As part of its $149 million budget, the city plans this year to tackle a variety of projects, from sidewalks to a new emergency operations center.
But it's eyeing some massive projects down the road a bit.
The biggest project on the list for the fiscal year starting in July is a new roof for Memorial Boulevard School — slated to cost $550,000 — but officials are eyeing $61 million in downtown spending by 2008 and more than $90 million on school projects sometime after 2010.
Next year, they're also planning to spend $8 million to overhaul the city's parks.
The projects are all included in the five-year capital improvement program the city adopts each spring as part of its annual spending plan for the coming fiscal year. Projects included for the first year are normally carried out but those in later years are occasionally dropped or pushed back on the priority list.
The emergency operations center included in the project list, expected to cost about $225,000, would replace the small, spartan room currently available at the police station for emergency management.
The new center, which might be built at either the police or fire headquarters, would include new computers, software and other equipment to outfit a command location for officials to use in case of a disaster or other crisis.
Officials have long said they need a place where they could coordinate the emergency response of fire, police, health and other government and private aid should something awful happen.
At one time, they considered a mobile command center but opted in this budget to set up shop within one of the existing public safety buildings.
The budget also includes a first installment on a new ladder truck for the fire department. It contains $150,000 for the truck and anticipates setting aside $300,000 in each of the next two budget cycles to make it possible to buy the vehicle outright.
The city is also making provisions to put in more than $1 million worth of fiber optic cable to link municipal buildings in town with high-speed Internet access. Officials said it will make city government more efficient and benefit taxpayers in the long run.
This year, they're spending $400,000 on the fiber optic lines. They'll divide up the rest of the cost over the next two years.
The city's planning to spend $360,000 to widen and reconstruct tiny Merrill Court, near Cedar Lake. The project will include drainage help that aims to lessen the runoff into Cedar Lake.
Another drainage project, for $240,000, aims to control sediment runoff on three other streets near troubled Cedar Lake: Cove Road, Kory Lane and Lakewood Circle.
The city plans to spend $300,000 on repairs to the conduits that allow North Creek and the Pequabuck River to flow beneath downtown. They were built more than 30 years ago and need some relatively minor fixes.
There's $200,000 set aside to dredge the ponds on Memorial Boulevard, Page Park and Rockwell Park. Park Director Ed Swicklas said a fountain may be placed in one of the Boulevard parks when the work is done.
The city is pumping $457,000, which includes money set aside last year, into replacement of an undersized culvert at Stonecrest Drive that caused flooding at Sheriden Woods nursing home during a hurricane a few years ago.
Another $240,000 will pay for storm drains on Vincent Road and $450,000 is needed for drainage work on Willis Street.
The city plans to spend $180,000 on sidewalks for Crown Street and Judson Avenue and $415,000 to put sidewalks on Ivy Drive between Shagbark Drive and Marcia Drive.
Among the projects anticipated for next year are $150,000 worth of trails in the Hoppers-Birge Pond Nature Preserve and $500,000 for improvements at the former Roberts property on Chippens Hill.