Fredericksburg will spend over $500,000 on the Sophia Street Parking garage.
Recently the City Council decided to utilize surplus motor fuel taxes to be used in various transportation projects that have been included in the Fiscal Year 2020 budget. These taxes are collected at the pump and used to fund Virginia Railway Express (VRE) and the Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission (PRTC OmniRide), of which Fredricksburg is members of both entities.
Any surplus funds that are collected are allowed to be used by the city for other transportation needs. PRTC must allocate the funds to the city. The total amount of those taxes will be $1.4 million and will be used on a variety of projects in the city.
The lion’s share of this money will go to the Sophia Street Parking Garage which will cost a total of $510,000 to be used in two particular needs.
The first will see $210,000 to be used for improvements for waterproof resealing and replacing the gate system. The second use for the funds will be to use $300,000 to subsidize the debt service expenses for the loan used to pay for the garage’s construction.
The original amount requested for the debt service was $250,000 but because parking fees from the garage are significantly down due to the coronavirus pandemic the requested amount was raised by $50,000 so the city could keep up with the loan payments. The city is also considering allocating gas taxes to be used towards this expense.
The garage was built in 2005, when the city used a loan totaling over $6.7 million, with $6.5 million used for the building itself, and over $208,000 used for the garage’s gate system. The city currently owes under $1.7 million on the loan.
Other projects listed that the motor fuel taxes will be used for includes $480,000 for FRED transit operations, $370,000 for paving rehabilitation, $35,000 for sidewalk improvements on both Dixon and Charles Streets, and $21,000 that will go to the Stafford Regional Airport.
