After two months arguing about the best way to fund a variety of infrastructure projects, the Cheektowaga Town Board this week came to a compromise to complete the remaining work.
The politically split Cheektowaga Town Board has led in recent weeks to stalemate votes, including one that put sewer funding at risk.
Board members unanimously agreed Tuesday to take out $1.5 million in bonds and use $500,000 in reserve funds for highway drainage work. They also agreed to take out an additional $1 million bond for road paving.
The board – evenly split politically between three Democrats and three Republicans – has disagreed since March about the best way to fund routine sewer, highway drainage and road paving projects.
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Democrats initially proposed taking out $11 million in bonds to fund the projects, a practice they say is standard for local government.
Republicans were not in favor of borrowing money for the projects, saying it is fiscally irresponsible and will lead to an increase in taxes. They countered Democrats’ proposals with their own plan to use $5.15 million in reserve funds to pay for the work.
Democratic Supervisor Brian Nowak repeatedly expressed his apprehension about using up too much of the town’s reserves, which are designed to cover costs of an emergency or unexpected expense, such as the cleanup related to the Christmas weekend 2022 blizzard. Responding to that storm cost the town about $4 million, Nowak said.
“I’m taking into consideration the desire to use cash and I’m keeping in mind also the need to have cash set aside for what we don’t know,” he said. “I think this is a good middle ground show of faith.”
The highway drainage project involves a full road reconstruction of Pleasant Parkway and Shanley Street. Crews will replace sanitary and storm sewers and then repave the road. The town also received a $250,000 federal Community Development Block Grant for curb replacement as part of the road reconstruction, Nowak said.
After seven meetings of disagreeing on this project, the board coming to a compromise on the drainage work showed “good unity amongst the board and it’s much needed,” Council Member Vernon Thompson said.
The $1 million road paving project will tackle about half of the roads initially proposed by the town Engineering Department.
Highway Superintendent Rick Rusiniak said he was OK with the board cutting back on road paving, but urged members to borrow the money to pay for the project instead of using reserve funds.
“I know we’re tight,” Rusiniak said. “Let’s do the best we can. Let’s use bonding instead of reserves because these lakes stay open all year round now. They’re not freezing over. We’re going to get hit with these storms.”
Broken up into four phases, Town Engineer Mark Christel said roads listed in phases two and three should be targeted with the $1 million.
Instead, Council Member Michael Jasinski asked for a list of the 10 worst roads in the town and said those should be the focus.
Nowak argued it would be more expensive to do the paving that way, as the proposed road paving phases are grouped by neighborhood based on age of road and areas where the roads were already going to be dug up for highway drainage construction.
“When you have single, scattershot streets you’re going to pave, you have to move your people and your machinery and it increases the cost per length to do those roads when you say, ‘We’ll just pave one street and go across town to do that and then go across town to do one more,'” the supervisor said.
Previously, the board agreed to allocate $3.5 million to fund a sanitary sewer repair project, with $1.45 million of that cost coming out of town reserves.
That project is eligible for a $5 million state Department of Environmental Conservation Water Quality Improvement Project grant, which requires the town to put forth $1.4 million in matching funds.
During the board’s April 23 meeting, members came to a unanimous agreement to spend $650,000 in reserve funds to purchase materials to support the daily operations of the Highway Department and repair the Galleria Drive bridge.