City staff updates council on $43.5 million capital bond; recommends moving on generators, buildings and deferring transfer station

City staff presented a status update on capital projects funded by the city—s roughly $43.5 million bond, saying the city has received $43,000,000 and outlining which projects staff recommends starting now and which to delay.

Dean, a city staff member who led the presentation, told the council the original bond breakdown called for roughly $14.5 million in renovations, $13,000,000 for a new police facility, $14,000,000 for a fire facility, $2,000,000 for land and a 30-year debt repayment schedule. He said about $500,000 of the funds has been used for insurance, fees and points.

The presentation identified the police and fire buildings as the largest, currently moving projects; staff said about $30,000,000 is committed to those facilities and roughly $13,000,000 remains for other buildings and site work. Dean said staff is recommending immediate work on long-lead items such as generators, major building renovations at Westfield and DPW, and exterior fixes at the library and several parking lots.

Why it matters: the bond money must be spent within 36 months of receipt, and some projects have long procurement or construction lead times. Dean said generators in particular require long lead time and engineering and that, "Generators is 1 of them. It takes 9 months 9 months to, get the generators configured and build. And we're already into the engineering and specification and bidding and and…