Mayor Jerry Sanders announced on Wednesday that he will request more funding for infrastructure projects.
It's been a long road with plenty of bumps along the way, but Sanders said he will ask the city council for another $75 million in bonds for street resurfacing and infrastructure projects.
About $30 million of the bond money could go toward smoothing out roughly 60 miles of road. The rest will be used for storm drain repairs, library, street light and park upgrades.
Sanders said the city has an $800 million infrastructure backlog. He admitted the recession forced them to cut back. But he believes with revenues picking up, his administration will now be able to put a major dent in the problem.
“You know we're just trying to knockdown pieces every chance we get,” said Sanders. “The $100 million helped us knock down quite a bit and the $75 million will obviously knock down quite a bit. After we're done with these projects, we'll be about in the same position in terms of the street index,”
This announcement came after the city auditor basically said the city wasn't utilizing the bonds to take care of the streets and infrastructure. The city council also had to cut through some red tape to make sure the money went directly to roads and infrastructure.
“We'll never been in a position where all the roads are perfect,” said District 3 Councilman Todd Gloria. “What we want to do is far more aggressive in them and we are making that commitment and I want to point out this is in response to what we've heard from our citizens,”
The Mayor says after issuing the new bonds, the overall debt is expected to remain in the low to moderate range.
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