City approves budget for 2017

A finished greenway, a firearms simulator for the police department and a significant increase in sidewalk construction are on deck for Homewood in the next 12 months — at least according to the budget the city council recently approved.

After weeks of budget hearings, the fiscal year 2017 budget was approved at the Sept. 26 council meeting. The fiscal year begins Saturday, Oct. 1.

The total budget is $61 million, most of which is spent on employees and operating costs in the general fund budget of $43.3 million.

The capital projects budget for this year will be $7.1 million, and debt service will be $6.3 million. In his initial budget presentation to the council, Mayor Scott McBrayer said he is once again expecting to have a surplus at the end of the year, which has been used in previous years to give bonuses to city employees. The bonuses this year are projected to total about $375,000.

A portion of the city sales tax and ad valorem property tax revenue will be given to the school system, totaling $16.5 million.

“The mayor has done a lot of work on the front end meeting with department heads and trying to prioritize the items that are most pressing for the city. We’re in a great financial position with increased revenue from last year,” Finance Committee Chairman and Ward 3 Representative Walter Jones said.

While the budget can be amended throughout the year, it is a reflection of the city council and mayor’s goals for the city as they look at the upcoming year.

Big projects

The $7.1 million capital projects fund will be the source of most physical changes within the city, from roadwork and sidewalks to a city master plan.

The city council already approved $2.3 million for repaving some of the worst roads throughout the city, which was rolled over into the 2017 year. At a budget hearing in early September, McBrayer said the goal is to pave all the C-grade, or worst condition, streets this fiscal year so work on the A- and B-grade roads, which are in better shape, can begin in 2018.

“Once we get it going, they’ll roll it pretty quickly,” said Parks and Recreation Director Berkley Squires.

Funding for new sidewalks was bumped up from $100,000 to $437,000 after previously unused funding was discovered. This is an increase over $352,000 in the current fiscal year. The budget also includes $100,000 for sidewalk repairs and handicap accessibility in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The city works from a priority list to determine which projects are funded first. Greg Cobb of the BEZ Department said high traffic areas, particularly near schools and churches, are typically at the top of the pecking order for both new construction and repairs.

The budget for new construction will likely include the ongoing Rumson Road project, once it is decided whether to turn part of that road into a one-way street, and possibly extending Columbiana Road paths to give pedestrian access to the Green Springs Highway Publix, Jones said. Sidewalks on Mayfair Drive have been discussed since spring, but Jones said continuing neighborhood disagreement means the city may decide to pursue sidewalks elsewhere first, in areas where resident support is stronger.

“There’s just a lot of people there [on Mayfair] against it. So we need to look at that,” Jones said.

Other sidewalks on the high priority list include Saulter Road, Clermont Drive, 17th Place South, Parkridge Drive, 20th Place South and Rosedale Drive.

Phases II and III of the city greenway project are funded for design and construction to be finished this year, totaling $1.2 million. The city is also budgeting $905,000 for engineering, right-of-way and construction on the Lakeshore/I-65 diverging diamond interchange. The total cost of the project construction is estimated in the area of $4.5 million, most of which will be paid by ALDOT.

Cobb said ALDOT is interested in moving the project along quickly, but it will need state approval to condense the timeline. 

“We are pushing to move the project up to construction in 2017. That will need higher approval,” Cobb said. 

Jones said he still expects most of the construction to take place in 2018. Fellow BEZ Department employee Vanessa McGrath also noted the possibility of connecting the greenway to sidewalks planned in the interchange project to give pedestrian access to Wildwood shopping center.

A master plan for the city’s future development is also budgeted for this fiscal year, with $56,000 allocated toward creating that plan.

Emergency personnel

The city police and fire departments both increased their budgets this year, with the police going from $9.5 million to $9.7 million and fire rising from $6.7 million to $7.1 million for general operating expenses. 

That includes an increase in personnel costs, particularly in the fire department after receiving a $353,000 SAFER grant to fund three new firefighter positions for two years. Fire Chief John Bresnan said in early August, when the grant was first given, that this will enable all three shifts to be fully manned and could improve the department’s ISO rating, which can affect home insurance rates in the city.

The police department budget for 2017 includes increases in training costs and $12,000 for Predictive Policing, software the department began using this year that uses crime statistics to predict likely places for crime to occur. The capital projects fund includes $80,000 for a Firearms Training Simulator (FATS). Several council members tried a demo of the simulator at the West Homewood Farmers Market, and Ward 2 Representative Vance Moody commented at a budget hearing that the program was close to real life.

Other capital expenses for the police include new patrol rifles, ballistic vests and $82,000 for two new unmarked vehicles. The fire department has budgeted $89,000 for building improvements, including for the new shipping container training area at Station 3. Bresnan, however, decided to delay the construction of an annex workout room at Station 3 until next fiscal year.

Parks and Recreation

The city’s parks and pools saw high demand this summer from swimmers and youth leagues in several sports. With attendance expected to be similar in 2017, the overall parks and recreation budget increased from $4 million to $4.2 million this year.

“Our numbers are up across the board,” Squires said. “We’ve seen increases every year for the last three or four years.”

That includes an increase from 110 children to 230 participating in fall baseball over the last year, and basketball has reached 600 total children in the league. Flag football, which started in 2015, has been a surprise hit and grew from 147 players to 226.

“When we started the flag football last year, it just exploded,” Squires said.

This prompted a $10,000 increase in the activities budget, which Squires said is the first increase in his time with the department. The money will go toward uniforms and officials to meet the rising demand.

“It’s been that same amount for 10 years, so this is our first increase,” Squires said.

The department also is working with Harbert International to find a way to accommodate more players through reconfiguring fields, new schedules or building new fields.

The biggest capital project in the parks and recreation department in 2017 will be the $62,000 Overton Park renovation, which Squires said will develop a two-car stone parking pad and stone walkway at the Kensington Road side of the park. The department has also requested $40,000 for a new landscape truck, so it will no longer have to use trailers to tow lawnmowers and other equipment, and $9,000 for new trash cans.

Challenges in the budget

To create a budget with a surplus means not every project that department heads want can be approved. Two significant projects being delayed this year, aside from the fire department’s workout room annex, are the 18th Street South beautification project and the library’s proposed expansion.

According to budget documents, the library wants to add 3,000 square feet on the Ridge Road side of their adult department. This would allow the library to move its computer and technology services to the main floor rather than the lower level, as well as expand the courtyard. The project is estimated to cost more than $1 million, but was cut from this year’s budget.

A couple of unexpectedly high price tags also raised eyebrows during the budget hearings. The first was the Birmingham Jefferson County Transit Authority, which asked Homewood to raise its contribution by 18 percent to total $347,000. This would not increase routes or service times in Homewood, but would go toward purchase of new buses and the new downtown intermodal hub the BJCTA is building.

Finance committee members expressed dissatisfaction since this increase would bring no benefit to the city. Jones and Ward 5 Representative Peter Wright reminded committee members of the months of discussions in late 2014 and early 2015 when the BJCTA had approached them with another increase.

“All I’ll say is we didn’t get anywhere last year going down this road,” Jones said.

The committee met with the transit authority Sept. 20 to discuss how their service would be affected if the city kept funding level at $293,000. The transit authority officials did not bring this information, opting instead to offer a new Homewood-only route serving Samford University if the council approved the funding increase.

After lengthy discussion between the finance committee members, they chose to keep funding level at $293,000 for this year. The transit authority has not said how it will change Homewood routes to account for this decision.

The second big project is the ALDOT “turkey foot” reconfiguration at the intersection of Oxmoor Boulevard and Oxmoor Road. While only $36,000 is budgeted this year to cover the city’s portion of engineering costs, the total project’s budget has increased from $4.8 million to $11.8 million. This would bring Homewood’s total contribution up from $964,000 to $3.5 million.

“The whole scope is way out of hand. It’s not what it was when we first started,” said Ward 2 Representative Fred Hawkins.

The increase was attributed partly to the sidewalk portion of the project and right-of-way acquisition on Scott Street. However, the designs for the project include six lanes at the intersection, which committee members agreed was excessive.

They agreed to approach ALDOT and the designers, Gonzalez-Strength, with the original budget of $4.8 million to see what could be completed within that restriction. This will be an ongoing discussion as more of the project will be funded in future fiscal years. The committee also wants to hire a project manager to keep the project in budget and on track.

Overall, Jones said 2017 is shaping up to be a year in which multiple city projects will finally be wrapped up.

“This is really a year where a lot of the projects have been delayed and they’re all happening at the same time. That is a concern because everything is happening at the same time. So we really have to prioritize that. But where we are right now, we believe we can get that accomplished,” Jones said.