Disappearing federal road funds, road projects on Seward County’s current 1- and 6-year roads plan, and the need to address road conditions attributed to overgrown ditches, rain storms and traffic damage is a lot to juggle.
The Seward County commissioners spent much of their Nov. 4 meeting deliberating next steps on county roads. First they heard about bond-financing options and deliberated how many roads should be included if that option is pursued and then revisited the county-wide issue of road repair and maintenance.
Bond offers financing option
Commissioners invited Brad Slaughter and Jay Spearman, managing directors from Northland Securities, to talk about potential bond-funding for the remainder of the paving project on 420th Road between Highway 34 and Interstate 80.
The county had received $3 million in previous federal grants for the project, which is expected to cost around $8 million total. Estimates put the balance needed around $4.5 million, although County Commissioner Raegan Hain said there is still a possibility for a $1 million grant through Rep. Mike Flood’s efforts.
But federal cuts have put a damper on plans to get additional road funding from state and federal sources.
Slaughter told commissioners they are in a good position to utilize bond financing because of their AA finance rating, and could issue $4.5 million in bonds for a five-year period at 3.5% interest, which would require an annual payment of $1 million, which requires about 2.4 cents levy.
Longer payback periods lower the annual payment but increase interest rates. For example, Slaughter said $4.5 million bonded over 10 years at 3.75% interest would cut yearly payments to $550,000 per year, or a 1.3-cent per $100,000 valuation levy, while the same amount over 15 years would get a 3.9% interest rate and require annual payments of $400,000 and a levy of just under 1 cent.
The county would be eligible for a small issue exemption for such bonding, which allows the board to authorize bonds without approval from voters, Slaughter said.
But the bonding opportunity raised a few questions among commissioners.
First, some commissioners said they are hesitant to consider issuing bonds without voter approval, noting that an earlier board of commissioners had issued bonds for the Seward County Justice Center in 2014, a few years after voters rejected a bond issue for the project, which caused some bad reactions.
Second, if the county is going to issue bonds to complete the 420th Road project for which federal funds were cut, commissioners questioned whether they should consider adding other high-need sections of roads, like those on Bluff Road, 252nd Road, 338th Road, Waverly Road, 254th Road and Old Cheney Road, to name a few.
Third, there were questions about the timing of a bond issue with or without a ballot issue. The county has a deadline for utilizing the $3 million federal grant it received for the 420th Road project, which recently completed its environmental analysis but for some steps that are on pause due to the federal shutdown. Otherwise they would be ready to move to next steps if funding were available.
Commissioners also questioned the payoff period for the Justice Center’s bonds, which will be completed in 2033. Slaughter said if voters approved bonds in 2026, they would not be issued until 2027 or 2028 and pay off schedules could be structured to be smaller during the payoff for the previous bond.
After this discussion, Ahmic told commissioners no immediate decision was needed and the topic of financing for road work would be placed on a future agenda.
Strategy sought for road repair,
maintenance
The county’s efforts to repair and maintain roads across the county while struggling to maintain adequate staffing in the department were also on the agenda Nov. 4. Right now, Highway Superintendent Jon Regnier said his road maintenance crew is short three people, one due to illness and two vacancies.
The department has implemented a training program to retain and attract road maintainers and other drivers, but the market for these skills is competitive.
The commissioners recently considered hiring a contractor to do road repair while the county workers worked on routine maintenance on the 1,000 miles of county roads but costs were a concern.
After discussing some of the obstacles the Highway Department has faced Ahmic told commissioners and county staff “something has to change.”
She asked Commissioner Hain, Regnier and Assistant Highway Superintendent Trever Trebilcock to meet and bring a plan back to the commissioners.
