To order the town council's special study session on March thirteenth.

It's uh six p.m.

I'm Andrew Moore, the mayor of the town of Uri.

Um, and this will be an open conversation.

Um, one of the things I love about study sessions is that we don't have to be as formal.

I'll only uh interject if we start talking over each other or if time uh starts to become uh an issue.

And so uh this is an important topic for us tonight.

It's really on the what, what are the capital project needs and the how?

How do you pay for capital improvement needs?

And that could be everything from taxes to current cash flow to uh impact fees or maybe public private partnerships.

And so I'm looking forward to uh just an open conversation on this journey to help us as council members understand where we're at, and then um, likely a survey that can help us solicit input from our community on what um what their priorities are.

And so with that, um I turn it over to Sarah, or I turn it over to Malcolm for a few words.

Sarah's done the bulk of the work on this.

Uh has been a team effort, but we're really relying on Sarah, and she knows the ins and outs of our capital program.

So this with that comment, I'll turn it over to Sarah.

Sure.

Uh, thank you.

Sarah Hamcock, I'm the director of finance here.

First, before I get started, I want to just let you know what you have in front of you this packet.

I wanted to us to have something in front of us to look at while we're having a discussion.

I know sometimes you know, turning and looking at the screen is a little rough.

And then also I don't like spreadsheets on screens.

It's hard to read.

So now you have something to look at that should help us with the conversation.

Additionally, there's a the page number that the uh project is in this little packet.

These are pages from the CIP.

And the reason I put this together is that if we want to look quickly at the funding sources, at the years that these are scheduled, at any details that were uh included in the CIP, we have that right there at our fingertips, and we don't have to just you know try to figure out how to get it up on the screen.

So that idea was to add some ease to the conversation.

Um the only other thing I will say uh this uh presentation probably feels like a lot.

Um and I do know that it's gonna be a lot of information.

I am gonna ask that we try to get through the presentation before we have too many questions, simply because I think I'll probably answer some questions by the time I get through it.

Obviously, if it's something like burning, like jump in, um, but really want to try to get through it because I crafted it really to support the discussion.

Um, so with that, I will jump in.

So this evening we're going to um go through a journey, if you will.

Um, we're gonna start with how we got here and how we have come to the projects that you see before you, and that includes several years of facilities, needs assessments and planning, uh, as well as our long-range staffing plan.

Then we're gonna look a little bit at the financial position as it relates to capital projects, and that means how we've structured them, how some of the funding is structured, uh, and then some of our main capital needs, including um some main uh main facility needs and some parks, uh, which seem to be the ones that we really need to grapple with uh in terms of funding mechanisms, which brings me to how we'll wrap up, which will be talking a little bit about what tools we have in our toolbox outside of our existing revenue streams, which in general means debt.

So we'll talk through that as well.

So, way back in 2021, um, actually 2020, we contracted with World Architects to develop a strategic plan around our facilities.

And the idea was to understand our current facilities and how they were uh how they were doing, how many people we had in them, um, what their condition was, uh, and what our staffing projections were going to look like as the population in Erie grew.

Um, this also included a space needs analysis as well as standardizing uh our office space and also identifying any needs we had, including additional space and recommendations from that um from that group.

So the large needs that were um immediately apparent in the study were town hall.

Um we were found that that was the highest priority.

Uh I was not here then, but I heard that we were elbow to elbow in here, and so the that became a very high priority for for the town.

Uh, as well as the Erie Police Station and Municipal Court Building, uh, the Laws Service Center and the Erie Community Center were all identified as top needs for the town.

Um, so this, you know, once again, way back in 2025 years ago, we started to realize that these were the priorities and they needed to be addressed in terms of facilities.

Then in 2023, uh, we contracted with World Architects again to update the strategic plan to make sure we were still on track, um, but also to take a really close look at the PD building because that seemed to be a need that was emerging quicker than others.

Um, so the plan was aligned to the 2021 plan, like I said, to make sure we're still on track.

Um, and then the objectives, priorities, and the criteria were updated specific to the PD building.

Um, then those space needs for the facility were outlined in the plan, and those final recommendations ultimately informed uh the what we have now, which is moving towards uh completing design.

Uh most of the needs were related around how many officers and uh non-sworn folks we could have in the building, but as well as the square footage just needed for doing reports, lockers, um, basic uh areas for people to have meetings.

Also, uh the non-sworn staff needed more space to have offices.

Um so it was just became very apparent that the the need uh was growing far faster than any square footage was.

Um we definitely still looked at the other major needs and included them as a part of this.

So town hall was still identified as um a priority.

Um obviously we are in a new building right now, um and the other side is underway.

So that one was um, you know, under, I should say it's underway right now.

Uh Erie Police Department, uh, this is the one that we will talk about a little bit more in depth.

Um, but the design for that uh is currently underway, if I recall correctly, we're almost complete with that design.

And it was budgeted in the 2025 budget to move forward with the construction of that.

And then the laws building, we have some immediate and near-term solutions, including a modular office building that's planned to address some of those workspace needs.