Mayor Jim’s Weblog

Recently the State offered to allow us to do more work at the high school– provided we can pony up $1.9 million of city money to do the job.

The money is for a new electrical system at the school, something that is critically needed, new lockers, new floor tiles, and a new access road around the parking lot.   

I have been working proactively with the State Building Assistance Board, the Department of Revenue, our financial advisors, and others, come up with a plan to pay for our portion of the money.  We do not have the cash, so we have to borrow our portion of the money. 

(Borrowing makes sense in this circumstance, this is a long term project, and you want to pay for it with long term dollars.)

Here are some of the questions we have to answer before we can borrow the money: 

• When do we start repayments?
• What is the bond interest rate?
• Will this affect our bond rating?
• Are there ways to do this in a less expensive manner?
• Are all parts of the project necessary?
• How does this project measure up with other project requests in the city?
• Can we do this without a debt exclusion?

 Everything we do has to be done in a fiscally prudent manner. Fixing the high school is important, but restoring our city to fiscal stability is even more important.

I have already indicated that I would like to do this project, and that we are not going to let this opportunity slip by.  We will do all or part of the project.  Now, the hard part– coming up with a means of paying for it and doing it in the most fiscally responsible manner. 

I will have an announcement on this within the next two to three weeks.