After approving its $23.9 million 2009 budget in November, the village of Groveport still has an extensive "wish list" of unfunded capital improvement projects it would like to accomplish sometime in the future.
If and when these proposed projects will be completed depends heavily on the state of the economy and the amount of income tax revenues the village receives in the coming years.
"We need to work within the funds we have," said Groveport Finance Director Ken Salak at Groveport Village Council’s Dec. 8 committee of the whole meeting. "We can only spend what we have. We’ve had some good years, but we don’t know what 2009 will bring."
Salak pointed out that, according to the Ohio Office of Budget and Management, "…in the next two years, Ohio will confront the most serious erosion of revenues it has experienced in the last 40 or 50 years" due to the state of the overall economy.
Funded for 2009 are:
•$1.8 million in total debt service payments (which must be paid each year until paid off) for the recreation center, aquatic center, golf course, log house, Heritage Park stage, soccer fields, and Ohio Public Works Commission street projects for Main Street, Hamilton Road, Bixby Road, and Rohr Road;
•$795,000 for the reconstruction of Kessler Street;
•$110,000 for engineering for the Lesleh Avenue reconstruction project slated for 2010;
•$60,000 for curb/gutter replacement;
•and $15,000 for sidewalks.
Also funded is $200,000 for the Greenpointe Drive extension and $1 million for the Rohr Road widening. Old Hamilton Road widening is slated for 2011 and 2012 in two phases estimated at $1.4 million and $826,00, as well as a turn lane on Groveport Road at Groveport Park in 2010 and 2011 for around $263,000.
Unfunded proposed street projects
Street projects still awaiting funding, and their estimated costs, include the reconstruction of:
•Front Street (from Elm to Main), $511,000; (from Elm to the railroad), $856,000;
•Center Street north from Main, $695,000;
•West Street north from Main, $646,000;
•Toy Road, $213,000;
•Elm Street, $886,000;
•Crescent Street, $377,000;
•Seymour Street, $355,000;
•Delane Road, $693,000; and
•Rohr Road/State Route 317 box culvert replacement, $456,000.
Other unfunded proposed projects
Other projects awaiting money, and their estimated costs, under consideration for future implementation include:
•Two police motorcycles, $46,000;
•Senior Center outdoor plaza, $293,750;
•Front and Main traffic signal, $285,000;
•Street lighting: College Street, $303,000; Cherry Street, $263,000; and Front Street, $170,000;
•Large dump truck, $150,000, small dump truck, $45,000, and roadside mower, $36,200;
•Park maintenance building, $1.2 million; and
•Aquatic Center improvements, $40,050.
The village’s parks have these unfunded projects on the table:
Groveport Park
•Five tennis courts, $200,000; athletic field lighting, $968,000; two outdoor basketball courts, $211,500; two outdoor sand volleyball courts, $121,000; concession stand/restrooms, $282,000; picnic shelters, $117,500; dog park, $115,000; and construct new lower parking lot, $575,000;
Blacklick Park
•Park shelter, $50,000; playground equipment, $57,000; and parking lot resurfacing, $10,700;
Cruiser Park
•Irrigation system for soccer fields, $352,500; picnic shelter, $62,650; playground equipment, $124,500; maintenance building, $124,500; resurface parking lot, $100,000;
Degenhart Park
•Replace playground equipment, $53,500; resurface tennis courts, $22,000; and
Heritage Park
•Pave parking lot at log house, $20,070.
Council will review the capital improvement plan and discuss the future potential projects further at a later date.
