The City of Mount Vernon will take out a general obligation bond for a number of upcoming projects in the 2024-2025 fiscal years.
The City has a debt capacity of roughly $16.854 million, and borrowed $9.36 million in 2024. That leaves the city with roughly $8.698 million, but city administrator Chris Nosbisch said the city tries to leave 20 percent untouched in case of emergency situations. That leaves roughly $5.3 million available to be bonded.
The city had planned to borrow $1.19 million for the low to moderate income housing project along Glenn Street (a good chunk of that being extension of utilities and roadway), being reimbursed via tax increment funding. Discussion on that project will happen at the public hearing Tuesday, Jan. 2, at 6:30 p.m. at Mount Vernon City Hall.
Nosbisch said two additional projects will be considered for general obligation bonds, including the pool and water meter radio replacement read projects.
The pool renovations will come in between $1.5 and $2.5 million. Those expenses are being explored by Waters Edge and will be presented at a January meeting. Nosbisch noted a decision by council will need to be made by April to get best rates for the bond.
The water meter radio replacement read project will be close to $1 million when it is bid, and Nosbisch was thinking of bidding that project as general obligation as opposed to state revolving loan fund. Nosbisch said there are a number of strings for using state revolving fund.
The Phase II sewer renovations will be part of a state revolving fund, with a completion date of fiscal year 2025 or 2026, with a cost of $1.5 million to $1.8 million. That would not put the project in the debt capacity of the city, but would be reimbursed by water and sewer rates.
Hwy. 1 renovations, the downtown streetscape project and sewer upgrades are other projects that may be coming in additional fiscal years, but costs for those projects were not known.
Nosbisch said borrowing more in debt may delay the $10 to $13 million aquatic center project.
Maggie Burger with Speer Financial said that the city is a terrific target for loans, as they pay their debts in a timely manner, but that loan rates have also increased.
Burger said bidding in late April to early May will get the best rates for borrowing.
Citizen apologizes for last meetings languageCitizen Mike Montgomery apologized on behalf of himself and Jaye Delancey for language used at the Dec. 4 meeting.
“I still stand in support of Delancey and his support of veterans,” Montgomery said. “Delancey got carried away with his language, and I apologize for anyone whose feathers he ruffled.”
Montgomery shared a point about the freedoms many citizens have, including freedom of the press, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, rights to fair trial, rights to vote all provided because of the service of soldiers.