City council unanimously passed a $14-million capital budget at its regular public monthly meeting Tuesday night.
It includes $3 million for street resurfacing, an increase of almost $1 million on the $2.1 million Charlottetown spent last year.
What streets will see work will be determined closer to spring, when the frost comes out of the ground.
“The roads, as we all know today, are in great disrepair,’’ Coun. Melissa Hilton, chairwoman of the city’s finance committee, told the media following the council meeting. “What we do is we rate the streets. Our city staff goes out and rates the streets from worst to first . . . and I know there are a number of streets throughout the city, and everybody thinks their street is the worst.
“We will see more streets being resurfaced this year, which will be wonderful. I know all the city residents will be extremely happy to see it, but as for (which streets) we’ll be able to do I really can’t answer that question.’’
She said with the worst-to-first criteria in mind, the city usually tries to spread the work around as much as possible.
City council unanimously passed a $14-million capital budget at its regular public monthly meeting Tuesday night.
It includes $3 million for street resurfacing, an increase of almost $1 million on the $2.1 million Charlottetown spent last year.
What streets will see work will be determined closer to spring, when the frost comes out of the ground.
“The roads, as we all know today, are in great disrepair,’’ Coun. Melissa Hilton, chairwoman of the city’s finance committee, told the media following the council meeting. “What we do is we rate the streets. Our city staff goes out and rates the streets from worst to first . . . and I know there are a number of streets throughout the city, and everybody thinks their street is the worst.
“We will see more streets being resurfaced this year, which will be wonderful. I know all the city residents will be extremely happy to see it, but as for (which streets) we’ll be able to do I really can’t answer that question.’’
She said with the worst-to-first criteria in mind, the city usually tries to spread the work around as much as possible.
She knows the list of streets residents think should be done will outnumber the streets the city can afford to do.
“We all drive on streets that are constant heaves right now. We’ll wait until the frost settles come springtime and get out and evaluate them.’’
The CARI complex is also getting money in the capital budget, the first time it has since the facility opened, Hilton said.
“There are going to be some improvements there to the foyer as well as to the viewing area within the pool, so that’ll be exciting to see.’’
There is $100,000 in the capital budget for the city’s heritage squares improvement project and there will be money to buy some new playground equipment, which will come out of the $891,000 parks and recreation is getting.
Money will also be spent on new street lighting, both in terms of upgrades to existing infrastructure and for new lights.
Hilton talked about the development of new subdivisions, which call for lighting and the need to improve safety and make things more visible.
Issues also exist in city buildings themselves.
“For example, right here in City Hall we have a heating system that we’re trying to deal with (so there’s money) in the budget for that.’’
A capital budget was also approved for the Water and Sewer Utility, which is run as a completely separate corporation. It’s getting more than $11.7 million.
One of the big ticket items in the Water and Sewer Utility is finishing up the new wellfield project.
Some of the projects in the city and Water and Sewer Utility budgets will move forward pending funding from the provincial and federal governments.
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