(Beaver Dam) The Beaver Dam Common Council has finalized bonding for the city’s 2023 Capital Improvements Plan. The borrowing resolution approved in the fall totaled $4.6-million dollars with taxpayers responsible for $4.2-million dollars; the remaining half-million dollars comes from other revenue sources. However, the initial bonding issuance resolution approved last month directs city officials to issue the notice of sale of only $3.4-million dollars in General Obligation Promissory Notes. Beaver Dam Mayor Becky Glewen says the costs for the replacement of the library roof, initially estimated at upwards of $1.2-million dollars, decreased by $400-thousand dollars with a second opinion.
City Administrator Nathan Thiel says the city’s bond rating from Moody’s Investors Service demonstrates an opportunity to upgrade the rating, which is conditional on building up fund reserves. The city fell short of securing a double-A-three investment rating with an A-1. Thiel notes that the council should be commended for its efforts in the last budget cycle for buildings its reserves and he encourages future efforts to increase the city’s bond rating which will, in turn, lower future interest rates.
The lowest bidder was TD Securities of New York at 3.309%. The 2023 CIP included $1.2-million dollars for a new roof and new windows at the public library. That estimate came after the city planned only $125-thousand dollars for the repair in the 2022 CIP, before discovering the cost would be considerably higher. Apparently, the designer of the library, constructed in the mid-1980s, was from California and did not anticipate the effects that snow would have on the roof.
Dave Ferris of Ehlers Public Finance Advisors says Beaver Dam has around $43-million dollars in principal outstanding which is 51-percent of its debt limit. The city’s self-imposed cap sets the debt limit at 65-percent of what is allowed by state statute.
The CIP directs $2-million dollars to streets, which includes the reconstruction of Frances Lane and Curie Street. Public Works is getting $426-thousand dollars for an aerial truck and a small platform truck.
The Parks Department was directed $500-thousand dollars for phase two of Rotary Park in the downtown tower parking lot along with $30-thousand dollars for planting trees and $5000 for the Cotton Mill Park riverway.
A half-million dollars is being set aside starting with this year’s borrowing for a new fire department aerial ladder truck, which carries an estimated price tag of $2-million dollars and locks Beaver Dam into borrowing $1.5-million dollars in 2024.
The Beaver Dam Common Council approved the borrowing plan in October but revisited the resolution one month later to adjust for inflation, to the tune of $100-thousand dollars.
