Story County supervisors review five-year CIP, weigh new conservation bond funding and cleanup of project records

The Story County Board of Supervisors reviewed a draft five-year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) at a meeting where staff walked the board through project schedules, funding sources and new scoring introduced for the 2025 cycle.

The review focused on how the Story County Water and Land Legacy Bond — a newly approved funding stream — affects prioritization of projects, particularly conservation items, and on corrections staff must make to the CIP document before the budget process. Staff said 27 new proposals were submitted for this cycle and that 24 of those came from conservation, prompting discussion about whether the committee scores should be applied now that the bond has passed.

Why it matters: The bond adds a large, dedicated funding source for conservation projects and can change which items the county funds from the general fund. Supervisors asked staff to be explicit in the CIP about which phases are design versus construction, to stop labeling completed work as “removed,” and to correct funding-source tags (for example, moving some items from “general fund” to TIF or to bond/grant lines).

Staff overview and scoring:…