Dade City staff outline preliminary capital requests as budget season approaches

At a Dade City Commission budget workshop, city staff presented preliminary capital requests across utilities, public works, police and information-technology functions and said final allocations will wait until revenue projections are available.

City staff told commissioners the presentation was intended to familiarize them with departmental priorities and was "most definitely not all encompassing or all inclusive," and that more detailed figures and a cohesive list of programs and personnel will follow once revenue forecasts are received.

The most detailed requests came from the utilities division. Staff identified a planned rehabilitation of Lift Station 1 as a multi-year project, describing it as split into two $400,000 installments; a main blower replacement at the wastewater treatment plant estimated at $180,000; an additional stationary bypass pump estimated at $70,000; a trailer-mounted generator and other portable generators for storm response; a gravity sewer-line inspection budgeted at $75,000; and relocating a generator at Lift Station 19, described as a roughly $60,000 expense spread across two years. For water operations staff described annual fire-hydrant testing and replacement at about $65,000 and a $20,000 meter replacement project on Tenth Street. A generator installation at the Elba Heights water treatment plant was listed at about $70,500.

Public works priorities included continuation of the Morningside Drive extension (staff said the city has retained the first parcel and demolition will start soon), a sidewalk-management plan to identify and rank repairs, and a $400,000 paving-management allocation. Staff also proposed a shared city-yard building to house utilities and public-works crews, described as a roughly $150,000 build-out with costs split between departments.

Staff said FEMA has approved partial funding for repaving on Dixie and Cochran but that an engineer—s forthcoming assessment could change the agency—s allocation.

The police department requested four fully equipped patrol vehicles, a packaged estimate of about $363,000 for the four units; replacement of 11 handheld radios at about $49,500; and participation in a drone program administered by the Pasco County Sheriff—s Office at a reported cost to the city of $25,000. Acting Police Chief Tungate was referenced on the radios— rotation schedule.

Information-technology and facility items included a $110,000 workstation refresh (a carryover), $30,000 for facility camera upgrades, a $200,000 audiovisual upgrade for commission chambers (listed to improve microphones, broadcasting and ADA accessibility features), and ongoing payments for a police laptop replacement program (a final payment noted at about $36,000). Staff also proposed access-control upgrades to move toward a cloud-based badge system for the city yard and remote sites.

Human-resources and records proposals included lockable, space-saving rolling file storage to consolidate city-clerk and HR records for placement in a planned building for the building department; staff did not supply a finalized cost in the workshop.

Stormwater staff described procurement plans for a Vactor truck to maintain storm lines and a smaller aerial bucket truck that does not require a commercial driver—s license; specific prices were not provided in the presentation.

Staff said a new timekeeping system (TimeClock Plus) has already been paid for, that physical time clocks were delivered for the city yard and wastewater treatment plant, and that the system will export payroll data into ERP Pro 10. Staff noted potential operational issues (for example, multiple employees clocking in simultaneously) and said the city will trial the system and monitor whether additional hardware or policy changes are needed.

Throughout the workshop staff repeatedly emphasized that the presentation was preliminary and that the city is "waiting on revenue forecast and projections for 25/26" before finalizing budget recommendations. Finance-related items and the auditor—s ongoing work were mentioned; staff said more complete figures were expected before the next budget workshop and that the session might be rescheduled if the numbers are not ready.

Next steps: staff will return with revenue projections and a consolidated budget package at the next scheduled budget workshop; if figures are not ready by midday the day before the workshop staff said they might seek to reschedule.