City staff presented the draft five-year capital plan, detailing assumptions on shared revenue, borrowing and project sequencing and highlighting IKI Drive as a priority candidate for a state transportation grant.

Staff told the council the capital plan assumes much of the recent shared-revenue increase will be directed to streets and that the city intends to maintain about $600,000 in annual debt service. Under that assumption, the city plans a $1.5 million borrowing in 2027 to fund larger street projects while using levy and capital-surplus funds to bridge work between borrowings.

Councilors focused discussion on IKI Drive, where prior state grant applications scored poorly because the state’s traffic-count data did not reflect peak or school-related traffic. Staff said the transportation department’s algorithm gives extra weight to average daily traffic and that the city will investigate obtaining updated traffic counts to improve future grant competitiveness. Staff also noted that engineers recommended full reconstruction rather than a mill-and-overlay if the road base is inadequate; reconstruction would be costlier but longer-lasting.

Council members discussed alternatives including a phased approach or using levy/capital-surplus funds to do a mill-and-overlay now, recognizing that completing repairs would likely remove the route from grant eligibility until the road deteriorated again. Staff said an initial cost estimate for reconstructing IKI Drive could be in the high hundreds of thousands; an approximate figure of $800,000 was mentioned in discussion as illustrative, not a firm bid.

Staff also reviewed other planned projects and their funding sources, including Washington Street, Albion Street phases, and TIF-funded downtown projects. Councilors asked staff to provide detailed cost estimates for a mill-and-overlay option and for the reconstruction option on IKI Drive, and to report back before finalizing the 2025 budget.