By Kevin Boneske
Staff Writer
SUAMICO – After closing the sale of the old Fire Station No. 1 property to Base Companies, LLC, and selling a 34.7-acre parcel the village owned to Ken’s Sports, Suamico will be using most of the money from those sales to pay off bonds early.
The Suamico village board unanimously approved a resolution Monday, April 19, to authorize the partial redemption of $6.265 million in general obligation refunding bonds issued in 2014.
In response to the board being interested in paying off existing debt with revenue received from the two land sales, Village Administrator Alex Kaker said the village is now able to pay off the portion of the 2014 refunding bonds scheduled to mature in 2025 for $565,000.
Kaker said the resolution allocates $567,495, which includes $565,000 for the 2025 maturity and interest of $2,495 from May 1 to the redemption date of May 24.
“By doing so, the village will be able to save about $73,000 in total interest payments,” he said. “If you were to do that, there’s still remaining about $37,000 that could be allocated as the board wishes. If the board does not allocate those funds specifically, they’d be placed in the general fund, and assuming there’s a surplus at year-end, that would go into the equipment replacement reserve.”
Trustee Michelle Eckert called the village’s paying off debt early “awesome.”
“I think it’s awesome we’re paying off debt,” she said. “That (remaining $37,000) will be needed anyway, because… our reserve fund is getting low.”
Kaker said the village received around $325,000 for selling the old Fire Station No. 1 at 1745 Riverside Dr. to Base Companies, LLC, which received board approval to convert the .587-acre site into a brewpub.
“Part of that was covering attorney fees and environmental studies, but the total check was about $325,000,” he said.
When including the land sale at 1672 Summerfield Ct. to Ken’s Sports, Kaker said total proceeds from the two property sales generated almost $616,000, though about $10,500 of that reimbursed the village’s general fund for surveys and legal fees, leaving $605,146 for the board to use as it wishes.
The Suamico Fire Department last month moved into the new Fire Station No. 1, which has more than 20,000 square feet with two stories and six apparatus bays on a 1.9-acre site at 3270 W. Deerfield Ave.
Kaker provided the board a cost summary of the new fire station, which as of April 14 with 96.63 percent of the project completed, total expenditures came to $6,320,434 of the $6,540,938 projected cost, based on invoices submitted for payment and/or contracts awarded.
Though proceeds from the sale of the old Fire Station No. 1 are being used to pay off debt the village incurred prior to the new station being built, Trustee Sky Van Rossum said the village realistically could have lowered to cost of the new station by around $325,000.
“That’s the choice, the calculus, that were making, obviously,” he said. “I’m fine, we’ve already discussed this and gone through it, but you know, as we’re getting toward 96.63 percent completion on our fire station, and we need to be looking on the final cost of this, and realistically that $325,000 is disposable income that we’re deciding needs to go towards this debt, rather than towards this fire station.”
Finance Director Jessica Legois said the village would have to wait at least eight years before it could make any prepayments to pay off debt early on bonding for the new fire station.