A routine item on the Alexandria City Council consent agenda this week is a reminder that government is not all controversy and calamity.
Council members authorized advertising for bids for constructing a LA. Hwy. 1 South booster station, ground level water storage tank and water main.
Where does it figure to get the $4 million or so to cover the estimated cost?
The answer is simple enough though the process is not — it’s included in the Capital Outlay budget adopted each Spring.
That is a 284-page compendium of how the city intends to use non-operating funds for General Capital undertakings, this year about $3.9 million, to streets, drainage, utility system and other categories spending requiring more. The Hwy. 1 project is one such of the latter.
City employees spend time each year pulling together the outlay plan — adding some, deleting or delaying others, then it goes to the Council for review, massage, etc.
Any citizen accessing the operating and outlay budgets on the city website can determine exactly where the city intends to spend its bucks.
Property and sales taxes contribute some of those dollars, as do bonds secured by tax, revenue dedications, and federal and state loans and grants.
Is your street getting an overlay, that ditch being covered, sidewalk coming? Look it up.