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Select board reviews 30-year bond option as fire station construction advances
Summary
The Swansea select board reviewed a New Hampshire Municipal Bond Bank application to help fund a new fire station and received a construction update: bids are due, site work has begun and permitting tasks remain.
Select board members discussed whether to file a New Hampshire Municipal Bond Bank application for $2.5 million to partially fund a new fire station at 321 Homestead Highway and heard a construction update showing site work and early procurement steps are under way.
The bond adviser who presented the financing options outlined 20-, 25- and 30-year terms and said current market spreads between a 20- and 30-year bond were unusually small (about 17 basis points), a factor that led the presenter to recommend the 30-year term. The adviser also described the bond bank’s sales schedule and a final-change deadline the board would need to meet to fix rates for the bond sale. “I filled it out with 30 years. It can go in with 30 years, and we can change it,” the presenter said during the discussion.
On construction, staff reported the project began March 31, 2025; erosion-control work and topsoil stripping are complete and test borings and other geotechnical work are scheduled. Bids for a general contractor were due April 28, 2025, the update said, and the construction manager-request-for-proposal process was authorized. Staff noted a pending permitting item identified as “FHA” approval and said they expect to obtain that clearance without delay. Per the update, the target remains to remove fire apparatus from town hall by November, barring unforeseen delays.
The board was presented a motion “to authorize the board chair to sign the New Hampshire Municipal Bond Bank application for a bond of $2,500,000 to partially fund the construction of the new fire station at 321 Homestead Highway.” The motion was put on the floor; a vote is not recorded in the available transcript.
Why this matters: the term chosen and the timing of the bond sale will affect the town’s annual debt service and how the fire-station cost is shared across taxpayers. Board members and staff said they would continue to monitor the bond market and could change the application before the bond-bank deadline if market conditions moved materially.
The project update and the financing conversation were presented as linked items: one addresses how the town will pay for the station and the other outlines the near-term construction steps and permitting milestones. Staff said they will return with finalized bids and a recommendation for the construction contract and will alert the board promptly if bond-market movement requires a change of approach.
