The City of Perry’s street department is expected to see an increase of nearly $140,000 annually after a ten cent per gallon gas tax increase was approved by the state legislature.

City Administrator Butch Niebuhr says the public works department is already making plans.

“They’re starting to put together their priorities for streets.  We will be bringing that to the front doors of people’s houses and show that we are going to do that work within the City with those funds that will be allocated to us.  So we’re going to start doing that as soon as possible.  As soon as we start seeing the funds come in we’ll be targeting and looking to do some work in the city limits of Perry” says Niebuhr.

Niebuhr says overall, the increase will be beneficial for Perry.

“That ($140,000 per year) is about two and a half blocks of overlay.  So it doesn’t sound like a lot but what you can do is leverage that, so we can do larger projects.  In a two year period, a quarter of a million dollars worth of projects, you know maybe we could do five or six blocks.  Or we could do a note with a local bank that maybe runs for three or four years and maybe do 15 blocks or 18 blocks, and do a larger project and try to take advantage of a bigger project to get lower prices and then use those funds to pay that off as they come in.”

The City Administrator says a lot of people may not realize those road use tax fund monies are what funds the public works department, in terms of projects and equipment.