Police hires, sports fields among budget priorities

Coconut Creek will set aside money in its 2017-18 budget to hire police officers and purchase land for new athletic fields.

Another priority for the city is cutting its ties with the regional E911 dispatch system and going it alone as it used to.

There is a hefty price tag to bringing the system back in-house and it will “probably result in some form of a tax increase,” Assistant City Manager Karen Brooks told residents at a recent meeting seeking public input for the 2017-18 budget.

“What we are finding here is that we are not getting the kind of service that our residents are accustomed to,” Brooks said. “When they call 911 and the dispatchers don’t know our city because it is a regional system, we lose a lot of that personal touch thatwe pride ourselves on.”

The city plans to hire six police additional police officers, including two for community services, two for special enforcement and one for traffic. It will also look to buy parcels of more than five acres in the city for parks and athletic fields.

The city currently has five football/soccer fields and 11 softball/baseball fields, all of them extensively used. It recently purchased a five-acre parcel near Lakeside Park and intends to put in two football/soccer fields. The city is also interested in the seven acre parcel located south of the Food for The Poor building on Lyons Road, as well as the property on Northwest 74th Street that is adjacent to the Oak Trails passive park.

Almost half of the city’s general fund budget goes to public safety, with police alone accounting for 32 percent. The city gets 28 percent of the total taxes paid by a property owner. The monthly tax to the city from a property with a taxable value of 185,000 is about $70.

Three development projects are ongoing on Hillsboro Boulevard, Sheila Rose, director of sustainable development, said. The Pines townhouse project, in the western portion of Hillsboro Blvd., will have 50 units. Thefirst residential project in the city’s main street project area will have four story luxury apartments.

A medical office building is being constructed along Wiles Road while a Dunkin Donuts store will open on Coconut Creek Parkway, Rose said. An industrial complex is coming up in the city’s industrial area while Clarity Pointe, a memory care facility, will be built in the north side of the city. The city will soon take up a project linking the natural areas on Hillsboro Blvd. with the commercial properties in the area.

Improvements worth $4.5 million is currently on at Windmill Park, City Manager Mary Blasi told residents. The city will use money from its $10 million bond issue to resurface 46 miles of city roadways in four phases, with work in the Winston Park area to commence first.