Drivers know the island’s roads aren’t what they used to be. Bicyclist know the roads aren’t what they could be.

Heeding calls for road repairs and new bike lanes, the Bainbridge City Council may put a multimillion-dollar bond measure on the November 2012 ballot.

The exact dollar amount and the scope of work has yet to be worked out, but one council member has floated the idea of an $8 million bond split between major road repairs and bike lane construction.

Would you vote for higher taxes if it made the roads less ragged and more safe for bike travel? Head over to the right (under the Facebook links) and have your say.

Mayor Darlene Kordonowy wants to trim more than the fat.

Her combined $135.5 million budget proposal for 2009 and 2010 would cut into the meat of emergency services, city staff and several core city functions to offset a continuing trend of falling revenues, largely because of the island’s slowing housing market.

“We’ll have to do more with less,” Kordonowy said during her presentation of the biennial budget to the City Council on Wednesday night.

City staffing levels, under her proposal, would take a 10 percent hit, knocking the city’s 152 full-time positions down to 140 in 2009 and 138 in 2010.

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The City Council narrowly approved a controversial bond-funded plan Wednesday that would put nearly $1.8 million toward small-scale capital projects.

“We’re all taxpayers and wish the city could meet its obligations without going into debt,” said Councilman Barry Peters. “Projects like the famous bathroom are now virtually done and we have to pay for it,” he said, noting that the long delayed Waterfront Park restroom is, after almost eight years, finally set for completion in the coming months.

Road repairs, bicycle lanes and city dock upgrades were also included in the bond-funded plan.

While using bonds to fund capital projects is common, critics argued that most of the plan’s elements were for small items that could have been paid for out of the general fund or deferred to a later time when the city wasn’t facing a $2.5 million revenue shortfall.

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