which is only to be used for streets, alleys, curbs and gutter construction, was approved in November 2014. It will expire on Dec. 31, 2019. Revenue collections began in 2015 and will continue into 2020. The first street projects were completed during the summer of 2015.

Clough said partial year collection receipts in 2015 and 2020 “lag the effective period of the tax.”

The 12-year span represented within Clough’s report depicted several charts that showed 2014 being the lowest year Sidney spent money on road repairs between 2010 through 2022. In 2014, the city spent $192,420 resurfacing 0.78 of a mile. The greatest amount the city is expected to spend resurfacing 13.96 miles is $3,917,206 in 2018.

Prior to the levy funds becoming available for repairs, 47.21 miles of roads had not been paved since 2010, and was estimated to cost $12 million, Clough’s report showed. The city projects to have $5.5 million available to complete about 22 miles of road left. He said the deficit after 2022 is $6.5 million and about 25.6 miles of roads.

Clough said using a 12 year average life span for a newly resurfaced road, Sidney will need $2.5 million per year to keep the 111 miles of roads above the the city’s pavement condition rating (PCR) goal of 70. A 0.10 street levy would generate about $1.1 million per year, in addition the the $60,000 budgeted from the general capital fund. The total revenue is estimated at $1.7 million. Therefore, a 0.14 street levey is needed to meet the projected annual resurfacing costs, he said.

By Sheryl Roadcap

[email protected]

Reach the writer at 937-538-4823.

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