Dayton City Council — Transcript
Tuesday, July 14, 2026
Capital Planning Process and Budgeting
Parks Department Capital Equipment Requests (2027-2028)
Police Department Capital Equipment Requests (2027-2028)
Fire Department Capital Equipment Requests (2027-2028)
Public Works Department Capital Equipment Requests (2027-2028)
Votes (5)
Review of Capital Planning Process and Funding Strategies
The discussion initiated by City Staff focused on the capital planning process, clarifying how budget documents are presented, particularly the meaning of red and blue color coding for changes and funding shifts. The immediate focus was on 2027 and 2028 capital requests, with a schedule outlined for revisiting the general fund and Fund 410 in subsequent meetings, leading to the preliminary budget in September.
Parks Department Capital Equipment Requests for 2027 and 2028
Marty presented several requests for the Parks Department. For 2027, this included an additional utility tractor for expanded trails, a replacement mower, and a new one-ton pickup with a plow package. The pickup's addition, rather than replacement, drew questions from council members regarding existing fleet size and priority. For 2028, requests included a trash cart lifter for efficiency and safety, an additional 80-inch mower due to increased workload, and a GPS controller for paint spreading and fertilizer. The high cost of the GPS unit and the perceived need for the trash cart lifter were debated, with suggestions for delaying purchase or exploring cheaper alternatives for both.
Police Department Capital Equipment Requests for 2027 and 2028
Chief Enga presented the police department's capital requests. For 2027, this included adding one new vehicle to the fleet, bringing the total to 13, in addition to two replacements under a lease program. The Chief clarified the rationale for the fleet size, detailing the number of patrol, unmarked, and spare vehicles needed due to operational demands and maintenance downtime. The plan for completing the Records Management System (RMS) was also discussed, with an explanation of previous delays and current progress on the multi-agency data migration, noting that $90,000 has been levied for 2028 but not yet spent.
Fire Department Capital Equipment Requests for 2027 and 2028
Fire Chief Hendrickson presented two key requests. For 2027, the replacement of the Dayton Park outdoor warning siren was highlighted, being an original 1960s unit with escalating repair costs, parts unavailability, and limited coverage. For 2028, the replacement of a Lucas CPR device for Station One was requested, as its parts and batteries near the end of their typical 10-year lifespan. Council members inquired about the availability of grant funding, with specific suggestions like Firehouse Subs and Blaine Festival, to help offset the significant costs of these items.
Public Works Department Capital Equipment Requests for 2027 and 2028
Marty presented a range of requests for Public Works. For 2027, requests included a hydraulic salt spreader (replacement for trail maintenance), a Tow Master skid steer trailer (replacement for larger equipment transport), a one-ton plow package pickup (replacement), and a utility truck. The utility truck was significantly re-priced from new to used to save costs, and its multi-purpose utility for signs, tools, and field repairs was highlighted. For 2028, items included sign shop equipment (to produce signs in-house for cost savings), a brine box and storage/delivery system for road pre-treatment, a tandem dump truck replacement, skid steer attachments (like a forestry mower), and two new skid steers, necessitated by the termination of a highly advantageous trade-in program. Council emphasized seeking used equipment for the air compressor and confirming the true cost-effectiveness of new systems.
Notable Quotes (17)
The red anything that's in red is a change. So, if things get removed off of the capital equipment fund, which is the typical fund that we start with because it has the most movement, um things fall off, things get added, things get adjusted around, those are all noted in red on the actual um item itself.
The blue items is only related to when we have changes in when the funding is and when we're purchasing. That's happened a couple times with use an example with the engine tender. We purchased that a number of years ago or put the order in and then we paid for it in the future.
My plan is just kind of go line by line. We'll focus specifically on 27 and 28 and get through all of those since those are more immediate and then we can focus on anything out 29 through 36.
With the additional trails that we're getting in the city, it's uh good to have another one of those units out there. Um, it's very helpful for manpower um and efficiency. It also works in the summer for um mowing um irrig um not irrigation fertilizer and seeding um opportunities as well.
I'm just wondering if it's like a big offset or just it's not a big purchase but No. So it's going to be about $2,000 cuz we they're pretty used up by the time we get you know once they've had 10 plus years in service they're pretty used up. So um we have advertised and we got you know couple of thousand dollars from them. So that's what I'm expecting and that's why I wanted to put the the new price in there rather than hitch my bets a little.
Could this be combined with the uh new plow vehicle for the parks? Yes, this could be combined with that new vehicle. Yeah, this would slide. We would have it configured so it would slide into that box cuz you cuz that way you have the plow package for winter use in the truck. You only need like you said garbage pickup is one day a week. You can slide it out, use it for other things. Cuz then that I'm That would fit in any truck. Yeah, that would make me happier.
I'm just having trouble with the sprites. The price stop farmer. No, I had to lay out some hazelnut rose and that took a long time to get a straight line. Just having a hard time getting my head around that that if you were going to John Deere for a new combine and sure you're going to spend half a million dollars, but is it really 65,000 more to put the GPS part in it? And it sounds like an awful lot.
We have 12 right now. There'll be 13 next year in 2027. That's the anticipated plan. ... We usually end up with two or three down at any given time. Um with computer issues, squat camera issues. We've had it where we've literally we're on bare bones with squat cars.
Um moving all that records management a huge thing and it's not just us that's moving it. There's 14 agencies going to one and having something like Metatona all the data.
It ends up costing us less repair and maintenance because they're getting turned over quicker. Um and we end up about 80,000 miles on them typically somewhere right around in there 80 85,000 by the time we're turning them over.
Yeah, that one, um, is an original, per se, back to the 60s. Um, we've had some significant repairs with that one. ... Um so that one um is something that we do need to replace sooner than later. Um just for the the parts are starting to become not available.
Well, and just as a reminder, those are actually for outdoor notification. Even though we get complaints on a regular basis that people want to hear them in their house, they're designed for when you're outside.
Are there grants available for stuff like this? Um there can be I think um I think if Lucas it doesn't hurt to ask like I guess one place that comes to mind is um Firehouse Subs.
Um the reason we want to have a salt spreader is for our trail work. Um there's some areas that uh people work regularly and we get complaints about them being icy um and such. So we need to have a a way of putting salt out. Um we did buy a smaller unit um but it's our trails have outgrown that over the last couple of years. We spent more time filling it with salt than actually spreading it.
Looking at buying a new vehicle, um, that gets very expensive very quickly. So, we looked did some searching on the internet and found $100,000 should give us uh a good a nice truck in a used vehicle.
It's very common for communities to have sign shops and I think almost every every community that I know of has a sign shop type of equipment or something unless they're you know very small then they would not have that.
The previous program that we had was every year we'd be able to trade in the trade in the skid steer get a new one and pay 2500 bucks for that brand new unit which is crazy. ... Apparently the company didn't know about that from the employee that we were working with. So um when they found out about it they exonate the program.
Ordinances & Resolutions (10)
The overarching financial and capital development strategy for the city.
Capital Improvement Plan, a key document outlining capital type items and their funding over time.
A specific fund from which capital equipment purchases and replacements are made.
Specific one-page summaries of capital improvement requests distributed to council members.
An additional fund containing capital needs and levy dollars, scheduled for discussion in August.
Federal grants previously available for sirens, but now focused on generators and storm shelters.
A police department system undergoing migration, with outstanding levy funds needed for completion.
A method for acquiring police vehicles that involves trading in older vehicles for new ones, reducing maintenance costs.
The initial budget document expected to be presented at the September meeting.
The budget covering day-to-day operational expenses, to be discussed alongside capital plans in August.