Councilors press for clarity on capital funding after Blackstone project drops from published plan

During the hearing Councilor Ed Flynn and Chair Erin Murphy said the city has not published an itemized repair estimate, a reopening date or an engineering assessment for Blackstone. Flynn read details from past capital plans showing study and project line items that later did not appear in revised five‑year capital profiles.

"The city has not published a reopening date, a current itemized repair estimate or a publicly available engineering assessment establishing the full scope of the work," Flynn said. He told the committee the FY27 capital plan had included $500,000 for a study but that later capital plan tables omitted the Blackstone construction project from the FY27–31 profile, leaving no scheduled construction spending.

Councilors urged staff to track down the budget authority and to place the study and subsequent construction funding into the capital plan during upcoming budget deliberations. No formal budget action was taken at the hearing; members said they will press for the administration to appear with capital documents in a follow‑up meeting.