City refinancing existing debt to save over $750,000

Cairo city officials continue to closely monitor city finances and on Monday night the council took action to refinance some debt and save over $750,000 in interest expense over a 10 year period.
The council unanimously accepted a proposal from Stephens Inc., to refinance the city’s 2004 utility bonds of approximately $7.2 million over 10 years at a rate of 2.40 percent.
The fees associated with the refinancing that the city must pay will be $31,000 not including attorney’s fees.
Members of the council’s finance committee met last week with a representative of Stephens Inc., to discuss the refinancing before bringing a recommendation to the city council.
Finance committee chairman James H. (Jimmy) Douglas offered the motion to approve the refunding of the 2004 bonds using Stephens Inc., as the refunding agent and his motion was seconded by Councilman Ernest Cloud Jr., who is also a member of the finance committee.
Earlier in the day the finance committee met with Mayor Bobby Burns, City Manager Chris Addleton and Finance Director Miriam Faircloth.
Ms. Faircloth told committee members this week that she has been able to accumulate cash in anticipation of making one of the bond payments due later this year. She indicated she will also begin setting aside cash to make the second bond payment due before year’s end.
“We have a positive cash balance as of September 30 so we are making progress in that area,” Councilman Douglas said during Monday night’s council meeting.
Although Addleton has said the city is closely watching its expenses, on Monday he reported that actual expenses for September had exceeded the budgeted expenses by $32,593. The majority of that additional expense was for the purchase of equipment related to the CNS Cable’s migration from analog to digital.
Councilmen Bobby Gwaltney and Kermit Gilliard were absent from Monday’s meeting.