Cape Council approves restructuring of bonds for long-term savings

A restructuring of bonds will save the City of Cape Girardeau more than $600,000.

Cape Girardeau City Council gave final approval Tuesday night for city staff to refinance and restructure aspects of bonds issued in 2015.

The city issued $9,625,000 in special obligation bonds in 2015 to help support a variety of projects. Proceeds of the bonds were used to pay a portion of the costs for: renovating and equipping the new police headquarters adjacent to Arena Park; acquiring, constructing and equipping a transfer station; constructing the Cape Girardeau SportsPlex; renovating and improving two fire stations and purchasing firefighting equipment.

When the bonds were issued in 2015, they had an average interest rate of 3.32%. This interest rate is now relatively high, city finance director Dustin Ziebold said.

Under new terms, the interest rate on the bonds will drop to 1.99%.

In addition, city staff will pay off portions of the bonds related to Cape Girardeau SportsPlex and the new police headquarters.

The remaining portions of the bonds, those for the firefighting equipment and transfer station, will be restructured. Doing so changed the date of final maturity of the bond series from June 1, 2036, to June 1, 2032.

The combination of restructured payments and the lower interest rate will save the city $623,300, Ziebold explained.

"We're taking the interest savings from that difference in interest rate," Ziebold said. "We're also paying a little more on our annual payments to create some more savings and have less interest charges since we're paying it a little sooner."

Over the last few months, city leadership has been looking for opportunities to save money with the city's long-term financing, according to Robbie Guard, Ward 4 representative and mayor pro tem.

"With the internet sales tax initiative and other tax initiatives, it's extremely important to look for cost saving measures, regardless if it's from seven years ago or not," Guard said.

With rising costs and inflation, Guard added, "It's going to be very important that we look at every avenue to save the taxpayer dollars."

Other action

• Century Casino received final approval of its amended final development plan. City code requires developers to submit a master development plan for all developments on parcels exceeding three acres in size. The amended plan accommodates changes made to the casino's proposed hotel.
• Council gave final approval to execute a digital imaging service agreement with 3 Scanning LLC. The Missouri secretary of state awarded the City of Cape Girardeau a $10,500 grant to help preserve the city's permanent, long-term or historically significant records by transferring them into digital images. Staff from 3 Scanning will complete the imaging services.