Lennox cannot afford a new swimming pool. That was the news given to the council by city finance officer Jerry Jones at Monday night’s meeting.
“When it comes to financing—this is not going to be a popular statement—the community cannot afford a pool without affecting a lot of other things,” said Jones.
Jones has been researching various options for funding a new pool for many months. He’s considered using several different sources, but problems arise when you consider the City’s other projects and the City’s debt limit.
“We don’t want to take away from something that’s a must for this community,” said Jones.
The main project ahead of the City is a $2.73 million Main Street Project that is scheduled for 2017. Keeping that project in mind while considering the pool project, Jones came up with the following finance options:
Option #1 for the Main Street Project:
• Pledge Sewer User fees, each customer will be charged a $8.66 monthly user fee for total increase of $103.83 per customer per year
• Main Street SRF Loan-$l,873,000 would equal to $97,973.08 annual payment which equals to the $8.66 sewer user fee per month to meet the 110% requirement set by the State DENR
• No affect to the debt limit on the general fund side which will leave approximately 3,291,351 for pool debt service
Option #2 for the Main Street Project:
• Pledge Storm Sewer assessment, the current storm sewer assessment will make the payment and no or minimum increase will be needed from the public but
• The storm sewer assessment will go against the city debt service limit for the general fund side which will leave only approximately $1,418,351 for pool debt service
• Another option available with this option would be to increase the general fund debt, by public vote of the public from 5% to 10% or approximately $4,419,247 to $8,838,494 and use general obligation bonds which will be paid for by increasing the mill levy to the public by the passage of a property tax opt-out;
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