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El Mirage work session reviews $47.6M CIP; council signals support for bigger street-maintenance program
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Summary
City staff reviewed a $47.6 million, 25-project five-year capital improvement plan. Discussion focused on pavement management: staff recommended a $1.4M annual program and council members pressed to accelerate the schedule, floating options that would raise the program to roughly $2M per year or $10M over five years.
El Mirage council members met in a Feb. 18 work session to review the proposed five-year capital improvement plan, which staff said requests $47.6 million across 25 projects and identifies the general fund as about 52.61% of total requests.
The session's central policy discussion focused on pavement maintenance. Nick, a public works pavement manager, told the council the city maintains roughly 250 linear miles of pavement (about 1.9 million square yards) and runs a pavement-management program currently budgeted at about $1.4 million per year. He explained the life-cycle benefit of treatments such as crack sealing, slurry/seal coats, high-density mineral bond (HA5), microsurface and mill-and-overlay work, and said regular preventive work can extend pavement life substantially.
"We have about 250 linear miles of pavement, believe it or not, in our 10-square-mile city," Nick said, describing the current seven-year rotating maintenance schedule. He added that targeted treatments can push a roadway's useful life from a decade to multiple decades when applied on schedule.
Several council members asked for more neighborhood-level detail and whether larger cracks require different remediation. Nick said larger cracks (roughly three-quarters of an inch and up) can trigger milling or stronger mastic crack-fill approaches, while routine crack sealing is used earlier in the life cycle.
Council members pressed staff on whether the maintenance budget could be increased so neighborhoods would get treated sooner. Staff said an additional $500,000 to $600,000 per year could shorten the program cycle from the current seven years toward a five-year cycle, allowing earlier attention to more neighborhoods. "If you're doing seal coat or an intermediate treatment, $500,000 could do an entire section," Nick said, describing how the city's 24—25 maintenance sections are scheduled.
One council member proposed a larger target to accelerate work: "My recommendation, it would be to move it to $10,000,000 over 5 years," a speaker said during budget-direction discussion. Staff characterized that level as roughly $2 million per year and said council direction to increase the pavement program would be included in the tentative budget and could be refined before final adoption.
Beyond pavement, staff reviewed multiple CIP projects: Cactus Road resurfacing (mill-and-overlay work with sidewalks and a HAWK signal, listed in staff notes at roughly $1.75 million in FY27 and elsewhere in the packet as a $2.19M—$2.372M cost); a fire apparatus replacement program ($1.38 million in FY28 for a new pumper); a MAG-funded street sweeper (FY29, $450,000 with an expected ~95% MAG grant); park improvements (a multi-year program that staff listed at $4.5 million per year) and targeted park security upgrades ($60,000 in FY27); playground equipment replacements (2015 installations, several council members urged moving replacements earlier and adding ADA-accessible equipment); police vehicle replacement requests totaling about $2.6 million in new requests over five years; and wastewater projects, including a $5 million WRF equalization basin controls and air-scrubber project projected for FY29 and a $1.2 million WRF centrifuge replacement in FY27.
Staff said some projects are grant-funded or require rate changes: the original-town-site ADA and stormwater work (a $550,000 FY27 request) is proposed as a CDBG-funded grant project, and staff noted the WRF equalization basin item would be covered via wastewater rate study outcomes. Staff also flagged a MAG grant for the street sweeper that would cover most of the equipment cost.
No formal votes were taken at the work session. Staff will incorporate council's CIP recommendations into the tentative budget; the Office of Management and Budget will include council direction and present a tentative budget schedule. The package on fee and rate intent is planned for March 3, and a budget review work session is scheduled for April 13.
The council recessed briefly and adjourned the work session at 2:37 p.m.
