Council approves $8.86 million in bonds

By Kellen Olshefski

Correspondent

At its meeting Monday night, the City of Elkhorn Common Council voted in favor of issuing of $8.86 million in general obligation corporate purpose bonds to fund several projects slated for the near future.

James Mann of Ehlers, an independent municipal financial advisory company, provided councilmembers with a brief overview of what had been recommended.

Mann said the issuance could be broken down into three different components. About $3.64 million is being issued to fund street projects and about $2.6 million to fund the construction of a new Department of Public Works garage.

The third component is refunding the remaining outstanding bonds issued in 2008, about another $2.6 million. Mann said in refunding these bonds, it will save the city about $315,000 over the next 11 years.

“Because we’re financial people, we always look at what a $1 of savings is today versus what it is in the future, and its about a 10 percent net present value savings,” Mann said. “Our minimum threshold, really, to do a refunding like this, is around 3 percent.”

Mann said it would save the city about $28,000 each year over the next 11 years.

“It’s a pretty attractive refunding,” he said.

As for the effect on taxpayers for the issuance of the bond, Mann said with the existing debt, the new debt the city is issuing and refunding, the average taxpayer with a $170,000 home would be looking at about a $12 increase on their tax bill next year.

The four council members in attendance at Monday’s meeting – alderman Tom Myrin, Michael Kluck, Cathy Bensaid and Scott McClory – voted in favor of the individual resolutions for each of the three components, as well as a fourth resolution that encompassed all components, accounting for the full $8.86 million.

Other business

During committee reports Monday night, Alderman Bensaid informed councilmembers that the City of Elkhorn Legislative and Regulatory Committee met Sept. 7 to discuss the city’s Sex Offender Residency Ordinance as Pleasant Prairie, which has a similar ordinance, is facing litigation because of theirs.

Bensaid told councilmembers at this time, the committee decided to wait and see how things play out with similar cities in the area.

“I don’t think it’s going to go away, but I think it’s just a little bit too early to just start planning what we want to be doing,” she said.

According to minutes from the meeting, Police Chief Joel Christensen again reiterated his concern that the ordinance is doing more harm than good, as it encourages offenders to violate the law by falsely reporting where they live and reporting as homeless.

The minutes said that Alderman Kluck agreed with Christensen’s statement, but also noted that with many surrounding municipalities having similar sex offender residency ordinances, he fears if they were to rescind the ordinance, Elkhorn would be flooded with offenders.

At this time, the city’s sex offender residency ordinance remains intact and in place.