During its regular meeting on Tuesday, July 21, The Colony City Council approved an amendment to the city’s Utility Fund budget to increase the amount available for street, alley, and sidewalk repairs by $200,000.
This funding is in addition to $1.1 million budgeted for street, alley, and sidewalk repairs in 2019-2020, of which only about $90,000 remain as city crews have been steadily working on repair projects this year.
The $200,000 budget amendment will ensure that the city can continue responding to requests from residents for necessary repairs to the transportation infrastructure in their neighborhoods.
Assistant City Manager Tim Miller told the Council that staff from the Engineering and Public Works departments go out to review every request for roadwork submitted from the residents.
“This will keep us pushing forward to deal with calls and requests for service in areas that legitimately need fixing,” Miller said. “We can work on more areas at the same time and get more of these issues on the schedule as quickly as possible.”
Public Works personnel handle the majority of the repair work but contractors who own and operate heavy equipment will be hired for the larger jobs, added Miller.
The $200,000 budget amendment will be pooled from three sources: surplus funds from capital projects that came in under budget; revenue sources that exceeded projections; and adjustments to the budget’s bottom-line resulting from the city’s annual financial audit in March.
Funding for street, alley, and sidewalk repairs is independent of the city’s annual street reconstruction projects, which consist of between $4 million and $5 million per year for rebuilding entire streets.