Oct. 19--City commissioners are asked to approve a three-year capital improvement plan Tuesday night that reflects Bowling Green's shrunken annual budget.

The tentative plan for fiscal 2010 through 2012 -- city fiscal years start July 1, so this is fiscal 2010 -- totals $58.4 million, but the vast bulk of that is debt service on old projects. Debt payments total $39.3 million over three years.

The remaining $19.1 million is split between all city departments, with the largest chunk of $7.7 million going to Public Works.

A long list of proposed projects was cut back, according to a memo from Assistant City Manager Katie Schaller.

This year's capital improvement plan was approved June 2, but since then an expanded police parking lot and more expensive fence around Pioneer Cemetery have been added, Schaller said.

The most expensive project on the list is $4 million to replace police department radios in fiscal 2012. Next up is $3.3 million for Cave Mill Road/Smallhouse Road realignment in fiscal 2012.

The fire department plans to spend $3 million, with nearly half of that going this year to replace two fire trucks.

Parks & Recreation has a $1.6 million capital budget, with its biggest expenditure being $350,000 to replace golf carts in fiscal 2011 and 2012.

Information Technology seeks to spend $937,800, including $400,000 for computer replacement and MS Office upgrade in fiscal 2011. The city's Sloan Convention Center is slated for $721,000 in work, with kitchen upgrades being the biggest expense at $175,000.

Retirement fund

As they do each year, commissioners are asked to contribute enough to keep a closed retirement fund for police and firefighters solvent. This year that will require $410,000, for the system that closed two decades ago when the city's retirement plan joined the state system.

Postal resolution

The city may weigh in for support of workers at the mail processing facility on Scottsville Road. A resolution sponsored by commissioners Bruce Wilkerson and Brian "Slim" Nash asks the U.S. Postal Service to keep mail processing operations here instead of moving them to Nashville. The postal service is studying that move, which could affect 20 to 30 local jobs. Workers say that not only would they be forced to move or lose their jobs, but that local mail delivery would be slowed down. The postal service denies that mail would move any more slowly.

-----

To see more of the Bowling Green Daily News, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.bgdailynews.com.

Copyright (c) 2009, The Daily News, Bowling Green, Ky.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

A service of YellowBrix, Inc.