By Sam Thomas
BLOOMINGTON – The City of Bloomington could see at least $15 million spent on capital improvement each year for the next five years, including $26 million in 2020 and $20 million 2021.
That was the word at the Bloomington City Council meeting Monday night during a presentation of a five-year capital improvement plan by City Manager David Hales and Finance Director Patti-Lynn Silva.
Capital improvements include things such as street repairs, and Bloomington Mayor Tari Renner said road maintenance in the city is long overdue.
“We’ve been neglecting our streets and infrastructure in Bloomington, frankly, for decades.” Renner said. “So now we’re getting our act together,”
Renner said despite the $10 million in bonds issued for street repair in 2013, more still needs to be done.
“This is the beginning of that process. We’re trying to do our due diligence. We know, especially our streets, are just awful,” he said. “We did have a $10 million street resurfacing bond which took a couple summers to fix and we’ve got another $10 million this summer but we have so much more to do.”
Discussion and presentation of various capital improvements will take place over the coming months.
Renner said capital improvement – particularly with roads – is the “fiscally responsible thing to do.”
“I think it’s the fiscally responsible thing to do, and we would see some more clear results,” he said. “We have seen some…but the people throughout Bloomington would begin to notice that we’re finally getting our act together and fixing those darn streets.”
No final decision will be made for some time, as a preliminary timeline shows discussions and timelines taking place through March 2017.
Sam Thomas can be reached at Sam@WJBC.com.
