Photo by Kevin M. Cox
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Cramped and deteriorating conditions are seen at the Friendswood Animal Shelter on Wednesday. The city had planned to use funds from certificates of obligation to build a new animal shelter but now will have to seek alternate funding.
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City looks for new way to finance its projects
By Rhiannon Meyers
The Daily News
Published July 23, 2009
FRIENDSWOOD — The city will have to rethink how to pay for $11 million of projects it planned to finance with certificates of obligation after a judge struck down the plan.
The city had planned to issue certificates of obligation — debt without voter approval — to pay for street repairs, drainage improvements, sports park expansions, an animal shelter and a records building. But a 1997 city charter amendment prohibits the city from issuing without voter approval debt it can’t finance from existing revenue streams, except in cases of “emergency or public need.”
The judge’s decision to strike down the city’s plan left employees disappointed and wondering what would happen to the projects the city promised.
“I think it’s sad,” senior animal control officer Craig Baker said.
A new animal shelter is sorely needed as the city grows, Baker said.
The shelter, 1322 Deepwood, is almost 30 years old, small and crowded.
At least a dozen cats sit in cages in a room the size of a closet. Several kennels contain more than one dog. Because the shelter is so small, animal control officers are forced to put sick animals that should be quarantined in rooms with healthy cats and dogs, Baker said. Officers sometimes have to euthanize animals when the crowding gets too bad, but Baker did not have information on the number of animals the city has to euthanize per week.
There’s no storage in the shelter; food bowls are stacked in rows along the sink. White paint peels from the floors and walls, the ceiling tiles have fallen in, the doors are cracked and the building floods, Baker said.
He said he was keeping his fingers crossed that city leaders would find another way to afford a new animal shelter, estimated at $1 million.
Melinda Welsh, deputy city secretary, said she’s hoping the city finds money for a new records storage center, estimated at $500,000.
Since the city demolished its records annex, along with the old city hall, more than a year ago, it has been storing 500 boxes of records at privately owned storage facility.
The city pays an annual fee to store official city records there alongside people’s personal belongings. City employees who need to access the records must drive to the facility five minutes away, run an extension cord from the exterior wall to the unit to light the room and dig through boxes stacked two deep and 10 feet high.
The city needs a bigger facility, especially now that city police are expecting to need to move records out of the department, Welsh said.
The city council is expected to discuss in the coming weeks how to pay for the projects.
Councilman Jim Hill said Monday that, although he hadn’t initially planned on supporting a tax increase, he now may consider raising taxes to make necessary repairs the city can’t pay for with certificates of obligation. Councilman Jim Barr said the city may need to float a bond election and ask Friendswood residents to vote on the projects.
Friendswood voters in May struck down the city’s proposed $9.6 million bond referendum, which would have funded unspecified parks improvements, the construction of a new library and the conversion of the existing library into a community center. The projects the city planned to finance with certificates of obligation were not included in the failed May bond election.
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Costs
Street improvements: $6 million
Sports park expansions: $2.5 million
New animal control facility: $1 million
Records retention center: $500,000
SOURCE: Friendswood
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