On a bike ride Wednesday I saw that landscaping was installed along Water Avenue as part of CARA’s Waterfront Project.
Next week we may find out whether Albany customers of Pacific Power will be billed, and how much, for part of the cost of the city’s Waterfront Project.
The city council, acting as the Albany Revitalization Agency, will meet Wednesday (Nov. 19) to consider how to spend the remaining funds of the Central Albany Revitalization Area or CARA.
In a memo for the meeting, the city staff said CARA has between $1,500,000 and $2,000,000, in round numbers, that could be spent in line with state law and the original CARA plan adopted in 2001.
The staff memo recommended “three potential investment priorities” for this money. One was a “downtown parking solution project to support business growth and visitor access.” Another was “additional completion work on the Waterfront Project to leverage [the] current contract.” And the third was a “contribution towards the cost for undergrounding the utilities along Water Avenue.”
The undergrounding was required as part of turning the western four blocks of Water Avenue into a plaza street suitable for events such as markets. But the council did not budget for this cost, assuming either that the utility would eat the expense or that it would bill ratepayers, as Pacific’s city franchise and state utility rules allow.
Before the undergrounding work was done, Pacific estimated the cost at $2.4 million. Under an agreement the council approved, it planned to bill all its customers within the city a surcharge estimated at $4 a month for two years.
Pacific’s Adam Kohler told me today (Nov. 14) that the final cost was less: “Thanks to the bidding process as well as the work of our estimator to adjust the project’s scope and impact based on the items which we found by our contractor during the construction process, we were able to reduce the bill by over $500,000 to a little over $1.8 million.”
The amount of the monthly surcharge on power bills, if any, depends on what the council does Wednesday.
So far, the Waterfront Project has cost CARA about $23.3 million.
In recent stories I put the cost at $21.5 million. But this week I added it up again: $3.1 million to Walker Macy, the Portland firm that designed the project and provided construction plans; $3.4 million to the Portland & Western Railroad for building crossings on the Water Avenue rail line; and $16.8 million to K&E Excavating, the project’s main contractor.
The undergrounding expense will push the total higher yet. Soon we’ll find out the exact amount and who will get stuck with the additional bill. (hh)
The story was updated on Nov. 14 with the approximate actual cost of putting power lines under ground for the plaza street.
“Ratepayers” didn’t ask for the undergrounding of the utilities, so put the money towards that and tell the council to stick their fee additions.
Hear, Hear! Thank you, MarK!! No one could express the sentiments of many of us better than you just did! Yes, Council, Stick It!!!!
Fourth option is you could give it back to the taxpayers. No one wants to see these money stories the day before property tax day. Berkshire Hathaway/Warren Buffett owns Pacific Power, there’s a reason he’s a billionaire, they don’t give anything away for free. If you want to spend your money, he’ll be more than happy to take it.
Warren Buffett is almost 100 years old and plans to give away all of his fortune to charitable causes when he dies in the next few years. I don’t think he wants your money. Utilities are only marginally profitable as quasi-public entities. Rates to cover costs and just a little profit paid back to shareholders in dividends are approved by a group of local citizens sitting on a utility board, not by Warren Buffett.
I don’t understand your response. His investment strategy is buying maximized intrinsic value with strong cash flow at discounted prices. He’s not a charity, he has already groomed for years his successor in Greg Abel, who takes over in 2026. He might give away some personal assets but it doesn’t have anything to do with B.H. He recently has taken out positions in United Healthcare (senior advantage plans) and Lennar, the same company that’s building hi density housing on Gibson Hill, bought up Clayton Homes at a discount, Forest River, he’s all over. Buying up Occidental Petroleum with extensive leases in the Permian Basin which like PacificCorp, Pacific Power’s parent company, aligns with his energy focused strategy. Albany is very little locally owned any longer, our value is in what infrastructure assets we have left that can bought up at discounted prices, like our claims to power capacity or our water rights. We haven’t even talked about the fact the AI server farms being built in Oregon are claiming more and more of Pacific Power’s capacity. Amazon has already filed a complaint that Pacific Power is not supplying capacity they need and were promised. You don’t think that’s going to end up as a market price/demand issue? How much are you willing to pay for power v. what Amazon and Google supplying those Nvidia chips are willing to pay? Berkshire doesn’t buy “marginally profitable”:
I find it amazing that the city can spend that much money on a project that only a small amount of the population will ever use but ignore the poor condition of the nearby neighborhood streets
Welcome to Albany
Yes, Welcome to Albany. Back in the 1940s while I was in the dentist chair, my mother was a listener for Dr. Ficq’s complaints about the governing of Albany. Dr. Ficq was a wonderful dentist (in spite of the noisy old dental drills), and my mother was smart and a good listener.
“Welcome to Albany” now available on Bandcamp and Youtube. I hear City Council is thinking of picking an official theme song…..
The city says they have a shortfall of $9-11 million dollars to fix the roads, but they rolled $18 million over from the previous budget, aka we were overtaxed and they didn’t spend it. With a biennial budget of $400 million you would think they could take care of the critical infrastructure, the whole point of a city government.
What utter garbage! I have lived in Albany long enough to see two marked funds and taxations go by the wayside for projects just like these that are under seen, underutilized, grossly overpriced. That same amount of money would have gone a long way for the existing long neglected hazards you call streets. Give it back! The self importance and greed in this town is astonishing, but predictable.
$23.3 million for that waterfront project!! I wonder if any other state in the Union has a city that has spent that amount of money for pink bricks for a lonely road and park benches for the homeless. Seems like shelter and food are what the homeless need, but in this town I’m sure they will take what they can get. Park benches on a lesser traveled “pink” road, it is!!
Really? You’re still looking at charging us on our city services bill for PP&L and the underground lines? I just got my sewer bill last week and it’s now over $103 for just my sewer bill, storm water drains, which, we don’t have out here in Draperville section, and I don’t know what all other fees and taxes is part of that. It’s flipping ridiculous to be paying that much when I’m the only one living in my home and i DON’T HAVE CITY WATER.