Kane County Reporter

The village of South Elgin board of trustees heard a presentation about the funding options that may be available for the construction of a new police station and awarded a $14.5-million construction contract for its completion.

Eric Anderson of Piper Sandler told the board that interest rates have come down in recent months, he presented different options for funding and borrowing, and told the board what the interest rates and expenses would be for each over a given time period. In each scenario, he said, the trustees would have the ability to call the bonds after 9 years, after which more funding options would be available.

Anderson compared 15-year plans to 20-year plans, which meant a difference of $1.3 million extra in debt payments over the additional five years, but he added that "since there's no levy, we have no deadlines," he said.

Anderson laid out a possible timeline for the board for the adoption of any borrowing.

"You could, at your next meeting, actually, adopt the notice of intent to issue alternate revenue source bonds, and then call for a buying hearing to be held" as well as public discussion in February, Anderson added.

After the public discussion of the funding options, the board would have different options, Anderson added.

"Then somewhere around March 6, it could be accelerated, it could be deferred," he said. "The village would be adopting a bond ordinance for the value of the bond" once the trustees have made a decision. He reiterated that the trustees have control over the project schedule.

"So, now that you have total control over the schedule, you can slow it down and you can modestly accelerate it as well," he said.

Anderson took questions from the board members, and he noted that most members would prefer a 15-year bond period so long as payments could be made. "And we can alter from that as we get closer, if the board wishes," he added, to either shorten or lengthen the bond period. The larger question was the amount, however, as the village would also have to decide whether to accept a bond amount between $7 million and $9 million.

Later, the board voted to approve the contract for construction and design of the police station, with an estimated cost of $14.5 million to Lamp Inc. to build the station, with 7% of fees going to Kluber Inc. for its design work, or a total of just over $1 million for the designs.