Cold Spring Bonds $8.4 Million for New Fire Hall, Local Bank Steps Up

(KNSI) — The Cold Spring City Council Wednesday night approved selling $8,405,000 of general obligation bonds to finance a new fire hall.

Northland Securities presented to the council, saying the State Bank of Cold Spring was one of the largest bidders at an auction held earlier in the day. City Administrator Kris Dockendorf tells KNSI News they did not know that was going to happen, but they are appreciative.

“Obviously, it’s nice to have local buy-in, and they obviously support it and believe in it. So, I think that’s something we really like to see, especially on a big project like this.”

The panel approved all bids for the fire hall and agreed to issue just over $8.4 million in bonds at an effective interest rate of 4.14% to pay for the project. The bonds were priced at a premium, bringing down the total amount borrowed. With that 4.14% interest rate, total financing costs per year fell to around $510,000, or about $35,000 less than expected.

Dockendorf was asked about how this process compares to other debt issuances made by the city. She believes the primary difference is that this was a Capital Improvement Plan project.

“It’s been a long time since we did a Capital Improvement Plan bond. Just learning the process of that is very different, because, you know, you have the reverse referendum period of 30 days, where people have a chance to petition to have it put on a ballot as a question, which we were very fortunate that didn’t happen.”

The last CIP bond Cold Spring did was for the municipal complex, which was first built in 1984. It now houses the city government, the police station, the fire department, and the library, but the city says the space is far too small for all of those different offices.

The fire hall will be located at 109 Main Street. A groundbreaking has been scheduled for October 9th, with construction to begin in the middle of the month.

___