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Blue Springs, MO —
Blue Springs moved one step closer Monday night to the proposed Missouri Innovation Park with an amendment to its 2011-12 city budget.
By increasing the existing city budget by approximately $3.9 million, the City Council completed the formal process of transferring a specific amount of funds to its capital projects fund. A breakdown provided by staff shows that two purchases – one for $744,392 and another for $1.5 million – were for land purchases on Adams Dairy Parkway for the ambitious project. Additional expenses for the park, which were not outlined, totaled $415,000.
No discussion was held during the Monday meeting about the proposed amendment, and City Council passed it unanimously 5-0, with Ron Fowler absent.
However, Todd Pelham, assistant city administrator, said before the meeting that Monday’s vote was simply a formal procedure and that the $3.9 million is not new money but funds collected by the city over the past three to five years.
“The funding comes from a combination of things,” he said.
Some of the funding comes from settlements from lawsuits, including an award the city received from a cell phone carrier to which Blue Springs was one of several plaintiffs, and money saved during healthy fiscal quarters where sales tax collection increased.
The announcement of purchased land for the MIP was first made public last week during an annual dinner for the Economic Development Corporation, where Mayor Carson Ross announced that 24 acres of land was purchased for the innovation park and the Mizzou Center, a main facility that is to start construction in the fall and possibly be occupied in early 2014. While it could take years to develop and fill, planners are hoping that it will become the home for businesses that are health science, renewable energy and nanotechnology oriented.
Pelham also discussed the purchase of the lumber yard property downtown. Initially the property will help the Police Department as it prepares to renovate and expanding its existing facility. After that, he said, the city can use it for festivals and other activities. Even the farmers market could be located in that area and later, should the issue pass the ballot box, a commuter rail station. Pelham said he doesn’t anticipate any activity at the property for at least a year.
Blue Springs moved one step closer Monday night to the proposed Missouri Innovation Park with an amendment to its 2011-12 city budget.
By increasing the existing city budget by approximately $3.9 million, the City Council completed the formal process of transferring a specific amount of funds to its capital projects fund. A breakdown provided by staff shows that two purchases – one for $744,392 and another for $1.5 million – were for land purchases on Adams Dairy Parkway for the ambitious project. Additional expenses for the park, which were not outlined, totaled $415,000.
No discussion was held during the Monday meeting about the proposed amendment, and City Council passed it unanimously 5-0, with Ron Fowler absent.
However, Todd Pelham, assistant city administrator, said before the meeting that Monday’s vote was simply a formal procedure and that the $3.9 million is not new money but funds collected by the city over the past three to five years.
“The funding comes from a combination of things,” he said.
Some of the funding comes from settlements from lawsuits, including an award the city received from a cell phone carrier to which Blue Springs was one of several plaintiffs, and money saved during healthy fiscal quarters where sales tax collection increased.
The announcement of purchased land for the MIP was first made public last week during an annual dinner for the Economic Development Corporation, where Mayor Carson Ross announced that 24 acres of land was purchased for the innovation park and the Mizzou Center, a main facility that is to start construction in the fall and possibly be occupied in early 2014. While it could take years to develop and fill, planners are hoping that it will become the home for businesses that are health science, renewable energy and nanotechnology oriented.
Pelham also discussed the purchase of the lumber yard property downtown. Initially the property will help the Police Department as it prepares to renovate and expanding its existing facility. After that, he said, the city can use it for festivals and other activities. Even the farmers market could be located in that area and later, should the issue pass the ballot box, a commuter rail station. Pelham said he doesn’t anticipate any activity at the property for at least a year.
