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Lake Jackson gains higher financial rating
Published November 5, 2009
LAKE JACKSON — With the sale of a bond and certificates of obligation, construction on three wells and the next phase of downtown revitalization is set to begin in the spring.
For now, though, city officials are happy to celebrate interest rate savings that are a benefit of its good financial rating. The city will save $42,000 by refinancing one bond and even more money by obtaining a low interest rate on the others.
Lake Jackson received an AA-plus general obligation bond financial rating, slightly better than its previous AA rating, City Manager Bill Yenne said.
“It’s one of the highest ratings possible to obtain,” said Joe Marrow, city financial adviser. “An AA-plus rating is a big deal, it really, really is.”
City Council at its meeting Monday approved selling $5 million in certificates of obligation for downtown revitalization and $1.69 million in revenue bonds to build three wells. Members also approved refinancing the $850,000 left from the 1993 and 1996 utility bonds.
The certificates of obligation were sold at a 3.8 percent interest rate, Yenne said. That money will be repaid using the city’s half-cent sales tax option, he said.
Downtown revitalization will include work to This Way, That Way, Parking Way and Center Way. Contracts will be awarded and work will begin in early spring after engineering is complete. Engineers are about 80 percent finished with the plans, he said.
The $1.69 million in revenue bonds was sold at a 4.13 percent interest rate, Yenne said. The bond issue will pay for two wells to be replaced, one on Oyster Creek Drive and one on Oak Drive, and one new well to be built in the Dunbar Park area. The city is required to build the new well to comply with Texas Commission on Environmental Quality standards.
City Council soon will decide exactly where the new well will be placed, Yenne said.
Revenue bonds do not require a public vote and will be paid for with the recent increase in city water and sewer rates, Yenne said.
In addition, by refinancing the remaining principal of the 1993 and 1996 utility bonds, the city saved $42,000, he said.
In other business Monday, City Council:
APPROVED: Charging restaurants with a mixed beverage license a $150 annual fee. This option to hold a restaurant mixed beverage license instead of a private club license was approved by voters in 2007, City Secretary Alice Rodgers said.
The state charges restaurants a $6,000 initial fee for the license, a $4,500 first-year renewal, then a $3,000 second-year renewal. Restaurants then are charged $1,500 every two years. The city can charge up to half of what the state charges, Rodgers said.
The $150 annual fee will cover administrative costs, Yenne said.
APPROVED: The first reading of an ordinance prohibiting U-turns, stopping, standing, parking, loading and unloading of vehicles on the southbound lane of Lake Road from Canna Lane to Oak Drive and the northbound lane of Lake Road from the northern exit of Rasco Middle School to Oak Drive as well as in the Recreation Center parking lot.
Parents can continue to park and wait in the Recreation Center parking lot as well as pick up their children on the northbound lane of Lake Road from Canna Lane to the northern exit of Rasco Middle School.
City officials asked council to consider the ordinance because they feared parents were picking up their children in dangerous places.
Katlynn Lanham covers Lake Jackson for The Facts. Contact her at 979-237-0150.
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