City to invest big in construction, fleet updates
Having considered a proposed $116 million of investments, the council will now turn to the larger budget itself – $242 million that will address deferred maintenance and raise employee wages.
Laramie residents can expect this and future summers to involve a significant amount of road work and other construction projects as the city seeks to catch up on several deferred projects.
The city government will also revamp its fleet of emergency vehicles, seek to raise employee wages and make in-roads on the housing shortage, according to the proposed budget that city staff will bring before council tonight.
“In total, $116 million planned to be invested in infrastructure — most of which is hard infrastructure or capital assets,” City Manager Janine Jordan told the council during a work session last month. “This is a pretty robust plan. We have a lot going on in the next two years, literally building our community.”
These investments will be helped along by federal money from the American Rescue Plan Act, as well as tax revenues from new wind projects.
The Laramie City Council is in the midst of considering its biennium budget – the document that will dictate how the city collects and spends money for the next two years. During a series of work sessions throughout April and into May, Jordan presented the capital construction projects found in the budget to the city council.
“For this biennium — which will start July 1 of 2022 and run through June 30 of 2024 — it’s just really an intensive period for us as we invest in public works around the community,” Jordan said. “Public works are going to be those infrastructure projects that I know you’re all very familiar with, but don’t forget that it also takes a lot of equipment and fleet to accomplish and execute those public works projects — not only for capital construction, but also for general maintenance.”
Tonight, Jordan and other city staff will return to council with the larger operating budget — a pool of projects and funds that includes the aforementioned capital construction, as well as business services and “enterprise” funds like water and wastewater. Like a private business, enterprise funds collect payment for services rendered.
“The total appropriation for the biennium is $242,099,371 which provides for the continuation of the diverse services residents rely upon from their municipal government and a robust investment in public infrastructure,” Jordan writes in the budget document’s introduction.
The city’s operating budget will have to be approved by the council before it goes into effect. It’s also subject to revision next year. But the budget represents a roadmap for the way city infrastructure will grow, develop or be maintained — while shedding light on some of the difficulties the city faces.
Here are some highlights from the council work sessions on capital construction, and a preview of what can be expected from the budget work sessions that begin tonight.
It will be a busy couple of construction seasons. Trying to counter deferred maintenance projects, spurred by soon-to-be-available federal funds, and facing the usual constraints brought on by Laramie’s particular climate, roadwork will be common across Laramie whenever the sun is shining. “It’s pretty complicated because we have a very short construction season,” Jordan said. “7,200 feet makes us more competitive at basketball perhaps, but it certainly limits our ability to accomplish as much work in any given year as we might like to.” Residents can check out current and future road work projects — with project details and anticipated completion dates — on this website.
City public works improvements are complicated and necessitated by large construction projects outside the city’s control. “We’re really having to think about and around this really large body of projects that is going on here within our community, but by partner entities such as the Wyoming Department of Transportation and most notably the University of Wyoming,” Jordan said. In recent years, UW has put up several new classroom and research buildings on the engineering quarter of the main campus. It’s currently building a parking garage between Ivinson and Grand Avenue and is planning to build new dorms — a project that will require what Jordan called “the largest public works investment that will occur in this community in probably 50 years.” “The University of Wyoming has been engaged for years in very intense vertical construction,” Jordan said. “What people don’t always see is the horizontal underground construction that has to occur in tandem and in sequence with the erection of those buildings.”
The pandemic continues to affect construction projects, while pandemic aid makes more construction possible. The pandemic has driven supply chain shortages on everything from sheet metal to labor itself, while inflation has driven up the cost of nearly all construction materials. Thankfully, there will likely be money available to the city through the American Rescue Plan Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. “We’re going to attempt to access those monies wherever we possibly can,” Jordan told the council. “I have put on retainer a grants specialist who is reviewing for us, on a weekly basis, state and federal funding opportunities because they are myriad, they are many, and they are coming from every different direction and they’re coming at various paces, depending on which federal or state agency they might be coming through.” Jordan said those federal dollars might frankly be essential for completing some of the city’s planned projects, given the shortages and inflation. Mayor Paul Weaver echoed her. “That’s going to dictate how we prioritize things,” he said. “It’s disturbing news, but it’s not surprising news.”
There’s potential for housing construction on the Turner Tract. The budget makes reference to possibilities for public-private partnerships aimed at addressing the city’s housing shortage on the patch of city-owned land in Laramie’s southeast corner.
The proposed budget recommends a 3 percent cost-of-living wage increase for city employees. “Post-pandemic economic conditions are also affecting the ability of our organization to recruit and retain qualified personnel,” Jordan writes in the operating budget’s introduction. “With inflation eroding wages, a 3 percent cost of living adjustment is recommended on July 1st to be followed by a compensation and staffing analysis conducted during Fall/Winter 2022.” That analysis would allow the council to make further staff compensation adjustments next year, Jordan writes.
The proposed budget contains a wealth of information. The budget details, in plain language, everything from the budget creation timeline to the structure of city government to the various funds that support its agencies, infrastructure and services. The budget also details the council’s stated goals, which are used as a guide when the city manager pulls together a proposed budget.
The council kicks off a series of work sessions tonight at 6 p.m. Further budget work sessions are scheduled for tomorrow and May 24. The council continues to meet virtually, but residents can attend via the Zoom link on the council’s agenda, or stream via the city’s YouTube page.