Bastrop, Tx–Tuesday the city council agreed to issue $7.4 million in new construction bonds at an interest rate of 3.856062%. The offer from FTN Financial Capital Markets was the lowest of eight bids received earlier in the day. Six of the eight bids offered interest rates below 4% on the city bonds rated A+ by the agency Standard & Poor’s.
The funds will pay for completion of work on a new 15,000-square-foot city hall and a 26,000-square-foot civic center, utility and landscape improvements along Chestnut Street and some $1.2 million in electric utility upgrades, said City Manager Mike Talbot. In 2008 the council issued some bonds to begin the Chestnut Street, city hall and convention center projects.
Earlier this month the council approved the lowest qualified bids for city hall and convention center construction. The Chestnut Street work is about half done and should be completed this summer, said Talbot. The new city hall should be finished by year’s end and the convention center early in 2011. The electric system upgrades should be completed within a year, said Talbot.
Bastrop Power & Light customers will see any added costs reflected in electric rates. Convention center costs will come from hotel room rental taxes and the Chestnut Street work will be covered by a half cent sales tax which goes to the Bastrop Economic Development Corp. Cost of the new city hall, approved by voters in 2003, will show up in the debt service segment of city property tax bills.
Citing Standard & Poor’s bond rating report, Council Member Joe Beal said the city’s financial management team has “saved us a lot of money” in interest costs over the next 30 years.
Council Member Julie Hart agreed, saying “I’m excited to see these (interest) rates.”