Board to talk debt service
By Steve Herring
Published in News on April 18, 2016 1:46 PM
Wayne County could borrow up to $19 million to build the new Maxwell Regional Agricultural and Convention Center and a 911 call center.
On Tuesday morning, Wayne County commissioners will consider adopting resolutions that would allow the county to reimburse county expenditures for both projects from the proceeds of a tax-exempt financing.
The meeting will get under way at 8 a.m. followed by the formal session at 9 a.m. in the commissioners' meeting room on the fourth floor of the Wayne County Courthouse Annex.
"Under IRS rules, a county may adopt a resolution to reimburse expenditures it incurs on a project prior to issuing a debt instrument -- such as bonds or an installment purchase contract," County Manager George Wood said in a memo to commissioners. "This allows the county to reimburse from the debt instrument for expenses we incur before we actually issue the debt. We have done this on several other projects."
Both resolutions are for the maximum amount that the county might possibly debt finance for each project.
"That does not mean that is the final amount you would borrow," Wood said in the memo. "We simply want to make sure that we have the project fully covered."
According to the resolutions, $14 million for the agricultural center and $5 million for the 911 call center are the maximum principal amounts of debt "reasonably expected to be incurred" for the purpose of paying the respective project costs.
Commissioners have yet to select a debt-financing option for either project.
The county has set aside $4 million for the agricultural center and has applied for USDA loans/grants totaling $2.6 million.
The 10-year, zero-interest loans account for $2 million of the total. The county also plans to seek federal funding as well.
Another funding source will be the revenues from the countywide 1 percent hotel occupancy tax commissioners approved last October. The tax was effective Dec. 1.
Convergent Nonprofit Solutions is conducting a fundraising campaign for the project. The county also plans to seek state and federal funding.
A groundbreaking could be held in early June for the facility that will be located on a 12-acre site on North Wayne Memorial Drive just north of Wayne Community College.
HH Architecture of Raleigh is designing the project and T.A. Loving Co. of Goldsboro is the project construction manager at risk.
In February, commissioners awarded an $18,300 contract to Stewart, Cooper and Newell Architects of Gastonia for a study of five possible options for a new 911 call center.
All five sites are on county-owned property at or near the county's facilities building near the old Wayne Community College campus.
The options are:
* Renovate two buildings in front of the facilities office and possibly add on to the buildings.
* Renovate the facilities office and move that department elsewhere.
* Renovate the existing brick building at the communications tower site.
* Build a new building behind the animal shelter.
* Build near the communications tower.
If renovation/addition is selected, the fee will be 9.5 percent of the actual construction cost. If new construction is chosen, the design fee will be 8.25 percent of the actual construction cost.
Once the new site is completed, the existing center will become a back-up site.
Also on Tuesday's agenda, is an update on the county's 25-30 year long-range multi-modal transportation plan.
The presentation will be made by James Upchurch, North Carolina Department of Transportation Southeast Planning supervisor with the Planning Branch.
The plan includes highway, public transportation, bicycle and pedestrian components for Mount Olive, Seven Springs, Eureka, Fremont and areas not covered by the Goldsboro Metropolitan Planning Organization.
In other business, commissioners will consider motions to:
* Approve the purchase of a used cargo van to be shared by the Board of Elections and Facilities Maintenance and accompanying budget amendment.
* Approve additional personnel for WayneNET due to additional contracts and appropriate budget amendment ,
* Adopt a resolution authorizing the Wayne County Development Alliance to engage a commercial real estate broker to market approximately 38 acres at the ParkEast Industrial Park as commercial property and to obtain an appraisal as commercial property.
* Approve a request from the Wayne County Development Alliance for engineering and construction to make Lot No. 8 in ParkEast Industrial Park "pad ready."
* Approve a recommendation from the Wayne County Development Alliance to complete the Brownfields Agreement for the Advanced Manufacturing Center and approve an accompanying $30,400 budget amendment.
Consent agenda items include: Application for Present Use Value; North Carolina Governor's Highway Safety Program local governmental resolution; award bid for remounted ambulances to Select Custom Apparatus; budget amendments.
Public comment will start at 9:15 a.m. when speakers will have four minutes to comment on agenda items and two minutes on non-agenda items. Speakers must sign up 10 minutes before the state of the board session.
The board will recess the meeting in order to have lunch with the Pikeville Town Board at Danny Ray's, 101 S. Goldsboro St., Pikeville at noon.