POUGHKEEPSIE – The City of Poughkeepsie needs a long list of capital
improvement projects, mostly involving infrastructure, and some equipment
replacement. It won’t come cheap.
Just the first year of the 2017-2021 Capital Plan, if all is done, could
cost $41 million. Acting Finance Commissioner William Brady said the city’s
responsibility would be $27 million, which would either be put in the
budget, or bonded, or both.
Mayor Robert Rolison all at this point is tentative.
“It is just a plan,” Rolison said. “All those numbers
are just numbers that were put together in priority order by the Capital
Plan Committee. That any of those expenditures for those infrastructure
and capital cost have to come back to the council for approval.”
That would begin to happen next spring.
Acting City Administrator Ronald Knapp detail several of the top priorities.
Among them, $50,000 for an electrical panel repair in a DPW building.
“Right now, we can’t access the building where the electrical
components for DPW are stored because the building is unsafe,” Knapp
said, noting that Central Hudson refuses to go into the building.
One of the more critical projects is the deteriorating water main along
Market Street.
“It’s very vulnerable,” said Assistant Civil Engineer
Joe Chinier.
“We need to do this work to increase the reliability of the system.
That main goes down, it feeds a good portion of the south side.”
The long list doesn’t stop there. Two fire trucks need replacing
or very costly repairs. The city’s two swimming pools also need
costly repairs. Delaying would only further escalate the cost.
A public hearing on the capital plan is scheduled for 6 p.m., prior to
the regular council meeting next Monday night, August 29.
Despite approving the hearing, some council members said they would need
much more information and detail before being able to vote on it.
