Last week, the Chapel Hill Town Council passed a resolution of $12.5 million for the sale of general obligation (G.O.) bonds to fund public improvement projects – including the purchase of the American Legion property off Legion Road.

Director of Business Management Ken Pennoyer led the discussion at the meeting. Pennoyer explained that the $12.5 million in G.O. bonds comes from the $40.3 million of G.O. bonds that Chapel Hill voters approved in 2015 for streets and sidewalks, trails and greenways, recreation facilities, solid waste facilities and storm water improvements.

“Tonight’s’ resolution is for the issuance of $5.5 million of streets and sidewalk bonds, $4.3 million of recreation facility bonds, and $2.7 of storm water bonds,” said Pennoyer. “The parks facility bonds will be used, the $4.3 million, to complete the purchase of the American Legion property.”

Chapel Hill Mayor Pam Hemminger said the town had decided to use the G.O. bonds in order to receive a better interest rate from the American Legion property purchase.

“There’s been a lot of confusion out there that we used…the cultural arts bond money to pay for the Legion – therefore deleting the cultural arts project – and that’s not true,” said Hemminger.

A concerned local artist made a public comment about the need for a cultural arts facility in town and council member Donna Bell said she has received phone calls from residents concerned about the change in funding.

“We don’t seem to have a set plan about how we are going to reimburse those funds or at what level we are going to reimburse those funds,” said Bell. “There is concern over what that means for the future of having a cultural arts building or facility.”

Mayor Hemminger said finding funding for the cultural arts facility remains a town priority.

“The voters voted for $3.4 million for cultural arts and we are going to stand by that commitment,” she said. “I don’t know when it’s going to happen, when or exactly how but we are going to be committed to finding a way to make it work.”

The storm water G.O. bonds will pay for the design and construction of the Elliott Road flood storage facility.

The street and sidewalk G.O. bonds will pay for various high priority projects – including bicycle and pedestrian improvements on Estes Drive Extension, repaving and reconstructing priority roads, and streetscaping on Franklin Street.

The local government commission is scheduled to begin the sale of the bonds on April 3; after April 19, the projects will be brought back to the council and funds will be appropriated to the project accounts.