By Per Peterson
The Tracy City Council on Monday got a five-year estimated price tag on the proposed City’s Capital Improvement Plan wish list.
While preliminary in nature, the City estimates that the cost of eight targeted CIP items totals $903,850 between 2022-2026.
“We’ve got a lot more refining to do in the budget,” Tracy City Administrator Erik Hansen said. “We want to be cognizant of the fact that these are times where costs and prices are going up for everybody, and we recognize that has an impact on people’s budgets and their ability to pay their taxes. I also want to point out that the City faces the same pressures in terms of the cost of fuel and our mandatory increases because of our union contract on some of our employment costs.”
The No. 1 project on the City staff and council list is turnout gear for the fire department — generally purchased every year because of its short shelf life — which would run $14,000 per year for the next five years. The next item — the staff’s second priority and the council’s third priority is a police cruiser ($70,000).
“We had already delayed a police car a year — we were scheduled to buy one in 2021, and we delayed it to 2022,” Hansen said.
The next item on the priority list for City staff and the council is Cat loader/Terex combination ($140,000) for snow removal on City streets. The City is currently using a piece of equipment that is 50 years old.
Next up is replacing the liners at the aquatic center at a cost of $359,100 — that isn’t slated to happen until next year. Hansen said the City is looking into a grant to help pay for that. Hansen said upgrading handicap accessibility in the pool could be worked into that plan.
“We’re trying to figure out how we can reduce that cost, because $350,000 is a lot of money,” said Hansen. “But it was a priority for both (the council) and the staff so it’s on the list.”
That item is followed on the priority list by air bags for the fire department ($15,000); a new dump truck ($100,000), which will be pushed off until 2025; Central Park improvements ($40,000); and books at the library ($7,500 per year for the next five years).
See this week’s Headlight Herald for more on this article.