As the Carroll City Council works to develop their Fiscal Year 2017 budget and reviews their main guiding document, the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP), Mayor Eric Jensen brought up the question if anything was going to be proposed on the Main Street section of the Carroll trails system. Parks and Recs Director, Jack Wardell, told the council that he sees the best option would also be the easiest to implement in that section of town.
Council member Carolyn Siemann raised questions about the overall trails project. She said it has been pushed back a year on the CIP and asked Wardell if funding followed suite. Wardell said the $240,000 in funding from Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) and Hotel/Motel tax had been shifted and is reflected in FY2017 beginning July 1. Siemann added that Shive-Hattery created a plan in 2006 that was updated in 2007, then the Safe Route to School portion was done in 2011, but nothing has been done since.
It is important, she said, to move forward with making improvements that are wanted by current and prospective residents.
Siemann also questioned whether the trails would be bid per section or as a whole. Wardell said, ideally, lower bids would be made on letting the entire project at once, which Siemann said would put it over the $700,000 threshold that would require a citizen vote. As far as Siemann is concerned, the council is long-overdue in committing to moving forward with the money already allocated for the project. If there are hurdles to acquiring land in the northeast section, she said, start in a different area.
She suggested prioritizing to connect parks and schools to the trail system as there is more than one option available to accomplish that goal.
