The Lincoln City Council met on July 18th to review the status of the proposed police budget and set a new budget.  The City Council previously established a budget of $10.5 million which was based on debt payments on the building.  The City’s charter allows using transient room tax funds for building construction and maintenance.

The original design was estimated to cost approximately $14.5 million.  The City Council asked staff and the architects to reduce the size of the building from 24,000 square feet to 18,000 square feet and work toward the $10.5 million budget.  It was anticipated in February that the price might be higher however the City Council wanted to work toward the new budget.

Tonight we presented a new estimate of $12.5 million based on the reduced building size and other cuts.  The original plan included demolishing the old building but we will save approximately $500,000 by deferring it’s demolition.  Tonight’s proposal also deferred landscaping until a later date.

After reviewing all of the proposed cuts, the Council added a few items back in and approved a budget of $12.6 million.

We still plan to limit the debt service to $10.5 million and the remaining $2.1 million will be covered by City funds.  The largest sources of revenue will come from City reserves.  The City’s finance director and I will present the required resolutions for using these funds in August.

We anticipate ground breaking in November.