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Advisory board backs $400,000 recommendation to keep downtown cleaning pilot funded
Summary
The CBSD advisory board reviewed a year‑end report on a downtown street‑cleaning pilot, discussed funding and district boundaries, and approved a draft letter to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen recommending a roughly $400,000 budget (supplemented by $200,000 in ARPA funds) to sustain services for FY26.
The CBSD advisory board reviewed a year‑end report on a downtown street‑cleaning pilot and approved a draft recommendation to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen asking that the district budget be set at about $400,000 for the next fiscal year.
The recommendation, which the board approved by voice vote, follows a pilot that began July 1 and was partly funded this year by $200,000 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds the Board of Mayor and Aldermen previously approved. Board members said the $400,000 figure is intended as an inflation adjustment to sustain the current service level while staff and the advisory board pursue additional funding sources.
Jody (role not specified) presented the year‑end report and asked members to focus on the cumulative July–December numbers. She reported that the street team collected 2,747 55‑gallon bags of trash (estimated at roughly 25–30 pounds per bag), removed more than 1,000 hypodermic needles, collected 323 cans of Naloxone (Narcan), removed about 820 stickers from poles and boxes, documented about 950 block faces for pressure washing when weather allowed, removed over 600 instances of graffiti, cleaned up 176 incidents of vomit, and removed 174 large items (for example, couches and mattresses). The pilot reached full staffing in August; the team currently has six employees and is eight when fully staffed.
The board reviewed January month‑end numbers that showed seasonal variation: 83 bags of trash, 38 needles, zero Naloxone cans found, eight stickers removed, 14 graffiti instances and 104 man‑hours of snow removal for that month. Board members asked for more qualitative detail in future reports, such as brief narratives of notable interactions between the street team and businesses or residents.
Board members discussed how the CBSD recommendation fits into the city budget. The draft letter before the advisory board breaks a proposed $400,000 allocation into categories such as planters, lighting, special‑event support and the street‑cleaning program and notes that the recommendation, together with $200,000 in ARPA funding already approved by the Board of Mayor and Aldermen, would not fully cover a roughly $600,000 total cost if all supplemental items were funded. One speaker characterized the $400,000 number as a cost‑of‑living or inflation adjustment, not an expansion of services.
The advisory board also debated language for the recommendation about future funding and district boundaries. Members agreed the advisory board should recommend service levels while continuing to pursue alternative funding sources (federal and state grants were named) rather than relying solely on an immediate tax‑rate increase for district property owners. The group decided not to propose boundary changes this year and to let the city zoning steering committee complete its parallel work before revisiting district limits.
Board members approved a motion to send the draft recommendation letter to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen for consideration in the municipal budget cycle (mover not specified; second: Judy). The voice vote was recorded as in favor; a roll‑call tally was not provided in the meeting record.
Members proposed an informational mailer or digital communication for district taxpayers to explain the pilot results and the recommendation, plus a QR code linking to a short survey. The board agreed to develop the mailer and to revisit it in April, after the aldermen’s budget discussions advance.
Other items included operational details about the street team: the contract is held by the city economic development office, the team’s operations manager is Jose Sanchez, and staff are coordinating with the Department of Public Works on snow‑response timing (pre‑storm sidewalk work versus post‑storm follow up). Members asked staff to provide an asset list showing equipment purchased with prior funds and to return with a strengthened monthly report that includes both the quantitative metrics presented and short qualitative narratives of street‑team interactions.
The board closed by assigning follow‑up tasks: finalize the recommendation letter for the aldermen’s budget cycle, prepare an informational mailer (timing dependent on the aldermen’s decision), and reserve a future meeting to plan long‑range service levels and funding scenarios (a multi‑year planning session was proposed for June).
