SEBASTIAN – The Sebastian City Council unanimously approved a staff request to appropriate $12,000 from various funds in order to proceed with design drawings, surveying and permitting to get a jump start on six of the capital projects currently being “actively managed.”
“Staff has been prioritizing capital projects to actively manage and focus on completing these in a timely manner,” according to the request,
City Finance Director Ken Kilgore explained the projects:
- CavCorp parking – $2,000: This project is to improve the parking area behind the Hess Station on US 1, which had been discussed frequently over the years, with originally budgeted funds eventually transferred into the Presidential Streets project. A scaled down version is being planned because of frequent complaints about the situation that exists on the property currently. “It is a free-for-all. People get stuck and I get complaints,” City Manager Joe Griffin told Council. “We need to provide a functional lot at a reasonable cost.” Staff will be recommending with the next quarterly budget amendment that $175,000 of Discretionary Tax funds be used, and thinks a reasonably good result can be obtained with this amount.
- Community Center parking – $2,000: $50,000 is scheduled from Recreation Impact Fee funds next fiscal year for paving, drainage and lighting improvements, continuing recent efforts (including exterior painting) to improve this facility.
- Police Station public parking – $2,000: $50,000 is scheduled from Discretionary Sales Tax funds next fiscal year for adding handicap parking at the Police Station, which will resolve a long-standing concern about the distance between parking areas and the entrance to the Police Station.
- Fisherman’s Landing shoreline rocking– $2,000: Staff plans to recommend with the next quarterly budget amendment that $20,000 be appropriated from Riverfront CRA funds to add shoreline rocks.
- US 1 Corridor Study – $2,000: Staff will be transferring unused funds from other Road Maintenance Division accounts in the General Fund to do a corridor study on the need for a traffic signal at Central Avenue.
- Golf Course restroom reconstruction – $2,000: Staff will be recommending with the next quarterly budget amendment that $80,000 of Discretionary Sales Tax funds be used to reconstruct two bathrooms.
“We’ll get a jump-start and be in a better position to get these capital projects completed earlier than might otherwise be possible,” Kilgore said of proceeding with the preliminary work.