Stutsman County OKs bonds to pay for repairing roads

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The Stutsman County Commission authorized the issuing of bonds for its portion of the permanent road repairs damaged by 2010 and 2009 flooding. The county could borrow up to $2.74 million for the projects.

“This is like a construction loan. It’s a drawdown loan so you can draw principal as you need it,” said Jon M. Arntson, attorney with Arntson Stewart Wegner in Fargo, who helped walk the commission through the bonding process and sign the papers at its meeting Tuesday.

The North Dakota Public Finance Authority’s Capital Financing Program Disaster Loan is structured as a general obligation loan for the county. The loans help promptly provide counties and other political bodies affected by weather-related events with funds for repairs.

The terms of the Disaster Loan usually require a government to borrow $50,000 or 5 percent of the maximum, whichever is less, which would have been $50,000 in Stutsman County’s case. In this case, the Finance Authority has even waived its usual drawdown requirement. If the county does not require any of the $2.74 million, none of it will be borrowed, and no interest will be paid.

Stutsman County will pay its loan back with tax money.

The money will be used to repair 12 sites in Stutsman County where roads had to be raised due to high water in 2009 and 2010, and the projects will cost about $18 million. Eighty percent of that cost will be paid for with federal Emergency Road repair dollars, and $2.7 million is Stutsman County’s share of that.

In other business, the commission approved some position description reclassifications after The Archer Co. conducted a review of them. Grade increases involve a position and its responsibilities, and step increases generally involve longevity.

In the auditor’s office, the accounts and property coordinator and the auditor support assistant received a grade increase and the director of IT increased four grades.

In the Law Enforcement Center, the LEC administrator received three grade increases, the deputy LEC administrator received a grade increase and the administrative assistant received a step increase.

In the sheriff’s office, the sheriff, chief deputy and detectives received two grade increases, and majors and patrol sergeants received one grade increase. Some of the sheriff’s personnel had not received pay increases for previous promotions.

In other news Tuesday, the board:

* received copies of the on-site vulnerability assessments for the LEC and the courthouse, and agreed a vulnerability assessment for Social Services should also be done.

* accepted the resignation of Interim County Treasurer Jacki Lindell. The county hopes to absorb the job — which can be seasonal in nature — by making Renee Valenta the new interim treasurer and Lindsay Baumgartner the deputy interim treasurer.

* approved 2012 voting precincts and locations, which will remain the same as last year’s — Pingree Community Center, Kensal Memorial Hall, Medina Memorial Hall and the Jamestown Civic Center.

* appointed people to various boards, including Dale Reimers to the Weed Board, Anthony Roorda to the Water Resource Board, Rory Hoffmann to the Buffalo City Tourism Board, Sandy Bendewald to the Human Service Council and John Conway to the Social Services Board.

Sun reporter Kari Lucin can be reached at 701-952-8453

or by email at

klucin@jamestownsun.com

Tags: local news, news, county, roads