Last week, the aldermen faced an interesting decision: Allow the city’s engineering department to borrow an extra $150,000 in bonds for projects on West and Crescent streets that the city’s voters approved overwhelmingly last June, or turn down the money because it exceeded the explicitly approved amounts on the ballot questions.
According to City Engineer Evan Pilachowski, the additional funds would help get the projects – for which the construction bids came back higher than expected – to more logical stopping points. The city attorney explained to the aldermen that it’s legal for the city to borrow the additional funds because the law allows for an additional $75,000 in borrowing above the bonded amount. Since the stimulus bonds the city is applying for carry 50 percent forgiveness, in this instance the city could actually bond for an additional $150,000.
During the deliberation, Treasurer Wendy Wilton also shared that the additional, annual cost to customers would be 76 cents.
Despite the small expense and the fact that this work will still need to be completed at some point down the road, the board voted overwhelmingly to deny Pilachowski’s request.
Alderman William Notte spoke out first.
"Personally, I do not feel comfortable approving this," he said. "Voters approved very specific dollar amounts for very specific projects."
Alderwoman Sharon Davis agreed, saying she was "not comfortable saying the voters are comfortable" with the expense.
Alderman Christopher Robinson took the opposite stance, arguing that here the city stands to get $75,000 in so-called "free money" and that such a situation was exactly why there was a Board of Aldermen, "to be able to act quickly" in such a situation.
Asked his opinion on the aldermen’s decision later in the week, Mayor Christopher Louras characterized them as "literally penny wise and pound foolish."
Of course, lately that response is in keeping with Louras’ general assessment of the board.
EDIT: I changed this entry this afternoon (Monday) after Christopher pointed out to me that he did not, in fact, change his opinion from his original stance, as I originally wrote. Sometimes there are quite a few comments going back and forth that the line of conversation gets a little garbled in my notebook! Sorry about that.
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