Aldermen revisit  donation, wastewater agreements with Sanctuary developers during Aug. 27 meeting

Salado aldermen at their Aug. 20 meeting approved the issuance of $8.2 million in bonds for the construction of a sewer system authorized by voters in November 2014. The issuance of the bonds came three days after village aldermen approved a Donation Agreement and a Wastewater Services Agreement with The Sanctuary Development Company.

Aldermen will consider amending the Wastewater Service Agreement, Donation Agreement, and Deed Agreement with the Sanctuary Development Company during a called meeting 6:30 p.m. Aug. 27.

According to City Manager Kim Foutz, the Sanctuary Development Company has asked for an extension on the deadline to approve the Development Agreement and Public Financing Agreements from Sept. 3 to Sept. 30.

In the Wastewater agreement and Donation agreement, a deadline of Sept. 3 was put in place for the approval of a Development Agreement and the public financing agreement.

Aldermen will also discuss the proposed Development Agreement with the Sanctuary Development Company on Aug. 27.

When approving the issuance of the $8.2 million in bonds for the sewer system project, aldermen were given good news by the financial advisor.

The bonds will be 20 years at 2.94 percent fixed interest rate with interest only paid the first year, requiring a debt services tax rate of $0.1396 per $100 valuation.

In the first year of the bond, the village will make an interest-only payment of $231,704.67. In years two through 20, the annual payment will range from $560,000 to $575,000.

American National Bank is the sole purchaser of the bonds and because they were purchased by one entity, “the Village did not have to pay to have a bond rating,” according to Chris Lane, financial advisor to the Village.

Lane reported to aldermen that Bellaire, which has a AAA bond rating, recently issued $7 million in bonds at 3.3 percent. “The rate you are getting is very good,” she said.

“There is one bond holder, which is good for you if you should want to pay them off earlier,” she said, adding that the “bank is not paying for insurance because they don’t need that, they are doing their own credit review on this.”

In other business regarding the sewer, aldermen approved an interlocal agreement with the Central Texas Council of Governments to administer the $1 million Department of Commerce Economic Development Agency grant for the construction of the sewer system for the business district. The Village applied for $1.5 million in EDA grant money but was finally approved for $1 million in federal grants. EDA guidelines require that a Development District provide administration for their grants. The Central Texas Council of Governments is a development district and meets the requirements to fulfill this function. The cost for administration is $40,000.

Aldermen also approved a contract with Kasberg, Patrick and Associates Engineering Consultants (KPA) totaling $735,500 for design, bidding and construction administrations services for part of the sewer system.

KPA will design the EDA Projects that include Phase IA the Main Street gravity sewer and the Phase IB Main Street Lift Station and Force Main ($319,800. KPA will also design other parts of the collection system, including Phase IF the Salado School road gravity sewer, Phase IH West Village Road gravity sewer and Phase II S. West Village/Thomas Arnold Rd. Gravity sewer, totaling $93,300. Final design of the sewer system designed by KPA will total $413,100.

Not included in this is the design of the system from the Lift Station at the Stagecoach Inn location, the collection system on Royal Street and the construction of the 300,000 gallon per day wastewater treatment plant. These portions of the overall project will be designed by Pape Dawson Engineers, which is part of the agreements between the Village and Sanctuary developers.

KPA will also put together bid package for $10,000 for the Village, as part of the contract approved on Aug. 20.

The final division of basic services provided by KPA will be construction administration services totaling $110,300. This included $59,100 for construction administration of the Phase IA, $15,800 for Phase IB, $16,000 for Phase IF, $11,600 for Phase IH and $7,800 for Phase II.

Total cost for basic services is $533,400.

Additional services agreed to in the contract total another $207,100 and include $50,000 for easement field notes and sketcher, $2,000 for boundary survey for the lift station site, $4,200 for the evaluating of the low pressure systems and $17,700 for the planning, bidding and administration for decommissioning the Stagecoach Wastewater Treatment Plant. KPA will also provide on-site representation for the EDA Grant projects $75,000 and Bond Projects $40,200.

KPA will also provide a plan review on behalf of the Village for “Sanctuary WWTP Design by Pape-Dawson” for $18,000.