Contractors have been working on Albany’s new “plaza street” at the west end of Water Avenue while the CARA urban renewal program is preparing for what may be its final budget.
On Wednesday the city council, acting as the Albany Revitalization Agency (ARA), plans to adopt a two-year budget for 2025-27. The ARA is CARA’s governing body, and its budget amounts to about $29.3 million.
The published budget makes it impossible to tell what most of the money is for. About $4.5 million each is to make payments on bonds and to finish paying for the Waterfront Project, including the work on Water Avenue. But the biggest chunk, about $19 million, is designated as “reserves.”…