City faces growing infrastructure deficit
Posted Jun 14, 2011 9:02 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The city has a growing deficit when it comes to funding infrastructure projects and Alderman Shane Keating feels it’s time to do something about it.
Keating has asked for a list of city-owned properties that need repairs or maintenance to determine what immediate fixes can be done.
He tells 660News, they have to first address what the issues are, then evaluate whether we need all the infrastructure we have.
Keating says he wants to know if the situation is simply that some projects have been ignored and now they have to play catch-up or is it a case of looking at what infrastructure is and isn’t needed.
Alderman Dale Hodges says it may come down to a simple matter allocating more funding or shutting the infrastructure down.
Over the next decade the city will require an additional investment of $7.4 billion to finance infrastructure maintenance, growth and operating needs.
The main reason for the increase is the addition of assets being built and acquired from developers, cost increases and a wider range of services offered by the city.
The city faces liabilities if the infrastructure is not maintained as the owner and operator of public infrastructure.
Keating wants the matter considered when the city begins debating its next three-year budget cycle.
