LAYTON -- A nearly $2 million culinary water tank highlights capital projects in the 2000-01 fiscal year budget for the city.
City Manager Alex Jensen said that, unlike recent years, road projects are not the major items in the new budget. In fact, the only major road project in the new budget is reconstruction of Gordon Avenue, from Main Street west to the Union Pacific Railroad tracks. The project will cost some $350,000 and remove all the road's old asphalt.However, both the reconstruction of portions of Fort Lane and Fairfield are going to be done this spring and summer with current funds.
The water tank will be in the foothills of the northeast corner of the city and is needed to keep pace with new subdivisions in that area. Jensen said only about half of the $2 million cost of the tank is coming from the new budget, as the balance was allocated in the current budget.
The new budget also includes $800,000 to extend a new waterline from the new Clearfield culinary water reservoir toward west Layton. This is only the first of two stages of piping to get the water to the 2200 West Gordon area, and this stage will only take the water from Clearfield to Antelope Drive.
Jensen said it would be one more budget year before stage two of that project is under way and new water actually reaches west Layton about July 2001.
Still another $250,000 in the new budget will go toward a pump house for the new culinary water well the city drilled last year near Antelope Drive and Fort Lane on the city shop's property. A pump house is needed there to get the water going and increase pressure.
A new sewer line costing $350,000 will be installed along Kays Creek Drive parallel to the existing sewer line there and funded from the new budget. Flooding in this area when it rained in 1999 apparently came from the sewer line, and Jensen said the new line should alleviate future such flooding. "We're also getting close to sewer capacity in the area," he added.
The new budget also includes $300,000 for a new fire truck and $69,000 for new laptop computers in police vehicles.
Layton will spend $25,000 for a reverse 911 telephone system, so city officials can quickly and easily contact certain neighborhoods in the city in the event of a disaster. Jensen said a single city recorded message can be relayed quickly by telephone to numerous homes with this new system.
Another $350,000 in the new budget will go toward final development of the new park on the city's north side in the Sheep Killer Draw area. That 7-acre park is in the center of an area bounded by Gordon, Fort Lane, Hill Field and Antelope roads. Jensen said this still-unnamed park will include tennis, volleyball and baseball facilities, along with a bowery.
He said the city allocated $300,000 in the current budget for the park and expects the $650,000 will completely develop the park, which primarily will serve Heritage Fields and some Perry homes in the area. However, Jensen stressed that lighted baseball fields are not a component of the new park, since they tend to disturb existing neighborhoods.
Still another $250,000 in the new budget will revamp the offices and mechanical aspects of the Surf 'n' Swim facility, just north of City Hall. Fans, compressors and wave producers for the swimming facility will be replaced.
The new fiscal year general fund budget is some $18 million, up $1.2 million over the current year.
You can reach Lynn Arave by e-mail at lynn@desnews.com