If passed Jan. 24, the Special Five Mill Tax Referendum will fund a new senior center, additions to Frank Brown Recreation Center and the creation of additional parking spaces in downtown Auburn.
"One thing that we always stress is, it has nothing to do with a new tax," said David Dorton, director of public affairs. "It's an existing tax that collects funds that have to be used in approved ways."
The fund was authorized in 1920 as an amendment to the Alabama Constitution and has been in place in Auburn since 1948. The city may use the funds to repay bonds issued for specific projects.
Past projects have included the Soccer Complex, Town Creek Park and Yarbrough Tennis Center.
"It's basically a portion of the property tax, and money accumulates in the fund until it's used," Dorton said.
The last referendum in 2009 allowed for street resurfacing and restriping, the North Donahue Bridge replacement project, major intersection improvements at Donahue Drive and Magnolia Avenue, as well as renovations to the Frank Brown Recreation Center.
The recreation center is also a central focus of the 2012 referendum.
"It's things that we've needed to be able to serve the citizens and provide the programs they've requested," said Becky Richardson, director of parks and recreation.
The addition to the center will include new meeting spaces and classrooms, additional fitness space and a racquetball court.
Richardson said the recreation center had 30,000 visits from the community last year, and the senior center will also provide services to a growing community.
"The numbers signing up for our senior programs have been consistently growing over the past few years, and our other senior programs ... are growing as more and more people move here to retire," Richardson said.
The senior center will boast a multipurpose room, a classroom and office space, as well as an Internet cafe.
"Seniors can come, and they can bring their laptop if they wanted to," Richardson said. "In the mornings they can sit and visit and have coffee, and it could be kind of a social area. We don't really have a space for that right now."
The referendum's other primary project would be making improvments to downtown parking. Dorton said the city anticipates being able to provide about 50 additional parking spaces to the 500 currently available.
The old Auburn Bank drive-thru will be demolished, and that space will become a parking lot.
Other aspects of the project will include repaving and landscaping the west parking lot behind Toomer's Drugstore, improving pedestrian access to the municipal parking deck with enhanced lighting, signage and security features and implementing a modern parking meter system.
"These are the projects that we think folks have told us that they're interested in, so now we let them tell us for sure in the vote," Dorton said.
The deadline to register to vote is Jan. 13. All voters with an Auburn address may go to City Hall to fill out the required paperwork.
"It's typically a pretty low turnout kind of vote," Dorton said.
If passed, Dorton said the Frank Brown renovations and new senior center would be completed in early 2013. All additional parking improvements would take approximately two years to complete.
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