AGENDA #3f

BUDGET WORKING PAPER

TO:                  W. Calvin Horton, Town Manager

FROM:            Bruce Heflin, Public Works Director

SUBJECT:       Maintenance of NC 86

DATE:             June 5, 2000

At the budget hearing with the Town Council on February 25, 2000, we were requested to compare the costs for maintaining the landscape improvements on NC 86 using Town crews versus a private contractor.

DISCUSSION

In our base budget request for Fiscal 2000-2001, we included an “Add List” which identified resources we believe that we would need in order to provide landscape maintenance along NC 86. The total of $40,000 during Fiscal 2000-01 would cover the cost of one groundskeeper position, a maintenance vehicle (John Deere “Gator”) and maintenance supplies. While our maintenance responsibilities on this roadway started with the current mowing season, we are absorbing this workload using our present resource allocations. In order to do so, we are having to borrow labor from other sources and programs, including overtime and contract help from an outside agency. Our base budget next year does not include adequate funding, either in our overtime or outside contract labor accounts, to establish and maintain an appropriate maintenance service level for an improved NC 86 without sacrificing grounds maintenance services at other public facilities and areas for which the Landscape Division is responsible.

We obtained quotes from private vendors based on basic grounds and landscape maintenance services along the improved NC 86 and received estimates approximating $10,000 next year. This quote primarily was for basic right-of-way mowing along the  roadway and within the median. While we could obtain a broader range of services and more operating flexibility with the expansion of in-house staff and equipment, the higher cost is likely not a workable alternative at this time. We would plan to find the funds in next year’s budget to use the private contractor for this basic maintenance.