Akron Mayor Shammas Malik introduced his proposed capital budget Monday.
The $368 million budget includes investments in the city's community centers, resurfacing 48 miles of road, funding to demolish commercial buildings, matching funds for the city's polymer cluster and replacing 1,700 active lead service lines.
The budget is funded by state, federal, private, local and regional sources.
The grand total of allocations for transportation, parks, public facilities, housing and economic development comes to $149 million. The city's sewer and water divisions are self funded by customers and those costs come to $218 million.
Addressing housing and homelessness
Housing and community services was the top priority for residents who attended presentations on the capital budget at ward meetings across the city last year. This feedback caused the city to increase the demolition budget to include a structure in East Akron. Yet, housing and community services receives the smallest allocation of the budget - just 2% or roughly $9.5 million. The vast majority of funding for housing comes from the federal government.
"We're kind of waiting to see how the budget process in Washington is going to play out this year," Director of Planning Kyle Julien said in a meeting with reporters Friday.
Included in this year's budget is more than $1 million to construct 163 new affordable housing units and rehabilitate 101 existing affordable housing units. $400,000 is set aside for minor home repairs for low income seniors and homeowners with disabilities, and more than $200,00 would go toward low income single family rooftop solar installation. Additionally, more than $500,000 is earmarked for supporting the city's homeless shelters.
The budget also tackles lead-based paint, kicking off the first year of a four year program which will address 250 housing units in the city.
As homelessness continues to be a growing problem in the city, officials will be looking this year to see if federal funding for housing is enough, Malik said.
"Should it be entirely federally funded," he said, "or should we try to start funding that with more local or state funds?"
Investing in the community
New to the budget this year is funding for four gaming or esports rooms in the city's community centers.
"We do want to make sure we have improvements and improvements particularly geared at safe exciting spaces for our youth, right?," Malik said. "It's relatively low cost when you look at $25,000 per project."
Parks and recreation was another top priority for residents, but city officials said it's tough to fund these projects solely through local funding, as there often aren't state or federal grant options to apply for.
Still the budget allocates nearly $13.5 million to parks and recreation projects, such as finishing the Reservoir Park Community Center and Pool renovation, funding for the Akron Parks Challenge, new play equipment at Davenport Park, a new splash pad at Elizabeth Park and a new pickleball court at Firestone Park.
Continuing road repairs
Transportation came in as the second top priority for residents, and the mayor's office wants to put more than $50 million toward road resurfacing and other traffic related projects.
The city's annual resurfacing program is allocated $5.75 million to cover approximately 34 new miles of road and 14 miles of carryover road from previous years. Additionally, more than $2 million is earmarked for the city's concrete pavement rehabilitation program. An additional $2.2 million is put toward the city's sidewalk program.
Malik said he would love to OK the funding to repave all the problem spots in the city, but that it is fiscally responsible to wait and counter local funding for road repairs with other grants.
"We just simply don't have that money and so you wait two, three years and see if you can get state funding to match it," he said. "It's not that there are projects that we're not going to do at all. It's projects that like we can't afford to do them solely by ourself."
New police headquarters?
Although the city is still considering if it wants to rehab the current home of the police department or move, money is set aside in the budget for repairs to the Harold K. Stubbs Justice Center, including nearly $2 million for a continuing elevator modernization project and a quarter of a million dollars for workspace improvement, including replacing the building's hydronic riser, or heating system.
"We're not putting more money in it then we need to," Malik said, but we are putting money in it that will allow it to function."
Malik hopes to have a decision on the future of the headquarters in the first half of this year, he said.
Other public safety line items include equipment replacement, fire facility improvement projects, fire vehicle refurbishments, improvements to the Akron Police Department's training facility and APD's body worn cameras contract.
