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Council weighs options to fund water projects: transfer, loan or bond
Summary
Staff outlined four options to address water-project funding: delay projects, appropriate funds from sewer/storm, borrow from other enterprise funds with a reimbursement plan, or issue water‑revenue bonds; Public Works urged prioritizing a PRV on 45th as the most critical near-term project.
Staff presented four financing paths for water projects and asked the council to provide direction on risk tolerance and repayment expectations.
"Option 1, stay the course and modify our project plan; option 2, appropriate funds from sewer or storm; option 3, borrow from sewer and storm with intent to reimburse those funds; option 4, go to bond and issue water revenue bonding through a financial institution," the budget presenter summarized. He asked the council to consider which approach the city should pursue.
Public Works Director John reviewed the project list and recommended prioritizing a Pressure Reducing Valve (PRV) on 45th as the most critical near-term project, while saying many other water projects could be delayed one to two years. "These are projects, yeah, they need to be done, but we can hold off and and then push them out," John said, describing a sequencing that preserves options for emergencies while limiting immediate debt exposure.
Council members asked staff to model interfund-loan repayment terms (suggesting an internal interest rate and explicit reimbursement schedule) and to run bonding scenarios with the city’s lender so the council can compare debt-service costs against currently available pay-as-you-go funds.
