Independence council authorizes up to $50 million borrowing, approves contracts to build three fire stations

The Independence City Council on April 7 unanimously approved an ordinance authorizing the city to borrow up to $50,000,000 from the Missouri Development Finance Board to cover project costs including three new fire stations and related work, council members said.

The loan authorization, adopted on second reading as ordinance 25-016, passed 7-0. City officials said the debt would be structured with a final maturity no later than Dec. 1, 2054 and that debt service is expected to be repaid from the city's fire safety sales tax revenue.

Jennifer Gerlock, with Project Advocates and the city's owners representative for the Justice Center and the fire station project, said bringing construction managers on during design helps control cost and schedule. "What it does is it puts the risk on the contractor," Gerlock said, describing the construction-manager-at-risk approach that…