WEST POINT — Selectman decided Tuesday to authorize issuing $2.25 million in general obligation bonds to improve and pave streets.
They plan to initiate the sell of the bonds at their June 9 meeting. The city will repay the debt semi-annually over a maximum of 15 years.
However, the city has not formally set the priority list for streets the bond will improve.
Before the June 9 meeting, each of the city’s five selectmen will submit proposals to Mayor Robbie Robinson highlighting what streets they feel need the most attention in their particular ward.
“We’re going to distribute that money equally,” said Ward 5 Selectman Jasper Pittman, who is on the board’s finance committee along with Ward 4 Selectman Keith McBrayer.
“No ward is top priority over another one,” Pittman added. “Everybody is going to submit their list and negotiate it. All streets need to be done, but with the hard winters and the dry summers, a lot of these streets really need repairs.”
Meanwhile, Robinson said the money will have to be prioritized for certain streets over others.
“There’s not going to be enough money to pave everything,” he said.
The mayor pointed to West Point’s Main and Broad streets as the areas most in need of repairs.
“Those are high-traffic areas,” Robinson said. “Our north division will not be fully paved, but it will be dug out in places where it’s failing. Beyond that, we’ll get into some of the neighborhoods with what we can afford to do.”
This will be the city’s second bond used for road construction in the last three years and the third outstanding bond overall. Robinson said in 2017 the city borrowed $1.4 million for street paving, a bond that also has a life of 15 years. The 2017 bond stretched across roughly eight miles in city limits.
West Point isn’t the first city in the Golden Triangle to borrow money for street paving. Columbus, for example, is still paying off balances totaling more than $15 million for bonds issued for street work in 2010, 2014 and 2016. All of those bonds have 20-year terms.
Pittman said he doesn’t want West Point to mirror Columbus in that respect.
“Part of my goal is to make sure we stay under that line instead of over that line,” Pittman said. “In order to do that, you have to use a poor man’s equation: If you don’t got it, you don’t spend it.”
Robinson said he’s unsure of another way to secure funding needed for roadwork than to use general obligation bonds.
“You just have to be conservative,” he said. “You want to pay your bonds off in less than 20 years, preferably in 10 to 15 years. Ten years is a little too aggressive for us, that’s why we’re going with 15 years. If you can pay off the bonds in 15 years or less, that’s ideal.
“In terms of sustainability, look, it’s the only way we can get enough money to pave the streets,” Robinson added. “It’s an expensive proposition. To just repave Main Street … we’re talking somewhere in the $500,000 to $600,000 range.”
Robinson said West Point received a $46,000 internet use tax payment in January, and expects to receive one of equal or greater value in July. That may be used to help foot the cost of the bonds.
“We could spend it for that. … It would come into play,” Robinson said. “We could use it for a project, or we could use some of the money to pay some of the principal on the interest on the bonds when the payments are due. As long as it’s (being spent) for infrastructure.”
Hodge is the former sports editor for The Dispatch.
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