Acting city manager outlines Vision 0, Roots pilot, scaled paving and sidewalks updates

Acting City Manager Recchio told the Common Council that traffic safety (Vision 0), a reworked paving timeline and the Roots pilot program will feature prominently in the upcoming capital and budget cycles.

Recchio said the city has "quite a few capital projects in the queue" to support Vision 0 and that the city will propose investments in the capital plan and the 2027 budget. He said the annual paving scope will be reduced this year because contractor bids came in substantially higher than anticipated and the city plans to rebid at a different season to get a better price; CHIPS and other funds will roll forward to future years.

On the Roots program, Recchio said recruitment generated strong interest and that training, policy and partnership work with community organizations and the police department is underway. He said full dispatch integration (a dedicated 9-1-1 or supervisory dispatcher) is not in the pilot budget; instead the pilot will focus on proactive outreach and an on-scene handoff model where IPD officers declare a scene safe and transfer callback/follow-up responsibilities using a 2-1-1 callback program. Councilmembers asked about pothole standards and expedited sidewalk repairs; Recchio said DPW is developing standardized pothole-repair protocols, exploring a dedicated pothole crew and expects Seneca Street scaffolded areas to be cleared in weeks to allow TCAT to consider returning bus service pending engineering sign-off.