FeedsCity officials ponder next step for Main Street
When voters decided the fate of the Main Street bond last week they ensured there would be no construction on the main thoroughfare this year.
What isn’t clear, however, is what happens next.
“Without the bond approval, we don’t have the funding to go ahead with the project,” said Carol Thompson, administrative director of the Belleville Downtown Development Authority (DDA).
The $6.5 million bond would have funded the replacement of the water main along the roadway, paid for the complete reconstruction of the road bed as well as a revamped streetscape that would have brought additional architectural features to the city’s main entrance.
The DDA would have repaid the bond through its annual budget. Since the bond was rejected, the needed work would become a city project, according to Thompson, since the work still needs to be done.
“It would be up to the council to come up with an alternative source of funding,” she said.
Mayor Richard Smith said that would be a difficult issue to tackle.
“The city does not have the funding to repave Main Street,” she said. “The only way we could do it is through a Special Assessment District (SAD).”
Special Assessment Districts are allowed through the city charter.
In them, the city essentially fronts the money for the project—most likely by selling bonds to pay for the work—which is then recouped through additions to the tax rolls of the impacted properties. Smith said it would be up to the DDA board members to determine the next step in the project. Since construction couldn’t take place until next spring, there doesn’t have to be an immediate decision, he said.
“We have time to reflect on the issue and determine what to do,” he said.
Thompson said she wasn’t sure why voters rejected the proposal by a 624-314 vote margin last week.
“There were a variety of issues; timing was one,” she said. “We thought we had met that. We have no way of knowing why people voted against the bond.”
Smith said he had heard varying reasons, from the connection to the proposed Walker development on Main Street to the thought that it was simply too much money for the project.
“I heard multiple reasons, but no real consensus as to why it failed,” he said.
