PORTLAND — Skateboarders, students and the city’s Public Art Committee were the beneficiaries of some last-minute changes Monday to next year’s capital improvement plan.

After several amendments and some debate among officials, the City Council approved $26.3 million in new bonds to help pay for a long list of infrastructure needs, building repairs and equipment purchases that total $48 million.

The late additions added some $2 million to overall spending, and featured some items that have caused continuing friction among councilors.

Here’s a breakdown of the amendments approved by councilors Monday:

CONGRESS SQUARE PARK

The council voted 5-4 to reallocate $200,000 meant for completing a rebuild of Congress Square Park toward lighting at the Dougherty Field skatepark.

Councilor April Fournier, who forwarded the amendment, said she was trying to find a way to “help multiple parks” in the city.

During previous discussions on the park upgrade, Fournier and other councilors have taken issue with the long-delayed project, frustrated by another request for funding. But others have said cutting funding will hurt the city’s effort to finally get the park redesign across the finish line.

Councilor Sarah Michniewicz, who opposed the amendment, said it’s taken a long time for the city “to get to a point where we’re finally seeing the end,” and that the skatepark lighting was already in the pipeline within the next few years.

“I think we’re just prolonging the pain of finishing this park,” she said.

Mayor Mark Dion called Congress Square “an anchor point” downtown, and said public frustration with the intersection work there “spilled over” to impact the park.

Kevin Kraft, the city’s planning director, said the reduced funding “allows us to continue making progress on the project and move toward bidding for construction.”

PUBLIC ART FUNDING

An amendment from Councilor Kate Sykes will result in both the Portland Public Art Committee and Land Bank Commission receiving $230,000 in funding next year.

Sykes had previously called for increasing funding for both boards after pointing out that city ordinance calls for giving each board 0.5% of the city’s total annual capital spending. In recent years, funding to both has been limited to $50,000 per year.

Staff has referred to language within the city’s debt management policy to support the previous funding level, but Sykes said the policy is operational in nature and was never approved by the council.

Kat Zagaria Buckley, chair of the public art committee, said the annual funding up to now has been increasingly insufficient as inflation has impacted artists as well.

The council voted 6-3 to approve the amendment, with some councilors and the city attorney arguing that the council has the authority to make funding decisions.

“There’s nothing here to have an opinion about,” Sykes said. “This is a correction of a law that’s on our books.”

Councilor Anna Bullett took issue with providing more funds to the Land Bank because land acquired by the commission cannot be used for housing.

SCHOOL FIXES

Another amendment Monday added $1.2 million in spending for school department projects — $800,000 for HVAC repairs at Lincoln Middle School and $400,000 for similar work at Portland High School.

Councilor Ben Grant forwarded the amendment, calling it “necessary in order to ensure our facilities are appropriate for students,” but the funding faced questions given the school board’s recent talks about low enrollment and the possibility of closing one of the city’s three middle schools.

While some councilors said they were uncomfortable approving the funds without knowing the future of Lincoln Middle School, Grant argued that the building would be used by the district one way or another.

Dion said that while he agreed with the school board’s priorities of keeping students “safe, warm and dry,” he’d add another word for taxpayers: affordable.

The council ultimately voted unanimously in support of Grant’s amendment.

In March, Portland’s school board voted to authorize a study of reorganization options for the district’s three middle schools. The superintendent has until October to develop a set of recommendations, but the board scaled back language in an original resolution that explicitly called for a proposal to consolidate from three to two schools.

Staff Writer Riley Board contributed to this report.