Proposed Right-of-Way Fund
There is something happening in City Council meetings that may directly affect you and your neighborhood.
In April 2019 a plan was presented to Council to fund the regular maintenance and improvements of Belle Isle’s roads and right-of-ways. This plan would place a franchise fee on electrical accounts and create a separate fund to be used to cover costs for regular maintenance of our streets and sidewalks. Eventually, this fund would also be used for other improvements such as putting power lines underground and installing new sidewalks where currently there are none. Franchise fees on electricity would provide the money for this fund. Franchise fees are a way of charging companies like Duke Energy for their use of our right-of-ways. (Of course, the charge is passed on to customers by the power company but for most residential customers, the cost is minimal.) In April 2019, the council appeared to agree to follow the example of virtually all other Florida cities and begin to charge electric franchise fees, starting at a 6% rate. This translates to an extra charge of $6 on a power bill of $100. The city budget for 2019-2020 was developed using the franchise fees and Right-of-Way Fund to pay for street and sidewalk improvements beginning with this budget year.
This new Right-of-Way Fund represents a major breakthrough for Belle Isle. In the past, the city has either built a reserve fund for emergencies, or performed routine maintenance on streets, but never did both at once. As most residents know, our city has not kept up well with street maintenance over the years (at times issuing bonds or dipping into reserves to pay for this routine maintenance) and we need to do much better. At this time we are still planning to resurface streets that have not been touched in well over 30 years. Those streets are to be done using the revenues in the new Right-of-Way Fund. The new revenues can also allow the city to continue the maintenance of sidewalks. The new fund would be a dedicated resource to put all of our streets in good condition and then to institute a maintenance schedule that would keep them in good condition. And last but not least, new projects like putting power lines underground and new sidewalks where we have none could be funded.
Recently a few vocal citizens have been objecting to the franchise fees, and they have gained support from some council members and other residents. The problem as I see it is: if this new revenue source is not put in place, then there is no money in the budget to pay for those streets that are scheduled to be paved this year. Some say that now we have the FEMA money, so we have plenty of money to do everything. Except that we don’t. The Council already agreed to use FEMA money to replace the reserve funds that were used in the Hurricane Irma clean-up. The FEMA money designated for the drainage improvements at Gene Polk Park cannot be used for anything else. I believe that the Council was right to pledge FEMA reimbursement to replace our reserve funds. As difficult as it was to build our reserve, we need to keep it for actual emergencies. It should not be depleted for anything else.
The following is a list of streets that are scheduled to be milled and resurfaced in 2020:
Nevada, Swann, Idaho, Lake (from Swann to Perkins),
Part of Gondola, Gibson, Cay, Stockbridge, and Delia
The people who live on these streets already paid their fair share to have others’ streets repaired. Now it is their turn to have smooth resurfaced streets in their neighborhoods. It is only fair that we all contribute to having these streets resurfaced as well. The Right-of-Way Fund will make sure that there will always be money available to maintain our streets and right-of-ways in good condition without taking money from reserves or taking on long-term debt.
