By Mindy Ragan Wood
News Editor
Piedmont City Council approved up to $1 million to fix Piedmont Road north of Edmond Road ahead of a proposed road bond during its regular meeting last week.
For weeks a council-sanctioned road bond task force committee has been hashing out which roads should be fixed based on their condition, location and how many homes, or potential voters, are on those streets.
Chairman of the bond committee Ron Cardwell told the Piedmont Gazette they did not want to add Piedmont Road to its list so the committee could include other thoroughfares in town.
While the committee celebrated the council’s decision to tackle Piedmont Road, some city council members were hesitant to use reserve funds.
Crawford & Associates, the city’s CPA, informed the council of the possible outcomes from using rainy day funds to pay for improvements. Frank Crawford praised the city’s financial position thanks in part due to approximately 35 percent of its projected income held in reserve.
His “what if scenario” was at first positive.
“Your fiscal year ‘19 performance was very good from a financial capability standpoint,” Crawford said. He concluded the city’s overall financial score would not “really change a whole lot” if it spent $1 million in reserve funds. He added that road projects are considered an asset, which does not detract from the city’s overall financial health predictions.
Councilman John Brown asked Crawford if his report included the funds already taken out of reserve for unexpected improvements to the city.
“We carried over $600,000 from this year’s budget in reserve funds at the start of the year, from reserve to use to balance the budget for this year,” Brown said. “So, we’re already $600,000 down. In addition to that, if you do an encumbrance report, so far approximately $400,000 we have spent on projects that were not in the budget that we’ve already spent money for. So, we’re already a million dollars into the reserves for this year.”
Crawford said his report did not include expenses from the first five months of the fiscal year which began July 1, 2019.
“My hypothetical would have nothing to do with what’s happened in fiscal year 19/20,” Crawford admitted. “It’s really just a ‘what if’ at June 30, 2019. If you have spent way more than you have collected for this year overall, that’s going to make your score go down.”
Crawford pointed out many cities hold the minimum, 10 percent, in reserve but he did not recommend it.
“The 10 percent reserve is a little low because I’ve seen the 10 percent wiped out by an ice storm, a single disaster,” Crawford.
With the $1 million from reserve for Piedmont Road and an additional $1 million spent this year, reserve funds would hover around 28 percent.
Revenue has climbed in the last three years due to oil and gas development in and around Piedmont, but Councilman Bobby Williamson was not confident the trend would continue.
“I realize looking at the scale this past three years that a lot of that is from the oil and gas activity,” Williamson said. “It’s created a lot of revenue for us, but I’m concerned that’s going to taper down in the next nine months. So., I don’t see that happening in 2020 or 2021. It would be nice if it did.”
Brown agreed the industry had added $300,000 to $400,000 for the city. City Manager Jason Orr said a good portion of the city’s sales tax could be attributed to oil and gas activity. Brown also pointed out the city’s debt is higher than it has been since 1990’s and a high reserve offsets the debt. A tornado and ice storm cost the city “$500,000 each,” Brown said. “I’m not saying we don’t have it. We have money to spend.”
Ultimately the board voted to authorize the city manager to spend up to $1 million to repair one-mile of Piedmont Road, from 206th to 220th. The council hopes to repair a total of five miles over the next five years depending on the cost.
MORE ROAD IMPROVEMENTS
Mayor Kurt Mayabb asked the council to consider hiring an additional public works employee to run a pothole patch truck. The council has eyed a hot patch truck and trailer for months. The hot patch method is superior to cold patch which has left Piedmont streets riddled with patches which settled above road level.
The new patch truck includes a roller and is manufactured by HD Industries. The council voted to approve the purchase with the funds to be taken from reserve funds. The truck is expected to be delivered next April.
