Fiscal Note
This resolution appropriates $15,000 from the Contingent Reserve to fund the salary and benefits of hourly employees performing median maintenance as part of a pilot project. The budget amendment would be as follows:
GN01-51200-535000 $13,935
GN01-52000-535000 $1,065
From Contingent Reserve ($15,000)
Title
Amending the 2012 Operating Budget for Engineering to fund a pilot program to perform landscape maintenance for traffic medians with City staff and appropriating $15,000 from the Contingent Reserve.
Body
PREAMBLE
The City of Madison Engineering Division is responsible for maintenance of medians on select arterial streets most of which are considered gateways to Madison’s Downtown and University of Wisconsin Campus areas.
These main traffic corridors are the first, and sometime, only opportunity we have to make an impression on visitors to our City. As such, it is important to keep them looking good.
The total square footage of these areas, and the cost to maintain, has increased significantly since 2000. Unfortunately, the difficult economic situation the City faced in preparing its 2012 operating budget required reducing the amount budgeted for maintaining these areas by nearly forty percent.
Historically, Engineering has contracted with private firms to maintain the City’s landscaped medians. Engineering reviewed the existing contracts for maintenance to identify opportunities for savings. Staff met with the private companies currently under contract to provide this service and successfully renegotiated a 12% decrease in their pricing for 2012. Eliminating the watering component from these contracts resulted in an additional savings of $16,500 in out-of-pocket costs. In the event watering is required Engineering’s night crew will perform this task.
An additional 32,000 square feet of recently constructed landscaped medians b...
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