Bethany Council Approves Street Bond Refinancing
Bethany’s Board of Aldermen agreed to a bid from LJ Hart for refinancing $2 million of Series 2015 street bonds in an effort to save money during a meeting held on Monday night. LJ Hart’s bid is projecting a saving of nearly $170,000. They are also providing a call feature for the bonds in case the city is in a position to save more on the bonds in the future. LJ Hart also stated that BTC Bank has agreed to purchase $825,000 of the bonds.
Council members also agreed to pay off the money loaned by the Solid Waste Department and used as an interdepartmental fund loan to finance the pool. The city is paying off those department payments in the next few years to satisfy the auditor’s recommendation. $61,864 was the amount owed to the Solid Waste Fund. The city did not elect to pay off the loan from the Sewer Department for the pool in this budget year.
The board of aldermen approved a one time payment of just over $12,000 and a recurring fee of nearly $4,800 to Tyler Technologies as part of the cost in moving the city’s regional computer network interface to the Sensus Data Center to allow a centralized server system for the city’s billing.
18 streets were presented before the council for consideration of street upgrades for the 2021 budget year. While 18 streets are included in the 2021 budget, most of the streets will not require a lot of tonnage and will be short distances. The city plans spending just over $308,000 in street upgrades next year, potentially 332,900 for 4 locations in 2022, and 353,900 for 2 locations in 2023.
The council approved Norman Newlin’s proposal for obtaining city property located at 2502 Oakland Avenue. He is planning to move a modular home on the property that will be set on block foundation. The approval is part of the city’s Property Transfer Program that allows transfers of city property if the transfer will eventually upgrade the property.
Bethany’s council approved a new dog adoption contract with Ashley Simpson. The increase in the amount per dog was $20 over the previous contract.
