SARATOGA SPRINGS — Next year’s preliminary capital budget for the city proposes $5.1 million in projects, including $1.3 million to develop the waterfront park on Crescent Avenue.

Other big ticket items on the table for next year include $750,000 for a larger emergency generator for the water treatment plant, $550,000 for improvements to the Geyser Crest well system and $400,000 for land acquisition and design work for a new emergency facility east of the Northway.

Changes can still be made to the spending plan that was unveiled for the first time to the public on Tuesday. The public also has a chance to weigh in before a vote is taken Sept. 15.

Absent from the proposed 2009 capital budget was any additional money for a police station, and Commissioner of Public Safety Ron Kim said he will oppose the capital budget because it favors money for the waterfront park improvement over his project.

“As I said, those better be very nice picnic tables and really nice sand,” Kim said. “Why aren’t we doing creative financing with this waterfront?”

Mayor Scott Johnson said the omission wasn’t a judgment on the need for a public safety building, but rather was done because the amount of money needed hadn’t been established. Kim disagreed, saying experts had pinned the number at $9.7 million.

Public hearings on the capital budget are scheduled for 3 p.m. Thursday and 6 p.m. Monday, and Johnson said an additional hearing would be scheduled afterward.

After the City Council votes on the plan Sept. 15, Finance Commissioner Ken Ivins can make changes to it, and the City Council then is expected to adopt a capital budget along with its other budgets by Nov. 30.

The capital budget committee crafted the plan in more than a dozen meetings this year, ranking a new communication system for City Hall as the first priority for 2009. The $150,000 line item is an addition to money already borrowed to upgrade the building’s telephone system.

The improvement will apply to phones for all the city’s departments, including the police non-emergency lines. It will not apply to the 911 system, which is configured separately.

The police non-emergency phones have failed several times in the last year, prompting concern from Kim.

The proposed capital budget would require the city to borrow $3.8 million.

The capital program revealed Tuesday also looks ahead to 2014, with proposals for projects to be undertaken in subsequent years.

The committee’s recommendations for future projects include spending $450,000 to buy the Crown Oil property at Route 50, South Broadway and Circular Street in 2010; $1.2 million to construct the Spring Run Trail in 2010; $2 million to build a water tower in the Grande Industrial Park in 2011; $1.3 million to complete the Gilbert Road water line in 2010; $15 million to develop Saratoga Lake as an alternate water source between 2010 and 2014; and $4 million to build a new emergency and fire facility east of the Northway.

The five-year plan is revised and changed every year and, by approving it, the City Council is not necessarily committed to building all the projects listed.

Not all the projects on the list have been vetted by the current City Council, including the Saratoga Lake water plan. “Clearly, the City Council and the public have not decided whether this project will be undertaken by the city,” Johnson noted.