City Council approves plans for Short Street; Money is the next question

The Decorah City Council has approved plans to rebuild Short Street as a three-lane street. Now it has to figure out how to pay for the project.

The original cost estimate for the road project was $2.1 million.  That was one year ago.  Now the price tag seems to be higher.

City Engineer Lindsay Erdman has presented a cost estimate of $2,302,890.  But that figure does not include $400,000 in engineering fees, nor does it include $80,000 in expenses for upgrading lighting along the road.  Those figures would push the cost to $2.8 million.
Another question that has to be answered is whether the city council wants to also order $482,000 in sewer and water improvements to Division Street as part of the Short Street project.  Those costs would push the project to $3.3 million.

City Administrator Chad Bird has begun the job of trying to figure out where the funding for the project will come from.  The most likely source is issuing general obligation bonds.  He says bonding for around $2.8 million would impact property taxes by 85 cents to 95 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation.

Of course, there are other possible sources of funding.  The city council could use some of the $850,000 a year in revenues raised by the local option sales tax.  Those revenues are designated to be used for street repair and maintenance, although, of course, any money spent on Short Street will come at the expense of funding for other local road projects.  The city council could also use funds raised by the tax incremental financing district that includes Short Street properties.

But all of those issues will await more solid expenses figures from Erdman.  Now that the Decorah City Council has approved an overall concept for the road project, he'll be able to begin work on finishing the details of the project.