NEWPORT – The General Assembly passed a pair of bills in late June that officially gave the City of Newport permission to borrow $98.5 million in general obligation bonds to support improvements to the city infrastructure.
With the bills passed, it’s now up to Newport voters to approve or reject the bond measure this November.
“Newport has a massive backlog of investments it needs to make both repairing and improving the infrastructure to handle the sheer volume of people who live in this city and the impacts of climate change,” Mayor Xay Khamsyvoravong said. “What you see in our legislative package and the bond are our best efforts to try and find sources of funding that are not the residents who live in Newport and make it work every single day.”
This bond was first discussed at a City Council workshop on the city’s Capital Improvement Plan, a document updated every budget cycle to reflect larger construction projects the city plans to undertake for the next five years. It was during this workshop interim City Manager Laura Sitrin estimated the city to need $500 million to complete all of the projects it needs to finish within the next five years.
The City Council passed the resolution requesting Newport’s legislative delegation to submit the bond bills in February. Although the council has yet to earmark any of the funds for specific projects, initial discussions with city administration highlighted a few key possibilities, including the relocation of the City Yard and Utilities Department, which is expected to cost $47 million. The city also considered renovations to the Maher Center and tackling the dirt pile and landfill underneath Rogers High School.
Additionally, the city hoped to include $5 million to match grants obtained for repairs to the Cliff Walk and $2.5 million to match grants for seawall repairs at King Park.
Khamsyvoravong said the City Council is expecting to revisit the list of projects originally pitched to be funded through the bond over the next couple of months. Once the list is finalized, the council will vote on whether to put the bond on this year’s ballot.
“It’s been nearly a decade since this community did any kind of major borrowing for any kind of public infrastructure other than our public school buildings and we’re seeing the impacts of that in the condition of a lot of our core infrastructure,” Khamsyvoravong said. “Opportunities like the bond are one of the tools we have in our financial tool set to try and start tackling this large backlog of infrastructure projects we need to get done in this city.”