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Show bljyiLi?llii(li!l dilliilll iilllliil ..Hi Lib! y I iiii&iiiiiday uuLiullSil By GARY R. BLODGETT CENTERVILLE Seldom have I, as a newspaper reporter for the past quarter century, experienced Democracy in action quite like I did last week in Centerville. INSTEAD OF v, alking out of a city council coun-cil meeting shaking my head in disbelief as 1 sometimes do throughout the county 1 left Centervillc's council meeting feeling real good. 1 thought to myself, and expressed to others in the parking lot, that the Centervil- le Council had handled a very complex and controv etsial problem in a very professional profession-al manner. DESPITE A split vote (4-1) which rejected re-jected a bond sale of Sw.1.000 at 10.68 percent per-cent interest for a new storm drain project, there was very little emotion among the council and May or Golden Allen. 1: w as obvious by their remarks that they had differences of opinions, even those that rejected the bid did so because of various reasons. But there was no ridicule, no name-calling, no rude remarks. . . MYBE IT w as because the council had . studied the problem w ith input from fis-cal fis-cal and legal counsel weekly for more than three months before final action was : taken. . , Their discussions w ere deep: every angle was studied. Even after the final vote was v taken, the council (alter rejecting the bid) agreed to seek a "last-ditch" negotiation . with local banks in an attempt to obtain a consolidated bid from several local institutions. institu-tions. ' - THERE'S ONE thing you can say for the " entire council they went down fighting! The mayor and every council member wanted that storm drain project, the curb. " -gutter and sidewalk special improvement " district that tied in with the storm drain .' problem and the $600,000 bonding prop osal. BUT THEY didn't want to jeopardize the city's financial position, nor did they want to place all its citizens in a financial burden that may have proved disastrous. You could see each council member bite his lip, squirm a little and talk softly about his feelings. It was a delicate situation for any council to be placed in. But a decision had to be made, and there was no way out. ONE-BYone the council expressed their opinions then voted 'yea" or "nay" to the issue. Councilman Dennis B. Knoles was the only one to vote in favor of the bonding. He said that the vote should not be based entirely on the extreme high interest rate of the single bid that was submitted. '"IS THE project really essential to the community and if so. how much more w ill it cost if the project is delayed for six months or a year?" he asked. "I feel that we had exceptionally good bids from the general contractor, bids below be-low the engineer's estimate, and it's certain we'll neverget bids like that again. I believe that inflation will continue to increase to a point that even with a low er bond interest at a later date, the construction costs w ill be so much greater that the entire project will cost more later than to accept this bid today." LIKE MOST councilmen. Norman R. Wright made it clear that he had "mixed feelings" about the proposal: "If we don't accept this bond bid, w e'll lose a real good contract bid and a chance to get this project under way." he said. Then Councilman Wright paused before continuing: "BUT IE the economy goes into a slump, a serious recession or depression, the city should not be in debt. We have to seriously consider what the city will lose compared to what the payments will be with the high interest rates and that's almost impossible impossi-ble to figure." Councilman Knoles said he was also "misled" about the city's present financial status. "I THOUGHT we were in excellent financial shape, with a surplus of money, and now I find out this is not so. This changes my thinking considerably," he said. Councilman Robert Arbuckle could be seen writing down figures, leaning back in his chair, then writing down more figures. Both sides of his "doodling pad" were filled. "I JUST can't seem to make things work out," he said, as a matter-of-fact. "This interest rate has increased the payment from SS0.OOO more than I had expected. I don't see where the city is coming up with that kind of money when we are having a struggle meeting expenses without the bond." He noted that it would require about 587.000 per year average for the next 15 years to retire the bond indebtedness. This is equivalent to a 5-mill levy increase to property taxes. COUNCILMAN Kenneth T. Holman explained ex-plained that the bond indebtedness was supposed to be paid off with revenues other than property tax. Sales tax was supposed to be the primary revenue. "But after a personal audit of the city's finances, I find that during the last four months the city has borrowed nearly S 100,000 just to operate the city," he said. "I think it would be morally wrong to take on more debt at such a high interest rate." COUNCILMAN Dale Ford said he w anted the project in the beginning but he has since changed his mind. "I feel like some of the others," he said. "If the nation's economy goes into a depression, de-pression, the city could be placed in a let of finanical trouble. Besides, I don't want to FT V3K.-V Mi w I hfcln aim .ni an ii.iUfci.i put this extra burden on our citizens. It's just not fair." H.M. CROFT, representing Dunn Construction Con-struction Co., who was low bidder on the combined projects, was a real gentleman about the council's action. He had been awarded the contract totaling $1.3 million mil-lion for the storm drain and special improvement im-provement projects. After extending his contractual agreement agree-ment for 30 days, to April 15, and turning down jobs that could have made him money during the interim, he told the council coun-cil that his firm would not seek legal action. THERE'S NO question but what he has a legal opportunity to sue Centerville City but he says he won't do this, said Mayor Allen. "It's true that I have lost additional money because I turned down opportunities opportuni-ties for otherjobs," said Mr. Croft. "And I have kept on a full staff of employees during dur-ing the slow times in anticipation of this job. I wanted to be ready to start work next week." MR. CROFT told the council that he will have to lay off some of his men because of lack of construction jobs. "Yes, I'm disappointed at not being able to do the job after getting the low bid last January, but I'll be back bidding on more jobs," he told the council. KENT MICHIE, fiscal agent for the city representing Burrows, Smith and Co., said the 10.68 percent interest rate is extremely high "but I still believe it will be cheaper to do the job at this rate now than to rebid it later." Mayor Allen concluded that the city "has worked hard and long and in good faith to put together this project, but things just didn't work out that way." AND THIS reporter can add, "amen to that." |