The City of Salem Capital Improvements Committee met Thursday night at Salem Community Center @ the Armory to discuss capital improvement projects for both the current fiscal year ending June 30, as well as projects for next year (FY 2022-23) beginning July 1.
Alderman Shawn Bolerjack, who chairs the Capital Improvements Committee, said that he hopes to have more community members who serve on the board at a future meeting before the end of the fiscal year. Currently, there are four community members on the Capital Improvements Committee, which is in accordance to the minimum requirement provided for by Missouri statute. Members are Annie Deatherage, Jake Conway, Jay Gibbs, and Mark Manjarrez.
Deatherage and Conway were the only two voting members of the board present at the meeting, so no quorum could be established and no action taken. However, the committee was still able to discuss five distinct categories for proposed projects for the coming year’s capital improvements budget. Also present at the meeting were Mayor Greg Parker, Alderman Shawn Bolerjack, and Alderwoman Kala Sisco as well several city employees.
On the handout provided to the committee by City Administrator Ray Walden (see attached pdf) there are certain items earmarked as “fixed” due to their relationship to ongoing city capital improvement projects as previously approved by the board of aldermen. Otherwise, the handout includes items indicated as priorities, 1, 2 and 3 as well as items that have not yet been given priority designations.
The sum total of proposed capital improvement expenditures for FY 2021-22 adds up to approximately $3.7 million. Approximately $1.4 million worth of projects were listed in the “fixed” category, $1.2 million as priority 1, $170,000 as priority 2, $61,000 as priority 3, and $830,000 has not been given a priority designation.
The structure of the meeting included reviewing the handout project-by-project organized according to the various funds and having various department heads, the city administrator and finance director explain each piece of the project.
The handout also indicates that the projected revenues for the end of FY 2021-22 (June 30) is just over $9.4 million.
Some of the most important projects relate to necessary improvements to water and sewer around the city. For example, $20,000 for water engineering fees, a repeat cost from the current fiscal year, is due to the ongoing nature of the project. There are also various pieces of the new well project, totaling more than $200,000. A $78,000 request for what is listed as a sewer machine is essential to replace for the operation of the sewer plant. A $7,500 budget is allocated for manhole alignment which will help prevent rainfall from invading sewer pipes and subsequently overflowing the treatment plant—to that same note there is also the Bonebrake sewer main project for $75,000.
Those are just some of the pieces that the city is working on. For example, $42,000 is allocated for the much-anticipated lights at Al Brown Field. Other projects are ongoing and some have yet to begin.
Bolerjack also stated that he has been talking with Sisco, who chairs the Finance Committee, regarding a soon-to-be scheduled finance committee meeting to discuss the overall budget for the coming year.
