The City of Jefferson recently approved a purchase agreement to include funding for the animal shelter project.

City Administrator Mike Palmer says the Council approved at their March 23rd meeting $5.2 million purchase agreement with Piper Sandler and Company for general obligation corporate purpose and refunding of bonds, along with a taxable general obligation urban renewal bond.

“The breakdown of that is: $1.7 million is for the downtown (city-owned buildings) and the balance is what we’re refinancing. By refinancing – the large portion –  we’re going to save about $265,000.”

Palmer notes that additional $400,000 for the animal shelter project will be added onto the City’s debt service levy for an increase of about $0.25 per $1,000 of property valuation for the next 2-3 years. He talks about having to start the bid process over for the animal shelter, after the Council rejected all bids earlier this year, with the lowest being over $1 million.

“The bottom line is that we have to put that out and re-bid it again. So we’re hoping to get that done in a relatively short period of time. Hopefully the bidding atmosphere has improved quite a bit since the last time we tried this.” 

Palmer adds, the City now has about $1 million via bond funds and private donations that they can hopefully start with construction later this year.