Rexburg Budget Lays Out New Projects

Construction season may be coming to an end but the city of Rexburg is planning to begin several projects this fall.

As Rexburg’s population continues to rise, the city has to ensure it can handle the growth.

Rexburg released its budget to the public, which includes some big projects this year, the biggest underneath the ground.

As the city grows so does the amount of waste.

“And with that we have to provide additional water for residents,” Rexburg Public Works Director John Millar said.

For the last five years the city has worked on acquiring water rights to support the growing city.

“Water has become like it is in other areas,? Millar said. ?More of a commodity.”

After several years of pushing back drilling a new water well, Millar said he hopes this is the year.

“We have a fixed growth of a minimum of a 1,000 people a year and it takes a lot of dollars to keep ahead of that,? Millar said.

And property owners will have to pay for it, as utility rates increased 2.6 percent this year.

“We feel really lucky that’s all we have to increase,” Rexburg finance officer Richard Horner said.

The city will also finish the final phase putting in a new sewer line at the south end of town.

The most noticeable changes will actually take place here on Main Street where the city plans to pump in more than $700,000 to make improvements, including adding left hand turn lanes on Center Street and First East Street.

“This is going to be a wonderful thing for downtown,? Chamber of Commerce Director Donna Benfield said. ?We will have the new state of the art signal system it will improve the flow of traffic, it’s a win win for Rexburg.”

Thanks to urban renewal grants, Madison County and the city are putting in a new downtown parking lot with 140 spaces for downtown businesses and a new office retail building.

Benfield said the new building and businesses are great news for the local economy.

“With the new business on the corner people will see a huge boom in the downtown area. It will be a major improvement,” Benfield said.

Despite so many infrastructure projects Rexburg still manages to have some of the lowest property taxes in the state.