County issues $10 million in new bonds

State-of-art communications and emergency management center planned on Jackson St.

Bastrop County last week issued nearly $10 million in certificate of obligation bonds to pay for several projects, including a new state-of-the-art communications and emergency management center.

The proposed center is planned to go up on Jackson Street south of the Tax-Assessor Collector and Development Services building.

The facility will serve as a hub for disaster planning and response and will also include offices for information technology. The building is expected to cost about $8 million.

Currently, the information technology department is housed in the basement of the Bastrop County Courthouse Annex, communications in the sheriff ’s office, and the office of emergency management in an old asbestos-ridden hospital on Loop 150. The county’s proposal is to bring them all under one roof as part of the county’s five-year capital improvement plan.

The county issued $9.6 million in debt to pay for the expense.

“This provides the funding we need for some very important projects we’ve been working on for a long time,” County Judge Paul Pape said.

The remaining $1.6 million in bond money will be used to upgrade technology infrastructure throughout the county and fund the construction as well as to build offices at an emergency shelter set to go up at Mayfest Park, including space for AgriLife Extension and the Bastrop County Long-Term Recovery Team.

Any remaining money will be used for road projects.

The bonds sold May 8 were issued at a 2.64 percent interest rate, the lowest the county has seen in its history, County Auditor Lisa Smith said. The last time the county issued a bond was in 2014 for $2.5 million at a 3.2 percent interest rate.

“There is some very positive commentary from the ratings agency about what you guys are doing,” said John Crumrine of Public Financial Management, which advised Bastrop County on the bond sale. “There is a tremendous amount of growth that is taking place here. I think that bodes well for the future. Obviously, they understand what a good job you guys do.”

Certificate of obligation bonds are like emergency loans that do not require voter approval. The county typically issues them every two years to pay for improvement projects.

The money from the current bond sale will be made available to the county May 31.

However, commissioners in March approved spending funds to pay for the capital improvement projects ahead of the bond sale. It allowed them to purchase more than $250,000 in muchneeded IT equipment, Smith said, which will be reimbursed when the bond funds become available.

As part of its capital improvement plan, the county also named additional projects to be completed over the course of five years, including a new judicial court complex, a law enforcement administration building and expanded jail.

It is likely the county will issue another round of bonds in 2019 and 2021 to pay for those projects.