By By MIKE VOSS
Contributing Editor
Washington’s City Council, during its meeting Monday gave the green light for the city to work with the N.C. Department of Transportation in regard to planning for the widening of a section of 15th Street to allow for a center turn lane.
The council wants more details about the proposed project before it commits any funding for the proposed project. During its meeting, the council reviewed a proposed agreement concerning the project.
The proposed agreement with DOT calls for widening the section of 15th Street from about 400 feet west of Washington Street to about 400 feet east of Pierce Street. If approved, the agreement calls for the city to pay costs for acquiring needed right of way, with those costs expected to exceed $135,000, and relocating utilities, with those costs expected to exceed $150,000.
Mayor Pro Tempore Bobby Roberson questioned where the money to pay for relocating the utilities would come from. Allen Lewis, the city’s public-works director, said DOT would pay those costs.
The council made it clear that until it has more details of the proposed project’s cost to the city, it will reserve judgment on the project.
In other business, the council voted 3-2 to require any city purchase orders of at least $20,000 and any proposed vehicle purchase to be brought to the council for review and a decision.
Council members Doug Mercer and Roberson expressed concerns with the proliferation of purchase orders during June, the last month of the 2009-2010 fiscal year, and the amounts of those purchase orders.
Mercer, after reviewing the list of those purchase orders, said he was “upset” with the number of last-minute purchase orders being made. Mercer said certain practices related to purchase orders give some city accounts a “slush fund” when it comes to making some purchases.
Matt Rauschenbach, the city’s chief financial officer and assistant city manager, said there are no slush funds. He said each city department does a good job when it comes to fiscal responsibility.
Still, the $3.1 million in purchase orders in June was of concern to council members.
“I can’t believe this city in a 30-day period wrote purchase orders in excess of $3 million,” Roberson said.
For additional coverage of the council’s meeting, see future editions of the Washington Daily News.