A public hearing is coming up at the Jefferson City Council meeting next week.

The public hearing will be about the plans and specifications, form of contract and cost estimate to resurface East Lincoln Way from Locust Street to the city cemetery. City Administrator Scott Peterson says the project includes an asphalt overlay of the entire road, along with establishing a base underneath the north side of East Lincoln Way where the new curb and gutters were installed, due to there not being a road in that location before. 

Peterson points out this project is together with purchasing two sanitation trucks as part of a previously approved $1.7 million general obligation corporate purpose bond, which was approved at the February 13th city council meeting by a 4-1 vote, with Council member Chad Sloan voting no because he thought resurfacing East Lincoln Way was a waste of money when there are other areas of the city that needed more attention.

Peterson explains how the $1.7 million of new debt would impact the overall tax rate.

“We’re going into this thinking that the tax rate would remain the same because we have a bond that’s rolling off and timing-wise it worked well to undertake a new project and issue some debt for it. But we are finding out that the total tax levy though, as proposed in our upcoming budget will actually be going down a little bit. The current tax rate is at $15.25 (per $1,000 of property valuation) and would be somewhere around $14.88 (per $1,000 of property valuation).” 

Peterson adds the bond would be repaid over ten years. Following the public hearing, if the Council approves the plans and specifications, the bid letting date is scheduled for March 5th and construction would happen over the summer.