May 5, 2017 3 min read

Washington officials are restructuring the city’s debt to pay for $2 million of infrastructure improvements, including road repairs.

“The city has bonds that are callable this year, which means we can pay them off and issue new bonds at a lower (interest) rate,” said PNC Bank financial adviser Nick Falgione, who is working with the city. “We’ll take part of those bonds and smooth out the city’s debt so it goes out one more year. All the city’s debt pays off in 2025, which is pretty fast for a city. And it will basically set it up so that there is no budget impact for the projects.”

The funds generated will be used for repairs to Henderson Avenue, followed by Burton, Michigan and East avenues. The stormwater drops on Jefferson Avenue will be addressed, allowing for the state Department of Transportation to fix the road, which is plagued by potholes. Councilman Ken Westcott said the $2 million should cover the cost to fix all of the municipality’s roads.

“The city is now going to have money to make those repairs. If we don’t do this, we’re stuck doing 10 blocks a year,” said Westcott. “This is a way to try to get ahead and improve all the streets in the city.”

About $150,000 is budgeted annually for street improvements, which is not enough to “do what needs to be done” to the 100-plus-year-old stormwater system, said Westcott.

“To put that in perspective, it costs $10,000 per block to do an overlay – that’s not milling or the other things we really need to do. We can only do 15 blocks a year. This is an opportunity not only to improve our streets, but also improve the infrastructure that, at this point, is antiquated and needs to be replaced.”

Westcott anticipates the first five projects will cost $800,000 to $900,000.

After the bonds are sold, the money should be available in July.

“This is a creative way for us to pay for these improvements,” Westcott said after a city council meeting Thursday.

In other business, council approved a civil service eligibility list for sergeant and lieutenant in the police department.

Also, the collective bargaining agreement with International Firefighters Local 2218 was approved, retroactive to Jan. 1, 2016, and effective until Dec. 31, 2019. Councilman Joe Manning said the agreement includes small pay raises for the city’s 21 firefighters. The firefighters also will pay health insurance deductibles. Health care was previously provided at no cost.