The City of Mount Vernon received $4.84 million in general obligation capital loan notes for projects to be completed over the next year.
According to Maggie Burger of Speer Financial, Inc., Mount Vernon had a total of five bidders for the project, with Robert W. Baird and Company of Milwaukee, Wis., having the lowest interest rate for the project at 3.7029 percent.
“We have been seeing a lot of four percent or five percent interest rates on projects, so to see one at this price point is one we feel comfortable recommending,” Burger said.
In order to get to the interest rate, Baird will pay the city a premium of $109,000 which can be used to pay the interest rate down or towards projects they are completing.
The last bond that Mount Vernon had awarded saw an interest rate of 3.616 percent. The lowest the city received was a 1.06 percent bid back in 2009 area.
Burger noted the city did experience a slight downgrade of their rating for the City of Mount Vernon from AA- to A+ for their bond rating.
That downgrade takes into account the cash on hand that the City of Mount Vernon has been spending on a number of projects delayed over past fiscal years.
“We’ve been sitting with a lot of cash reserves that need to be walked down with some of these projects,” Nosbisch said. “While it’s great to have some cash reserve, it’s also a lot of tax payer dollars we’ve been sitting on that is something a city should not be doing.
Local bidders included Mount Vernon Bank and Trust Company, working with Northland Securities, Inc. The city is obligated to take the lowest interest rate in bids for bonds.
City advertising for open positions for police department
The Mount Vernon-Lisbon Police Department will be advertising for openings in the department coming up in the January timeframe.
While staffing at the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Police Department is steady, police chief Doug Shannon said that the normal hiring process for new officers at Mount Vernon-Lisbon Police Department can take six to nine months to complete.
“We’re taking this opportunity while we’re fully staffed to start work on the hiring process, knowing we have some potential openings or retirements come this January,” Shannon said.
Replacing police department officers has been a struggle throughout the state. Shannon said he gets requests roughly monthly for officers looking for part-time work while they are working outside the law enforcement field.
“They don’t want their training or credentials,” Shannon said.
Council member Paul Tuerler said that hiring law enforcement officers is different than other types of employment cities might conduct.
“I’m glad that you are bringing this forward,” Tuerler said. “It’s important that we do what we can to make sure there aren’t as large of gaps of service for our police department if we can get ahead of these openings.”
Sign approved for Mount Vernon fire Department
The city also approved a new sign for the Mount Vernon Fire Department.
Mount Vernon fire chief Nathan Goodlove said that the sign was in the original plans for the Mount Vernon Fire Department when it was constructed, but the cost of signage was astronomical.
“We’ve found a product that comes at roughly a third of our cost for a sign,” Goodlove said.
Goodlove said that his original bid failed to include the $5,000 in electrical work that will be needed for lighting for the sign.
The sign, which is being designed by Rickard Sign and Design, will cost roughly $24,000. The sign has been approved by planning and zoning of Mount Vernon and the department is working through the application for Linn County.
“We will only be lighting the sign that faces towards First Avenue side of the sign and avoiding the same on the Second Avenue side of the sign,” Goodlove said.
Council member Paul Tuerler said that knowing this has been waiting for 12 years, he is happy to see this moving forward.
Solid Waste Agency explains closures
If it seems like the landfill has been closed more often over the past year, Solid Waste Agency communication director Joe Horaney confirmed that is the case.
“We currently have more of our work taking part on the top section of the landfill this past year or so,” Horaney said. “Because we are up on the top of the landfill for new garbage and items, we have to be mindful of the wind.”
For the landfill it isn’t necessarily the windspeed, but the wind direction that requires potential closure of the landfill, with the wind certain days more easily pushing waste towards those fences now that they are working on top of the landfill with current waste. The Solid Waste Agency is trying to mitigate the amount of garbage that blows away from their center during those days, and some of that waste in the landfill on windy days being dropped off easily fly away.
Horaney asked citizens to sign up for text notifications with Solid Waste Agency so they know what days might have been impacted by an early closure of the landfill and require waste to be picked up by their garbage collectors.
Horaney also reminded citizens the importance of just dropping off any batteries to the landfill instead of throwing them away in the trash. Lithium ion batteries, especially if they get run over by equipment at the landfill will potentially cause fires or other damage. Solid Waste Agency collects all batteries for free.
Bonds awarded to city of Mount Vernon
Nathan Countryman, Editor
May 16, 2024
About the Contributor
Nathan Countryman, Editor
Nathan Countryman is the Editor of the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Sun.