San Angelo City Council will consider approving short term tax notes to fund Animal Shelter renovations and another traffic related project. The Council background packet cites three different numbers for the tax notes, $1.7 million, nearly $2 million and just over $2.5 million.
A public information request revealed a $55,000 cost to issue the notes and $32,000 in interest expenses over the six month life of the note. Given the interest rate in the document the six month cost is nearly $60,000. Staff should update the issuance cost and expected interest expense for Council next week.
The City has ample fund balances and could avoid these financing costs. A low cost spay/neuter program could fix many pets with $100,000. It would be a far better use of those funds.
Update 3-22-23: The City's bond attorney wrote in an e-mail after Council person Tommy Hiebert forwarded my e-mail to City Council regarding the conflicting numbers:
The $2,560,000 is a typo (my apologies) and should have been bracketed. $1,995,00 is the estimated amount, but we bracketed that because it will depend on the bids received. I’m not sure what the “financing schedule” is?
No member of City Council replied to my communication raising this issue. It took a public information request to obtain this information.
....the bid phase is delayed to May 2024 with estimated construction completion in November 2024.
Update 5-21-24: Construction Manager Al Torres told City Council the construction documents would be completed in 30 days and then the project could be put out to bid. That's late June 2024.
A new project is $120,000 make ready for the temporary shelter facility and $113,000 in staff to operate both facilities.
Update 12-3-24: Mr. Torres informed City Council that an electrical change order is needed for the permanent shelter renovation. Morgan will bring that change order to Council on December 17th. Once approved the engineers need four weeks to complete the redesign. The project can then go out for bid. Construction is expected to begin in February 2025 and will take six to nine months to complete. The temporary shelter is expected to be completed prior to construction starting on main shelter operations.
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