By By MIKE VOSS
Contributing Edito
Washington’s City Council, during its meeting Monday, is expected to “unappropriate” $100,000 in the city’s current general-fund budget that had been allocated for the purchase of land for a new police station.
That amount had been appropriated in the 2009-2010 general-fund budget as the estimated cost of obtaining land on which to build a new police station.
“Subsequently, Council has adopted a capital project budget ordinance for the police station and transferred $1,000,000 from the general fund to the capital project fund,” wrote Matt Rauschenbach, the city’s chief financial officer, in a memorandum to Mayor Archie Jennings and the City Council. “The capital project fund includes an appropriation in the amount of $210,000 for the purchase of land. Therefore, the $100,000 appropriation is no longer needed.”
Funding related to the construction of a new police station has been a main topic of discussion — and some action — by the council in recent weeks.
Last month, the city was selected to receive a $4 million loan and a $100,000 grant from the federal government to help pay for a new police station, but questions about whether the city should accept the funds arose.
Mayor Archie Jennings and some members of the City Council expressed concerns about discussing funding for a new police station when no site for it has been selected and that it has not been designed. They also expressed worries that the city, for now, cannot afford to take on a $4 million loan.
On the same day a council subcommittee talked about funding options for a new police station, an advisory committee, which included city residents, selected four sites as its top choices on which to build a new police station. The committee recommended the following sites:
• The baseball fields on West Third Street, near its intersection with Plymouth Street.
• The Herbert Perry Sr. property at John Small Avenue and Hodges Street.
• The Beaufort County Developmental Center property on West Fifth Street.
• Property adjacent to Warren Field Airport (North Market Street and Airport Road).
he committee’s recommendations go the council for consideration at the council’s meeting Monday.