Deana Stroisch
The State Journal-Register
Sep 24, 2013
Mayor Mike Houston’s administration is recommending the city spend $2 million to fix Springfield’s worst alleys and drainage problems this fall and winter.
Ward 7 Ald. Joe McMenamin wants to cut that spending in half. At Tuesday’s Springfield City Council committee meeting, McMenamin asked the city’s top attorney to reduce the request by $1 million and also draft an ordinance that would allocate an extra $1 million toward payment of police and fire pensions.
“We have to address both our infrastructure and our pension problems,” he said. “We can’t do one to the exclusion of the other.”
The planned work includes $1.2 million worth of construction and engineering expenses for drainage projects and $300,000 to repave the city’s worst alleys. Another $500,000 worth of infrastructure improvements is already underway, said public works director Mark Mahoney.
The easiest way to reduce to the cost of the planned work, as suggested by McMenamin, is to eliminate the drainage projects, Mahoney said. The $2 million would come from the city’s infrastructure fund, which is funded through a portion of both the city’s sales tax and hotel-motel tax.
The proposal was put on the consent agenda for final approval next week. McMenamin said he will continue to push for additional money to be spent on police and fire pensions.
***In the interest of space this article has been edited from the original.
Joe McMenamin for Ward 7 