The Richardson City Council covered the following items at its June 2, 2008 work session. We may cover one or more of these items in greater detail in an upcoming story.

Dallas and Collin County Preliminary Taxing values estimated to be up 1.9%

According to preliminary reports from the Dallas County Central Appraisal District and the Collin County appraisal district, Richardson’s property tax value is estimated to rise 1.9% as compared to the pervious year.

This estimation come from projections past on past protest data and the current estimations from each County. After protests, and tax roll finalization, the final tax roll numbers should be available around the end of July.

Eastside Grant to be restructured.

During the planning of the Eastside project at US-75 and Campbell road the city (along with the North Central Texas Council of Governments and the developers) had planned to use federal dollars under certain air quality grants available through the federal government.

These grants were to apply to pedestrian districts that improve air quality. This will result in a $2.16 million shortfall in the project budget for part of the pedestrian amenities.

In order to overcome this shortfall, NCTCOG will add $400,000 to its sustainability grant, NCTCOG will reactivate its Duck Creek Trail extension grant form 1.7 to 2.9 million and the city will pay the additional 1.8 million.

This 1.8 million will come from the City of Richardson. About $735,000 of that will come from 3 payments from the City of Richardson. The remaining $1.1 million will come from transferring the old Wicke’s property at the corner of Grove and Arapaho to Fobare.

A comment in the City Council’s briefing from this states, “In essence, we are providing a grant of $1.835 million ‘today’ to gain a grant of $1.68 to $2.88 million for ‘tomorrow’ and avoiding this funding impact in the next GO Bend program.”

Senior Property Tax Exemption Review

The Council reviewed the impact of the Senior and Disabled Tax Exemption on city property taxes. The City is very likely going to raise this exemption from its current level of $50,000 to $55,000.

This is estimated at 30.76% of the value of property accounts held by qualifying seniors. The city estimates that seniors hold 22.4% of its residential property tax accounts.

Shiloh Pump Station Landscaping

The City of Richardson and the North Texas Municipal Water District will fund a landscaping project at the water pump station at Shiloh and the George Bush Turnpike. Currently the station front is not landscaped and presents a poor image of the City.

Richardson will pay $248,000 and NTMWD will pay $58,400 of the cost. Bids will be put out in June for construction beginning in August and it should be completed in December

Capital Improvement Status Report

The city staff gave the council a progress report on the capital improvement program. The Capital Improvement Program (or CIP) is the completion of the projects promised under the 1997 Bond election. These projects include many targeted street, alley and sidewalk repair. Park upgrades such as ADA compliance and construction of new baseball fields. Also included were drainage, traffic, and intersection improvements. Fire station #2 and #3 improvements are included in the program also.

According to the city, the projects have taken time to complete because the Bonds were not sold during the economic downturn of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Fulfilling the project and the ability to pay back bonds was dependent on economic growth, which was hampered by the downturn.

According to the documents provided by the staff most of the projects will be completed by 2009.

Special attention was given to baseball field construction at Huffines and Breckenridge Parks. Apparently bids for the construction came in higher than was expected. Even with a revised $5.5 million budget (which was up from $4.9 million and up from the original bond funding of $3.5 million) the bids came in at $7.6 million and were, in fact, error ridden.

The City Parks department has proposed that the city act as a general contractor for parts of the project in order to lower the cost.

Cliff Goff, a consultant who is helping the city through the general contracting of the project, stated that the profit margin and estimates of the bids were “exorbitant” and that he was “blown away” by their cost. He stated that the general contractors were trying to charge margins that were excessive and above average.

He cited an example of grass seed used on baseball fields normally costing 9 to 11 cents per square foot but general contractor bids coming in at over 26 cents per square foot.

Mayor Steve Mitchell asked if the staff thought they could really lower the cost by acting as the general contractor. Roger Scott from the Richardson Parks department stated he was confident that they could and stated that the staff could control various aspects of cost more closely.

The council is expected to vote on this next week. Bidding should be awarded in August with an expected opening in September of 2009.