A standing room only crowd packed the Adams County Board room for the board's monthly meeting Tuesday night at the Adams County Courthouse. The board agreed to give the Quincy Public Library and the Mill Creek Water District a piece of the countyÕs $6.483 million in bonding authority for construction projects.
(H-W Photo/Philip Carlson)
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Published: 10/14/2009 | Updated: 10/21/2009
The Adams County Board reached a compromise Tuesday and agreed to give both the Quincy Public Library and the Mill Creek Water District a piece of the county’s $6.483 million in bonding authority for construction projects.
After considerable debate, the board voted 10-7 to award $5,533,000 in bond cap to the library and $950,000 to the water district, which is less than each had requested.
The library was seeking the entire $6.483 million, while the water district had requested half of it, or $3,250,000.
“We have a problem here,” said Kent Snider, a member of the board’s Finance Committee. “We have more wants than we have money.”
The board approved a Finance Committee recommendation to give 85 percent of the bond cap to the library in hopes that the Quincy City Council will continue to support the library’s construction proposal despite the lower bond cap.
The City Council last month voted 8-6 to approve an ordinance clearing the way for the sale of bonds, but this was done with the stipulation that the County Board provide the full amount of the bond cap requested by the library.
The library was hoping to get all of the bond cap that was issued to Adams County through the federal government's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Recovery zone bonds are attractive because they require the federal government to rebate up to 45 percent of the interest cost, which amounted to $400,000 in the library’s case.
However, Snider noted that the library will fill its funding gap by applying for Build America bonds, which are available to all public entities without restriction. Build America bonds offer a federal rebate of 35 percent.
Library officials say they will now push forward to seek $950,000 in Build America bonds. They also will go back to the City Council to seek approval of a revised ordinance calling for selling the same total amount of bonds, just configured a little differently.
Under this scenario, the library may have to bump up its projected tax increase by a slight amount to make up for the difference in rebate savings. Initial projections were forecasting a property tax increase of between 4 and 5 cents per $100 assessed valuation would be needed.
Nancy Dolan, executive director of the library, said library officials hope the City Council will agree to this arrangement, because she realizes some aldermen were unwilling to vote for the bond ordinance because they don’t want to see any tax increase.
“Whether or not the council will agree to use other bonds to make up the difference, we don’t know,” Dolan said. “It’s not a lot of difference, so I think they would. But I don’t know for sure.”
The County Board addressed the bond cap requests after hearing presentations from Dolan and from Charles Bach, an engineer from Poepping, Stone, Bach & Associates, who represented the Mill Creek Water District. Both explained details of how the entities planned to use the recovery zone bonds.
The board initially considered giving all of the county’s recovery zone bond cap to the library, but this motion was shot down, with six votes in favor, 11 against and three members absent. Board member Robert Scott, who also serves on the Mill Creek Water District’s governing board, abstained.
County Board member Theresa Bockhold then presented a motion to essentially split the bond cap allocation by giving the water district $3,250,000 and the library $3,233,000 — a move that would have required a more appreciable increase in property taxes for the library. However, this motion was amended into the final version that was ultimately adopted 10-7.
Voting in favor of the final motion were John Heidbreder, John Johnson, Mark Peter, Richie Reis, Nick Peters, Steve Schutte, Bill Cole, Randy Reis, Todd Duesterhaus and Snider.
Voting against the motion were Rick Gengenbacher, John Brady, Seldon Totsch, Lyle Nichols, Connie Sparks, Mike McLaughlin and Bockhold. Scott abstained. Joe Wand, John Hibbert and Matt Obert were absent.
Lynn Niewohner, president of the Library Board, said she was pleased to see the County Board give the library the bulk of the bond cap, even though it was less than the library had requested.
“Compromise is a form of government,” she said.
John Johnson, chairman of the Finance Committee, said the committee felt the compromise plan was fair because it will help both entities while also benefiting the public.
“I think it gives the citizens of Adams County a better bargain for their money because they will reap more of the benefits of the federal rebate,” he said.
— ehusar@whig.com/221-3378
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