Budget includes erosion project

Roads, drainage work among other big-ticket items

The city of Mentor will be investing more in erosion control in 2019.

The Mentor Lagoons Marina Shoreline Protection Extension project is among the major expenditures in the next annual budget.

The cost is estimated at $970,000 and will be paid for out of the general fund. The work is expected to take place late in the year.

The project will extend an existing armor stone revetment — built in 2015 — about 600 feet to the east. This will more than double the length of the existing revetment.

“Erosion along the lake has accelerated in recent years in this area,” Mentor Engineer Dave Swiger said. “The project will protect the shoreline along the Mentor Lagoons Nature Preserve from further erosion.”

This is in addition to the $368,616 Mentor Beach Park revetment project, begun this month. The city has lost up to 6 acres of shoreline in the last dozen or so years.

Other notable projects planned in 2019 include:

• Hendricks Road resurfacing from Route 2 to White Oak and Hopkins Road from Market to Hendricks ($440,000)

• Headlands Area Street Rehab Phase 2: Belle Meadow/Glen Lodge/Wake Robin ($3.8 million)

• Bridge over Route 2 fence/parapet rehab/city seal ($380,0000)

• Neighborhood Road Repair and Resurfacing Program ($1.6 million)

• Hunter’s Wood/Interstate

90 Ditch Bypass ($150,000)

• Maple Street Storm Improvement ($210,000)

• Major drainage channel maintenance ($95,000)

• Continue Sanitary Backup Protection Grant Program ($50,000)

• Continue five-year storm sewer cleaning/ televising program

• Emergency Regional Response Facility ($3.2 million)

• Cemetery maintenance building ($1 million)

• Parking lots at Police Department and Walsh Park ($100,000)

• General facility maintenance upgrades ($280,000)

• Presidents Park walking trail ($190,000)

• Pedestrian Safety Sidewalk Program, Ward 1 ($245,000)

• Tree planting ($90,000)

Significant equipment purchases are planned as well. They include replacing a rescue squad at Station 1 ($296,000), police cruisers and a prisoner transport vehicle ($183,000), and a dump truck and frontend

loader for the Public Works Department ($350,000).

General fund expenditures are anticipated to be $63.5 million in 2019. The budget for all funds is about $8 million less than the 2018 budget, Finance Director David Malinowski said.

“The decrease in appropriations between the two years is almost entirely due to $8 million less budgeted for capital project funds,” he said. “A significant amount was budgeted for large capital projects in 2018.”

Those included Plaza Blvd Extension, Springbrook Park, Two-Town Detention Basin, Heisley Road widening and Route 20 widening.

“When comparing just the general fund, the 2019 budget is about $3 million higher than 2018,” Malinowski said. “The variance is primarily due to the Mentor Lagoons Revetment Extension project and about $2 million more of general fund transfers projected to close out and increase the scope of repairs for road and infrastructure projects during 2019.”