RENO COUNTY — The Board of County Commissioners on Wednesday approved looking at how much it would cost to bond on three building projects that county staff would like to see be able to be bonded together.
According to agenda documents, there have been discussions of the Sheriff’s Office shooting range Phase II that consists of a training building. Phase I is almost complete and consists of the shooting platform and awning. Reno County Sheriff’s Office is requesting consideration to move forward on Phase II. If the commission agrees to move forward, the Sheriff’s Office will be in contact with Hutton Construction to revise details and cost estimates to get to an amount not to exceed.
The Reno County Administrator will then work to prepare documents for a short-term bond to pay for phase II and two fire district projects described below.
Fire District #7 in Turon and Fire District #3 in Nickerson both need a new fire station/building. FD 7’s station has an estimated cost of around $400k but needs to go out to bid to follow county policy.
The district will pay all but about $150,000 of this from their reserve fund. FD 7’s reserve fund has a balance of $341,530. This reserve fund has been built up for both the cost of new trucks/engines and also to prepare for the need of a building that has been discussed for several years.
Emergency Management would like to keep at least $100,000 in the reserve fund for non-building costs.
FD 3 (Nickerson) has been discussing a new station for well over four years. Emergency Management and FD 3’s Chief feel the new building can be built similar to the one for FD 7 (Turon), which is smaller and a better cost than what was proposed four years ago.
A few years ago, they had an estimated cost of approximately $1 million to build a new station. If they used a building similar to what FD 7 is requesting, the cost would be closer to $400,000, though the county has not gone out for quotes on this building. The reserve fund balance for FD 3 is $313,020. Like FD 7, the FD 3 reserve fund does not have enough to cover the entire cost but can use around $200,000 to go toward the building cost.
The remaining amount for both districts will need to be financed.
Partington has researched the avenues to finance such a small amount that allows for a short-term pay off. His goal as expressed to the commission would be a five year bond at 3% interest, as the current reserve funds are earning 5% interest, so the county would come out ahead, theoretically, instead of paying cash. The plan is to get more recent quotes for both the fire district buildings, so there is a more concrete amount that needs to be financed. The financing must be determined before a contract is signed for the building purchases and installation.
Commissioners approved that step on a 4-1 vote, with John Whitesel voting against the motion, because he would rather see the projects saved for in advance instead of bonded.
A final full amount is not yet available, though the back of the napkin estimate given by Partington was around $1.7 million, give or take.
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