Redkey needs loan for bond payment (04/06/06)

REDKEY — Financial concerns continue to be a main focal point at town council meetings here.

At a special session Wednesday clerk-treasurer Sandy Kirby advised the council that she recently received information from Bingham-McHale, a bond consulting law firm from Indianapolis, about the prospect of refinancing the town’s sewer bond issue and possibly issuing additional bonds to upgrade the Redkey water tower.

However, Kirby explained that these new financial arrangements could not be completed before May 1 when the next sewer bond payment of $79,400 needs to be made. Consequently, she said town officials should request another short-term loan from a local bank to make the bond payment on time.

Kirby said that she had also asked for an advance draw on upcoming Redkey property tax money, but that would probably only total between $10,000 and $12,000, not enough to make the May 1 payment.

If property tax funds are used for the payment, it would be in the form of a loan which would have to be paid back from utility funds.

A special meeting has been scheduled Wednesday to review and discuss options with regard to refinancing the bond for a greater length of time to lower the payments. That meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. at Redkey Town Hall, 20 S. Ash St.

The current bond is scheduled to be retired May 1, 2008. There are three remaining principal/interest payments of $74,000 to be made, along with two interest-only payments in December of this year and December 2007.

Also at Wednesday’s meeting, council members approved a payment totaling nearly $17,000 for work to improve water pressure for several homes along West Main Street.

Redkey council members unanimously agreed to pay $16,953.80 to Bill Tressler Backhoe and Trenching of Redkey.

The project is complete except for some landscaping work, town officials said.

This work was done to increase water pressure to several homes and a fire hydrant on the far west end of Main Street. Previously the homes were only receiving about three pounds per square inch of water pressure, making it difficult to flush a toilet at the same time someone was taking a shower.

Following the opening of bids for the project in February, town council members decided to apply to the Redkey Economic Development Committee for permission to use economic development income tax (EDIT) funds to do the work. The committee later authorized the use of EDIT funds for the project by the narrow margin of 4-3. Although the majority felt this was an emergency situation, other members pointed out that Redkey didn’t have enough EDIT money available to take care of all of its infrastructure problems relating to water and sewer lines.

At Wednesday’s meeting, town council members Darrell Smith, Violet Erlenbush and Dottie Quakenbush voted to pay Tressler with EDIT funds.

Quakenbush also asked about when and how landscaping would be handled in the area. Town employee Greg McIlwain said currently Tressler is waiting for some dirt to settle, and then he will have the area seeded for new grass at no additional cost to the town.

Also present to answer questions at Wednesday’s meeting was the town’s consulting engineer, Chad Ducey, from Werks Management LLC, Fishers.

In other business Quakenbush noted that a decision should be made at the next regular town council session, April 20, concerning renewal of the town’s property and liabilityinsurance policy which is currently being handled by Barnum-Brown Insurance Agency of Dunkirk.

Also present at Wednesday’s meeting was Marlys Saxman who serves as the chairman of the Republican Party in Redkey. Saxman said she had a committee working to select a replacement for former Redkey council member James Guffey, who recently announced his resignation. His term is set to expire at the end of this year. The lone Republican on the town council, Guffey said resigned for personal reasons.[[In-content Ad]]