The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Library seeks new bonding option
ONEIDA, N.Y. » An alternative bonding option to finance the new Oneida Public Library was introduced at Tuesday night’s Oneida City Common Council meeting.
Following approval by the OPL Board of Directors in March, President Rick Kinsella has been travelling to various municipal- ities within the OPL district, which has the same footprint as the Oneida City School District.
Tuesday, he made his Oneida visit, delivering a presentation on the new bonding resolution, requesting that the Oneida Common Council research and adopt the new proposal.
The new proposal, Kinsella explained, would include pro rata financing instead of the joint-financing route selected under the original proposal. Under the pro rata financing option, each municipality in the library district would only be responsible only for its share.
For instance, the City of Oneida constitutes the largest municipality in the OPL district footprint, making up nearly 62 percent of the special district. Under the pro rata resolution, an option previously not available, Oneida would not be expected to make up the difference if the Town of Lincoln, representing 2 percent of the OPL district, failed or refused to cover its share.
“Under joint and several financing they would have been just as responsible as the City of Oneida for picking up the share if any of the municipalities for one reason or another were unable to meet their financial obligations,” Kinsella said.
As it stands, Kinsella said the maximum amount Oneida taxpayers owning property in the city would be expected to pick up is $3.01 million, but that amount is expected to decrease some because of OPL private funds, grants, donations and pledges. With those assets, the price tab for the city would drop to $2.3 million, representing an annual tax of $135,600 per year.
In addition to not being forced
to pick up the slack for other municipalities, the move to adopt a pro rata resolution would also result in lower interest rates for bond anticipation notes.
“As time is going on the construction costs are increasing, financing is likely to increase, we are capped at the amount the referendum approve so we can’t simply inflate our cost as those costs go up. We’re going to be having to work within the cap,” Kinsella said.
Because of the site preparation already completed by OPL contractors, the maximum cost of the new bond resolution would also drop from $6.12 million to $5.02 million.
Kinsella noted that at this point, delays in the project are costly to all par- ties, citing the following:
• interest rates will be higher;
• construction costs will increase;
• potential loss of time restrictive grants already approved;
• additional legal expenses for all taxpayers in Vernon and Verona.
And while the OPLwaits to hear the results regarding litigation with the towns of Vernon and Verona, with such cost increases looming, the OPL is facing crunch time and may ultimately select the quickest avenue. In addition to the previously adopted resolution and newly proposed pro rata bonding, the OPL can also pursue funding through the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York. The DASNY option would be the most expensive route as Kinsella estimated it would cost an additional $800,000 to $1 million to taxpayers as a result of higher administrative costs.
The OPL board president said, “The quickest we can move forward with the financing and construction of the project, the better facility we will be able to build for what will be the same cost to the taxpayers. We are asking you to support the revised bonding resolution and we will go forward with our project under whichever scheme of financing, whether it be this resolution, the DASNY resolution, or going back to the original resolution that you passed, whichever avenue comes to us first, we are going to pursue that.”
Even if the city adopts the new resolution, the previous 2015 resolution would remain.
Before any construction begins, the OPL would still need approval from all of the municipalities in its special district, even Ver- non and Verona, to pursue either option.
“All of the municipalities have to agree to go forward,” Kinsella said.
“So [the new option] still hangs up on Vernon and Verona then, right?” asked Ward 3 Councilor Erwin Smith.
“There’s certainly the potential for that, and we’re hopeful because this is for a smaller amount and it addressed some of the concerns and because in the long run the library is going to be built and the longer we drag this out we don’t save any dollars, we just get less of a facility for the cost, we are going to convince them it is in their best interest and their constituents’ best interst to approve it,” Kinsella said.
The OPL was established as a special library in 1996, and the City of Oneida approved the first bonding resolution in 2015.