The City of Monmouth could be issuing bonds to help take on a large amount of around $20M in capital improvement projects.
City Administrator Lew Steinbrecher talked previously to the City Council about refinancing bonds issued in 2006 that would lead to a savings of $1.7-2.1M over a 15 year period.
The city has also identified possible savings and with the pending sale of the municipal-owned transfer station freeing up thousands in revenue.
He tells WGIL that given today’s interest rates, the city could finance millions in bonds to take care of a significant amount of work.
“And given today’s interest rates, that could finance about 4-5 million dollars and we have well over 20 million dollars in capital improvement needs. And so, this could be used to help leverage other State and Federal grant funds and take on a fairly significant number of capital improvement projects.”
Aldermen on Monday authorized him and Mayor Rod Davies to begin looking into issuing of those General Obligation bonds.
One of the high-priority projects on the city’s radar includes the re-beautification of the public square, which Steinbrecher said money from these bonds could be used for it.
“If we are successful and if we get that 2 million dollar grant award, we will have about a million dollars where we will need to replace the water main that parallels the perimeter of the public square that services all the commercial buildings in the heart of the downtown, plus an additional $800,000 in matching funds to that 2 million dollar grant.”
That’s among other sewer and water main projects that are needed throughout the city, including on West Harlem Avenue.
