by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
The City is using the planned replacement of one fire station and the construction of four new stations to test out a new method of funding capital improvement projects. In all, the five projects will cost approximately $8.5 million.
Previously, the City would have waited to start work on the stations until all of the funding was available. Under the new plan, explained to the City Council’s Finance Committee Tuesday by City CFO Mickey Miller, work will begin on all five stations at approximately the same time. Miller said the typical work schedule is 24 months for such projects. However, because those projects usually involve three phases, the initial phases should begin if funding is available for a majority of the work.
“This would allow us to work on multiple projects at one time,” said Miller. “We will still have a firm commitment to complete the project within the specified number of years. This is different from the way we have traditionally done business. We are trying to get multiple things done at one time.”
The legislation allocates a little over $800,000 from fire station No. 40 for the replacement of station No. 31 on Hillman Drive and No. 32 on Lennox Avenue and the construction of new station No. 59 on W.M. Davis Parkway. Fire stations No. 5 on Forest Street and No. 40 on Heckscher Drive will also be replaced.
If approved by the full Council, the funding will come from special revenue bonds. While those bonds may not cover the entire cost of the stations, the new method of financing will allow the City to get well into the land acquisition and design phases during the current fiscal year while maintaining the ability to budget the rest of the costs in the next fiscal year.
Miller said the City currently requires “every penny be available day one” for any capital improvement project. Because many of those projects take years from inception to completion, the total cost changes — often dramatically, depending on a number of factors ranging from land acquisition costs to labor costs to building materials.
For example, in a 3-year, $5 million project, a small portion of the money may be needed the first year, while a majority of the funding may get eaten up during construction the last year. The new funding system will allow the City to begin that first-year work as long as the first-year funding is available.
“We can get more projects started in year one,” he said. “Look at the Better Jacksonville Plan. We took out a bond in 2000, but a chunk of the work isn’t done. The Better Jacksonville Plan front-end loaded all of the money, and that allowed us to do more projects.”
Miller said the new system will require more attention to capital improvement projects from the Council Auditor’s Office.
“This will require additional checks and balances to make sure we are not spending the same money twice,” he said, adding closely-monitoring projects will also protect contractors and ensure they get paid on time for the work they perform.