By Bonnie Culverhouse

With four of five members present, the Minden City Council voted unanimously Monday in a special meeting to secure funds needed for the next step in creating a larger, more efficient Recreation Center.

In June, the council approved a resolution authorizing the city to proceed with issuance of (not to exceed) $10,500,000 of bonds to help with the enhancement.

Ordinance No. 1163 allows for the incurring of debt and issuance and sale of $9,935,000 of sales tax revenue bonds, series 2025 for the City of Minden. Bids came in under the $10 million mark.

According to bond attorney Mike Busada, the Bond Commission approved the sale unanimously, and a single bank is purchasing all the bonds.

“We wanted to get this into commerce as quickly as possible,” Busada said. “With the upcoming season in the spring, we all went over and beyond to get it done.”

Busada said underwriters and municipal advisors gathered quotes from lenders to determine sale on a public market as opposed to selling all the bonds to a bank.

“The cost of both, in this case, would be about the same to go publicly or to do it with a bank,” he said. “When you go with a bank, it costs you less money to issue them (bonds) … getting the same benefit as far as pricing but costing you less to actually issue them.”

Busada said Capital One Bank will purchase all the bonds and have offered a 4.31 percent interest rate.
“It’s a very good interest rate and shows their confidence in this project,” he said.

The bonds will be payable from sales tax revenue over 20 years.

“There will be a project fund for the money as soon as next week – October 21,” Busada said. “As soon as that is done, the money will be in place and we can proceed.”

Busada said the City of Minden’s “A” grade on the water system and the sewer system impressed the commission.

“I can tell you a good number of cities around the state cannot say the same thing,” he continued. “The Bond Commission looked at all your system information and the Legislative Auditor and everyone were very impressed by the good financial state you are in.”

“This is the part of the puzzle we need to satisfy the issuance of the bonds,” Minden Mayor Nick Cox said of the special meeting Monday. “When we started this project, we were looking at a six to seven percent interest rate. Now, to do this at 4.31, that is fantastic.”

District A Councilman Carleton “Buddy” Myles said the project started with only around $750,000 allocated.

“After digging and digging and digging and figuring out different ways to get things done, I’m happy to see it,” Myles said. of the $9.9 million in bonds.

District E Councilman Andy Pendergrass, who has spearheaded much of the work at the Recreation Center, said Busada is not only interested in helping the council with the project, “he’s interested in it being successful.”

“We are going to be turning one of our biggest assets into revenue for the City,” Pendergrass added.

Long term, the City hopes to have more tournaments at the Recreation Center and in turn, bring in more families of visitors to stay at area lodging, eat at local restaurants, shop in Minden and add to the sales taxes that will pay back the bonds.

The scope of the project is expected to include:
• 16 Infields, 2 T-Ball Full Fields, 32 Bullpens, and 2 Multi-Purpose Fields
• Batting Cages – 2 Total
• Protection Netting System
• Sports Lighting Retrofit
• Pavilion
• Electrical
• Playground – Playground Equipment
• Tennis Courts and Basketball Courts
The existing recreational complex is to be re-constructed, refurbished and retrofitted to maintain it as a cutting-edge commercial grade facility.