Residents get first look at new playground
City of Montgomery officials presented their updated plan to address what was a largely ballooning tax burden on the former timeline of the Street and Utility Improvement Plan (SUIP) and other infrastructure desires.
What was looming as a tripling of city taxes has now been knocked down to between 125% to about 175% of the current city taxes, evening the burden out for many years but adding to the overall cost long-term.
The city’s core still has four SUIP areas to be completed, which have now been delayed by about 10 years each to allow some of the current debt to be paid off before restarting. This doesn’t fix the issues with the road and utilities underneath though.
A pavement maintenance plan has been accepted to address the state of the streets in the those SUIP areas left to buy between 8-12 years of time before the SUIP will continue.
Mayor Thomas Eisert said, “Doing something more of a hybrid plan will allow some of this existing debt to fall off before we pick back up.”
In 2026, the area between 4th Street West (Highway 13/21) and 1st Street between Boulevard and Oak Avenue will be completed. Work in that area would be started sometime after early May, with a preconstruction meeting to be held in May. Work would be completed by October 2026. Estimated costs for the pavement management plan for the 2026 section is between $600,000-$650,000. Specifics will come in later after a contractor is selected.
In 2027 or 2028, the eastern SUIP areas from the general area from 1st Street to 5th Street East between Boulevard Avenue and Memorial Park will be completed. More details will be available next year when council can look at the budget again to determine when the second portion will be completed.
What the pavement management plan calls for is...
New playground
The budget to replace the aging, roughly 30-year-old, Memorial Park playground was set at $275,000 from the park improvement fund. Last year it was deemed financially unfeasible to complete the playground, delaying it until this year.
City council says that the new playground will...
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Rendering courtesy of City of Montgomery/Landscape Structures
This is a rendering of what the new Memorial Park playground will look like, complete with much of the playground being handicapped accessible.