City to issue $9.5 million in bonds

Published 10:37 am Thursday, May 21, 2015

The city of Vicksburg is going to the bank to get final approval to sell $9.5 million in general obligation bonds for the first phase of the city’s $18 million capital improvements project.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen Monday adopted a resolution authorizing the city to issue the bonds for sale to the Mississippi Development Bank. The Mississippi Development Bank was created by the Mississippi Legislature in 1986 as an independent organization with the power to borrow money and issue its bonds and notes to make funds available to finance infrastructure improvements and other public projects.

The city is expected to receive the money in late June or early July. Vicksburg has an A2 bond rating from Moody’s Investment Services, a New York-based provider of credit ratings and risk analysis, and a debt limit of $48 million.

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City Attorney Nancy Thomas said the bank must approve the sale, adding city officials were expected to meet with bank officials Wednesday about the money. She said the bank would be able to set the city’s initial bond payments at a low enough amount to allow the city to continue to pay off two general obligation bonds from 2003 and 2007 totaling $7.78 million that the city refinanced in 2014.

“This bond resolution is flexible enough so if we need to change our priorities we can do it,” Mayor George Flaggs Jr. said.

A breakdown of the $9.5 million for the first phase includes:

• Street paving, $4.6 million: The project will be done in two phases in the North and South wards.

The board in March approved contracts with AJA Management and Technical Services of Jackson to prepare the engineering and design for paving projects in the South Ward, and Stantec to do the engineering and design for paving work in the North Ward.

In January, it approved a $143,500 contract with Applied Research Associates Inc. of Champaign, Ill., to do a street survey, which will be used to develop a priority list for street paving in the future.

• Parking lot improvements, $1.15 million: The work includes resurfacing parking lots at Riverfront Park, Halls Ferry Park, the roads in Cedar Hill Cemetery, the parking lots at the baseball and girls softball fields at Bazinsky Park, and the city-owned parking lot at Catfish Row by LD’s Restaurant.

• Recreation, $1.3 million: The projects include renovations to the City Park Pavilion, $350,000; building a farmers’ market pavilion and improvements, $550,000; Kings playground, $100,000; and improvements totaling $300,000 to neighborhood parks and Riverfront Park.

Riverfront Park is jointly owned by the city and the county. The city handles repairs and maintenance at the park. City and County officials are awaiting a report from Ridgeland-based consulting engineers Burns Cooley Dennis on repairs for an erosion problem at the park.

• Municipal buildings, $2.25 million: Projects include a new fire station, $1.6 million; repairs to City Hall’s exterior, $375,000; and replacing carpet and tile at the Vicksburg Convention Center.

The board Friday authorized Flaggs to sign a $30,000 contract with Belinda Stewart Architects of Eupora, a company that specializes in restoring historic buildings, to do an analysis of City Hall’s windows and doors and other features for renovations to the 113-year-old building built in 1902. City Hall is on the National Register of Historic Places and is a Mississippi State Historic Landmark.

Stewart currently has a contract with the city for restoration work at the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad depot on Levee Street.

In February, the board approved a contract with the Central Mississippi Planning and Development District to perform a needs assessment to determine if the locations of the city’s fire departments meet the city’s needs based on the Mississippi Fire Rating Bureau criteria and to recommend a location for the new station.

Flaggs in December proposed a plan to borrow $17.5 million for capital improvements after a Dec. 19 meeting in which the city’s capital improvements committee agreed to postpone a proposed $25 million utilities improvements program until 2016 and consider two borrowing options to fund the first phase of capital improvements.

The total loan was increased to $18 million in January.

About John Surratt

John Surratt is a graduate of Louisiana State University with a degree in general studies. He has worked as an editor, reporter and photographer for newspapers in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. He has been a member of The Vicksburg Post staff since 2011 and covers city government. He and his wife attend St. Paul Catholic Church and he is a member of the Port City Kiwanis Club.

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