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Adams County to borrow $650K for future road work

Published 12:07am Tuesday, August 7, 2012

NATCHEZ — The Adams County Board of Supervisors voted to take out a $650,000 loan Monday to fund road work and also voted to renegotiate an approximately $2.6 million road bond to reduce the payments the county pays on the bond each year.

The supervisors awarded a bid for the $650,000 “negotiable note” to Concordia Bank & Trust with a 1.74-interest rate.

The county’s original intention, County Administrator Joe Murray said after Monday’s meeting, was to refinance the $2.6 million road bond with Trustmark National Bank and add $650,000 to the bond, extend the terms of the bond from five years to seven years and shift the payments to a different time of year.

The principal payment and half of the interest payment will be due in March, and the rest of the interest payment will be due in September.

The supervisors discovered through bond counsel, Murray said, that the $650,000 could not be added to the bond since it was already issued. The county, therefore, took out the additional $650,000 to be used for road work in the upcoming fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1, Murray said.

The bond was renegotiated with Trustmark, Murray said, to extend the terms to seven years, thereby shrinking the county’s yearly payments, and moving the two bond payments to March and September.

The interest rate on the bond of 2.9 percent did not change, Murray said.

The bond was taken out last year to fund a road overlay program, and Supervisors President Darryl Grennell said the board did not have time to refinance the bond before its October payment of $525,000 came due.

Because that note came due early in the fiscal year, the board had to borrow money until tax receipts started coming in January, Murray said.

The loan to make ends meet through the end of calendar year 2011 was for a total of $1.2 million.

Although, Murray said, the road bond was not the sole factor in borrowing the money last year, he said this year the bond should not be a factor if the county has to take another loan out because the renegotiation reduced and shifted the bond payments.

Murray said the county will not know how much the payments will be until the paperwork is finalized.

Likewise, he said, the supervisors have not allocated the $650,000 to work on any specific roads yet.

 

 

 

 

 

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  • Anonymous

     Someone please tell me just how in the world it is that they city has to borrow money for stuff like this but plan to build a rec complex and bus terminal? you can’t build or buy anything if you do not have enough Funds available to do so. They have a hard enough time keeping up with the regular things…I just feel they are biting off more than they can chew and this is gonna be the death of us all before it is over with.

  • Anonymous

    Borrow, borrow, borrow….grants, grants, grants!

  • Anonymous

    Let’s put off until tomorrow what we can’t afford to pay today.  I believe most of the original $2.1MM was taken for election year paving, including paving some city streets to buy votes with taxpayer money.  Now they are going to string out those payments beyond the next election!

  • http://www.natchezdemocrat.com khakirat

    Taxpayers are going to have to hold this politicians by the neck for they are in dreamland!!

  • Anonymous

    Quit complaining folks…..you either complain about the road being terrible or you complain about having to take out a loan to repave roads.  You can’t have it both ways.  Either drive and be happy on the terrible roads or be happy they are being repaved no matter the source of funding.   It’s one or the other and I can tell you that the politicians constantly get an earful from hundreds of folks weekly about road conditions.  That’s the #1 most complained about issue.  So….the supervisors are responding.  Either applaud them for it or quit griping to them about how terrible the roads are.

  • Danielle Saxon

    Fix the bad roads and stop the new, useless, confusing roadway construction! 

  • Anonymous

    MDOT is doing the new confusing.  Bad roads are mostly in the city and/or county.  The money doesn’t mix except when the county decides to pave city streets with county money.

  • Anonymous

    Your city and county car tag taxes should be put in a city and county street and road fund. By the way, how much is collected each year. Should not be borrowing for these repairs. They are playing with our tax dollars for project of the day.Get back to the basics and pay off all debts and then you will have pleny of cash to provide our “needed”services.

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