After a year of planning and weeks of work sessions, the Homer City Council approved a $6,187,758 capital budget Monday, covering expenses ranging from new library chairs to firetrucks for the next two fiscal years.
Some of the larger items in the budget include $1.7 million for construction of a new sidewalk on Ben Walters Lane. That project is currently in the design phase.
There’s also $650,000 budgeted for the creation of a new comprehensive plan, to guide the city’s vision going forward, and a subsequent zoning code update. The last time the comprehensive plan was updated was in 2018, said City Manager Rob Dumouchel.
“But so much has changed, we’ve had so much disruption, that it makes sense to open it up now and get into that,” he said, pointing to the Homer Harbor Expansion plan in the works.
The comprehensive plan has been a sticking point in budget talks so far. The city originally appropriated $650,000 toward the project, and Mayor Ken Castner vetoed it down to $250,000. The council later added back in the remaining $400,000.
At the meeting Monday, Councilmember Shelly Erickson questioned the high price tag of the project and the city outsourcing the plan to an outside firm.
“I feel like as leaders sitting at the table, we need to be driving a lot of the conversation and the decisions about the comp plan and where we want Homer to go,” she said.
Councilmember Rachel Lord said that third-party input is important as the city grapples with planning issues like housing availability.
“And I really just truly believe, whatever this project looks like, it will only be a success with a third party helping every voice in the community that wants to participate and be heard,” she said.
Another large budgeted expense is $230,000 for a new ladder truck for the city, part of an effort to upgrade the city’s aging emergency fleet. And there's a line item to create a master plan for Karen Hornaday Park. The city is putting $50,000 toward that.
Dumouchel said it’s also important to leave room in the budget for unexpected expenses — like replacing equipment that breaks due to heavy snow, for example.
“The public works director likes to call some of them the ‘known unknowns,’” he said. “We know they’re going to happen, we just don’t know which ones are going to happen.”
The city council also talked about working out a fiscal plan, to guide long-term fiscal strategy going forward. Dumouchel said now that the budget is done, the next step will be to look at the funds the city has and make sure there’s policy guidance for all of them.
He said the city’s paid off a lot of debt over the last couple years and for the most part has been able to afford the projects it’s wanted to do. And he said while the last couple years have been expensive, the city has had a lot of outside money come in, too.
“We’ve really put a mindful thought into putting money aside for matching funds, too,” he said. “So there’s a lot of grant programs at a federal level that are out and about. And if we win some of these grants we’re going for, we could be on the hook for million dollar matches.”
On Monday, council member Shelly Erickson was the one “no” vote on the budget; all other city council members voted in favor.
The mayor signed the capital budget today. It goes into effect next week, at the start of fiscal year 2024. The budget covers the next two fiscal years. Dumouchel said a final version of the budget will be online, soon.
