HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — It's no secret the Tampa Bay area is growing, which can serve as a catch-22 regarding the county's infrastructure.
An increase of people on the roads and sidewalks means more wear and tear, a cost that has long caught up with the county.
Kim Byer is the assistant county administrator in the county's public works department.
In a perfect world, she said the county needs $1.9 billion to help with the aging infrastructure.
"That would fund the infrastructure needs for the next five years," Byer said.
Byer credits the $60 million from the American Rescue plan provided by the Biden administration in helping repair sidewalks and resurfacing roads. Still, that money is already spoken for and the well is running dry for the copious amounts of additional projects needed.
The county can now focus on sidewalk repair requests from 2013.
Byer said the county currently has more than 3,000 sidewalk repair requests.
"Dedicated funding is very small and limited," Byer said. "Infusion of federal dollars has helped a little bit, but not where it needs to be."
County leaders met at Tuesday's transportation workshop to discuss possible solutions.
Millions of dollars are needed not just for infrastructure but for public safety as well.
More fire stations, equipment, and employees are needed to respond to the continuously growing population.
Tim Pearson is the president of Hillsborough Firefighters Local 2294 and said while no resolution has been made on where the funding is going to come from, he is holding out on hope.
"I think that we see that there is money and it's there. It's a matter of priorities and also what the tolerance level of the public is," Pearson said. "We can control what we can control. It comes down to two things either changing your priorities or finding additional revenue sources or a mix of both."
Transportation and public safety project funding is derived from three sources: general revenue dollars, community investment tax, and a gas tax.
During Tuesday's meeting, Commissioner Gwen Myers said talk needs to turn into solutions sooner rather than later.
“If every meeting people come in here talking about public safety. They’re coming in talking about transportation and we just keep talking about it. We have to a board that is going to take some action coming into the next fiscal year so that we can get some results.”
