At the final Perry City Council meeting of 2017, there will be a public hearing regarding a guarantee agreement with the “Nudgers” group.

Mayor Jay Pattee, who is also a founding member of Nudgers, explains the guarantee agreement was started when the group needed to take out a mortgage loan on the building adjacent to the movie theater. The bank was hesitant to give the nonprofit group a loan, so they asked for a guarantee. The City approved the initial guarantee in the amount of $750,000, which if the Nudgers needed to access would have come from tax increment financing (TIF) funds. However, since making the agreement and receiving the loan, the Nudgers have yet to take any money from the TIF funds.

Since the group has been able to pay down on the mortgage, they have gradually decreased the guarantee amount, and the amount on the newest agreement will only be $350,000. Pattee further explains, “This is not money the City’s giving to this group, it’s money that is just guaranteed on the loan. And it’s the Nudgers that are decreasing that loan through the years, and eventually will own the building when the mortgage is finally paid off. But due to the grants that they got to work on this building, they have to maintain ownership for 15 years, which that’s already in progress. At the end of that period of time, the building can be sold to someone who hopefully will take the improved building and continue the process of upkeep and maintenance of that building. And if that can happen to every building downtown, we’ll have a beautiful downtown.”

The public hearing will be held on Monday, December 18th at 6 p.m. To learn more about this and other City of Perry topics, listen to the two-part Perry Fareway Let’s Talk Dallas County program with Pattee at RaccoonValleyRadio.com.