(Clarinda) — Clarinda officials are another step closer to securing funding for infrastructure at a new business park in town.
Meeting in regular session Wednesday evening, the Clarinda City Council unanimously approved a bond purchase agreement for the sale of $3.5 million in general obligation corporate purpose bonds–which would fund most of the infrastructure work at the Hugh and Maxine Loudon Business Park. Donated to the city for commercial or industrial use, the park is located on roughly 54 total acres in the southeast part of town between Agrivision Equipment and Agriland FS Clarinda along Highway 2. City Manager Gary McClarnon tells KMA News that Wednesday’s action was the next step in borrowing the funds.
“Now that we’ve got the bond purchase agreement taken care of, then the next action will be at the next council meeting,” said McClarnon. “So on the February 26th council meeting, we will have a resolution to authorize the loan agreement and the issuance of the actual bonds. So, that’ll be the next step in it and then tentatively we’re looking at closing on getting the bonds on March 12th.”
The council had previously held a public hearing and approved a resolution to proceed using a “preliminary official statement.” McClarnon says the bonds would be paid back over the next 20 years with an average interest rate of 4.08%.
“We just recently did get a credit rating and we did get an ‘A’ rating from Standard and Poor’s and that did help keep that rate down to a more manageable place,” McClarnon explained. “The council seemed to be very much on board with doing this and from a tax standpoint it doesn’t seem like it’s going to affect our levy rate very much if at all. So, it seemed like a win-win situation.”
McClarnon says the general obligation bonds would cover the majority of the $4.3 million estimate to install the necessary infrastructure in the business park.
“Which includes roads, sanitary sewer, storm sewer, and water–and that’s all inclusive in that amount–and we’ve got some street lighting in there for that as well,” he said. “So, those are all the items and the $4.3 million is the engineer’s estimate.”
Once they have finalized the loan agreement, McClarnon says the engineers will go through the design process before putting the project out for bid. McClarnon says the city does have money set aside in its reserve to help make up the difference in cost for the infrastructure. In other business Wednesday, the council held a budget workshop and heard the annual fire department report from Fire Chief Roger Williams.