It only took a minute for the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors to sign off on a measure it believes may ultimately save the county $200,000 in bond payments.
Supervisors met Monday afternoon to resume discussion of refinancing of county bonds that will expire in 2022. The board agreed to approve documents presented by Lee Hill of Baker-Donelson Law Firm and consultant Steve Pittman.
The board authorized the two to work with county administrator Ralph Billingsley to find lenders to back the remaining $7 million on those bonds, which expire in seven years. The proposal passed unanimously.
“This is the third or fourth time we’ve done this since the interest rates started going down,” Billingsley said after the short meeting, which was technically a recess meeting of the Jan. 5 regular board meeting. “At the very minimum of a 2 percent rate reduction, which is mandated by state law, we would save about $20,000 per month. But with the interest rates as low as they are, we should do better than that. Somewhere in the neighborhood over $200,000 over the remaining term of the bonds.”
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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