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A new police station, renovations to Maury School and finishing the Dixon Street recreation center top the list of capital projects the Fredericksburg City Council plans to fund this year.
Those are among 50 projects totaling $114.9 million in a five-year capital-improvements plan Assistant City Manager Bev Cameron outlined for the City Council at a work session last night. The council will hold a public hearing on the proposal next month before voting on it.
Longer-term projects in the plan include two new schools, a downtown parking garage and the city's first public swimming pool. The blueprint follows meetings earlier this year in which council members established priorities for construction projects.
"This is a plan that tries to be inclusive of what the council has said it wants to do," Cameron said.
While the plan outlines expenditures over the next five years, the capital projects for the fiscal year that began July 1 total $14.6 million. Because many of the projects are carryovers from the last fiscal year, the budget would require only $2.3 million in new money this year.
The extended plan calls for spending about $35 million on a new high school with a capacity to accommodate 1,200 to 1,500 students. And construction of a new elementary school for 850 students, estimated to cost $11 million.
"About half [of the budget] would go to schools," Councilman Matt Kelly said. "That fits with the guidelines we established. We all said these are projects to get done."
Bonds would be used to fund 90 percent of the costs, with cash covering the rest. But at least one councilman worried about borrowing so much money.
"Do these numbers make anyone else nervous?" asked Councilman Joe Wilson. "It really concerns me that we'd more than double our capital debt."
After the bonds are floated, the annual debt service in the general fund would go from 5 percent of the total expenditures to 14 percent. To cover the costs, the plan includes a possible real-estate tax increase of 4 cents over the next four years.
"This is just part of the plan," Cameron said after the session. "All we're saying is this is something we may need to do if it becomes necessary."
Offsetting some of the debt is an anticipated increase in real-estate tax revenues. Although the city dropped its tax rate from $1.13 per $100 of assessed value to 89 cents this year, a 40 percent increase in property values from a reassessment means the lower rate will actually bring in 11 percent more tax revenue.
Cameron, who recommended the 89-cent rate, said the increase supports additional bonded debt of $20 million to pay for capital projects.
The plan for this fiscal year calls for $200,000 for architectural and engineering costs associated with the pool at the Dixon Street rec center and $200,000 to renovate the long-closed Maury School.
Another $923,000 would be spent to finish up the Cowan Boulevard extension from its current western end to the Carl D. Silver Parkway across Interstate 95.
The plan also sets aside $3.4 million to buy 48 acres for silt removal from the Embrey Dam, but the council is negotiating with the Silver Cos., which owns the land, to lower the price.
As with that cost, other details of the plan could change.
"We need to look at what we want and make adjustments on needed projects to please our constituents," Councilman Hashmel Turner said.
To reach ELIZABETH PEZZULLO: 540/374-5421 epezzullo@freelancestar.com