Amarillo council approves certificate sales to fund equipment, parks and a multi-year streets program

The Amarillo City Council voted to approve sale terms for $15,435,000 in certificates of obligation and to publish notice of intent to issue an additional $11,865,000 in certificates to fund equipment purchases, park and lighting projects and a multi-year street maintenance program.

Financial adviser Steven Adams, of Specialized Public Finance, said the city received six bids for the $15.435 million package and selected Frost Bank at an interest rate of 4.33 percent. “We did receive a AAA bond rating, which helps quite a bit in volatile markets,” Adams said. He said the city will close the sale in May 2025 and the council has the option to redeem the bonds on Feb. 15, 2035.

City Finance Director Laura Storrs told council the larger CO issuance covers a mix of seven-, 10-, 20- and 30-year items including heavy equipment, lighting, golf course pump stations and parking lot projects. Parks Director Michael Kasuba described the park work as targeted to areas with public-safety and night-use concerns and said pump replacements at municipal golf courses are “an absolute need” because the existing motors are past life expectancy.

The council also moved forward with a separate financing step tied to street repairs: staff asked to publish legally required notices so the city can sell $11.865 million in certificates to fund a set of maintenance treatments (micro-surfacing, cape seals and mill-and-overlay) identified in the city’s pavement plan. Financial adviser Adams said the planned sale date is June 10 with closing in July. Public Works Director Donnie Hooper summarized staff’s street selection and said the initial package would cover roughly 17 miles of full-width repairs (about 75 lane miles of various treatments).

Council members and staff discussed how the debt will be treated in the upcoming budget. Storrs said most of the roughly $16.2 million the city plans to fund with the debt is already included in the current budget’s plan; $4 million for heavy equipment remains a separate decision in next year’s budget cycle. Storrs said the annual initial debt service for the street issuance would be about $1.44 million and that the council could choose how to capture that amount in the next tax-rate decision.

The council approved ordinance No. 8189 adopting the terms of the $15.435 million CO sale and adopted a resolution to publish notice of intent to issue the $11.865 million street COs. Votes were taken by voice; no roll-call tallies were read into the meeting record.

What’s next: staff will close the approved sale in May, return to council when closer to the street sale award date in June, and bring a more detailed capital schedule and program dashboard to future budget discussions.