By Doug Miller
Eaton sent a memorandum to the council, dated Oct. 20, offering it three options for replacing the $15 million infrastructure bond that the Republican coalition minority essentially blocked at the council's Oct. 17 meeting.
The original bond proposal would have raised $6 million to rebuild some of the worst streets in the city, including Barnes Street north of Pine Street, the 700 block of West Chester Street, the 600 block of East Penn Street, Connecticut Street south of Beech Street, Armour Street north of Pine, the 700 block of West Penn, the 300 block of West Fulton Street and Harmon Street north of Pine. Residents of each of those blocks packed the meeting, and throughout the public hearing portion they chided the council for its paralysis.
The bond also would have funded improvements to the sewer system throughout the city, the purchase of vehicles for several city departments, and repairs to the West End firehouse and the bulkheads on Reynolds Channel throughout the city.
In addition, it would have funded a new $2 million sewer lift station. The existing station in the West End, Eaton said, stopped working to its capacity about five years ago.
Eaton has proposed three compromises as alternatives.
Plan A calls for the borrowing of $5.175 million and the reconstruction of the 700 block of West Penn, Barnes and Armour streets, repairs to the firehouse and the purchase of vehicles. In his memo, Eaton wrote, "This approach is limited in scope and, quite obviously, does not address other subject areas included in the original bond issue."
Under Plan B, just enough money would be borrowed to get each of the projects in the original proposal off the ground, pending further borrowing at some point down the road. A bond of $3.825 million would be issued to rebuild West Penn, Barnes and Armour streets and complete engineering research on the 600 block of East Penn, the 700 block of West Chester and the southern portions of Connecticut and Harmon. There would also be preliminary engineering of the firehouse rehabilitation, three lift stations, improvements to the recreation center and bulkhead replacement. An additional $750,000 would be earmarked for new vehicles.
"This approach addresses all the subject areas included in the original proposal and in this respect is wide-ranging in scope and geography," Eaton wrote. "One negative is the substantial sums being spent on engineering. Will these projects come to fruition? Is this Council truly committed to bring them to their logical conclusion? If not, are we giving the public false hope? History does not acquit us well in this area..."
Plan C would authorize the borrowing of $5.225 million for engineering and reconstruction of all the previously mentioned roads and $750,000 for vehicles. Eaton seemed to dismiss this plan because of its relatively narrow focus, though he did call it "extremely visible."
Any borrowing plan requires four council votes to pass, and coalition Councilman Jim Hennessy said he and his ally Tom Sofield would not support any plan that gives the Democratic administration a "blank check."
Hennessy added that he didn't believe the public should be saddled with that much debt when it had just been hit with a 25 percent increase in property taxes.
Hennessy said he liked option B, calling it the logical next step for the city, since it would give the council an opportunity to weigh in on the progress of the work before approving any more borrowing.
Plan B also raises the possibility that the next round of borrowing would not take place until after the next council election in November 2007, which would in essence give the public a referendum on the repairs' progress.
"I just want to make sure my fourth vote acts as a check and a balance," Hennessy said. "If I said yes to the $15 million, they would have never had to come back to me again."
The council's Democratic vice president, Rob Tepper, meanwhile, said he remained a strong backer of the original plan, adding that, if anything, it didn't go far enough. "Fifteen million was a good start," Tepper said. "As long as there is long-range planning, which there was, we need to make these repairs. We need to protect the city's infrastructure."
Hennessy met with Democratic Council President Leonard Remo, Democrat Denise Tangney and Eaton Tuesday night for further negotiations. Remo and Hennessy described the meeting as "positive."
"We're looking at a program that is an expansion of a couple of our options," Remo said Wednesday morning. "I believe we are close to a compromise that can make all members of the council comfortable, although maybe not all at once."
Comments about this story? DMiller@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 213.
