In preparation for a possible bond issuance, Chapel Hill’s business management director Kenneth Pennoyer gave the town council an update on how the town is handling its current debt in their meeting Wednesday night.
“There are 81 overall projects that we are currently tracking,” he said. “Of those 51 are projects that are funded and are in progress.”
The 51 active projects total $36.7 million, while $94 million is expected to cover the 30 projects planned, but yet to be financed.
Voters allowed the town in 2015 to issue up to $40.3 million in bond money.
The bond is scheduled to finance many of these planned projects, but any issuance has to first go through an approval process with the town council.
“I’ve had people ask me ‘when are we going to spend that money,'” Pennoyer said. “And I told them ‘there is no money, at least we haven’t borrowed it yet.'”
He equated the bond referendum passed by the public in November as being pre-approved for a loan.
Some of the projects scheduled to be funded by bond money include bike lane improvements, park renovations and a solid waste facility.
A few of these planned projects are progressing, even without funding from the bond.
“We will use as much internal financing as we can to get projects moving so that when we get to the point where we’re ready to issue debt, projects have reached a state of maturity that we’ll have a better idea of how much they’ll actually cost.”
Pennoyer said the town is in a good position to take on new debt because it has a Triple A rating and a debt per capita of 714 dollars, lower than other AAA rated cities such as Durham, Charlotte and Raleigh.
He said he expects the town to issue the bond sometime in December or January.
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