Burlington City Manager Jim Ferneau says that he hopes to reduce the tax burden that area taxpayers are being asked to shoulder in order to purchase and rehabilitate the US Bank Building downtown for use as a Police Station.
Ferneau spoke during a Monday night City Council Work Session, saying that a number of cash influxes would reduce the loan amount required and, thus, the property tax burden. A $1 million loan repayment from the company that owns the Newberry Village Apartments would knock the $4 million loan proposal down to $3 million.
“We’ve talked about a $4 million bond issue being equivalent to a 38 cent levy, just putting in the Newberry Village money reduces it to around a 28 cent levy,” Ferneau explained.
But Ferneau doesn’t want to stop there. He said Wednesday on the KBUR talk show that it could likely go down even further, with enough work and examination of the city’s Capital Improvement Plan.
“I’d like to have it down to $2.75 million, which doesn’t bring the levy down that much,” Ferneau told hosts Steve Hexom and Rob Sussman, “But I think that realistically we can be below a 10 cent levy increase. I’d like to see how we could make that work and get this project in.”
The City Council passed a measure to get the $4 million loan agreement on the ballot for the November 3rd General Election. Ferneau says that they needed to get the question on the ballot before the August 27th deadline, but that the actual loan amount may end up being lower.
If the required 60% of Burlington voters approve the plan, Ferneau predicts it may take up to two years for renovations to be complete and for the Police Department to move into the building.
That presents a problem of its own. The current police building on third street is plagued by problems, including walls that are bowing out, exterior surface cracks, internal structural damage and heating and cooling issues. There is even concern that one of the walls is in danger of falling into the alley nearby. There isn’t any covered parking, which means that officers have to dig their cars out of the snow during the winter before responding to calls. Ferneau says it’s possible that emergency maintence may have to be done to some degree in order to keep the station habitable in the interim.
