This Five-year Capital Plan for Racine County details the County’s capital requirements for the next five years, 2004-2008. The County Executive has reviewed five-year objectives with department heads and decided which projects to include in the Plan. The Five-year Capital Plan is now presented to the Racine County Board.

The funding for these projects will come either from transfers from reserves or from borrowing. In the past, the County has funded capital items primarily from reserves and surpluses. However, borrowing will be necessary in order to implement the attached plan, primarily due to the inclusion of a major jail project, which could begin in the year 2004.

This document is intended to inform the County Board and taxpayers of future requirements for capital expenditures and identifies capital costs and revenues associated with the projects included. While precise costs are stated whenever possible, in some cases only estimates are provided because for those items it is neither feasible nor practical to determine exact costs. In addition, it is important to keep in mind that, as with all long-range plans, situations can and will change, requiring that the plan be modified as time passes.

The summary page shows that the total five-year (2004 – 2008) expenditures for the plan and possible funding sources. The total of the 2003 Five Year Capital Plan is $42,162,951. A history of the past two years of county capital expenditures is also included on the summary page. Detail sheets providing additional information about major projects are provided after the summary schedules. The definition of a major project is a construction project that costs more than $500,000 or an equipment purchase in excess of $250,000.

Sheriff's Department Projects
As stated previously, the major project shown in this plan is a $13 million jail addition. A special County Board committee is currently studying this item and will issue recommendations. Outdated communications technology requires the County to replace systems in the future.

Road and Bridge Projects
The County is responsible for 335 lane-miles of County trunk highways, 16 County bridges and numerous smaller drainage structures. The Highway division, in order to capture transportation aids, has always maintained and yearly updated a Five-year capital plan. The division has a number of projects ready to begin construction as funding becomes available. This strategy strives to maximize state and federal aids by having an inventory of project plans ready when funds are being allocated by the DOT. This source of revenue for future periods must be estimated and is subject to state and federal controls. These DOT funds are project-specific and may or may not be the projects of the highest priority as determined by our Highway staff. County funds not used as match funding for state and federal projects are available to fund projects not eligible for state or federal funding. In the past, much of the funding has come from the use of Highway reserves. The amount of surpluses available each year varies.