The Monroe County commissioners approved getting a bond of up to $13 million to pay for a variety of infrastructure projects.

Commissioner John Christy, who serves as chairman, explained at the board’s recent meeting that the bond actually for $10 million.

“We have repairs of the deck here that we have coming up in the near future,” Christy said.

Christy explained that the correctional facility needs a new well, as well, and they will have to put in a new water tower. And the sewage treatment plant at the former Pleasant Valley Manor has to be redone, because it provides sewage services for both the nursing home and the Monroe County Correctional Facility.

“So what we’re trying to do is to take care of a number of our infrastructure problems that have been looming. And we also have two dams,” Christy remembered.

Christy asked David Payne, a broker with PNC Capital Markets, to explain the bond process to the community.

Payne explained that his company will prepare the documents and will take out the bond in about 45 days. He expects it to go smoothly because the county’s Standard and Poors (S & P) rating was AA when it was reviews six months ago. That is a “very strong rating,” he said.

“This is a bond issue for $10 million,” Payne reiterated. “The reason why it says $13 million max and you’re only borrowing $10 million is because we’re going to get pre-approval from DCED (Department of Community and Economic Development) in Pennsylvania for the borrowing and for our bond pricing desk. That requires that we have some flexible maturities for each one of the series bonds, so we have to put in a maximum amount that gives us that flexibility in each year.”

The county is actually going to borrow about $9.46 million, Payne said. The term of the bond will go through 2039, and the current interest rate is 4.329% for $10 million for 14 years, but he expects it to change within 45 days when the bond will actually be taken out.

Christy said, “The county has always been aggressive in paying down debt. As you can see, we are three or four years already into paying down the debt that we took for the $70 million for the courthouse expansion. We usually do it on a 13-year cycle, you are allowed under law to take that debt to the life expectancy of the building. So if we built that building for a 20 to 25 year life cycle, we would be able to put that debt out for 25 years thus lowering it, but you’d still be paying more over the long term.”

Christy said the county tries to condense the payments, so it is able to pay the debt down faster and “save the county money.”