Fairview 2022-23 budget: 'Substantial improvements' in roads, public safety projected
The Fairview $12.39 million budget for fiscal year 2022-2023 was recently approved by the city’s board of commissioners with the city manager stating the spending plan includes the biggest community reinvestment in Fairview’s history.
Last year, Fairview City Manager Scott Collins said the city would spend about $425,000 annually over at least 20 years on various projects including work on bridges, parks and public safety.
The capital projects will continue this year with work on Chester Road, Northwest Highway, and several bridge replacements, Collins said.
Collins has previously said nearly 34 miles of city streets need to be resurfaced at a cost of about $7.6 million. If Fairview didn’t accelerate the process, it would take 33 years “to resurface the existing streets we have today," Collins said.
“With the completion of our capital projects bond issue in December the 2023 budget includes the largest commitment to community reinvestment in the city’s history,” Collins said. “We will see substantial improvements in roads and public safety this year.”
The public safety projects this year will include a new police firing range and a new fire department training tower.
“Police firing ranges are part of training, just like the fire department does some of their fire training,” said Collins last year. “Not only is this important regionally, but I would reiterate to everyone that in the last four years, our police department has been involved in two fatal shootings."
“We borrow an off-site location for firearms training, and we have experienced the worst possible outcomes,” Collins added. “The inability to train on our own property, on our own time, really hurts some of the work that we do.”
The budget was approved at the board of commissioners June 2 regular monthly meeting.
Collins said the city’s American Recovery Plan funding will allow Fairview to “move ahead with some substantial planning and infrastructure improvements related to stormwater.”
“Through patience and commitment the financial plan we put into place in 2018 has worked,” Collins said. “We look forward to a very progressive 2023 budget year.”
Of note is the over $3 million budgeted for public works as compared to the $1.1 million spent last year.
Related: Fairview traffic: Study analyzes road, land use; plate reader cameras considered
Department budget estimates
The following are the estimated operating budgets for Fairview departments and projects during the 2022-2023 fiscal year:
Public Works - $3.02 million
Administration - $2.04 million
Engineering - $1.01 million
Police - $2.54 million
Fire - $1.78 million
Parks - $518,810
Related: Fairview 21-22 budget: $500K tax hike from TN reappraisal is for projects, manager says
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Fairview 22-23 budget: Substantial upgrades in roads, safety projected
