Portland City Manager Joseph Gray Jr. is seeking city council authorization to borrow $9 million for capital improvement projects in the coming year.

The council will hold a public hearing and vote on Gray's borrowing proposal when it meets at 7 p.m. June 19 at Portland City Hall.

The proposal would fund $4.4 million for facilities improvements including fireboat crew quarters, Cushing Island barge landing, Temple Street garage waterproofing, a regional crime lab and renovations at the Portland Exposition Building, Reiche and Hall elementary schools and the Barron Center.

It also would fund $2.4 million for street paving, sidewalk, streetscape and safety improvements; $860,000 for public works equipment; $515,00 for improvements to Back Cove Trail, Deering Oaks, park fencing and a new roof on the Riverside Golf Course building; $435,000 for sewer improvements; $250,000 for street lights on Forest Avenue, from Congress Street to Cumberland Avenue; and $50,000 each for public art and land bank projects.

The city actually will borrow $10 million in the coming year for capital improvements. The council authorized borrowing $1 million in 2004 for library renovations that were delayed.

The council caps annual borrowing at $10 million.