Leaders of a downtown Fort Dodge taxing district made no move Tuesday to change a nearly $600,000 commitment to the proposed downtown street realignment.
In December 2011, leaders of the Self-Supported Municipal Improvement District approved a $589,872 contribution to the effort to link First and Second avenues south on the condition that the work be completed next year.
The City Council has now delayed the project until 2014.
The district's board on Tuesday seemed poised to debate how to respond to that change. However, at the urging of board member Nate Gibson, the issue was tabled.
Gibson said there was no need to make a decision on the money at this time.
The board will revisit the issue next month, according to President Rich Seltz. He asked for a report on the city's capital improvement plan from City Manager David Fierke during the July meeting.
During the meeting, Councilman Mark Taylor explained the reasoning for postponing the street realignment to 2014.
''The majority of the current council doesn't really want to do that project,'' he said.
Taylor said that because there is no way to put the project on a ballot, the council majority decided to turn the 2013 City Council election into a referendum on it. He said the voters will determine its fate by who they elect to the council.
The crosstown connector project was scheduled to begin this summer with the reconstruction of First Avenue South between Eighth Street and a point between 10th and 11th streets. The street realigment, to be located between Fifth and Sixth streets, was to be done next year.
Under a compromise worked out earlier this month, drainage improvements on First Avenue South between 25th and 29th streets will be done next year and the street realignment will be done in 2014. In a draft version of the capital improvement plan, the reconstruction of First Avenue South between Eighth and 10th streets appears to be part of the street realignment work set for 2014.
The district's board of directors did push ahead Tuesday with a project on the First Avenue South corridor.
The board hired Snyder & Associates, of Ankeny, to design sidewalks and landscaping for the intersection of First Avenue South and 12th Street near the Fareway store. The company will be paid $2,200. The improvements are to be completed by the end of this year.
''Fareway's kind of saying 'Hey, we need sidewalks,''' said board member Jim Bird.
Two years ago, the board voted to spend up to $50,000 on that area. So far, about $2,000 has been spent.
The Self-Supported Municipal Improvement District is a roughly 33-block area in which property owners pay an extra tax to finance improvements there.