The city of Eagan is thinking big about its future and what it wants to do with money that will be freed up by the early 2020s after debts for the community center and road work are paid off.
Merging three fire stations and giving city staff more office, work and equipment space will be the priorities in the coming months as the City Council decides how to renovate public buildings.
In December, council members told City Administrator Dave Orsberg and Finance Director Tom Pepper to prepare potential schedules for construction and for borrowing on some projects.
Eagan currently has a yearly $1.1 million loan payment for money it borrowed in 2001 for its community center and a $1.2 million payment the city loaned itself for road overpasses and exchanges. When those debts are paid, the city will have $2.3 million each year that it can spend on new projects without raising taxes.
There's no shortage of projects that money could help fund.
Three of the city's fire stations, for example, aren't centrally located and there are not enough volunteer firefighters to staff each one, Pepper said. The city would like to replace those three stations with a new $4.5 million Fire Station 1. The Police Department and City Hall both need more office space, which could cost up to $9 million.
The city's maintenance building was built more than 25 years ago, when Eagan was a smaller city. Building a new facility with more than double the storage for vehicles and new space for making repairs could set the city back more than $8 million.
Council members and administrators agreed in December that several more projects could be funded.