Jefferson County Council Approves Five-Year Capital and Strategic Plan

The Jefferson County Council recently approved the county’s Five-Year Capital and Strategic Plan, an outline of infrastructure needs. Some items which will be considered in the county’s upcoming budget negotiations.

The five-year plan contains information on the capital projects described in previous five-year plans adopted by the county in 2009 and 2010 and sets priorities on three capital building projects being considered by the county council.

The projects include:

• A new county animal control facility to replace the county’s current shelter at 7015 Shelter Rd. in Barnhart
• A new fleet services garage to replace the county’s current fleet services facility at 355 Elm St. in Hillsboro
• A new emergency operations center to replace the county’s current emergency management offices and emergency operations center in the basement of the county courthouse in Hillsboro

The five-year plan includes various financing options for each of the projects.

County Executive Ken Waller said the projects will be considered in the county’s 2012 budget hearings, which are scheduled to begin in September.

“These are just needs that we have when we have the money to take care of them,” Waller said. “It (the five-year plan) is really just getting it out there and letting the people know the capital improvement needs that we have and need to get done. As we financially can do things, we’ll start looking at these things and getting them done.“

One of the more pressing needs, Waller said, is a new animal shelter to replace the outdated facility on Shelter Road.

"We’re going to have to take a look at the budget for 2012 and see if there is any wiggle room there that we can work on," Waller said. “We’ve been getting by on what we have for a long time. It is obviously very important to get a new facility built. It’s very outdated, but you’ve got to have money to do these things. It’s a tight budget here, like it is everywhere else, you just do what you can do.”

The five-year plan also describes other capital and non-capital projects prioritized by various county departments, including:

• Jefferson County Jail 
• Temperature control system Jefferson County Courthouse 
• Windows replacement Parks and Recreation  
• Building a concession stand, playground, maintenance building, asphalt overlay and installing lights for the fields at the Northwest Sports Complex 
• Development of River Bend Soccer Park off River Bend Road 

“We would love to have more updated park facilities, because I believe we have some of the nicest parks and land in the state, but you need to have the money to do those things you want to do,” Waller said.

“It would be nice if we could update our parks situation, but we’ll only be able to do that as the funds are available.

“It’s going to be a tough year from a budget perspective,” Waller said. “It’s not going to be an easy decision for anybody to take the money we do have and divide it up.”