The City Council will be meeting virtually again this Wednesday. We are receiving the FY2023 – FY2027 Capital Improvement Plan; a public hearing on the CIP will be held on February 23. The CIP is a planning document used by City staff and departments to develop budget and project proposals. Each year, a new CIP is approved by the Council, building on previous versions.
There are items on this week's docket related to the funding for the construction of the addition to Pell Elementary and the new Rogers High School. They get into a technical aspect of municipal finance and municipal bonds, called a bond premium. When a municipality issues a bond, the bond premium is an amount above the original bond value that the bonding agent pays the municipality – effectively a share of the profit from the bond sale.
The School Building Committee is asking the Council to grant them access to the additional income from the bond premium to cover some of the costs for the design and construction of the new high school that have been driven up by inflation. There has been significant construction cost inflation directly related to COVID, which has caused the cost of the new high school's original scope to exceed the bond amount. This has led to several items such as automotive technology, athletic fields, and more being set aside as "add alternates" until additional funding can be secured. Using the bond premium to fund these items would allow us to maximize Newport's investment in a high quality high school.
The City has been working to improve the safety of Hillside Avenue and this week's docket includes a request to approve the receipt of a $230,000 grant for some of that work. This grant is federally funded and a part of the Safe Routes to School program. It will fund traffic calming measures on the entire length of Hillside Ave, including the construction of a sidewalk from Bedlow Ave to Admiral Kalbfus Rd. These improvements will make this area of Newport safer for all pedestrians, especially our students.