The City of Kosciusko is set to borrow $3.5 million to fund street repair and paving projects after the Board of Aldermen authorized issuing up to $5 million in bonds during its Sept. 7 meeting.
During the Oct. 19 meeting, the aldermen adopted a no protest resolution —acknowledging the resolution of intent was published in The Star-Herald for the past four weeks, providing citizens an opportunity to request a vote on the matter. With no protest registered, the board was able to issue the bonds without a vote.
Attorney Troy Johnston of Butler Snow explained to the board that the Mississippi Development Bank would also issue a bond, and its bond proceeds will be used to purchase the city bond. The city will then take those proceeds to fund its projects.
“When y’all approve it, we’ve got to go to the Mississippi Development Bank and get these same documents approved there. They’ll meet Nov. 10, and then we’ll close this bond deal,” said Johnston. “The city will get its money... I’m thinking Dec. 16... sometime that week.”
Mayor Tim Kyle said the city still owes on previous bonds, and after deliberating with financial advisors, the city will proceed with this bond as it has in the past — making payments through the general fund. Kyle said monies the city receives through regular tax sales and internet tax sales will help pay off the bond debt over time.
“Through the infrastructure bill, which is kind of a transportation bill that was passed several years ago, that money actually comes to us through internet sales, which is basically how that’s based,” said Kyle. “With regular sales tax, we get 18 cents out of a dollar. It’s basically the same thing on this, but those funds are for transportation type projects.”
Kyle said the city receives these monies in increasing percentages each year — from 25% to 100%. At 100%, the city will receive approximately $400,000 per year through the program.
“When we get that, we will have plenty out of that fund to make payments on this new bond that we are doing,” said Kyle. “There won’t be any increase in debt service or anything. And that’s the reason we stayed at $3.5 million instead of borrowing more because we won’t notice it. It will still be roughly what we are paying now with our other increases.”
Planning is necessary to ensure that all received funding is utilized, so as not to risk the loss of future similar funding.
“You’ve basically got to spend what you’re getting every year to continue receiving that money. It’s not like sales tax where you just get it. You’re still going to get this, but you’ve got to have it allocated, and whatever we get, we’re going to keep rolling it over into our streets,” the mayor said.
The actual plan of work is pending analysis by Gardner Engineering and input from the aldermen, but Kyle said he would like to see the main streets coming into town from Highway 12 paved.
“With MDOT taking care of Jefferson Street, and we’ve completed Huntington Street, other streets I’d like to see [paved] would be Jackson Street — maybe up over the overhead bridge. Wells Street really needs resurfacing. If we can get these main thoroughfares done, we can start getting our worst streets — going into neighborhoods and stuff,” he said.
Once the city receives bond proceeds at the end of the year, it can hopefully begin advertising projects for bids, according to the mayor.
“Hopefully we can get some of these guys paving before the hot summer gets here because if you wait until then, then you’re way down the list,” said Kyle. “Even if you bid, say in January hopefully, the best you’re looking for is probably early spring or the summer getting anything paved. We’ve been waiting on this project for I don’t know how long from MDOT, but I’m just glad to see that coming.”
Update on S. Huntington Street bike lanes
At the end of August, the City of Kosciusko received bids for a project to add bicycle lanes to South Huntington Street. The city’s engineering estimate for the project was $1,063,862.75. Only one bid was received from Hemphill Construction Company out of Florence for the amount of $1,898,966, going $835,103.25 over the predicted budget.
Kyle said MDOT estimators looked over the bid and the maximum it should have been was $1.2 million.
“We are going to try to rebid that out in maybe December or the first of January,” he said. “Hopefully somebody is needing some work and we can get in a bid that we have the money for.”
Kyle said funding for the project is available through a grant with the Federal Highway Administration and MDOT, with no cost to the city.
“It will be great walking paths, bike lanes, or whatever you want to use it for. On top of that, it’s just going to make that entrance to the community look so much better,” Kyle said. “So, I’m just praying we can come back with a bid we can live with. We couldn’t stand that big hit.”
