Farmington Refinances Bond Issue

FARMINGTON — Farmington School Board authorized the issuance of $3.7 million in bonds at its June 20 meeting.

The Board in May approved a resolution to start the process to refund a 2011 bond issue and issue new bonds.

Kevin Faught with Stephens Inc. Public Finance in Fayetteville said the net savings for Farmington in refinancing the bond issue will be about $533,000, with almost $500,000 of that realized by 2019.

Stephens opened bids to sell the bonds on June 16. Raymond James & Associates of Dallas, Texas, submitted the lowest interest rate of 2.28 percent. This compares to an interest rate of 3.92 percent on the 2011 bond issue.

The debt service for the school district will be an average annual payment of $260,000, Faught said. The payment for the first three years will be much lower than this.

In other business, Superintendent Bryan Law reported the school will end 2015-16 in better financial shape than projected. He estimated Farmington would be able to transfer $400,000 in surplus money to its capital improvement account for construction projects.

Board members approved two change orders for phase 2 of the new high school. The change orders total about $3,300.

A representative with Crossland Construction said work crews on phase 2 lost 18 days in May due to rain but construction is back on schedule now. Concrete has been poured for the foundation and first level floors and people driving by will soon be able to see the new high school building going up.

Board members briefly discussed the high school’s cooling unit, which apparently has had problems from the beginning. Law said he probably would recommend repairing the 17-year-old unit for $50,000 as a band-aid solution to last several years and then look at replacing the cooler. A new unit would cost about $300,000.

Board President Jeff Oxford asked that the district start putting back money each year to build up an account to pay for a new cooling unit for the high school.