The Sweetwater County commissioners decided to take out a $10-million loan to help pay for the construction of two new facilities, which will be located near the detention center.
At an August meeting, the Sweetwater County commissioners reviewed plans for the construction of two facilities on 36 Lagoon Road off of Highway 191 South. These buildings would house Sweetwater County Road and Bridge and the Sweetwater County Fire Department.
Sweetwater County Treasurer Robb Slaughter was asked to look at potential options for the county to fund the construction of two structures. Last week, Slaughter gave the Commissioner an update on the funding options available.
“I think some of them are much more viable than others,” Slaughter said.
The first option to pay for the estimated $21.4 million buildings, is taking the full amount out of the county’s reserves, which is currently $40.5 million. That would only leave the county with 19.1 in reserves.
“I think because of that, most certainly, my advice would be we look at some of these others potentially rather than looking at that as being the No. 1 option,” Slaughter said.
The second option, is something Slaughter often wondered himself, “Can a municipality go directly to a bank for a loan?” The Wyoming Constitution, doesn’t allow a municipality to extend debt over a one-year fiscal period. So this isn’t an option after all.
A third option is for the county to issue lease-revenue bonds. The county would borrow $10 million, pay it off on a 10 year cycle, by making one payment a year. This is something the national market for banks like to make loans on and the county should get a good rate, maybe even as low as 2.5 percent.
Chairman Wally Johnson said in a telephone interview, the county will take the additional $11 million from reserves to pay for the rest of the project.
The fourth option is to pay for some or all of it through the sixth-penny special purpose tax. This would leave it in the voters hands.
The fifth option would be phasing the project in over several fiscal years. This is due to the uncertainty of where the county will be.
The final option would be to sell some of the empty buildings the county owns and use it to pay some of it off. Slaughter said there are other options out there, but these options seemed the most viable.
Johnson said they need to get the project moving forward and was leaning more toward the third option.
“I have a concern about the special-purpose tax just in general, we are already way above what we should be even looking at for the special purpose tax funding,” Lauren Schoenfeld said. “I just have concerns that this could hinder both projects and I don’t want to do that.”
Randy Wendling said he agrees with Schoenfeld, and he was also leaning toward the third option.
“It gets us moving forward, which is important for everything,” Wendling said.
After discussion, a motion was made and unanimously approved to go with the $10 million dollar option three loan.
Slaughter said if they move forward with the third option, they need to decide on an amount, the $10 million was just an example. After discussion, a motion was made and unanimously approved to go with the $10-million dollar option three loan.
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