Olympia Council of Neighborhood Associations (CNA) president Larry Dzieza is concerned about the lack of funding for sidewalks.
At the Finance Committee meeting on Thursday, August 19, 2022, Dzieza questioned the Capital Facilities Plan (CFP) report presented by the Olympia staff at the Planning Committee, City Council, and the Finance Committee over the last week.
"Reserve some funds for sidewalk maintenance and take up the sidewalk issue as a serious transportation mobility policy and budgetary issues to serve the same attention they give the streets," Dzieza appealed to the Finance Committee members Lisa Parshley, Yen Huynh, and Jim Cooper, who also serve as the city council members.
On the 2023 capital costs, Dzieza noted there would be $200,000 for sidewalk program administration. "But there's no project in 2023 in which to administer."
Dzieza added that in 2024 the budget would be $300,000, and two-thirds of that amount is for sidewalk program administration.
Dzieza pointed out that sidewalks are a big issue. "The CNA has been trying for many years to make the issue of sidewalks known.
He was hoping to see the report in the CFP, but no information about the sidewalks.
Mark Russell, interim Public Works director, admitted there is no appropriate fund for the sidewalks program this year.
"There is a reason for that. The voter utility tax is about $1 million to $1.5 million, and we have many large projects. It takes multiple years to build the money to do these projects," the interim director explained.
Russell added that in 2021 they appropriated the sidewalk fund to the Fones Road project, which has extensive sidewalks and multimodal improvements – including trail crossing and pedestrian crossing improvements.
"That is a multi-million dollar project. It is taking us several years to find [the fund]…it takes multiple years to accumulate the money for these large projects,” explained Russell.
Russell also addressed Dzieza's inquiry about allocating the budget for sidewalk program administration, saying the money would be used for planning by project employees in Transportation. "They plan, develop policy and program, apply for grants for all projects."
Russell recounted that during the outreach for the Transportation master plan, they received an overwhelming response from community members who wanted to prioritize the money on major streets.
"We acknowledge that sidewalks in neighborhoods and maintenance of sidewalks are important. That's why we have a work plan item next year to start looking at policy around that, as well as additional funding sources to work in those areas," Russell said.
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jimlazar
I was Chairman of the Olympia Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee when we launched the citywide sidewalk planning effort. That led, in 2002, to a detailed prioritization of sidewalks for every neighborhood collector, major collector, and arterial street in the City. That work has been updated by the Transportation Master Plan process.
We then asked the City Council to augment sidewalk funding. At that time, $150,000 per year was appropriated from the general fund for sidewalks. Voters approved a utility tax increase in 2004 that added $1 million/year for sidewalks, and $2 million/year for parks. The plan at that time was that the voted utility tax would pay for NEW sidewalks, while the $150,000/year from the General Fund would pay for repairs of EXISTING sidewalks.
Unfortunately, the current City Council is not appropriating the $150,000/year from the general fund. So there is no sidewalk repair fund. And the City has appropriated 20% of the $1 million/year from the voted utility tax for "administration" even though there is no program for either new sidewalks or sidewalk repairs being administered in 2022 or 2023.
The City needs to go back to 2004, and determine how much sidewalk funding was appropriated from the General Fund, compared to what was anticipated when voters approved the Voted Utility Tax (18 years x $150,000/year is $2.7 million). And also account for the roughly $18 million received since 2004 from the Voted Utility Tax for sidewalks.
Then and only then can we see if the City has diverted some of the planned sidewalk funding.
Tuesday, August 23, 2022 Report this