Council committee recommends top three Build O'Fallon projects, removes championship turf from this year's allocation

The Finance and Administration Committee voted unanimously to forward three projects funded from the Build O'Fallon Trust Fund to the full City Council and to remove the championship field returfing from this year's recommended allocations.

The recommendation, made at the committee meeting, would fund an alerting system upgrade for the city's fire/EMS stations, Phase 2 of the North Park parking lot with lighting, and associated parking improvements at the sports park. Committee members said the turf replacement for the championship field is not urgent and should be postponed and bundled with planned turf work on Fields 9 and 10 next year to capture economies of scale.

Why it matters: the Build O'Fallon Trust Fund is financed by a quarter-cent sales tax set aside for capital projects that align with the city's 2040 master plan. City staff said the trust typically budgets about $1.6 million gross annually and councils set aside 33% of that to grow reserves; after the 33% reserve set-aside, roughly $1.07 million is available for spending in FY26. Approving the top three projects would leave a modest surplus to carry into next year or to use for future projects.

Details: city staff described four candidate projects; the committee recommended the top three. The prioritized items were (1) a unified Motorola alerting system so dispatchers can page only the needed ambulance rather than waking all crews on every call; (2) Phase 2 of the north parking lot at the sports park including lights and possible future connection to Porter Road; and (3) ancillary parking and access work tied to recent field-lighting upgrades. The championship-field returfing — shown by staff to be about 10–12 years old but still playable — was removed from this year's recommendation so the trust fund can grow and so the city can pursue combined replacement with Fields 9 and 10 in a future fiscal year.

Committee members and staff discussed trade-offs: several councilmembers said they preferred preserving the 33% reserve rule unless an “exciting” project justified dipping below that target. Others pushed to fund the EMS alert system as a public-safety priority because one station had been running on temporary equipment. Staff noted that if the turf project were deferred, the savings could be rolled into next year's budget and earn interest.

Next steps: the motion to forward the top three items to council passed on a roll-call vote; the committee will send a “motion out of committee” packet to the full City Council for final approval. If the council approves, the projects will be added to the FY26 budget and listed in the large-spend worksheet.