County approves Capital Improvement Plan for next five years

Cost exceeds $36 million

With the design and construction of the jail and public works facility now squarely in the public eye, the county’s capital improvement plan for the next five years looks a lot less glamorous by comparison. But the projects, and the sums of money, outlined in the ever-evolving plan suggest that the building will continue.

For almost a decade, the county has been using the capital improvement plan [CIP] to track the kinds of improvements or purchases needed to keep the government and public running smoothly and fulfill its obligations to public safety and road maintenance.
The head of each county department submits ideas for the CIP and projects are chosen and then ranked based on a point system. Projects are given more weight if they affect a maximum number of citizens, if they offer the biggest value or return on an investment or if the project would improve an existing service.
The points each project has are then amplified if it is required by law or contract, if it provides public safety or if it relates to one of the commissioners’ strategic priorities, like improving energy efficiency. The theory is that the most important project gets noticed first.
According to the plan, “The process is designed to organize and present requests in such a manner that management and the commissioners have the information essential to effective decision-making… A difference of a few points between total scores of projects is not significant in determining priority.”
And the plan wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the county’s two biggest priorities right now: the public works facility and the detention center.
Both projects have been working their way through the planning process. The construction is set to start this fall. Those projects could cost the county more than $20 million over the next 30 years and will be followed in the CIP through their completion next year.
The detention center will be built over the next two years, starting this September, at a cost of $11.7 million. Financing for the two projects will be bundled into one package, but the cost of the jail will be higher than the public works facility. It will take more than $722,000 a year to pay back the cost of financing the county’s $10.2 million share of the project.
The public works project is going to cost nearly $6.5 million, with the Federal Aviation Administration chipping in $1 million of that. The state will add another $500,000 and the county will make up the rest, with financing made up of Build America Bonds and Certificates of Participation.
The county plans to use money from sales tax dedicated to capital expenditures to pay just over $400,000 a year to pay back the financing.
And even though it’s been largely off the radar, the Gunnison-Crested Butte Regional Airport will see more improvements than any other arm of the county government, with eight projects totaling more than $8.35 million over the next five years. But it’s where the county spends less than $200,000, thanks to the financial involvement of the FAA, which is pitching in $7.35 million for the improvements.
The Department of Public Works is getting another boost in the CIP, which is calling for the county to spread $2.25 million in vehicle and equipment purchases over the next five years, costing about $450,000 a year.
Even though that kind of purchase hasn’t traditionally been included in the CIP, the increased costs of utilities, gas and diesel fuel has pushed the reserve down that would have funded the purchases.
And director of Public Works Marlene Crosby says without dedicated funds, the tendency has been for the purchase of vehicles to be pushed off until something big breaks, costing the county over the long-term.
“Experience has taught us that if heavy equipment (graders, loaders, backhoes, dozers) are not replaced in a timely manner the result is overhaul/replacement of a major component. Many of our dump trucks, which are used for summer maintenance and winter plowing, are 15-plus years old,” she wrote in the plan, adding, “The light duty vehicles in our fleet need to be replaced by more fuel-efficient vehicles. New equipment results in reduced maintenance costs for all departments using equipment.”
The county is also pitching in $125,000 to pay for the construction of a $250,000 county-wide animal shelter that is slated to be built next year at the Gold Basin Industrial Park.
The 23 projects in the CIP are slated to cost nearly $36 million in total, including the money that has been paid to get those projects to where they are to date and the cost of maintaining them into the future. And a lot of that money isn’t coming from the county budget.
While the county has a 1 percent sales tax dedicated to capital expenditures, most of the money for the capital improvements will come from other sources, like grants from the state or entitlement money from the FAA.