Brooksville council reviews 10-year capital improvement plan, directs staff to prioritize sidewalks, drainage and roads

The Brooksville City Council at a workshop reviewed a draft fiscal-year 2026–2036 capital improvement plan (CIP) and gave staff consensus direction on how to prioritize about $487,000 identified as annual CIP savings from the recently adopted millage and budget.

City procurement administrator Emily Bennett led a short presentation explaining that “CIP does not appropriate funds. It is a plan” and is intended as a long-range list for capital expenditures such as land, buildings and infrastructure that staff can use when pursuing grants or appropriations. Finance director Autumn Sullivan described the $487,000 as a standing CIP savings account to which the city will add the annual allocation and from which council can direct spending or savings for multi-year projects.

Why it matters: The council’s guidance will steer which projects staff seek grant matches for and which projects the city will save toward. Council members repeatedly emphasized sidewalks, drainage (retention/DRAs) and roads as near-term priorities because those address everyday public safety and maintenance needs.

Council discussion and direction - Council members said they want the CIP to be proactive rather than reactive and asked staff to return to council biannually with updates; staff said quarterly CIP leadership meetings will continue. - Autumn Sullivan told the council the $487,000 CIP allocation comes from the millage/budget process and will be treated as a savings account from which staff will allocate amounts each fiscal year to prioritized items. - Public works director Richard (last name not specified in the transcript) said sidewalks are a main concern and recommended starting with targeted sidewalk repairs and asphalt sealing and striping to extend pavement life.

Consensus allocations and staff direction (summary of council consensus; allocations are earmarks/savings, not immediate appropriations unless noted): - $100,000 per year — asphalt sealing and striping (ongoing line item recommended to preserve roads; distinct from the $600,000 milling/resurfacing already in the current budget). - $50,000 this year — start North Avenue sidewalk (earmarked toward the multi-year engineering/design estimate; council asked staff to add North Avenue sidewalk discussion to the interlocal/school board agenda). - $50,000 this year — repair/replace general city sidewalks (ongoing allocation). - $100,000 (allocated/earmarked) — Southern Hills Boulevard (entry side prioritization discussed). - $20,000 this year and $20,000 next year (earmarked) — Jerome Brown Center roof replacement (staff reported a full coating solution estimate of about $40,000). - $25,000 — City Hall sewer descaling/relining (council authorized spending this year to address recurring sewer blockages). - $100,000 — vehicle/equipment fund: mower/tractor and other scheduled vehicle replacements were confirmed for future-year purchases; council clarified enterprise and general funds will transfer into the replacement fund as budgeted.

Enterprise and utilities priorities - Utilities staff described water and sewer CIP priorities for enterprise funds separate from the general fund CIP. Priorities discussed included valve replacement, a lead service line replacement program, water main relocation/replacement (to move mains out of future pavement trenches), and upgrading to automatic meter reading (Neptune/AMR) at roughly $75,000 per location estimate. - Council and utilities staff noted the need to preserve enterprise reserves for wastewater treatment plant needs. Richard and utilities superintendent David Kingsbury said the Liberty water tower last painted in 2010 will likely require about $200,000–$215,000 to repaint given past costs and site-control measures used in the previous project.

Process and next steps - Staff will: (a) include council’s CIP priorities in current and future budgets; (b) hold quarterly CIP leadership meetings; (c) return with specific scope, pricing and grant-match recommendations; and (d) coordinate legislative appropriation and grant-seeking priorities with the city’s lobbyist and grants staff.

The meeting opened with a motion to approve the workshop agenda and passed 5–0 earlier in the session; the CIP discussion followed. The council also confirmed that funds in restricted enterprise accounts (for example, fire fund and connection-fee funds) should be preserved for their intended uses and not reallocated without additional council action.

Council members asked staff to return with more detailed ranking from department heads, scope-of-work documents where appropriate (for milling, sidewalk engineering and water infrastructure), grant status updates and specific match estimates to support legislative appropriations and competitive grant applications.