Philadelphia capital budget includes study on moving Police HQ

Philadelphia may be in a budget crunch, but the city still wants to spend over $100 million on capital projects.  City Council is weighing in to the spending plan.

The proposed 64 projects will cost just over $116 million.  They include everything from bridge repairs to a study on moving police headquarters to West Philadelphia.

Councilman Curtis Jones brought out some railroad spikes from a crumbling bridge in his district to complain that the city is moving too slowly to fix dangerous structures.

“I would even go as far by way of challenging city government to look at whether or not there is a disparity about how bridges are maintained in Philadelphia and how bridges are maintained in suburbia and if there is a disparity, then we have a problem that needs to be addressed legally,” said Jones.

Philadelphia Budget Director Rebecca Rhynhart says about $9 million will go to repairing police and fire stations.

“We asked the police and fire departments what is you total ask and we funded them at that level. There’s six police stations and 11 fire houses that are scheduled for improvements,” said Rhynhart.

Each city council district also gets $1 million for recreation center maintenance and improvements.