If you hate trying to turn left at the Grapevine Road and Pioneer Boulevard intersection, then perhaps the brightest highlight of the city of Mesquite’s budget for next fiscal year is the allocation of money for a traffic control signal at that location.
But don’t get your hopes up that it will be done quickly.
According to Bill Tanner, Mesquite Director of Public Works, three traffic lights have been added to the projected capital outlay expense of the transportation impact fee fund for fiscal year 2017-18. The highest priority is the Grapevine/Pioneer interchange with a second light planned for Turtleback Road and Pioneer Boulevard. A third light is on the books for Riverside Road and Hafen Lane. They are projected to cost half a million each.
Tanner said that vehicle traffic count warrants must be completed for each intersection before the lights can be approved. He said the counts will be done during the winter months when traffic is at its highest.
If you’re looking for a job with the city, you’ll also be happy to note that funding for 13.75 full time equivalent positions have been approved starting July 1. No new positions will be added to the Police or Fire departments since new hires were recently approved in both areas.
Income from property taxes is projected to increase a total of 4.2 percent to 3.225 million. The increase is due to more new home construction not a rise in the tax rate itself which hasn’t changed since 2004.
David Empey, Director of Finance, reported that 40 percent of the budget, $8.120 million, will come from the state consolidated tax (C-Tax) which is expected to rise 4.1 percent.
Also of note is that income from medical marijuana is expected to increase to $240,000 next fiscal year from $225,000 this year. The budget contained no projections from possible recreational marijuana tax receipts.
The total operating revenues for the city in FY 2017-18 are projected at $19,802,550 an increase of only $172,170 from this year. Transfers from other funds to the general fund total $1.020 million.
Empey projects total operating expenditures at $22.490 million with transfers from the general fund to other funds totally $1.592 million.
The largest expense in the budget, employee salaries, will increase 14.75 percent to $9.509 million. Employee benefits will also increase 4.74 percent to $4.806 million. Overall, about 69 percent of the total budget is devoted to employee costs.
The bottom line – the general fund will have a projected remaining balance of $4.761 million when all is said and done on June 30, 2018. That’s down from approximately $8 million projected on June 30 this year.
City Manager Andy Barton told the mayor and city council at the budget hearings held May 17 and 18 that the city is “feeling the strain of increasing growth” in all the departments and, in particular, can no longer defer capital projects like the city has done the last few years.
Barton lauded Councilmen Rich Green and George Rapson who recommended moving to a three-year budget cycle for normal operations and a five-year cycle for capital expenditures. “That’s a positive move for the city,” Barton said.
Barton also noted that the city is currently in negotiations with the Mesquite Police Officers Association union whose contract expires June 30. The city recently finished negotiations with unions representing firefighters with that contract ending in 2018 and general employees whose contract expires in 2019.
“In 2019 we’re going to aggregate all the contracts and negotiate them all in one year,” Barton said. “Councilman Dave Ballweg made that suggestion and I think it’s a good one.”
Two main areas of the budget – police and fire – will consume almost half the budget with a total expenditure for public safety pegged at $10.808 million. That includes employee salaries and benefits. The total budget for athletics and recreation comes in at $3.667 million while the total public works budget projection sits at $3.230 million. General government, including the mayor, council, city manager, city attorney, human resources, finance, and information technology will cost a projected $2.966 million in the next fiscal year.
Outstanding! Another opportunity to spend 2 minutes of my day stranded at a red light. What I’d like to know is who was the idiot who designed this intersection?? What kind of moron plans an intersection to meet just past the crest of a hill on a curve?? Then what moron decided to plant shrubbery in the median to further block vision?? Or is someone getting kickbacks from vehicle repair shops and the hospital?
I applaud the City of Mesquite for recognizing problem traffic areas and planning on much needed traffic signals for those problem areas. I have spent more than two minutes waiting to turn left from Grapevine onto Pioneer Blvd. The City is growing and there is more traffic so signals at key intersections are needed. The sooner, the better. Now if we can just take the obnoxious speeders and others who disregard the traffic laws off the streets.
Did I just read that each new traffic light will cost $500,000? If that is true, the City of Mesquite should sell their current traffic lights. We do not really need them and stop signs cost a lot less than half a million. The money could be used to build a surplus or pay off our current debts. We have to think outside the box in order to balance our budget.
Mr Petrillo,
Before stop sighs or lights are considered for an intersection, traffic engineers evaluate the entire traffic pattern and traffic counts. If you drive through any intersection such as where new lights are proposed you would see that it’s not just a light on a pole in place, but a number of poles, lights, pedestrian signals, and extensive electrical work in those large tan colored boxes near the corner. Major work has to be completed under the streets as well. To make installation even more costly, Nevada has to follow a different wage scale for government projects that adds considerable to the overall cost of any major project. There is no way around this. The money for these projects does not come directly from city funds, but from fuel revenue funds as other sources of taxation.
Since the Riverside/Hafen intersection is scheduled last, it would be great if we could add two more stop signs there and make it a four way stop. Two lousy stop signs, some cement and paint should cost a lot less than $500,000 and just might save a life while we wait for the new signal to get installed. This is a very dangerous intersection.