Staff Writer 

South Portland City Manager Jim Gailey on Monday presented the city council a $7.4 million Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) he said is intended to bring the city back up to speed in 2010. 

“Last year we opted to take a pass on a lot of projects to allow the undesignated [surplus account] to catch up,” he said. “Last year we had quite a bit of money to throw at it and this year we’re working with a smaller pot.”

The largest item included in the CIP list is a new Long Creek Pump station, although Gailey said the city hopes to receive some federal stimulus money to offset the estimated $5 million needed to complete the project.

 Other items include a $190,000 plow truck, a $165,000 hydraulic excavator and a $350,000 commitment to the city’s paving plan. Gailey said the $350,000 was approximately $50,000 less than the city put into its roads in the past and he did not expect to receive much funding from the Portland Area Comprehensive Transportation System, or PACTS, this year. Typically PACTS has been responsible for paving collector roads, Gailey said.

“[PACTS] has too many miles but they don’t have enough money, and they never will have enough money,” he said. “There is some talk about doing some kind of reclassification that would shed some collector roads to the municipalities.”

The pavement plan does not include work scheduled for Foden Road and Gannett Drive, a $147,000 restructuring and paving project some members of the council were happy to see on the CIP list.

“I’ll be really glad when Foden Road gets paved,” Councilor Linda Boudreau said and estimated the project had been on the CIP list for six years. “I’ll be glad when that work is done.”

 Items councilors discussed striking from the CIP list include a $193,000 Mill Creek Transit hub behind city hall, $30,000 for the development of walking trails in the West End and a $20,000 contribution for the proposed service memorial monument to be erected in Mill Creek Park.

“I like the idea of the service monument, but I’m not sure I like the size of the city’s contribution,” Councilor Jim Hughes said. “What happens when the [The Long Creek Air Tragedy Memorial Committee] comes forward? Are they having some kind of trouble fundraising?”

Other councilors were concerned about items not included in the CIP. Councilor Jim Soule said he was concerned about the number of police officers on patrol in the city after several accepted early retirement offers several months ago.

“We’re down four people,” Police Chief Edward Googins said. “We have advertised three positions for the August academy, but we’re down staff, it’s that simple.”

Gailey said the council will review the CIP over the next several weeks. If accepted as proposed, the projects would be funded by a variety of city accounts, including more than $1.3 million from Tax Increment Financing revenues, nearly $1.1 million from undesignated surplus and more than $4.4 million from a sewer user fund that could end up going towards the Long Creek pump station project.

Staff Writer Nate Jones may be reached at 282-4337 ext.233.