Roads to Refinancing: Clinton County Commissioners Work Session Holds Discussions About Debt Management, Capital Projects, and ERAP Grant Application
By Emily Wright
LOCK HAVEN– Representatives from RBC Capital Markets LLC discussed refinancing county debt and authorizing capital projects at the Clinton County Commissioners work session Monday morning.
The refinancing will require a vote from the board during their voting session on Thursday, July 25, 2024. The loan comes with a five-year fixed rate of 4.95% interest and is set to close on August 28, 2024, after approval from the commissioners and processing through DCED. The first payment would not be due until April 2025, so there would be no impact on this year’s budget.
Jennifer Caron, a bond attorney from county-hired attorneys Eckert Seamans, provided the highlights of the debt ordinance. The ordinance authorizes the county to undertake capital projects described within it and also authorizes the county to incur a $6.4M non-electoral general obligation bond to fund the capital projects and pay issuance costs. The bond will have a tax-exempt 4.95% interest rate for the first five years, and the rate will be reset every five years at the bank’s prime rate until maturity in October 2044. The ordinance establishes a project account to hold the bond proceeds, which will be used to pay for the capital projects. If enacted on Thursday, the ordinance authorizes the county to file with the Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) for its 20-day approval process. During this time, Eckert Seamans will begin preparing the closing documents. If all goes according to schedule, closing is set for August 28, 2024.
County Engineer and Director of Planning Steve Gibson presented the commissioners with a resolution to apply for a $130,000.00 grant from the PA DCED Multimodal Transportation Fund. This grant would be used for the engineering, permitting, and right-of-way acquisition for a transportation project that the county has been working on for the past two years. The county applied for this grant last year but was not successful, so this is a new application with stronger exhibits and plans. “Our application is a little bit stronger because we worked a lot through the Transportation Alternative Set Aside Grant, so we have better exhibits and better ordinances and an idea of the scope of work we’re doing,” Gibson said.
Elizabeth Whitty, county grants project coordinator, presented the commissioners with a sub-recipient agreement with the Clinton County Housing Coalition and Clinton County Housing Authority for a supplemental allotment of $100,488.60 from the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP). This additional funding will allow the Housing Coalition and Authority to continue managing the ERAP program and help more Clinton County residents pay their rent and utilities to avoid eviction. The county has already spent over $4.5M in ERAP funds to help residents during the pandemic.
“There was money given out to other counties that was not used, so they had to return it to Pennsylvania, and Pennsylvania decided to redistribute it. Of that, we’re getting an additional $100,488.60, so this agreement, should you decide to accept it, will allow the Clinton County Housing Coalition and Authority to continue managing the program and help some more of our residents,” Whitty explained. The county currently has a waitlist of 200 people despite prior grant funding having already been spent, and if approved on Thursday, low to moderate-income individuals will be prioritized.
