On Monday evening, the Roanoke City Council will hold a public hearing about financing up to $25 million to address deferred maintenance on city buildings.
The city is facing a large backlog of deferred maintenance. Addressing this became one of the city’s biggest priorities during the recent budget development process, which led to the approval of a 1% increase in the meals tax for two years.
The 1% increase will bring in an extra $2.02 million yearly for the city, with half to be spent on deferred maintenance.
According to the city manager’s report in the agenda documents, Davenport, the city’s independent financial advisor, assumes that the city will spend $2.5 million on capital maintenance in 2026 and $5.5 million per year in the following years until 2030.
“The City uses the drawdown line of credit/bond anticipation note in years 1 to 5 to fund the immediate deferred maintenance needs,” the report states. The interest is estimated to be 3%.
The areas of work that the funds will be spent on include $4.3 million on elevators, $14.3 million on HVAC, $1.8 million on electrical replacements and upgrades and about $1.2 million on boilers.
Those interested in seeing the full agenda for Monday’s council meeting and evening public hearing can find it here. The 2 p.m. council meeting and 7 p.m. public hearing will be held in the City Council Chamber at 215 Church Ave. in downtown Roanoke. Those who cannot attend in person can watch live through Facebook.
