City of Fort Madison Reaps the Rewards of Having Good Credit

Fort Madison City Manager David Varley told the city council members at the Tuesday evening meeting that the bids for the sale of the 2 million dollar general obligation refunding bond went out Tuesday morning and came back with “very good news for the city.”

The winner of the Tuesday morning bid is Robert W. Baird and Co., Inc. with an interest rate of 1.7 percent. Varley said that the expected bid was right around 2 percent, this unexpected low interest bid will save the city an additional $40,000 on top of the $200,000 in savings over a ten year period for refunding the general obligation bond.

The City’s financial advisor, Vice-President of Springsted in Saint Paul Minnesota, Doug Green said that a good amount of bidders came in because the city of Fort Madison has an investment grade credit rating. Green explains further, “Peggy May on the conference call with the analyst, you can imagine, she did a very good job telling the story of the city and what the initiatives you all have going on. If the City does go out in the future, i do see what they call a ‘positive pressure’ on that credit rating. As you probably know, the finances and reserves and sewer and the water fund are looking better and they’re forecasted to look better, which would only improve the city’s credit rating.”

Green says that six weeks ago when the city approved to refund the general obligation bond the interest rates were holding steady at 2 percent and has since dropped.

The city council approved a request from the Historic Preservation Commission to install new street signs in the Historic District. The Signs will be brown in color and the numbered streets will be spelled out and underneath the current street name in smaller letters the old street name will also be included. This project is being done not only for city pride but also to benefit the historic tourist that visit Fort Madison.

At the next Fort Madison City Council Meeting the Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) will be discussed in detail as the current contract will expire in June of 2016. The discussion will include who should fund it and how.