Council reviews stormwater program and an island-wide master plan; staff forecasts Phase 1 results in November

At the workshop, staff described the town’s stormwater program, its revenue structure and the scope and schedule of an island-wide stormwater master plan intended to prioritize capital work.

Mark Orlando told council the stormwater CIP transfer to capital is budgeted at $4.2 million and that the stormwater program’s proposed FY27 revenues are approximately $5.6 million, including plan-review fees. "The primary source of revenue as you will see is the stormwater utility fee," Orlando said while listing program elements such as pump-station maintenance, water-quality monitoring and corrective-maintenance agreements with POAs.

Jeff (staff/consultant) described the master plan’s timeline: Phase 1 began in February with a consultant and the team expects results by November; the plan will examine the whole island’s public and private systems covered by drainage agreements and will prioritize outfalls and connected systems rather than parcel-level items. "Phase 1 of the stormwater master plan... the results of that will wind up in November of this year," the staff member said, adding the findings will inform future funding choices.

Council members raised whether the plan would include county-owned roads and private systems. Staff confirmed the scope is island-wide and will evaluate watersheds irrespective of ownership, and noted that taking over roads from the county would require negotiating assets, associated unspent funds and upfront costs to bring infrastructure to a town standard.

Staff emphasized limited near-term reserves: after planned FY27 expenditures, the stormwater fund balance dedicated to capital is projected to be around $1.1 million, prompting discussion of whether to use fund balance, issue debt or pursue other revenue sources to accelerate work.